Why no carbide

[Limey]

They make carbide dies for pistol calibres.....so why don't they make carbide dies for rifle calibres?

All my guns fire straight wall cases......so carbide dies for both rifle straight wall and pistol straight wall must be the same process of manufacture.

My rifle is .45 calibre....they make .45 calibre carbide pistol dies so why not .45 calibre carbide rifle dies?.....

,....it'd make reloading so much easier and cleaner to do!

Straight shootin',

Limey

[dillonhelp]

Dillon makes carbide size dies for .30 carbine, .223 and .308 Winchester. Lube is necessary for all of them. I am not aware of any straightwall rifle round, most have some taper. This taper requires a full-length piece of carbide, and case lube.

[rockrat]

Friend of mine bought a carbide 25-06 die, back in the 70's. Cost him $125 then. He still had to use a little case lube every 3rd or 4th case. He was hopeing to not have to use lube.

[hammerhead357]

There you go. Two really good answers, you still need to lube the cases and the dies are expensive.......I had 2 sets of the very early Dillon 223 dies and was not happy with them. Dillon refunded my money with out question...So I ended up happy with their service....Wes

[jimkim]

Dillon makes carbide size dies for .30 carbine, .223 and .308 Winchester. Lube is necessary for all of them. I am not aware of any straightwall rifle round, most have some taper. This taper requires a full-length piece of carbide, and case lube.

I apologize for hijacking the thread, but I've often wondered if the carbide bushing for a tapered pistol case is full length. Does it full length size or just partially size the case? Thanks!

[jaguarxk120]

I just checked my 9mm RCBS carbide sizing die and the insert is as long as the case.

[1hole]

Pistol carbide sizer rings are typically about .2" to .3" long.

[Mk42gunner]

Most so called straight walled cases aren't actually straight, they will have a slight taper over the length of the case. Most of the carbide pistol dies have a short ring of carbide at the mouth of the resizing die; which works for the relatively short length ofpistol cases, but not for rifle cases.

Robert

[WILDEBILL308]

Carbide rifle dies are made to be long lasting for the commercial loader. They still need to be lubed but will last a long time. I will use just a touch of lube on my pistol cases to reduce wear and make them size that much smoother.
Bill

[BudRow]

I worked for a while at a company that made Tungsten carbide pre forms. The final machining of the parts is either done by diamond abrassive grinding or EDM (Electrical Discharge Machine) - both expensive and time consuming. Best Wishes, Bud

[Limey]

....thanks to everybody for their interesting feedback.

When I said straight walled cases I more correctly should have said cases without any tapered shoulders and with a small amount of taper over the whole length of the case.

Mk42gunner,.......if a short length of carbide works for straight walled pistol cases why won't a short length of carbide work for a straight walled rifle case?

The process seems identical to me.......if there is .3 of an inch in pistol dies if the carbide was say, .5 of an inch in rifle dies would it work?.......and .5 of an inch would be cheaper to make than a carbide insert the full length of the rifle die.

....or am I just being stupid?......

Straight shootin'

Limey

[Lloyd Smale]

I believe the dillon carbide rifle dies have only a carbide expander

[shotman]

9mm is tapered same with 30 carbine. They {thinking herters} had a 30-06 full carbide was not cheap and buddy got a case "locked" not stuck he said it took 2 days to dig it out in pieces. he got rid of the die.
As first post 45 rifle ?? what kind?? a 45 -70 is tapered 45 colt is not

[Kevin Rohrer]

CH4d will make you Titanium Nitride dies. Here is the info from their site:

Titanium Nitride coatings have been used in industry for many years, primarily to extend the life of carbide tools. It has not been useful in reloading until recent advances in technology permitted TiN coating a die without softening the steel of the die itself. A TiN coated sizer in 308 Win showed no measurable wear after sizing 50,000 rounds.

Although Titanium Nitride is harder than Carbide & has a lower coefficient of friction it does not eliminate the need for lubricant when full-length sizing cases. It does reduce sizing effort considerably and minimize the lubricant required.

TiN coated dies will live longer and require less force to operate than any die available on planet Earth ! Price is for 7/8-14 dies. Call for quote on larger sizes.
TiN coated expander balls work smoother and eliminate the need for lubricating the inside of the case neck. Available in 17 to 45cal.

If you ever manage to wear out your TiN coated die, we will replace it at NO CHARGE to you ! All we ask is that you tell us how many rounds you?ve loaded with it.

TiN coating other manufacturer's dies; can be done, and is usually successful, however we have no control over the material or heat treatment of these dies and cannot guarantee the results. Any coating of any part nit mfg. by us is done entirely at the customer's risk.

www.ch4d.com

[Limey]

....I gotta hold my hands up Shotman.....yes, it's a 45-70 so it's got a tapered case.....but incorrectly I think of it as a straight walled case, sorry.....

and Kevin....

...that sure is some good looking coating!.....have you guy's got a list of other manufacturers dies you have coated with TiN and what the results were?....successful or not?.....

....for example what were the results with Tin'ing a Lee steel rifle die, say in 45-70?.....

Straight shootin',

Limey

[Shiloh]

One still has to lube carbide rifle calibers.

Not so with the .30 Carbine carbide die when I used to load those.

Shiloh

[Gee_Wizz01]

I have a set of carbide dies for .30 Carbine, but the instructions say to lightly lube the cases. I can get away with lubing about every third case. I did get away without lube for a long time, then one fateful day I got a case stuck. It was a bear to get the case out. After that experience I just lightly lube all the cases as they size much easier.

G

[cajun shooter]

I have been reloading since 1969 and I don't understand all the reloaders who don't want to lube the cases. It is so simple. The two ways I have used are by rubbing a wax like lube called Imperial into my hands and then lubing about 5 cases at a time by a back and forward motion. The next way is to lay out as many as 200 cases onto newspaper on their sides and spray with Hodgdon One Shot. It's fast and easy with no problems.

[Kevin Rohrer]

Just a guess, but I imagine reloaders don't like lubing as it is somewhat messy, two additional steps (lubuing and cleaning resized recases), and an added expense.

Gee Wiz: Did you ever tumble the brass and shine them up prior to resizing to see if that ever made a difference?

[deltaenterprizes]

Dillon spray lube is a great way to bulk lube cases in about 10 minutes.