Which Dies?

[barrycuda]

I am new to reloading and would like to start hand loading some 45-70 rounds. I have been doing a lot of reading and am ready to get started. Which dies would you recommend for loading black powder as well as smokeless powder or do I need dies for each type of powder? I will be shooting the BP cartridges in my W&R Buffalo Classic and probably only smokeless in my lever gun. Thanks.

Barry

[Artful]

Any maker's dies will resize and load up - I like a Lyman "m" die to expanding the case when using cast

[Ramar]

I was in your spot not too long ago and had many questions. The best advice I can give is read all the stickies and when done, read'em again and take notes.

The stickies could fill books and really cost ya, but free here..
Ramar

[Char-Gar]

I am partial to Redding and RCBS dies.

[troyboy]

The dies from any of the manufacturers will do. I would say the best value would be from Lee.

[EDG]

The 45-70 needs a very good expander.

Lyman makes an excellent expander.

Redding and RCBS are pretty good.

The Lee expander is not to good but Track of the Wolf and Buffalo Arms make expanders in different sizes and work well but are an added expense.

[Wayne Smith]

To specifically answer your question it doesn't matter, any maker's dies will do both. The only additional die you might want for the BP loads is a powder compression die and nobody includes that in a set. You can get one from Buffalo Arms if you find you need one. When loading cast boolits you will want an expander die.

Reloading dies resize the case and expel the old primer, they should, for cast booits, expand the case but for rifle dies this will be a separate die (Lyman M), and they seat the bullet and, if necessary, crimp the bullet. If you are loading for a lever you will want to crimp the bullet, if you are loading for a single shot you may not want to. None of this has anything to do with the type of powder used.

[Greg B.]

Most good quality dies will work but because I load almost exclusively cast boolits I bought Lyman with the mouth expanding "M" die. I believe RCBS Cowboy dies are similar.

[MtGun44]

Very partial to Hornady New Dimension dies. This evening I was loading some match
.308 ammo. I got out my relatively new Hornady die set and my old standby Bonanza
Benchrest die set - which cost a lot more money. I sized two cases in each sizer die.

The Hornady New Dimension cases showed neck runout of .001", impressive. The Bonanza
sized cases showed .005" neck runout, not horrible but definitely not good, either. I
then resized one of the Bonanza cases in the Hornady die and surprise - it now had
a .001" neck runout. I will try pulling the expander button and sizing and see if the
Bonanza dies will size straight without the expander. Barsness has found that doing this
then PUSHING the expander into the neck makes straighter necks. OR, I could just
use the Hornady dies.

After trimming, priming and filling with powder, I started seating bullets. 168 Sierra
Matchkings, in this load. I did two in the Hornady seater and two in the Bonanza benchrest
seater with the floating alignment sleeve (which the Hornady has a version of). Both
pairs showed 0.005" runout, measured on the bullet ogive about 2/3 the way to the tip.
So - I further convince myself that Hornady New Dimension is the dies I will be buying
in the future.

Bill

[Defcon-One]

I use RCBS dies for 45-70. They work fine.

One thing to watch out for is the brass. Almost all brands are 2.105" (trim to 2.095") except Hornady, they make their brass to 2.040" (-0.015") so they can load the soft tipped FTX bullets in them and still get good feeding in lever guns.

Some dies will not expand or crimp these shorter cases. I'd stick with Starline, Remington or Winchester brass if you have not aquired any yet. The Hornady brass will shoot OK if you can get it to load with your particular dies, but it is shorter and that complicates things.

I prefer all of my brass to be in the SAAMI spec length so I thought that I'd mention it. I got surprised by this when I bought some 45-70 brass and found out that all the Hornady was MUCH shorter! My RCBS dies will not crimp the Hornady brass. I had to buy a LEE factory crimp die in 45-70 to do it.

DC-1

[dudel]

Pretty much any die will do, and the decision may come down to what's in stock. I have dies from different sources, but over the years, I've settled on the Hornady New Dimension dies. Not the cheapest nor the most expensive. I like their features like the slip collet decapper, floating alignment seater and the easy to remove seating stem without changing the adjustment of the die. Other vendors have similar features.

For special cases (22 Hornet), I'll get a Lee Collet die.

[ArchAngelCD]

Most of my rifle die sets are RCBS but I did buy a set of Hornady 45-70 dies a few years back even before I had a gun that shot the 45-70. I have been using them for a year now and I'm very happy with them and I am loading mostly 405gr plain base cast bullets. I'm sure the RCBS dies are fine but so are the Hornady dies I bought.

[buffalo brad]

Barry,
I am just getting into 45-70 casting and reloading. Brass, black powder, primers have been tough to find. I finally got everything together but have been dead in the water waiting on the right expander. I bought the RCBS dies. I looked everywhere for the Cowboy dies but they are sold out and according to RCBS they do not know when they will be manufactured again. The expander that came with the dies was not big enough for my cast bullets. RCBS sent me the CBY ( Cowboy) expander but it was the same size as the one that came with the dies.(.456") I am waiting on an expander from Buffalo Arms. (.458") These espanders have a larger step to flare the casing just a few thousandths so you can seat a softer lead bullet. If your are going to shoot jacketed bullets, I don't think this expander stuff will be an issue. Good luck!

[Ramar]

I use Lee's expanding die for all my flares. Lee#90798

http://leeprecision.com/search.php?mode=search&page=1
Ramar