30 carb.

[686]

what is the best 30 carb die set? should i get carbide? i will be loading on a dillion 550 .

[osage]

I use Lee carbide dies. I now use a spray lube on my brass. I have used Lee's case lube when using a single stage and lubed about one in four cases. I don't think that would work well with 550. Which is why I went to spray lubing all the brass with my turret press.
The instructions from Lee call for lubed cases as the 30 carbine is a tapered case.

[missionary5155]

Yes Carbide is the way to go... If I remeber right mine are LEE (I am to frugile to buy the others ) . If you are going to load by the thousand (that´s what we did as my sons were groing up) Then YES CARBIDE.

[Sprue]

Just keep in mind, that if you go with Lee, you will probably have to use the smaller lock rings from Dillon.

I only use the Lee Factory Crimp dies and I know that lock ring is large. So, I'm not sure if you could fit 3 or 4 Lee Dies onto the tool head and have room to tighten them.

Maybe someone else can shed more light.

[Mike Venturino]

I got a set of RCBS carbide dies just a few days ago. Sizing unlubed cases is hard, so a bit of lube is still necessary.

[jcwit]

I suggest carbide. I reload thousands per year of 30 carbine, my dies Lee, I used to use Imperial Sizing Die Wax, now I just spray them with a shot of Blaster Teflon Lube available at Menards or Auto parts stores. Tumbling takes the excess teflon off.

[Mugs]

Yes on the carbide. I have RCBS that were used for years in a single stage and are now in a 550. Many thousands of rounds. I have had good luck without lube.
Mugs

[Larry Gibson]

I have loaded quite a bit of .30 Carbine on the 550B. I use a carbide die but still lube the cases lightly.

If I'm loading cast I size the cases and clean the lube off before further loading. I tumble lube the size caes in pitch free sawdust fo 20-30 minutes to clean the lube off. I do this intitial sizing on a single stage press but it can be done easily on station #1 of the 550B. I then finish loading on the 550B. I use a Lee factory crimp die in station #4. This is actually a taper crimp die. If you don't have a crimp die since you already sized the cases the decapping rod of the sizing die (if it has one) can be removed and it can be used as the taper crimp die in station #4. Just screw it in far enough that the case mouth bell is closed.

If I am loading jacketed bullets Just load on the 550B. I still use a light coat of Dillon spray lube on the cases. After loading I tumbel the rounds in the sawdust for the 20-30 minutes to remove the case lube.

Either way works fine and I can load a thousand rounds in 2.5-3 hours without a problem. The reason I use a different technique on sizing with cast bullets is that lube gets onto the bullet and the sawdust (or any other cleaning media) sticks to it and then requires wiping each round off if the szing lube is cleaned off after loading.

Larry Gibson

[runfiverun]

i use the lee carbide die on my 550 and the same lube as larry. a few quick sprays is all you need.
the dillon lube is also nice to put on a mop for neck sizing.
just poke it down a handfull of cases and size the neck.
the extra sizer can be used as larry described.
i just use the powder tool from dillon to flare for cast, i use the same powder funnel to flare my 7.7-308 sized cases too.

[Patrick L]

I started loading .30 carbine with Lyman steel dies, which was no problem but you had to lube the cases. Plus, they came with an "M" die, which I like. I eventually got a Lee carbide sizing die because it was too cheap to pass up, but as others have stated you still need to lube your cases. Sometimes you could get away with lubing every other case, but it seemed like more bother than it was worth.

The carbide does seem to size a bit "slicker," and they will last practically forever, so I'd say go with carbide.