223 Carbide vs non carbide dies
- Thread starter Sniffer
- Start date
Depends on how many/much you plan on loading.If you load for a large group of people ie.police force,commercial production then invest in carbide.If you load 200-800 at a time for yourself or small group then regular work just fine.I bought the Dillon regular .223 dies and am happy with my choice.
Carbide is alot slicker than non carbide.For pistol in large quantities can't beat carbide.
If it's a bottle neck type case then for sure a light lube.
Not worth an extra cost UNLESS you're going to process brass in bulk, 100,000 or so pieces. Also less sensitive to dirt and grit.
I have (and use) 223 carbide sizing die, mostly for semi-auto reloads, it a bit slicker with the same lube. I've heard that rifle carbide dies are pretty hard to make (even harder to make precision dies) and I tend to believe it, since the first die I bought was a bit off-center and later warranty replaced by Dillon.
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As per the Dillon website, lubrication is still required.
The supposed benefits are smoother sizing and longer life. Smoother sizing, maybe, but ordinary steel dies, when looked after and used with clean and properly lube brass, simply don't "wear out".
BlackSheepBrass
Regular
- Location
- Cobourg, Ontario
I use carbide .223 dies on my Camdex equipment, suprusngly the ones that are provided by camdex are carbide Dillon dies. The machine runs at 3000 pieces per hour. I would recommend buy once, cry once.
You still need to lube when using carbide, but because they are slicker, if for any reason you don't use enough lube, the chance that the case will get stuck is lower, and easyer to pull out.
Spread over thousands of rounds, the price difference is meaningless between carbide and steel. If you're worried about the price, get a set of Lee carbide, it's really not expensive, and if you upgrade to another brand later, you keep using the factory crimp and the shellholder, and these 2 parts are worth almost 1/2 the price of the set anyway.
Spread over thousands of rounds, the price difference is meaningless between carbide and steel. If you're worried about the price, get a set of Lee carbide, it's really not expensive, and if you upgrade to another brand later, you keep using the factory crimp and the shellholder, and these 2 parts are worth almost 1/2 the price of the set anyway.
