Henry Rifle Forums

in looking for a set of 45-70 carbide reloading dies, I couldn't find any .. .. in an effort to determine if any of the major manufactures have plans of producing them, I emailed them all .... below is the response I received this morning from Lee Precision, Inc. :

"In all honesty, we will probably never offer carbide dies for the 45/70. The case wall is actually tapered and would require the carbide to run the entire length of the die, which is expensive and cost prohibitive. You would still have to lubricate the cases, which also defeats the purpose."

based on that info, I'm not hopeful the answers from the other manufactures will be any different .... oh well, applying case lube ain't that big of a deal

Heck, I lube .357 cases, even with carbide dies. Makes life a lot easier especially in the expander die.

I'm sure that can't hurt .... we have been using the same RCBS 38/357 & 44 Mag/Special carbide dies since the '60's .... we do try to run them through a vibrating cleaner first but have never put any lube on them

just received a short, concise and directly to the point reply from RCBS :

"No plans at this time"

Dillon makes a solid carbide sizing die for 50 BMG. It's $869.95.
45-70 is a lot smaller but would probably still be a little pricey.

Hitman wrote:Dillon makes a solid carbide sizing die for 50 BMG. It's $869.95.
45-70 is a lot smaller but would probably still be a little pricey.

I'd sure like to have on for a 45-70 but I don't want one anywhere near that much ..

JEBar wrote:

Hitman wrote:Dillon makes a solid carbide sizing die for 50 BMG. It's $869.95.
45-70 is a lot smaller but would probably still be a little pricey.

I'd sure like to have on for a 45-70 but I don't want one anywhere near that much ..

I would too. I hatend having to lube cases.

Hitman wrote:

JEBar wrote:I'd sure like to have on for a 45-70 but I don't want one anywhere near that much ..

I would too. I hatend having to lube cases.

I'm going to try the spray lube .... have hand rolled the brass on a lube pad for years .... setting up a bunch of casings and spraying them has to be quicker and easier

I just put a dab of Lee lube on a couple of cases and run my hands through the container of cases for a little while. Seems to work fine for straight sided cases.

clovishound wrote:I just put a dab of Lee lube on a couple of cases and run my hands through the container of cases for a little while. Seems to work fine for straight sided cases.

interesting .... I've never tried that

LOL, every time I see the word "dies" in a post I think of obituaries. I gotta get more up on the lingo....DOH

I prefer lubing like clovishound does, only I use hornady lube (not the spray, never had much luck with that)

I wet tumble my brass cartridges and while I'm doing that...I put some Armor All Ultra Shine Wash and Wax in the tumbling barrel. The carnauba wax really helps the cartridges when I run them in the sizing die. There's been a couple times that I think I forgot to add the Armor All Ultra Shine Wash and Wax to the tumbling barrel and when I was sizing them, they were rather hard to size. So, I used some Imperial sizing die wax. As for the rifle cartridges, I lube them using the Dillon Precision case lube.

Case lube is really not needed for carbide dies...but it makes the reloading experience allot easier. My wrist, elbow and shoulder really thanks me after I'm done with the reloading secession. Once I'm done....I wipe the Imperial sizing die wax off with a clean rage. These two added steps don't really bother me cause I know the reloading secession was rather smooth.

I have loaded 45/70 for many years I use Rcbs spray lube it works great

I kinda like the Lee lube a half a dab on a finger will do 4-5 or so cases. It wipes off the case really easy with a slightly damp rag or a minute or so in the tumbler. A tube last forever. I put a dab on the table next to the press and touch my finger to it once in a while and rub the cases.