dummy questions

[Sergi762]

Well wishing and long intro aside I ave a few questions I hope you here can help with. Recently I got a Lee Anniversary reloading kit as a gift. I have an older( came in the red plastic cylinder) 308 die set made by them as well but : can anybody tell me how to see if my reloading dies are carbide or not? and what is the right way to clean the resizing& decapping die? and For the military shooter what reloading manual is better suited for that? I figured it can't hurt to ask and I want to go about this right. I thank any and all for your replies and I wish you the best.

[El Laton Caliente]

I doubt it is carbide and it doesn't matter. You still have to lube necked cases, you aren't going to wear out the non-carbide set and they do not make your reloads better. The only advantages are easier re-sizing (less force needed) and they do wear less, but unless you are commercially reloading in huge volumes it won't matter... A standard die set should last 250,000 to 1,000,000 loads...

[shotdown61]

I doubt it is carbide and it doesn't matter. You still have to lube necked cases, you aren't going to wear out the non-carbide set and they do not make your reloads better. The only advantages are easier re-sizing (less force needed) and they do wear less, but unless you are commercially reloading in huge volumes it won't matter... A standard die set should last 250,000 to 1,000,000 loads...

+1 on this.And I normally get manuals for the bullets I normally load.

[Helen Keller]

Let em sit in the rain for a day, you'll see if they're carbide or not :D

[deth502]

check to see if they are 308 dies. if so, they are not carbide.

[El Laton Caliente]

I had to look to see if they made .308 carbide and they do. Lee lists a deluxe set as opposed to a steel set but doesn't say what they are made of / finished with. Dillon makes carbide rifle sets for people reloading in huge volumes.

[deth502]

I had to look to see if they made .308 carbide and they do. Lee lists a deluxe set as opposed to a steel set but doesn't say what they are made of / finished with. Dillon makes carbide rifle sets for people reloading in huge volumes.

news to me. i just checked thier site, and it does seem to suggest that the dies themselves are indeed carbide. ive never heard of a carbide rifle die, rifle dies that are referred to as "carbide" generally means that there is a carbide expander in the die. but again, dillon does suggest on their site that the resizing die is actually carbide. HOWEVER- "Lubrication is still required", so i have trouble seeing any justification in the price.

[noylj]

Carbide for bottleneck cases does not make resizing easier. It is only so that the die will last after loading 100000 rounds for commercial loaders. All those blue Koo-Aid peole that HAVE to have carbide .223 have pretty much wasted their money, as Dillon keeps trying to tell them.
I would almost best my last dollar that you would have to place a VERY special order to have Lee make you a .308 carbide sizing die.
Hell, you can body size with a .45Auto carbide sizing die if you want and then neck/collet size the neck, if you really want to.