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I called Dillon to order some 223 and 308 dies. I had planed on buying the carbide sets for $160 each. The Dillon guy convinced me I did not need carbide and told me the standard set was good enough. He said the standard set was good for like 20,000 rounds and the carbide set would go something like 80,000. So I bought the standard sets for $60 each. What's your thoughts on this?
 
Well
Carbide will last longer, they will still need lube on the cases.

Unlike pistol carbide dies, I never have used any lube with them and still using the same 45acp ones since 91 and still going strong it well over 50k on them.

Lots of that because of uspsa matches.
And my 38 super have well over 100k on it. For the same reason.

But all my carbide dies are RCBS not dillion.
 
I believe the benefit of the carbide dies, besides the longer life, would be a higher resistance to getting scarred, which causes scratches in your cases. But I don't think the expense would be worth it.
 
All my reloading equipment is RCBS.
All my rifle dies are standard steel, lube all these cases.
All my pistol dies are carbide, no lube used.

Been using everything for several decades with no problems.
 
Always carbide for pistol stuff.

As for rifle I'm actually surprised he put that number on them. I'd expect them to last much longer than that. That said I use Dillon size/trim dies for .223 and .308 and wouldn't waste the money on carbide. If you were loading commercially or something I could see dropping the coin. I don't think most of us put that amount of rounds through our presses.
 
Back in olden times, carbide pistol dies were pretty expensive.. like 4-5x as much as steel. I started with 9mm steel dies and it was a simple matter to lube, load and degrease with the ol' thinner on a towel tumble method.
Now, I think it'd be hard to buy new straight-wall, non-carbide dies.
 
You made a wise decision.
Carbide's only advantage is being able to size without using case lube, and carbide dies for bottleneck cases STILL needs case lube, so you would be spending money on something you don't need.
The dies were made for commercial use where you want the die to go about 1 million rounds. Really, serves no use for individuals.
 

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