Steel vs Carbide Sizing Die

[thebige58]

Most of my handgun die sets are Lee & they include a carbide sizing die. Around 12 years ago I started using steel sizing dies for most of my handgun brass. I found I perfered lubing the brass & using the steel sizer instead of using the carbide sizer. It seems that that the carbide sizing die would size the brass down more than needed. I started doing this 1st with 45 Colt brass and I liked the results. Then over time I purchased other steel sizing dies for other calibers.
What say you other reloaders.

[FlaNative]

I have both types as well for handguns. I use the steel for revolver rounds and carbide for the semi-auto stuff simply because the carbide allows for one less step, but Im happy with either one.
My favorite dies for semi is LEEs undersized dies. I use to simply toss Remington brass because I could never get it to size properly but when I found out about the undersized dies I can now use the Remington brass as well!

[RBHarter]

I still use carbide for the ACP types except 380 , dies came along and happened to be steel , the rest except 45 Raptor ,a rimless 460 S&W , have steel dies as I found the carbide dies were over working the brass .
I don't know that it made a difference in the 38/357 and 45 Colts. I retired the first 250 Colts cases recently as they had grown to short . The carbide dies were taking cases down to .469 OD which was a long way down from the .494 carbine chamber and the .484 Ruger chambers.

The steel dies are tapered and allow me to stop the sizing when the carbine bass will chamber in the pistol again and hold good neck tension on the .454 cast without taking the whole case down to .469.

[Fyodor]

I use carbide whenever available. I have no comparison between carbide and steel in the same cartridge, so I cannot measure if one sizes smaller than the other. But I don't think they would make them different on purpose.

All my casings are wet cleaned and lubed with a thinned down LEE case lube wax. That works very well for me.

[Bill Moore]

I don't want to fool with lubing, (and then cleaning), pistol brass so all my pistol dies are Lee carbide, except the 357 Sig, which Dillon was the only carbide set available at the time.
All my rifle dies require lube, but since I don't shoot my rifles as much, the extra step doesn't bother me. I trim every loading, whether it needs it or not, (I have a Gracey trimmer.)

[Fyodor]

The LEE resizing lube is wax based. I thin it down with water, after drying you don't see or feel the lube at all. It also is a solid (wax, not grease or oil), so it won't contaminate the powder. I don't clean my brass after sizing.

[RBHarter]

I use carbide whenever available. I have no comparison between carbide and steel in the same cartridge, so I cannot measure if one sizes smaller than the other. But I don't think they would make them different on purpose.

All my casings are wet cleaned and lubed with a thinned down LEE case lube wax. That works very well for me.

Many pistol cartridges are actually tapered . The carbide dies size the smallest dimension. It's not a big deal when it's .05mm difference on a case 17-21mm but it's very hard on cases with a 1mm taper in 25mm especially in fat chambers . I had a Rossi 45 Colts with a .494 gross case dia (can't metric that one off hand) with the carbide die sizing it down to .469 OD then flared back up to .478 to accept the .452-.454 cast bullets. The steel dies allowed me to size down to.475 at the mouth and leave the body gross dia about.486 . It also worked out for the .484 chambers in the Ruger BH giving just enough sizing for the bases to slip fit . Cases actually rattled in the Ruger when FL sized in the Carbide dies.