how did i ruin my sizing die?

[stonegraham]

I've been shooting a 6mm Comp Match for several years. I've loaded approximately 3000 rounds in that amount of time.
This past spring when I was loading up some practice rounds I noticed that my sized brass was coming out of the die scratched. The scratches are parallel to the axis of the case, and at several points around the circumference of the case. It had been a while since I cleaned the dies so I tore them down and took a look. There where huge brass streaks in the die. I cleaned the die, which ended up being a hassle. I had to use wipe out to get rid of all the brass in the dies. Then I hit them with break cleaner followed by One Shot cleaner/lube. I inspected the dies again. Brass streaks are gone, but I can see pits/burrs in the die body. Using a cotton swab you can easily feel these areas. I'm going to call Redding this week and see if they can hone that out and return the die.

My reloading procedure for this brass (after being fired) has been:
Tumble ( I think the latest bucket of media is walnut)
Anneal
Lube (Dillon or Frankford Arsenal lanolin type)
Size
Prime
Charge
Seat
What happened that I scored this die?
Was the brass not clean enough? Lube issue? Die not cleaned often enough.

I want to avoid this mistake in the future.
Thanks,

[OldmanFCSA]

This issue has affected others also, me included.

It has been caused by small specs of brass and carbon from trimmed or chamfer operations being caught up in sizing lube, transferred to sizing die, and imbedded onto wall of die.

My 7mm Rem Mag sizing die is prone to this issue. Cleaning the dies with a SS Brush in an electric drill laced with Sweets 7.62 cleaning solution removes the small bits of brass and hard carbon easily. Polish as required - do not scratch the die any further with other methods. Clean with brake cleaner, dry, re-lube to prevent rust.

I will clean for free for anyone bringing me such a die.

[Erud]

It's no big deal, just polish it out with your cordless drill as Oldman suggests. I use a little piece of steel wool on a nylon brush when I need to do this, it works great. Polish with Dremel and rouge afterwards if you so desire.

[crbutler]

For me, the most common culprit is not getting the brass clean and getting a piece of rock or junk in it.

To be honest, if the rounds chamber, I have not bothered with worrying about scratches.

[aprilian]

Since I size pistol brass dirty, I have had this happen and have found that polishing off the softer brass with 2000 grit sandpaper also has the benefit of smoothing the die.

I now always use Hornady One-Shot with my sizing/expanding dies and that has helped the brass particles always move out of the way (rather than having the opportunity to get forced into the minuscule voids in the steel die).

Brass accumulation hasn't happened to me in the last 2,000+ pistol cases sized dirty.

[purd0027]

My .223 Lee die causes some scratches but on the case neck rather than case body- same medicine to fix this?

[Holland&Holland]

I've been shooting a 6mm Comp Match for several years. I've loaded approximately 3000 rounds in that amount of time.
This past spring when I was loading up some practice rounds I noticed that my sized brass was coming out of the die scratched. The scratches are parallel to the axis of the case, and at several points around the circumference of the case. It had been a while since I cleaned the dies so I tore them down and took a look. There where huge brass streaks in the die. I cleaned the die, which ended up being a hassle. I had to use wipe out to get rid of all the brass in the dies. Then I hit them with break cleaner followed by One Shot cleaner/lube. I inspected the dies again. Brass streaks are gone, but I can see pits/burrs in the die body. Using a cotton swab you can easily feel these areas. I'm going to call Redding this week and see if they can hone that out and return the die.

My reloading procedure for this brass (after being fired) has been:
Tumble ( I think the latest bucket of media is walnut)
Anneal
Lube (Dillon or Frankford Arsenal lanolin type)
Size
Prime
Charge
Seat
What happened that I scored this die?
Was the brass not clean enough? Lube issue? Die not cleaned often enough.

I want to avoid this mistake in the future.
Thanks,

Longest post he has left.

[ttousi]

plagiarized..............

Cut and pasted from
https://forum.accurateshooter.com/threa ... e.4018013/

[Holland&Holland]

plagiarized..............

Cut and pasted from
https://forum.accurateshooter.com/threa ... e.4018013/

Weird. Had to take effort to find that post that was applicable to this situation.

[ttousi]

he posted it on 3 different forums that i found as well

[Holland&Holland]

Any guesses on what his end game was?

[Rip Van Winkle]

Any guesses on what his end game was?

Looking for attention.

[BigBlue]

Any guesses on what his end game was?

Based on what was reported in other threads, I think scamming via fake sales turned out to be the motive.