I began resizing my cases for the first time after being once fired and the sizing die is leaving some smallish scratches about a cm long near the bottom of the cases, all the scratch patterns are the same. Is this a defect with the die or is that just no biggie? They are half a mm wide and just deep enough to catch my finger nail on.

There's a small burr on the inside of your dies.

Remove the decapping rod from the die and clean the inside thoroughly with a bore cleaner. Take fine 0000 steel wool wrapped around a bronze bristle brush that is slightly oversize for the die, chuck it up in a power drill and using a bore solvent for a lubricant, burnish the inside. How much will depend on the size of the burr. Try burnishing, sizing a case and continue until the marks are gone.

Another good way is to embed some J-B bore paste on a bore mop of appropiate size and chuck this up in the drill. Use the bore solvent with the J-B, also.

After loading your cases and before putting back on the shelf, it's not a bad idea to remove the decapping rod and clean it and the inside die body of gunk accumulated from the resizing.

It's not uncommon for new dies to have these minute burrs left over from machining.

Would be better if it wern't there, but as it is, all you can do is try to mimimalize it.

Proably from a bit of crud caught on a case, then sized in the die...crud is now in the die. Clean the die well and make a note that even if you don't polish cases, it's a lot better to clean them before reloading to keep this from happening again.

If cleaning the die doesn't remove the offendind bit of crud (and it probably won't) can try lightly polishing the die...not too much as you don't want it to size cases significantly less than it does.

Light is the key workd here,,,not to elimiate the scratch producing part, but to smooth it a bit. Autotive rubbing compound, brass brush wrapped in rubbing compound impregnated cloth, and an slow running electric drill would be a start...finish off with automotive polishing compound (I picked these as they are likely the easiest to find...nearly everywhere has an auto parts store near by).

Probably won't remove the mark-maker, but will at elast made the marks it leaves less noticable.
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On the other hand, take a hard look at the die under bright light....is possible that the die has cracked. Some carbide dies run on a carbide ring glued into the die body, and I've seen those rings crack. Crack is barely noticable, but under the pressure of resizing it increases in size and is very noticable.

If that's the case, they'll replace it if you send it to the die maker.

This was actually on the very fisrt cases i sized with the die so i dont think i got crud into it. I think i will bring it to the gunsmith i bought it from and ask him to polish it for me. Thanks for the help.

Did you clean the cases before you sized them?? The fired cases can introduce dirt (scratches) into the sizing die.. I always tumble the brass first after firing. Then deprime resize and tumble again.
Just a thought..

i didnt tumble them but i wiped them as best i could with a damp cloth. i dont see how any scratch-worthy dirt could have remained.

Are these nickel cases? They'll scratch carbide dies and wreck steel dies. Are you loading a straight walled case?

I'm not sure if nickel can scratch carbide or if it's a case of a chip of nickel sticking to the carbide. If it's near the mouth of the die you might get it off by running a small pen knife blade around inside the die. See if your blade snags something and you can break it loose.

The only permanent fix is to get rid of your nickel cases.

Bye
Jack

I scratched my 444 Lee Pacesetter sizing die and it started to make the identical marks on my brass. I was in a hurry to get some rounds together and just wiped off the cases without using much care. I guess if you are not using a clean cloth for every individual case there is a chance that you are simply moving the debri from one case to another. I also suspect that a very small peice of debri can make a mark on that steel because of the amount of pressure delivered in sizing.

I sent the die to Lee and they returned it the same week good as new.

I now clean like NRA Life describes plus I simply clean my dies once in a while (I know your die was new). Whatever is causing it can be cleaned up and taking it to your smithy is a good idea.

Michael

I recently had humidity issues in the reloading room and my fl size dies had some slight rust inside causing cases scratches so the dies went to the machine shop for polishing and i went to lowes for a dehumidifier.

Are these nickel cases? They'll scratch carbide dies and wreck steel dies. Are you loading a straight walled case?

I'm not sure if nickel can scratch carbide or if it's a case of a chip of nickel sticking to the carbide.

The only permanent fix is to get rid of your nickel cases.

Bye
Jack


Well, I don't think that nickel scratches carbide.
But the word goes that a nickel particle stuck can damage cases.

BUT man how do I love those shiny nickel cases with a copper
coloured bullet on 'm... :D

That's the why I keep 'm and clean them thoroughly

:D :D
Not only the shooting but the looks are also important! ;)

I don't have any nickle brass but i think the Nosler combined technology bullets on nickle look sharp. black on silver

I had long scratches from a new 300 H&H die from RCBS. It would mark each case the same...It was from the vent hole in the sizing die. I understand that some of the longer cases, a vent was drilled in the die to let trapped air escape when sizing. RCBS did the right thing , offered to replace it free, I saved the postage (I'm cheap) and used a long shank diamond polishing wheel and CAREFULLY polished the burr down, and washed/rinsed all residue out. Works great.

I don't think nickel cases are the source of the problem, I've used them for twenty years without a problem. The nickel eventually wears off after a lot of tumbling, but it takes awhile. But scratches have never been a problem with my Lee dies, and they're all at least 15 years old!

PJ