how did i ruin my sizing die?

[theEclipse]

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,

[FLIGHT762]

So how / when do you trim your cases? is there any way brass shavings are getting into the Die?

Something is getting into the die and galling. There are ways you can polish it out, or you can send it to Redding and have them polish it.

I was able to polish out a 223 die that was galling. I had a Forster 308 die that was galling badly, I sent that in and had it polished out.

Most of my issue was not running the fired brass in the tumbler for an hour or so to clean off all dirt & carbon. I've been galling free since.

P.S. The die isn't ruined.

[2Asupport]

I had 357sig steel dies and was experiencing the same issue with the scratching. There were vertical scratch lines appearing around the case.

What I have learned from the Calgun community, was to disassemble the die, clean all parts with cleaner and inspect the interior of the die.

I found scratch marks along the interior of the die that was causing the issue.

I took some 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper and carefully hand polished the interior. It will take some time, but it did polish out the scratches. Just make sure you clean the die again very well, before reassembling.

Your die will be like new again.

[Bastard]

the Redding customer service it top notch - at least it was when I used them... I had a broken/cracked carbide ring on a used dies I bought & they basically just send it to us and we'll send you a new one free of charge.

do I know for sure if they will send you a new one or polish it for you, no. but it doesn't cost anything to send them an email

[highpower790]

Lack of enough lube will cause exactly the problem that op is experiencing.

[BajaJames83]

Lack of enough lube will cause exactly the problem that op is experiencing.

I was thinking the same thing.
If your cases are not properly lubed they will stick/ scratch a die.