New Dillon carbide dies scratching brass

[jdg30]

I just got a quick change setup in .40S&W for my Dillon 550B. I set up my dies and put 50 clean cases through the sizing/depriming die to check that the die would size the case properly and noticed that the die is scratching the heck out of the cases. Each case has lots of vertical scratches around most of the circumference and it looks terrible. I can't imagine it would be good to continuously chamber scratched up cases in my gun either.

I disassembled the die and it had no dirt or anything in it as it is brand new. I wiped down the inside with a Q-tip to make sure it was clean and saw what appears to be knicks on the inside portion of the die which is causing the scratches.

I'm disappointed because I was looking forward to testing a few rounds to get started and then load several hundred this weekend but I don't want to ruin all my brass because of the die. I'm going to call Dillon tomorrow and see if they'll replace the sizing die with another one. All my other Dillon dies for other calibers work fine. Hopefully they will replace the die for free.

Anybody else experienced this before? If so, what did you do and what was the outcome of it? Thanks

[XDRoX]

If I don't clean my dies, I get black marks on the cases which look like scratches but are not. If you're sure you're really getting scratches, then Dillon will replace the die, I'm 110% positive. You could polish the inside with a dremel if you need to load in the mean time, but I wouldn't bother if you're going to return them anyway.

All companies have their mistakes. But rest assured that Dillon will make it right.

[bumpo628]

It may not be that big of a deal. Post a picture and you'll get better input.
Can you feel the scratches with your fingernail?

[joelogic]

Dies can get scratched it the brass is not cleaned enough. Running the brass in the tumbler not only cleans them but smooth out the rough edges.

However they shouldnt get scratched after only a couple of rounds. Maybe every 20k rounds I have to hone my .223 die or it scratches the necks.

[chim-chim7]

Eh, carbide right? Carbide is a very hard material and is very difficult to scratch. What you might be seeing is porosity's from a bad batch of material when it's formed. Dillon will replace, no problem. Can you post a pic. to be sure?

[Bigdaa]

Eh, carbide right? Carbide is a very hard material and is very difficult to scratch. What you might be seeing is porosity's from a bad batch of material when it's formed. Dillon will replace, no problem. Can you post a pic. to be sure?

+1 here

[joelogic]

I haven't looked at a pistol die but on my dillon rifle dies there is only a carbide ring at the mouth. If they made the whole die out of carbide it would shatter if dropped.

[jdg30]

I called the Dillon rep this morning and he told me to soak the die in bore cleaner/solvent for 10 minutes then clean it like a barrel. He said they use machines that push the polishing compound (which contains diamond particles) through the dies to polish the steel and once in a while pieces of diamond grit remain embedded in the die.

I'm soaking the bottom of the die in Shooter's Choice lead remover/bore cleaner and it appears that grit is dropping out of the die after agitating in the solution. After I'm done I'll try the die again to see if it has fixed the problem.

My brass is definitely scratched around the whole circumference of the case from the top to about 2/3's of the way down. Running my nail along it, the lines are definitely etched in the case. The cases are fully cleaned/polished in my tumbler with polish. Rounds loaded in other calibers using the same cleaning media turn out excellent so I know it's just this specific die.

The good thing is the Dillon rep told me if cleaning the die doesn't fix the problem they will replace it. I'm hoping that cleaning the die works so I don't have to wait for the shipping turn around time for a new one. I'll report back later about if cleaning fixed the problem or not.

[uscbigdawg]

Probably calling Dillon first would have been a better idea instead.

Scratched brass isn't going to hurt your pistol.

[jdg30]

Probably calling Dillon first would have been a better idea instead.

Scratched brass isn't going to hurt your pistol.

I did call Dillon first and the rep told me to soak the die then clean it so that's what I did.

Scratched brass may not hurt the gun, but taking a shiny piece of brass and turning it into one that looks like crap and has at least 50 vertical scratches/streaks down it doesn't inspire me to want to keep using the die. All my other reloads look very similar to new ammunition when completed so there's no reason to mess up all my .40 brass if the problem can be resolved.

Update: I soaked the bottom of the die, scrubbed it out with the bore brush and wiped out all the residue. Next I lightly polished the inside of the carbide sizer with a Dremel felt wheel and polishing compound and it looks like the streaks in the die are gone. I sized about 20 more cases and none of them appear to be scratched so I think the problem is fixed; the problem was grit residue embedded in the die from the polishing compound used when it was manufactured that needed to be cleaned out.

[bumpo628]

Glad to hear you got it fixed. I think it's better that you fixed the problem yourself instead of getting a new one. Too many people replace when they can repair nowadays. Plus you learned something along the way and shared the info with the rest of us. This is what this forum is all about IMHO. I have never heard of grit in the die before and I'm sure it's new to lots of others. Thanks for the update.

[jdg30]

Here's a picture of what the scratched brass looked like when sized with the die with the grit embedded in it. Someone mentioned that function matters more than aesthetics, but what would be the point of making perfectly good brass have aesthetics like this?

[sammy]

It looks like tht brass was shot out of an HK. Some HK barrels have chambers that leave tha same impressions that you brass shows. Are you sure the brass you are putting in the die does not look like that to begin with?

[jdg30]

It looks like tht brass was shot out of an HK. Some HK barrels have chambers that leave tha same impressions that you brass shows. Are you sure the brass you are putting in the die does not look like that to begin with?

I'm 100% sure the brass wasn't like that to begin with. I have 1000's of .40S&W cases that are all tumbled/cleaned. Many of them are from my own guns and some are from the range. None of them had scratches like that before.

After cleaning the die, the cases are now coming out the way they should, properly sized without the scratches. The reason I was testing these cases in the sizing die was to see how the Dillon die resizes brass with the Glock bulge. Quite a few cases in .40S&W have the Glock bulge and I was trying to determine if the Dillon die would properly resize the case or if I need to get the Lee Factory crimp die to fully resize the brass. That's when I discovered the die was scratching up the brass. All the resized cases would fit in the case gauge but they were scratched up.

I'm new to reloading .40 and want to do it right so the reloads shoot out of any of my guns. I already reload 9mm, .38/.357 and .45 without any problems but .40 presents the issue of the Glock bulge and so I'm experimenting with it and the scratching issue compounded my problems. Now that it's resolved I can load test rounds without damaging the .40 brass and figure out the load I like best.