Bad FL sizing die?

[Steven308]

Okay so I figured I’d go ahead and (likely unnecessary) resize some new Lapua brass. Sized one, looked good. Next case (the one on the left) came out scratched up and with a small ridge where it stopped scraping at the base of the neck/top of the shoulder. I’m using a lube pad. I then thoroughly cleaned the die out, tried another, same thing.

Possibly a side note, possibly related?? The loads i did yesterday, i found that there were some inconsistencies with how it felt seating the bullets. Some went in hard, some easy. Am i missing something stupid or did I get something in my die and ruin it?

 

[FCS]

Lack of lube on a neck, brass galled on neck portion of the die. You'll need to polish out the brass from inside of the die for this to not happen on all your brass. Once brass is galled to inside of die, only gets worse.

 

[rustyinbend]

My guess is a bushing that's too small, or something mechanically wrong with the die, or not enough lube. Most likely a bushing issue.

 

[Steven308]

Lack of lube on a neck, brass galled on neck portion of the die. You'll need to polish out the brass from inside of the die for this to not happen on all your brass. Once brass is galled to inside of die, only gets worse

That makes sense. Could also explain the recent inconsistency with seating. Any recommendations for cleaning it out?

 

[Steven308]

My guess is a bushing that's too small, or something mechanically wrong with the die, or not enough lube. Most likely a bushing issue.

I’m not using bushings, just have the standard green box rcbs set. That being said should I switch to using a bushing?

 

[FCS]

I’m not using bushings, just have the standard green box rcbs set. That being said should I switch to using a bushing?

IMHO, no need to switch to bushing die. Yes, you can possibly squeeze out a bit more accuracy with bushing die but comes with more nuance also.

Polishing out the brass from neck area of die, you'll need:
Drill
Spindle
Cleaning patch or other piece of cloth roughly 3/4" X 3/4"
Gray synthetic steel wool (SSW). Home Depot and/or Lowe's typically will have on shelf if you don't already have some on hand.

Probably will need to make a spindle. If you use 0.125 (1/8") to 0.188 (3/16") diameter rod, allows you to use for smaller neck diameter. If only have a 308 (appears to be a 308 case in picture) then you could use larger diameter rod to make spindle.
Split spindle so you can capture a piece of cloth that you use to capture the SSW, wrap correct width of SSW around spindle. You'll want initial diameter of SSW wrapped spindle to be larger than diameter of neck as the SSW will crush to fit into neck.
Remove all decapping parts from sizer die.
Spin spindle with SSW on it and push into neck area, 60ish seconds first pass. Might want to wear a glove as die will get pretty warm, enough to be uncomfortable to hold.
Remove SSW wrapped spindle..
Push a clean patch through die.
Flash light on low setting, angle into base of die.
Look through the top of the die (where decapping parts attach) at the neck area, you'll be able to see if the galled brass is gone or not. If galled brass is still present, do a bit more polishing.

 

[Steven308]

IMHO, no need to switch to bushing die. Yes, you can possibly squeeze out a bit more accuracy with bushing die but comes with more nuance also.

Polishing out the brass from neck area of die, you'll need:
Drill
Spindle
Cleaning patch or other piece of cloth roughly 3/4" X 3/4"
Gray synthetic steel wool (SSW). Home Depot and/or Lowe's typically will have on shelf if you don't already have some on hand.

Probably will need to make a spindle. If you use 0.125 (1/8") to 0.188 (3/16") diameter rod, allows you to use for smaller neck diameter. If only have a 308 (appears to be a 308 case in picture) then you could use larger diameter rod to make spindle.
Split spindle so you can capture a piece of cloth that you use to capture the SSW, wrap correct width of SSW around spindle. You'll want initial diameter of SSW wrapped spindle to be larger than diameter of neck as the SSW will crush to fit into neck.
Remove all decapping parts from sizer die.
Spin spindle with SSW on it and push into neck area, 60ish seconds first pass. Might want to wear a glove as die will get pretty warm enough to be uncomfortable to hold.
Remove SSW wrapped spindle..
Push a clean patch through die.
Flash light on low setting, angle into base of die.
Look through the top of the die (where decapping parts attach) at the neck area, you'll be able to see if the galled brass is gone or not. If galled brass is still present, do a bit more polishing.

Thank you for the info! Very helpful. Time to get polishing…