Neck sizer scratching my brass.

Alpheus

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I have a RCBS neck sizer in .308 and its gouging the necks of my new brass. The empty brass in top photo is new lapua. The second photo is once-fired federal brass, and looks fine. Tried cleaning the die but no change.

What the heck...?
 
You'll find that the dies do attract grit and will even build up brass inside the neck, depending on how you lubricate, clean your brass, etc. The Lapua I've checked recently has a thicker neck wall than Norma or Winchester (have not checked Federal), so you may be working the brass more on the Lapua than the Federal (compressing it down to the same outside diameter - I'm willing to bet that your Lapua brass took more effort to seat for the same reason). I've had to use steel wool and chemicals to remove brass build-up when I was not lubing necks on neck dies, which is another reason why I changed over to Redding S dies (plus easier to clean and adjust for different neck wall thickness brass).
 
I got some 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper and have spinning that in my die with a drill. Clean it and test a case. Significant improvement. A few more cycles of this and I should be good. I have also been cleaning the necks with some 0000 steel wool, I don't know which method is working and I ain't going to waste a few cases to find out. Thanks for the help fellas.
 
How?

And why would it only affect the Lapua brass and not the Federal? Is the Federal softer?

I got some 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper and have spinning that in my die with a drill. Clean it and test a case. Significant improvement. A few more cycles of this and I should be good. I have also been cleaning the necks with some 0000 steel wool, I don't know which method is working and I ain't going to waste a few cases to find out. Thanks for the help fellas.

sorry I didn't get to reply sooner.
Yes, 1000 and 2000 grit is the way. But to get a mirror polish I use a felt tip smeared with stainless steel polishing compound (the green bar, found at Princess Auto among others)
 
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