Problem with hornady dies

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VinnyQC

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It's my first set of hornady dies, I usually buy Lee stuff, but they don't sell carbide sizer for 50AE, so I went with hornady nitride dies cause lubing pistol cases is not my idea of fun.

After resizing about 40 brand new starline 50AE brass cases, the cases come out scratched like the dies are sandpaper. I tried cleaning the dies, then using Lee sizing lube, still scratching cases. Then I cleaning them again to remove any Lee lube and tried with hornady one shot, still scratching. It seems to be getting worse with every case (first 20 or so were correct, then the scratches get worse), but I stopped resizing the cases cause there's no point ruining perfectly good brass.

Anyone else has had that problem with hornady dies?
 
The problem isn't specific to Hornady dies. You have brass buildup in the sizing die.

Looks similar to this right?

images_1.jpg


Look for brass flecks inside the sizing die:

images.jpg
 
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VinnyQC said:
First time it happens to me. How do I get rid of it?
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It's probably happening because the brass is new. I clean my sizing die with steel wool and polish with Flitz but I have carbide dies. You have to find something that's safe yet abrasive enough to remove the buildup. Once the die is clean make sure you lube that new brass before trying to size any more cases.
 
Mine looks more like 4n2t0's than like that other thread. I'll try to find something to polish it.

This is annoying. I bought this set of dies specifically because it's supposed to not require lube :(
 
It's not supposed to require lube, but most people lube their brass no matter of the dies composition.
It makes sizing far more easier and extends the life of the die set.
 
HI; I have found carbon on the brass will scratch and enbed into even carbide dies. Polished with fritz or other then rub a bit of case lube onto my finger to deposit a dab of lube onto cases, RCBS water removable lube is my choice.
 
Clean the die with foam bore cleaner, it will remove the copper without scrubbing. Then try polishing the die "lightly" with the shotgun mop and a fine polish like Flitz.

Just remember the ring in the Hornady die is plated with Titanium Nitride and I'm not sure if it is a true "carbide" die. Meaning be careful with the polishing.

I wet tumble my cases and this ended my standard die scratching problem. I'm wondering if your new cases have "something" on them that is sticking to the sizing ring.

I just got done sizing 1000 once fired military 9mm cases with a Lee carbide die without any problem. And these cases were wet tumbled with SS media and scrubbed clean before sizing.
 
Hmmm, maybe I should wet tumble new cases to make sure they don't have some kind of polish on them. But I doubt it, I was blaming the dies because I resized 300 new starline in 44magnum without any problem (in lee carbide dies), so I expected the 50AE to be roughly the same thing and behave the same way.

I've never had that problem with my 9mm dies and they've resized a few thousands so far.
 
VinnyQC said:
Hmmm, maybe I should wet tumble new cases to make sure they don't have some kind of polish on them. But I doubt it, I was blaming the dies because I resized 300 new starline in 44magnum without any problem (in lee carbide dies), so I expected the 50AE to be roughly the same thing and behave the same way.

I've never had that problem with my 9mm dies and they've resized a few thousands so far.
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For what its worth I do not use my 9mm Hornady Titanium Nitride coated die and prefer standard carbide dies. Like you it scratched my cases so I just stopped using it after polishing it lightly once. I'm not 100% sure but the Hornady sizing ring may be plated steel made in attempt to save money.

I buy bulk once fired military Lake City 5.56 and 7.62 cases and some of the 7.62 cases were very hard to size. Then at the CMP forum someone told me to first size the case with a carbide .45 acp die. And this made reducing the case body diameter very easy without any case lube. This was followed by using a standard .308 small base die and again very little sizing effort. Bottom line the .45 acp die without any lube was slicker than snot on a door knob. ;)
 
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bigedp51 said:
For what its worth I do not use my 9mm Hornady Titanium Nitride coated die and prefer standard carbide dies. Like you it scratched my cases so I just stopped using it after polishing it lightly once. I'm not 100% sure but the Hornady sizing ring may be plated steel made in attempt to save money.

I buy bulk once fired military Lake City 5.56 and 7.62 cases and some of the 7.62 cases were very hard to size. Then at the CMP forum someone told me to first size the case with a carbide .45 acp die. And this made reducing the case body diameter very easy without any case lube. This was followed by using a standard .308 small base die and again very little sizing effort. Bottom line the .45 acp die without any lube was slicker than snot on a door knob. ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, but they can't make carbide sizing dies for 50AE cause they would be too thin, and when carbide gets thin, it becomes bristle. That's why I went for the titanium Nitride. All my other pistol dies are inexpensive but quite effective carbide dies.

Since I won't be making thousands of 50AE I'm ok with lubing the cases (although not thrilled), but I would quit reloading small rounds like 9mm if I had to lube them.
 
Well, thanks to everyone who suggested polishing the dies. For posterity, here's how I did it:

I have a kit of dremel bits (it's actually a mastercraft knockoff, really inexpensive when bought on sale, and quite low quality, but theres like a milion* of bits and pieces in there), and one of the bit is a felt polishing wheel and there's 2 little pot of polishing compound**. So I installed the felt and applied some polishing compound, but I used it in a drill instead of the dremel, cause I thought the dremel would be too fast. It took me less than 2 minutes to polish it good as new, so I guess the dremel might have been too aggressive.

Then I cleaned the die like it was a mini 16 gauge barrel, and to the press I went. Brass comes out sized but unscratched now.

Also for posterity: I contacted hornady, and they told me to send them the die, and they would polish it or replace it free of charge, as long as I pay 5$US for shipping. That's a super example of good intention being totally useless: total cost for shipping back and forth is more than the price of a new die.

*There's actually 500 pieces in the kit, but that's close enough to a milion to round up.

**If you don't have/want a kit, the required dremel parts numbers are 401, 414 and 421. Available on amazon.ca and probably most hardware stores.
 
Good follow up OP!
I would still use a little lube. I use a spray lube and one squirt for 100-200 pistol brass is lots. It makes the sizing run smoother even with a carbide type die.
 
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