Seating die scarring bullets.
 

Question for the Guru’s among us on how to rectify. So I received a set of Redding S Series Competion dies with a rifle I purchased. Cleaned them immediately and noticed that on the sleeve of the seating die, there appeared to be some scarring in the portion that the seating stem sits in. No marks whatsoever on the OD of the seating stem itself. Lubricated and reassembled. When I started building my ladder, I noticed some scratch type marks on the ogive of the bullets after seating. The blemish appears to be roughly the same area as the portion with the scars in the sleeve.

I ran a bronze brush in there and reciprocated several times in case it is some build up of contaminants that my solvents had not removed but no dice. I was thinking of applying some JB’s paste to a cleaning mop and installing on a drill to try and polish it out.

Anyone have any better course of action for rectification or am I on the right track?

Phone Redding and get them to send you a new one that is smooth. They Guarantee their stuff for life and they are excellent at standing behind their products.

Are you referring to a ring around the bullet where the seating stem contacts the bullet? Or are there scratches only part way around the bullet?

Not a ring from the stem Elk. The scarring is on the bearing surface of the bullet starting just below the ogive(correct, only part way around) on a seated bullet and the scarring on the die is in the sleeve where the seating stem sits. Area blemished on the bullet looks to be the same sized area as the blemish in the sleeve. Perhaps that’s a better description? I wasn’t aware that Redding would replace components of a die set as Dean has suggested so I’ll probably end up going that route vs screwing around with polish.

Redding is normally very good to deal with if there is an issue. Send them an e-mail with pictures.