scratched brass

craiger40 · Jul 23, 2007

hey yall , the expander ball on my RCBS die for my 7 mag had a burr and it scratched the inside of my case mouths. The brass has a slightly visible scratch but when you use a paperclip you can feel it. I can mabey post a picture if that would help. I really want to use the brass but not if its comprimised or unsafe. Thanks guys and just to remind you RCBS customer service is world class.

Britz · Jul 23, 2007

I can not say if the brass is safe or not, but I will say that any nicks that are visible or feelable will impact accuracy of your loads. If the nick is bad enough it could feasibly cause a cracked case. If you have a neck turner or a reamer it may get the nick out.
good luck, Mark

C.Smith · Jul 27, 2007

I would worry that the scratch would score it like glass and cause a weak spot in the brass. Especially if it has been fired several times and it has lost some of it's elactisity.

Corey

JD338 · Jul 30, 2007

I too have had a recent experience with RCBS that makes them world class. I'm sure they will help you out.

As for scratched brass, it may cause a weak spot that will crack. You should still be able to use the brass, just watch for splits.

JD338

Ol` Joe · Jul 31, 2007

I had a similar problem with a 7mm trim pilot from RCBS a couple years ago, and never noticed any trouble with the cases I could blame on the scratches. I didn`t use them in a varmit or bench rifle though and there may have been a downside that just wasn`t appearent in my Remington M7.
I did polish the pilot with a bit of 0000 steel wool and a dremal tool and cured it. Takes just a touch, you are polishing not removing metal.

craiger40 · Aug 1, 2007

fellas at the time of writing this topic i had already asked rcbs if there was a way to polish the expander ball. within seconds of asking, the guy on the line was asking for my address and such and told me they would send me a new decapping unit . after he told me he was sending a new unit i asked how much it was, he told me it was free. RCBS had no liabilty the problem was my fault since none of my other 7mm brass had scratches. i more than gladly would have paid the 8 or so dollars for the piece. Thats world class customer service where the customer actually comes first. They could have made x amount of dollars on that sale but now will probably make hundereds of dollars from their customer service. and to top it off they put five decapping pins in with the decapper unit. I recently have thought of buying other brand, redding has some nice bushing type dies i would like to use but i think ill spend the little extra and get the rcbs dies.