We have all seen rusty dies I am sure

But I pulled a set of Hornady Custom Grade New Dimension Dies Series II

They are stored where all the rest are and when I opened the box the darn things we just covered in surface rust
Of course I tried to clean them up and it just aint working

I called Hornady and the guy I talked to just kind of said well just touch them and they will rust should coat them with dry lube.Should that be done? I didnt expect him to cry but it was oh well


2 questions
first anyone else experience this specifically with Hornady dies? I am a novice loader and when I started using a lot of Hornady ammo of course I bought their stuff but now given the choice I seem to lean to RCBS

Second can I put these in a tumbler and see if that will clean them up? Anything negative that will happen if I do that?

Thanks Hank

Wrong forum

Hi Hank,

I would not give up on those dies. Soak them overnight in KROIL. See what that does. Stay away from WD-40.
Salts from one's hands will cause surface rust. I always wipe my dies down with a light coat of oil after each reloading session.

Not only will Kroil remove surface rust, it will also remove carbon from your sizing die, and lift lead deposits from your seater and crimp die (if you reload lead).

Let us know how you fair. I like the Hornady Bullet Seating die. I might want to give it a try.

GB

I like the Hornady New Dimension seating die with the sliding sleeve, sizing die with the collet grip decapping stem is junk. I use Redding sizing dies and Hornady, this combination produces ammo with concentricity within .003".

Hank, if your just getting started I would buy nothing but redding, or Forster dies. The old bonanza dies are Forster. Watch ebay as there is some steals on dies. I’m not saying you can’t make quality ammo on other brands. But I’ve had better luck with the higher quality stuff. Hasbeen

I've done this with several rusty dies—even some very rusty ones purchased on ebay. Granted, this is with stainless steel pins in a wet tumbler. Worked very well, and no harm done. Nothing in a tumbler is going to be harder than the tool steel they make dies from. I'd just hesitate to put more than one die in at a time, or to have decapping rods floating around in there with the dies. I've always tumbled every part separately.

Had several RCBS dies stored in a flooded basement. I soaked them with naval jelly and scrubbed with steel wool, used a brush on a cleaning rod with a drill to polish the insides. Worked fine afterward. This would be a good time to hone the dies to your case dimensions as that will remove rust and result in an almost custom equivalent. I liked the BPCR blued dies so cold blued some of mine, seems to have helped. I always store the dies with a treatment of Corrosion X, Eesox or even Hornaday one shot case lube. I wipe the dies down with solvent or Kroil before using them. Wipe of and lube your dies and you shouldn't have any trouble.

I'm a big fan of Hornady dies. Their sizing die is about equal to everyone else. The zip spindle leaves a little to be desired but their tapered expander ball is top notch, I make 25-204 brass from 204 Ruger and with others I have to do it in two steps with the Hornady it is one pass over their expander ball. The seating die is top notch also, the sliding sleeve makes loading small bullets easy especially short bullets like 33gr in the 218 Bee that can get cocked in the seater. I've had Hornady make custom dies for me and at the time they were considerably less than other top name makers. RCBS is like Leuopld scope, average quality but a fantastic warranty. If I use a set of RCBS dies I usually toss the seater and use a Hornady instead but I do that with most of my die sets. I have lots of different dies from Herters, Redding, Forester, Bonanza, Pacific, Lee, C&H(Old and new), RCBS, Hornady, Lyman and a couple with no names on them, they all make accurate ammo..

Lanolin is used as a corrosion inhibitor in marine environments and is safe to use a case lube.

If the corrosion is only where you are touching the dies, then the working surfaces should be OK.

I would try the Kroil too, Hank. If you don't have any, I can send you some.