More on Hornady .38/.357 Bullet Feeding Die..A Breakthrough, Maybe

I called Hornady customer service today to ask about sending back my bullet feeding die for inspection. They told me some interesting stuff that seems to have solved many of my issues.

1. Case Flair....it has to be .387. Mine was so we are golden except that I almost never trim .38 special brass. Looks like I'm going to have to as it is critical to the bullet feeder die performance.

2. Setting the top collet: Hornady instructions say to back off 1/2 turn once contact is made with the lower collet. Well, the tech guy says forget that. To prevent bullets from passing through the lower collet prematurely, just back it off a hair from touching. He said this adjustment is not really critical unless you need to pre-load the lower collet to tighten its grip a tad. So, I have mine less than 1/16 of a turn from totally locked down. It doesn't rattle and that's OK.

3. The Final Adjustment: Hornady written instructions say to insert a flared case and raise the ram. Then screw in the die until contact is made and then go 1/2 turn in from there. Tech guy says this adjustment really matters. In this case, he said to start with just 1/16 past touching. I did and things improved right now. I fiddled with it a tad and found the sweet spot that feeds a single bullet nearly 100% of the time. If I had trimmed the cases I believe it actually would be 100% of the time.

All in all, the feeder now works but it's a lot more finicky that the MBF system. Key point here is that the adjustment of the upper collet is not critical except if you need to preload the lower collet to keep tension on the fingers. I did so now my fall through problem appears to be history.

I had been thinking about getting one for 9mm and 45acp but was hesitant until reading this post, thanks!

If you still have to buy one, buy the MBF one. The MBF is much easier to setup and works for all bullet "types" (FMJ, plated and lead), my experience with the Hornady is that it works flawless for FMJ, decent for plated and don't even think about lead. It does require a lot of fiddling to get just right.

The MBF just works, unless you are loading wadcutters.

I purchased the MBF unit for 45cal and it is worthless for cast bullets and marginal at best for jacketed. I then purchased the RCBS units for 9mm, 40 cal, and 45 cal and they work flawlessly at a fraction of the price. My RCBS droppers even work well with lead.