I'm done with Hornady dies

[Elkins45]

No more Hornady dies for me, or at least not until they change the design. There are a couple of issues that I'm tired of dealing with.

1. The new zip spindle for the decapper rod seems to only have two settings: slip as soon as the pin touches the primer or stay in place so tenaciously that the decapper pin snaps and the threaded part of the rod bends inside the expander ball. There doesn't seem to be any sort of middle ground where it behaves the way it is supposed to. I was making some 35 Whelen brass for 30-06 and accidentally mixed in a couple of berdan cases. Crunch! Broken pin and bent rod. Thanks zip spindle for not zipping. The 300 blackout is exactly the opposite-military brass with crimped primers pop the rod frequently unless it's cranked down so hard that you get the crunch.

2. The sliding bullet alignment sleeve on the seater is great...until there's a neck that's just a smidgen too thick or there's a little lube build up. When that happens the finished round yanks the sleeve out of the die bottom past the tiny little wire clip end holding it in place.

3. In the case of the 300 blackout seater it just barely screws into the press with a couple of threads engaged before the case shoulder smashes into the seater at the top on the stroke.

My 257 Wby dies are Hornady from 20+ years ago and they work great, but I've never shot cast in 257 and they don't have the zip spindle decapper. I will continue to use them but I have replaced my 300 blackout and 35 Whelen dies with Lee and I already like them better.

Sorry Hornady, I love your bullets but your dies just don't do it for me.

[Ben]

I'm no fan of Hornady dies either. Looks like that is 2 of us now.

Ben

[Cmm_3940]

I've never bought a Hornady die set, and probably never will after reading this. Too many other excellent die brands out there.

[Ben]

Lay out a set of Hornady dies and RCBS and watch what I grab.

Ben

[Guesser]

I've got old and new Hornady/Pacific die sets. I like the new style floating seat so well that I bought several and added them to my other brands of dies. I have never experienced any of the problems described here.

[GhostHawk]

Way way back in the dark ages, before I was married, RCBS was the stuff for dies.

Fast forward 18 years, need new dies to match new rifles, and its LEE all the way.

Low cost, yet they work great.

Only place I went back to RCBS was for hand priming tool. Theirs had much fewer complaints and gripes.
I've put about 100 primers through it now and it just works.

Everything else though is lee and will remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Tools that actually work for reasonable prices.

[bruce drake]

My 6.5 Creedmoor die set is made by Hornady. As soon as I can find a reasonably priced die set from another manufacturer, this set is history.

[Love Life]

I too am unimpressed with Hornady dies. I have seen several sets here have issues. A match made in hell is using Hornady 1Shot with Hornady dies. Hehehe.

I have found that Lee dies hang with most higher end dies, and more "load issues" are induced by the reloader than the equipment.

[Bonz]

I bought Hornady dies for every pistol caliber that I reload. After using just the 45acp dies, I decided to sell all of them.

[onomrbil]

I bought one Hornady die. You couldn't load a straight round with now matter how hard you tried. I called TS and sent new internals for the seater but the results were the same. The dealer wouldn't take it back and I ended up putting it in a yard sale. Lesson learned.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Hate that decapping rod!

[BruceB]

Maybe it's just that some of we "older gents" get set in our ways, but the way I see it is that RCBS has earned my respect (and hence my loyalty) ever since I bought my first set of their dies in 1966.

I have tried other makes; a few examples:

-A set of Hornady dies (no longer with me, replaced with RCBS);

- A set of Lee .45-70 dies, given to me in new condition, but since replaced with a set of RCBS in the same caliber;

-A set of Dillon .30-06 dies, bought because of the gentler entry-angle of the sizer for the progressive press.... the RCBS '06 dies are also still in use here. Similar reasoning brought me Dillon .357 and .44 Magnum dies, as well as those for .45 ACP. Again the original RCBS sets still work fine on my non-progressive presses.

-Redding .338 dies, still working perfectly... more expensive than the RCBS equivalent.

This past week, I had occasion to order some new bits for my re-located loading shop. I called RCBS..... the new items will join about forty-odd other green boxes on my shelves, plus at least eight bullet moulds from the same source.

Contrary to Ghosthawk's posting above, I find that the Lee dies do NOT work....or, at least not as well as I've come to expect from other sources (not Hornady!)

Different folks, different strokes...

[Love Life]

Did you say 1966? My word!!

[r1kk1]

I have several Hornady dies for wildcats and they work very well. I also have all the others but lean towards RCBS and CH4D for obsolete and wildcats. I don't have any Lee die sets. I do have a couple of Lyman's. I really like Redding seaters as well as Wilson.

Take care

r1kk1

[rockrat]

Gave up on Hornady dies when I bought a set for my 405win. After crumpling case mouths on the seater dies and throwing away new cases, I dumped the dies and bought a set of RCBS dies.

[MT Chambers]

Redding
Forster
Ch4d
RCBS
Lyman
There are no others

[BruceB]

Did you say 1966? My word!!

Yeah.... I only LOOK like a fit, fast-track thirty-year-old.

[Artful]

Yeah.... I only LOOK like a fit, fast-track thirty-year-old.

1973 it says on my first RCBS dies

[freebullet]

Call Hornady! They've sent me plenty of replacement parts on their dime. I've messed up lots of dies along the way. Hornady has always taken care of me.

When you set the zip spindle it should be set finger tight, but you must be able to loosen it with your fingers as well.

Sometimes when we are frustrated we get the hammer mentality, been there done that. Slow down you'll figure it out, or buy all new dies lol.

[triggerhappy243]

i only buy products with lifetime no questions warranties. I buy the best i can afford.... and if i have to wait to afford the best.... so be it.