What do you think of Hornady Dies

[Northboy]

I Just got a set of Hornady 223 dies and used them for the first time. I got to say I love them. Wondering what some of you with more experience with them have to say. I'm actually thinking of replaceing my rcbs dies with hornady, But my redding will have to stay ofcourse.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I have a set of Hornady dies in .225 Winchester and I hate the sizer / decapper die.
The feature I dislike so much is the decapping rod that invariably sticks in the case as I attempt to withdraw the case from the die. I have tried to tighten the collet but the rod refuses to stay put. I do think the dies are very well made.

[canyon-ghost]

Hornady New Dimension dies can sometimes be tight enough to swage a lead boolit. This comes into play with oversize boolits for worn firearms. Myself, I use RCBS because they have their calibration set a bit looser and are made for the reloader. RCBS- Rock Chucker Bullet Swage


And, no, don't replace RCBS with Hornadys. Even though I have a few sets of Hornady myself, I'll keep my RCBS and Reddings too.



Good Luck,
Ron

[tg32-20]

I just bought my first set of Hornady dies in 22TCM.
It was a whole different learning experience in getting them set up. Once they were set up they work great, but it took way more time than I expected.
You really need to read the instructions, I know that is not really a guy thing, to get them set up correctly.
I did not have a problem with the decaling/sizing die but when I went to expand the case it either had no flair or way too much. It needs to have a bit of a taper on it.

Tom

[Ickisrulz]

I like the sliding bullet sleeve on the seater die. When my RCBS die would not work with seating cast 338 bullets, I got the Hornady and it worked perfectly. I'm not sure how I feel about the Hornday expander dies though. It doesn't look like you can take them apart for cleaning the way you can with RCBS expanders or Lyman's M-dies.

[tg32-20]

Nise,
Yes the expander die, at least on the 22TCM it comes with one. I do not have the LEE but I have heard rumors that it does not seat deep enough for some applications.

Ickisrulz,
On mine the top of the die just screws out with the lock ring and the expander falls out the top.

Tom

[Ickisrulz]

Nise,
Yes the expander die, at least on the 22TCM it comes with one. I do not have the LEE but I have heard rumors that it does not seat deep enough for some applications.

Ickisrulz,
On mine the top of the die just screws out with the lock ring and the expander falls out the top.

Tom

If you look at the expander die, it looks like the plug is screwed or pressed in from the bottom. I haven't made a serious effort to take it apart yet.

http://www.hornady.com/store/Dies-and-Die-Accessories

[dudel]

Started with Hornady dies almost 30 years ago. Still some of my favorite dies. When the shortages occurred, and Hornady wasn't available, I got some Lee and RCBS. Also some specialty Lyman dies (M) and Lee (Collet for 22 Hornet). They all work well enough, but I still prefer the Hornadys. The Lee's tend to get surface rust; whereas none of the others do. The RCBS screw in decapper tends to break pins when it comes up on a Berdan case.

I like the Hornady floating seater, and it's quick release for cleaning without changing the seating adjustment. I like the way the new New Dimension dies have a lightly threaded decapping rod which slips when it needs to; but is still easy to adjust when you loosen the collet. An improvement over the smooth rod that they used to have (and Lee still uses). On top of that, Hornady customer service is first rate. When I lost the clip that holds the seater plug in (my fault), I continued with a clip from another Hornady die. When I called Hornady to order some clips, they sent me some quickly and at no charge. I've also had the chance to visit the factory on a trip to Nebraska. Really nice folks there.

[largom]

I have dies from all manufactures. The only ones better than Hornady are my Redding bushing dies. I use the Hornady seating die body and make my own sliding sleeve for each caliber. I make my own seating stem to fit my cast boolits. The sliding sleeve and seating stem are made to close tolerance to fit my fat boolits which provides for straight boolit seating.

Larry

[358wcf]

Have a few Hornady dies these days- I purchase them by choice when affordable- Love those sliding bullet (boolit?) seater sleeves- Don't really care for the clamped decapper rod, as they can slip at times- Overall, good quality by a quality company- Never had to try their customer service- been using RCBS as my staple die manufacturer since I got my first in Fairbank, AK back in 1973- hard to find fault with RCBS in the long run--- my two cents-
358wcf [smilie=1:[smilie=1:[smilie=1:

[DeanWinchester]

I despise them. The sizer sucks, the titanium nitride will wear through after 6 or 8 thousand and that floating nonsense in the seating die is absurd. When loading 9mm tumble lubed boolits it will regularly pull free and I'll have to clean it and and reassemble. It's garbage. I'll take Lee or RCBS any day.

[r1kk1]

I have a few sets but since I shoot a lot of proprietary bottleneck handgun wildcats, they work well. Not a problem.

Take care

r1kk1

[Guesser]

Never had a problem with Hornady in any cartridge I've loaded. So much good service that Hornady is always my first choice. The others fall into a distant second place with a race between all of them to have what I'm looking for if Hornady doesn't. I particularly like the seating dies, I have purchased them separately to add to all my other die sets in the other color boxes.

[jsheyn]

A fan here also.

[enfieldphile]

I have a very early (1989 or early 1990) 3-die New Dimension set of 45/70 it's been very good.

Later, perhaps 2000, I bought a set of .308 w/ the sliding Seater and added the micrometer adjustment head. A nice setup.

The Hornady 7/8-14 split nut w/ the 2 flats and Allen screw is the goods!

[Northboy]

Wow I didn't expect this big a response. The dies I want to replace most are my rcbs 30-06. the only RCBS dies I have any real trouble with. for some reason I keep breaking pins and bending the rod with very VERY little effort. The cases are not berdan primed and I set it up the same as the 270, 7x57, and 7mm-08.

enfieldphile is the microjust worth the money?? I just ordered one..

[enfieldphile]

I think so! There is no guesswork or readings to take with a caliper during seating of boolits. One only has to read the scale when making adjustments.


Wow I didn't expect this big a response. The dies I want to replace most are my rcbs 30-06. the only RCBS dies I have any real trouble with. for some reason I keep breaking pins and bending the rod with very VERY little effort. The cases are not berdan primed and I set it up the same as the 270, 7x57, and 7mm-08.

enfieldphile is the microjust worth the money?? I just ordered one..

[uscra112]

I dislike those sliding decapper rods so much that I've tack-welded more than one to stop that nonsense. Other than that I like Hornady dies. The sliding bullet/case guide in the seaters really does make for less runout in the loaded round. I can see why they are a pain for 9mm, but alignment in pistol rounds is irrelevant, so I use any old seater for pistols. My 9mm setup uses an old Lyman 310 die in a bushing so it fits my Orange Crusher.

BTW if the face of the locknut on the RCBS decapper rod isn't dead square to the thread axis, it will cock the rod and you will break pins. One advantage to the sliding type is that they stay aligned much better.

[kootne]

The only set I have is 9.3x57. Based on that set, Hornaday is the last brand I will ever consider. The slipping decapper shaft is a minor pain. It became a major pain when it bent. But that could still be straightened, I put it in a collet in my lathe and with a dial indicator and a 4 oz. ball peen got it true again. The biggest irritation is the neck is sized too much in my opinion. The die reduces it .022" under nominal bullet dia. the the expander brings it back to .002" under. So they know what it should be, why work the brass that much? what were they thinking? Does anybody have experience lapping out the neck of a reloading die? I'm concerned that if the dies are not through hardened I may go through the hard layer. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated,
Thanks,
kootne

[Beagle333]

I love my New Dimension dies and that is mostly because of the sleeve. :cool:

[EDG]

I like the Hornady lock rings. The rest of the dies I do not care for.
Out of about 50+ die sets I have no Hornady sets and will never buy any unless offered to me at a give away price. I do have a couple of the universal neck dies.

[bdecker9]

i have a neighbor that loads 223 for him and his brothers ar's, (hornady dies) they work fine, but they're cousin's ar will not accept the reloads they make. not sure of all the particular's. but he tried a few of mine from a lee set and they worked, not flawlessly but least they chambered and fired a few. i reckon it is a tight chamber to blame, but i sure was proud to have reloads that worked from setup. just curios if any one else has had heard of this hapnen'

[MtGun44]

Hornady are my preferred dies. Lock rings are a good design, but the floating
sleeve is the real reason I prefer them. Also, their sizer ring in the "carbide"
dies is so super polished that it will polish most brass as it is sized.

Finally, they produce extremely straight ammo. I recently compared some .308
brass sized in the Hornady die and in my Bonanza/Forster "benchrest" (read
about $30 more expensive for a set) dies. The Hornady dies produced very
straight necks and very straight ammo - much better than the Forster
benchrest dies. I have many sets and buy them by preference.

Really good stuff.

Bill

[Lance Boyle]

I only have 2 Hornady die sets out of about 40 sets on my shelf.

1 .303 British set with the zip spindle. I'm not a big fan of the zip spindle as mine tends to slip when it shouldn't. The expander needed a severe polishing as it was so rough it was collecting brass on its surface. I like the seater sleeve but I have to watch them for rust. Acid fingers here too. Oh the oversized die box are a pain for neat and orderly stacking with all the green boxes. Minor but an annoyance.

2. I have an older set of .30-30 in the clear red box, they're ok.


ETA the Hornady split die rings with the wrench flats are so much better than anything else I bought 2 bulk packs of them. I hate when my RCBS or Redding lock rings lose their setting. For the life of me I can't figure out why RCBS dropped their split ring design they used in the 80's and went to the infernal jam screw. I've stripped out more of those stupid little hex head screws than I care to admit (the brass ones). I picked up a used CoAx here and am disappointed that the Hornady lock rings will have to get replaced with the forsters which are nearly as nice but thicker as needed for the CoAx.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

Personally, Hornady dies are my favorite. Hell, I'd buy them just for the box.:D Actually, I have replaced the boxes on my RCBS and Lee dies with Hornady boxes. You can get them at Midway. They stack great. I also love the locking ring and the overall quality.

Someone mentioned the coating wearing off the sizer ring. I've never had that happen. I would be curious if Hornady will cover that under warranty? They supposedly have good customer service.

I have had the problem with 9mm being pulled back out of the case when the die got tumble lube built up in it. Once I figured out what was happening, it was no big deal. Just clean them once in a while and your fine.