I have been watching your videos and I have to say that you provide a lot of insight and great information. I am a new re-loader and am very grateful for this resource that you have created. I find myself referencing your channel just about every time I have a question. Keep up the great work.
Man, all I gotta say is, wow! I was watching another channel and it seemed informative but it wasn't nearly as in depth as your videos. your years of reloading really shine through your videos. I'm planning on reloading at some point using Hornady as well and I find your information to be just what I needed in order to get a good idea once I begin. I began to watch some of your videos already and it's much, much more involved than what others make it seem. I'll keep watching and re watching until it sips through. but thanks for posting all all these videos, they really are top notch. also, you seemed very involved with the postings that is even better still. Thanks again from a soon to be reloader.
+Erick Ordonez Thanks Erick! I appreciate the kind words! I do try to be as thorough as possible to give people a solid base of knowledge to get started. I've always felt that understanding how and why something works is much better than just memorizing the steps and doing things by rote. I'm already working on more videos so stay tuned! And BTW, welcome to the brotherhood of reloaders! All gun owners are created equal, but only the finest roll their own ammo.
Good video. I am using the Hornady Custom Dies and wasn't aware of the differences with the Match Grade Dies or the different components that you can add on. BTW the advice on disassembly and cleaning a new set of dies is spot-on. Despite the instructions with the dies printing this information in red type, I neglected to do this and stuck a case on my first go 'round. I had to send the die to Hornady to get the case out. They did this with only a $5 charge for handling, and I have since learned my lesson.
With .300 Savage ammo now so expensive 😫 OR impossible to find, and nearly 2 million such rifles still out there in the hands of Hunters, I ordered a set of the Hornady rifle dies for this cartridge. Seems it's very easy to re-form the .308 Winchester brass into .300 Savage brass. So, I intend to keep my families old classic rifles bringing home deer meat for years to come.
I recently bought a set of Hornady dies because of the bullet giveaway. When I opened the 9 mm set I noticed the sizing die had the de-capping pin screwed all the way out to where you could not even see it out of the die body and the locking nut is frozen. What a damn mess, I should’ve stuck to my RCBS! I bought a 5 die set that Lee makes of the same 9 mm and it is doing a satisfactory job. I have the Hornaday die soaking as we speak but of course everybody is so busy no one answers the damn phone.
I checked Horandy web and there are no match grade neck sizing die ( only full size) for 30/06 just so if someone is looking. They do show one for the .308 ( 308 die # 544357) maybe you can use it being 30/06 & .308 use the same bullet , I'm new to loading so I don't know . But, the .300 also has a .308 bullet size and Hornady shows a different # ( 300 die # 046047) for that neck sizing die than the .308 neck sizing die.
You can make really great ammo for accurate shooting with the Custom grade dies. I would say any hunting use that isn't the long range sniping inspired stuff, or similar varminting. If you want bench rest quality, you need to make them yourself when you are chambering the rifle, or move up to real competition dies, which these aren't, no mater how you tweak them. I use Neil Jones neck dies and either Wilson turret press dies, but generally Bonanza dies which get me where I need to be for extreme accuracy applications, but probably one is better with Wilson. I don't waste money on micro adjust, I use standard indicator based measurement system for measuring the dies. The Wilson dies have nothing more than a set screw and a stem, and have being winning tournaments for ever. You can save a lot of money with a small metal lathe, since you can modify and even build dies on them. But simple mods like cutting the bullet seater for you bullets are a piece of cake. Decapping in the sizing die is not a precision practice. This can be a reason for keeping your full length die around. Then you can size in your neck die. That may seem like it will take longer, but since you don't lube for neck sizing it is still a lot less work than FL resizing. I prefer a separate decapper though. There are lots of uses for FL dies in any case.
Good video, very informative. I just bought a set of Hornady custom reloading dies and the micrometer seating stem. Their instructions leave a lot to be desired and there are no instructions with the micrometer seating stem on how to get your dies set up with it installed in the seating die. I haven't been able to find anything on doing it after several searches on the web. There's nothing on Hornady's web site either that I can find. Could you please do an instruction video on getting the seating die and micrometer stem adjustment set up properly? Thanks for sharing all your informative information.
Just set up my custom seating die with the microjust meter stem. I noticed that the micrometer indicators are a little bit off. For example, if I am on 4 on the stem (non rotating part) and the part that rotates is on 0, the bottom of the rotating part is just above the 4 mark, instead of right on it. Is there a way to adjust the micrometer so that it is exactly lined up with the mark on the stem? I ordered mine from Midway, and it did not come with instructions, nor could I find any on the web.
+J Heimer Hi, sorry for the slow reply, I got several comments around the same time and I guess yours got pushed down to where I didn't see it initially. I just ran across it, sorry about that. I don't know of a way to adjust the rotating part downward. If it were too low, you could remove the screw at the top and add a shim or two to move it up. On mine, when the rotating part is at zero, it is right at the top of the line on the stem, which is what I would expect. Are you saying that yours actually has a gap between the line on the stem and the bottom of the rotating part? If so, I would call Hornady Tech Support and ask them about that.
I've just finished shooting my first batch of 30-06 reloads (Federal once fired-brass, Hornady 150 gr InterLock SP with IMR 4064 and 4350 and 180 gr Nosler Spitzers with IMR 4350, Federal 210 LR primers, COL of 3.210, Hornady Custom Dies). Compared to factory loads, my reloads are harder to chamber and also to lock the bolt down. In fact, out of 30 rounds I fired, I couldn't close the bolt at all on one of them. I am wondering if I need to crank down a little bit on the sizing die. Right now it is set up so that the shell holder just touches the die when the press (Hornady Lock-n-Load Single Stage) is at the top of the stroke. I suspect that the shoulder is not being compressed back toward its factory spec far enough, but I don't have the experience to tell if this is correct or not and what to do to make chambering easier. Any advice you could provide would be welcome. I looked for a video by you on setting up the sizing die, but this was the closest I could come. If you have another one, please provide a link. I did get a better explanation of what is going on inside the die in another video, but was hoping that you had one.
J Heimer Hi, I suspect it could be the seating/crimping die that's causing the problem. The seating die will put a roll crimp on the case. If it's not adjusted perfectly, you could be buckling the case shoulder slightly. Look very closely at your cases on the cartridges that are hard to chamber. See if they are buckled ever so slightly right where the body and shoulder come together. I go over this in the video I'm working on right now, "Developing a Match Grade Load - Phase 2 - Part 3 - Putting the components together."
HornadyLoader Great suggestion. I did not plan to crimp my 30-06's, so I did not set up the seating die to crimp. But then again, I never checked it at all to make sure it wasn't crimping. I will investigate. Am starting on your Match Grade series now.
Like your video. Im new to the rifle reloading and I want to reload 223 ammunition. I have a set of Hornady custom dies. Does the seating die crimp, too, like the pistol dies? Does it set the same way? I noticed everyone else in these videos use a factory crimping die from Lee. If I use the Hornady die, it crushes my case.
Lance Skelton Hi Lance, Yes, the Hornady rifle die will provide a crimp and it is adjusted in the same manner as the pistol dies. The fact that it's crushing your cases could be caused by a number of things; incorrect neck sizing for the bullet being used, incorrect crimp adjustment, etc. Do you use a bullet feeder? or do you insert the bullet by hand? Sometimes the bullet feeders can incorrectly insert the bullet in the case, causing the bullet to actually sit on top of the neck, which will cause the case to be crushed when attempting to seat it.
Bullet feeder ?No. I insert the bullet by hand. It seats the bullet fine. I get the bullet seated to the right length and then adjust the crimp. When I set up the die, I stop the crimp right before it touches the brass and then I Seat the bullet. Then I go back and do the crimp but when I turn the crimp 1/4 or more of a turn, it crushes my case. I think i am over-crimping it and maybe I should only use 1/8 of a turn on the crimping die. The 1/8 of a turn works great but thats not a whole lot of movement of the die I wasn't sure if it was crimping or doing nothing.
Lance Skelton That's probably it, but I'm surprised that a quarter turn is crushing cases. I would call Hornady Tech Support and see what they have to say.
+samer tabbara Hi Samer, If I am using a roll crimp, then yes, I use the custom grade die for both. If I'm using a taper crimp, I have separate dies for that so I'll use the custom grade dies for seating only. Check out my video titled, "Crimping Pistol and Rifle Cartridges" for more info on that if you like. Thanks for watching!
seems like the custom grade dies, start changing the head space demension when to much roll crimp is used.im using the rcbs precision mic. 223 rem instrument.
+invictaization .gary Yup, even worse, too much roll crimp tends to cause some buckling of the case near where the body and shoulder meet. If it's severe enough, the cartridge won't chamber. I keep a close eye on that as I load. In fact, I have a video in the queue that I'm calling, "Troubleshooting Case Buckling" that will include the roll crimp as one of the culprits. Thanks for watching!
Hornady Dies are Terrible Even though I lubed my case ood got a stuck Win 270 Case in it that Destroyed the die , Had to scrap the die & buy another bur not a Hornady etc.
