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Anyone else like these dies? I have about every brand die ever made and I really like the Hornady dies. In particular, I really like the 'slide down' feature of the seating dies. These are really helpful when seating .17 and .20 caliber bullets.
Just picked up a few more seating dies from Midway. They have them on sale.
Just my $ .02 worth....
ron
I just bought my first set for 44 mag--the alignment sleeve you are referring to also aids in the application of a crimp at the same time as the seating. I got the titanium nitride set for a few extra bucks (don't see them for conventional shouldered rifle cases though)--well worth it for the lube free process. Best dies I've used yet short of comp dies. My less than 2 cents.
They are truly an awesome buy. So many people are stuck on the old rcbs and lee they won't even try them but I think they provide better concentricity and repeatability than many standard grade dies. Unless you want to drop $200 on a die set the hornandys are the best thing going for rifle. Pistol I stick to lee.
I have been using one of their seating dies from a 243 WSSM die set for my 6-WSM, and I love it. Still like my Lee Collet Dies and some of my Redding stuff, but really thinking about picking up some of these Hornady Seaters to replace most of my current seaters.
I see too that Midway has the Micrometer insert to upgrade any of the Hornady Seating dies for about $25. Nice upgrade option, may have to pick one up and try it out.
boots, its up to you but I just use a depth mic to measure from the top of the thimble to the top of the die. saves money from buying a mic insert for all of your dies. only will work if the thimble is nice and flat on top like the hornandy's are.
I have a hornady 270 wsm set and the seater stem would put a dent/ring around the bullet where it was contacting the bullet during seating. I put the seater stem in my drill and lightly sanded and polished the seater plug and the problem still remained. I called customer service and they told me to do the same thing I already did. A little better, but still have the ring/dent.
I see they also sell an "amax" seater stem for some calibers for $12. I'm not sure why they wouldn't make a seater stem that works on all bullets. I have used my "cheap" Lee seater dies and have never had a problem with the bullets being dented and COAL consistency and runout are the same or better than the Hornady dies.
Just my experience. Maybe I got a dud seater die.
cqh1111, I found the opposite when seating the A-Max. When I would load the 105 A-Max in my 243AI using a Lee dead Length Seating Die I would notice a light ring-like mark where the Lee's stem would push on the bullet, but 243 Lee Dead Length Seater I shortened to use with my 6BR (I know I should just get an actual 6BR seater, but I was poor on funds back then and this works great) doesn't leave the mark on the 105's. The Hornady Seater I use for my 6-WSM leaves no such mark with 105's either, and mine has the standard stem in it rather than the A-Max stem.
One of those things where you just have to say "Who the heck knows?" and shrug your shoulders I guess.
Funny how different people have different perspectives. I started out reloading with only Hornady new dimension dies in all my calibers 7 or 8 years ago. Then tried other brands, and settled on Forster and Redding for seaters and full length and neck bushing bump type sizers, and Lee collet dies. My Hornady dies now collect dust. But this post has me curious. Now that I'm a little more experienced than I was then, and I have better measurement tools for headspace and concentricity, I may have to revisit these dies and give them another try. They do have the appearance of higher quality than the Lee dies for sure.
My creedmoor die set came with two stems. One is designed for the longer high BC bullets such as the Vlds I shoot. I don't get a ring.
I have a set in 300 WSM that I use to reload for my son's rifle and I don't care for them. I can't seem to get the same precision I get with RCBS and Lee dies.
I find the HND seater dies to be the best standard price seater dies out there.
I do not however like the HND FL sizing dies as I feel they size the brass excessively.
LCD, RBD, and HNDS are my go to combo.