I have one Hornady die set and it's for the 6.5 Needsmore. I have only used the bullet seater die from the set I have been using new brass straight out of the box. Today I started sizing some of the brass from hand loads I have been trying starting with some Alpha Brass. Good stuff, a little more costly but you can get lots of reloads out of it especially if you load conservatively. Right from the get go I knew something was wrong I sized a few and stopped. I didn't want to mess up my setting so I tried a little more lube I use Imperial never had a stuck case but more lube didn't help so I took the die out and removed the decapper assembly. The inside looked like it was threaded instead of a polished surface. It sized the brass but took way too much force to run it in the die and I have a Redding Big Boss press lots of leverage. I called Hornady of course it's lifetime warranty but that's it for the sizing for now. Sending the entire set back for a replacement I would rather had a Redding I do like the bullet seater Hornady makes. Inside of the die seen with a borescope. 
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You can even see where it is depositing brass in the die in the second picture that is where the base is resized. -
Redding is definitely a step or two ahead of Hornady on their die quality.Comment
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I have a bunch of Redding body dies and a bushing neck sizing die for .223. I would rather use Redding body dies for everything and neck size with a collet die I have had better straighter rounds doing that.Comment
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I have always used RCBS. I have no idea how the different brands compare quality wise.
Late PS: Few minutes of research shows Redding Dies probably best? But no matter the brand of die, the Hornady lock rings apparently are best.Last edited by WhiteBassFisher; 04-05-2024, 12:33 AM.Comment
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I was tempted to take the lock rings off of those dies before I dropped them at FedEx. They are the best I liked the seater die it keeps the bullet straight going into the case the plain RCBS don't have that feature you have to try and hold them kind of centered. Little bullets like 40 grain .223 can get crooked Hornady die has a guide that keeps it centered. The inside of the sizing die was terrible looked like it was threaded scratched the brass all up too lucky I didn't stick one in it. The rest of my rifle dies are RCBS I have a couple of Lee's and all my pistol dies are Lee. I had one RCBS die a 7mm Magnum that was bad. It was a loaner from a friend of mine. He used to load 7Mag for one of his hunting partners but was bed ridden and couldn't load so he talked me into loading about 200 pieces for him. I weighed the charges on my scale after confirming it on his to make sure we were both weighing alike used his sizing die and seater. I polished all of the used cases then sized 100 and proceeded to load a few after trimming. Guess I had about half loaded and for the heck of it put one of the bullet points against the bench and gave it a push. The bullet went straight into the case really easy. Tried another one, same thing. Got a shop towel and grabbed another bullet and pulled it straight out dumped powder everywhere. He had loaded a bunch with this set of dies so I went and showed him he said they never had any problems. I drove to Victoria and bought a new set of dies that cured it. I sent the bad set to RCBS and they sent me a new set some how I ended up with a new set and I don't own a 7 Mag. I think Tony, the guy I loaded for paid me for the new dies and told me to keep them for all the trouble. That was one of the three times I ever loaded for someone.Comment
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Yes, I always have held the bullet in place with my left thumb and forefinger until the brass mouth entered the seater die. I used to really enjoy target shooting for groups, but never was to the level you are. It is a fun hobby. I would really like to have my own place of enough acres not far away that I could have just 1 or 2 benches. -
That's all I do, just try to make the best ammunition I can. I would rather take an inexpensive rifle and try to put better ammunition in it than spend thousands on a custom built one that better shoot tiny groups. I know it's a futile effort but it keeps me out of beer joints. It's not that I don't like precision rifles it's just what I do I paid a lot for my RimX 22 but I get a bigger kick out of shooting the old Army Matchmaster I refurbished. I have had many 98 Mauser rifles I had new barrels put in that I restocked and modified for hunting. Every one I handloaded and made sure they shot an inch or less at 100 yards then I usually sold them to close friends some I made from old Mauser rifles they supplied. I hope I can get a really good load up for the cheap .243 I am messing with I have ten new loads to try in better brass the cows have my shooting range occupied. Maybe they will move them to the other pasture when the oats die.
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Not bad, about a week turnaround. Inside of this one looks good.Comment
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I used the new die a little. It sure seemed hard to resize and I made sure I use lots of Imperial lube. Anyway, I like the Hornady dies but I got to get one of these for bullet seating. They fit all Hornady dies so if that's what you use exclusively it might be worth the expense I have a couple of other micrometer type seater dies but they are caliber specific. Hornady did make a cheaper version of these they were listed on Amazon.
Hornady Click Adjust Micrometer Seating Stem (midwayusa.com)Comment
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