So I've been thinking about a small caliber project and started to look at components and found 17 hornet dies on Midway USA, $142.99!!!!! Wow, I couldn't believe it, and thats just for standard dies, no micrometer seater or ultra benchrest desingnation. Why so much? I understand that this is a rare caliber and that it's really tiny, but common now. Seems kind of rediculous to me.

I was going to try to find a used hornet rifle and rebarrel it in this caliber because 17 cal bullets are cheap now (less lead), and it uses such a tiny amount of powder, also brass is significantly cheaper than the .221 fireball or 17 remington fireball, but with the dies being 4-5 times higher than other calibers... I dunno

One of the ways around this is to buy a bushing Hornet die and then use the .17's bushings (if available.) As to the seater...

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Why so much?

Overhead. Short production runs have the same set-up time as longer ones. Could be lost sales on more popular numbers if capacity is short. And then there's low inventory turnover.

Check with Graf. Last year they had Redding in stock for under $120.
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