What's your opinion on Hornady dies versus RCBS and Redding?

Bob257

I love my hornady dies. They make ammo 95% as perfect as my expensive forester dies. Someone will chime in here and say that the expander stem system will slip. I suppose it can if you don't tighten down the nut well enough. BUT, I've necked up .243 brass to 7mm then to .308 with my hornady's without problem.
YOU WILL LOVE THE ELIPTICAL EXPANDER BALL--it goes through the case neck like butter with very little lube. I roll my brush accross my rcbs pad and can do 10 cases with the hornady expander.
The last batch of .308's I did with factory non neck turned brass I had 80% of the loaded ammo at .001" runnout and less.
THEY ARE THE BEST OF THE NON PREMIUM DIES--I have about 5 sets of Hornady--about 5 sets of forester--about 5 sets of RCBS so, I have a little experience for comparison.

HEY--DID I MENTION I LIKE THEM??

The seating die in the Hornady New Dimension dies is designed wrong. It tries to be a unversal die for all cartridges of that bullet diameter. There is no support of the case body to align it as the die closes just the neck and that is a very sloppy fit.

Not only that but the seating stem is floating and this is wrong design wise.

I have dies by Foster, Lyman, RCBS, C&H, Redding, Ideal, Weatherby, Lee and others that I made myself. All told there must be over a hundred of them. I had the Hornady dies and sent them back.

This is not the place to try to save money.

"The most expensive thing in the world is something that fails to do the job required of it." Ruskin

I agree with Kraky's statement, "THEY ARE THE BEST OF THE NON PREMIUM DIES." and the price is right on them. The only thing is I DON'T love them, and I DON'T take them to bed with me every night!

Of those you mentioned definitely the Redding is the best & most expensive but worth it. Forster is more expensive again but have not used them.

I thought that the elliptical expander should be smooth as butter but have not forund that to be the case in practice. Maybe its the hardness of the metal but I have found RCBS & Redding dies easier to size with. Have not tried to resize to other calibers only within the one caliber.

I also don't like the design of the expander stem. You really have to clamp it tight & remove all factory rust preventative. The pro side is if the case gets stuck you can get it out by loosening the screw provide you haven't ripped off the rim.

I have Hornady New Dimension dies in 22-250, 270, .338 Win & .375 H&H. From now on I will buy only Redding.

If you want cheap price the Lee RGB series are unbelievably good value for the price.

Thanks for the input. I tend to like Redding the best myself. I have around 6 sets of Redding and around 10 sets of RCBS. Just wondered about the Hornady.

Bob257