GW Staar
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- Feb 26, 2009
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Hornady Bullet Feeder Review Part 2
It's been a couple of weeks...the feeder is installed on the bench, tested, and I made a couple of videos to let you guys to see it in action.
On my tool head, I started with #1 Lee sizer, #2 Lee expander, #4 Hornady Feeder, #5 Lee seater. Of course on the Pro 2000 #3 station is stationary and it has the Uniflow P.M. with RCBS case activated linkage.
The Lee expander did not do the job...not enough flare possible...ruined brass trying...so I replaced it with an RCBS expander.
Below is a picture of the setup. While this appears to be really crowded and cluttered it isn't....just efficient. At the left is my case trimmer, at the right is the right side of my case prep area...and 3' away my Rock Chucker. Past the R.C. is 4 more feet of clear (once in a while) workspace.
Below is the final position of the two bullet sweeps. On the first one the spring is tightened at an angle away from the "incoming" and toward the outside rim. You will have 1 or two bullets in a batch of 100 go in the wrong way if you don't do it that way. Notice the wing nut is beyond, into the spring. The wire mods caused the problem, but once the glitch was handled with this adjustment, the mods do the intended job...which is to empty the hopper, because the stock collator won't.
After sanding and waxing the hopper wheel's recessed grooves, the bullets still were not sliding down to the bottom of the grooves fast enough at times to keep from getting hit by a sweeper. I improved that sliding action by burnishing fine-grade black graphite powder into each groove with a cotton swab.....that worked really well...but will have to be repeated every once in a while.
About the video below....the tube and feeder die holds 42 .45ACP 230gr. FMJ bullets. For the video I dropped 40 bullets in for the demo to pretty much fill the tube. It collates very fast at first...30 in 30 seconds...obviously dumping a bunch more bullets in the hopper will keep that speed up. But what if you only want to load only a few...or you are down to your last box? The wire mods will see to it that you can load to the last one...in this case 40 rounds in 1 minute, 18 seconds. Before the mod....you'll have to wait til the cows come home...if then. See the video by clicking on the picture below.
The next video will let you see how Hornady's bullet feeder die works.
I mentioned above that I had to purge the Lee Expander. I have an old RCBS expander (the one with the primer punch in it!). Since the Pro 2000 wants depriming done on the sizer, the punch was removed. Taking the die apart reveals an expander almost nearly the same shape and size as Hornady's Powder-thru expander for their case activated powder measure...of course minus the powder-thru feature. So I used it in place of the Lee. Hornady is right...rim flare has to be .030" over bullet diameter, or the bullets won't stay put where they are dropped, when they are indexed.
You will notice in the video that most bullets stayed up...not all...and I think the last one probably seated crooked (haven't checked). Let's face it Mr. Bullet Feeder's feeder die is superior...and maybe even RCBS's (except for their stupid breaking plastic fingers...because both M.B.F. and RCBS use the bullet stack weight to push the bullet into the case more. The Hornady design only allows the 1" fall of one solitary bullet to do the same thing....that might be good enough for the half stroke indexing of the Hornady Progressive, but it isn't as effective on the jerkier Dillon & RCBS progressives and mine has RCBS's light spring upgrade.
In the video I fumbled one case...my fault...thought there was something wrong with it...no just tired fumbling fingers. (Poured and finished concrete that day) Click the picture below to see the Press/Feeder in action.
Before you turn your nose up about the falling bullets allowed by Hornady's feeder die...do realize that I was NOT using their PTX Expander, that came packaged with the feeder die, so it's possible that it...used on a Hornady case-actuated Powder measure, may work better...I hope.
I did buy the parts to convert my Uniflow to use Hornady's powder-thu die and their case-activated linkage. It was tailor-made for the Uniflow...in spite of what Hornady will tell you. Anyway, moving the Uniflow/Hornady converted lower, off the stationary #3, mounting it to #2 on the tool head is the next thing to try. In other words, we will give Hornady a chance to make stand-up (pun intended) bullets on each and every case. Using the powder-thru/PTX system will also give me another station....for a crimp die or lock-out if I need one. Anyway, that will be coming in Part 3.
As you observed, it wasn't a big deal to right the bullet...you just don't want to have to worry about missing one...like the last one...for example.
Oh, BTW, notice the mirror on the side of my press in the video? The next picture shows you what I see from my loading position....you see, something had to be done, since there was no room for a powder check die, or Lock-out die.
You gotta have two things: Light and mirrors. I bought a package of itty-bitty mirrors at a craft store, and some "Plastic Tac" and positioned the little square one in the back upper inside corner...positioned to reflect the top of the case to the big mirror which was positioned to show every thing to me at my reloading position. I epoxied the bigger mirror to a "Third Arm" found in Hobby stores. The upper tac'd mirror has stayed for two weeks and doesn't seem to be loosening at all....I was planning to epoxy it...but don't need to...besides, it's adjustable this way.
The picture above is only using light from the lamp shown in the first picture in this post. For bottle neck cases you need additional pinpoint light...I bought an LED light at Hastings that works great....but you can buy a "Third Arm" model that has a similar light built-in.
The "Third Arm" can be mounted most anywhere you can drill a hole and drive in a cut off hex wrench....The whole thing pivots out of the way when not being used.
It's been a couple of weeks...the feeder is installed on the bench, tested, and I made a couple of videos to let you guys to see it in action.
On my tool head, I started with #1 Lee sizer, #2 Lee expander, #4 Hornady Feeder, #5 Lee seater. Of course on the Pro 2000 #3 station is stationary and it has the Uniflow P.M. with RCBS case activated linkage.
The Lee expander did not do the job...not enough flare possible...ruined brass trying...so I replaced it with an RCBS expander.
Below is a picture of the setup. While this appears to be really crowded and cluttered it isn't....just efficient. At the left is my case trimmer, at the right is the right side of my case prep area...and 3' away my Rock Chucker. Past the R.C. is 4 more feet of clear (once in a while) workspace.
Below is the final position of the two bullet sweeps. On the first one the spring is tightened at an angle away from the "incoming" and toward the outside rim. You will have 1 or two bullets in a batch of 100 go in the wrong way if you don't do it that way. Notice the wing nut is beyond, into the spring. The wire mods caused the problem, but once the glitch was handled with this adjustment, the mods do the intended job...which is to empty the hopper, because the stock collator won't.
After sanding and waxing the hopper wheel's recessed grooves, the bullets still were not sliding down to the bottom of the grooves fast enough at times to keep from getting hit by a sweeper. I improved that sliding action by burnishing fine-grade black graphite powder into each groove with a cotton swab.....that worked really well...but will have to be repeated every once in a while.
About the video below....the tube and feeder die holds 42 .45ACP 230gr. FMJ bullets. For the video I dropped 40 bullets in for the demo to pretty much fill the tube. It collates very fast at first...30 in 30 seconds...obviously dumping a bunch more bullets in the hopper will keep that speed up. But what if you only want to load only a few...or you are down to your last box? The wire mods will see to it that you can load to the last one...in this case 40 rounds in 1 minute, 18 seconds. Before the mod....you'll have to wait til the cows come home...if then. See the video by clicking on the picture below.
The next video will let you see how Hornady's bullet feeder die works.
I mentioned above that I had to purge the Lee Expander. I have an old RCBS expander (the one with the primer punch in it!). Since the Pro 2000 wants depriming done on the sizer, the punch was removed. Taking the die apart reveals an expander almost nearly the same shape and size as Hornady's Powder-thru expander for their case activated powder measure...of course minus the powder-thru feature. So I used it in place of the Lee. Hornady is right...rim flare has to be .030" over bullet diameter, or the bullets won't stay put where they are dropped, when they are indexed.
You will notice in the video that most bullets stayed up...not all...and I think the last one probably seated crooked (haven't checked). Let's face it Mr. Bullet Feeder's feeder die is superior...and maybe even RCBS's (except for their stupid breaking plastic fingers...because both M.B.F. and RCBS use the bullet stack weight to push the bullet into the case more. The Hornady design only allows the 1" fall of one solitary bullet to do the same thing....that might be good enough for the half stroke indexing of the Hornady Progressive, but it isn't as effective on the jerkier Dillon & RCBS progressives and mine has RCBS's light spring upgrade.
In the video I fumbled one case...my fault...thought there was something wrong with it...no just tired fumbling fingers. (Poured and finished concrete that day) Click the picture below to see the Press/Feeder in action.
Before you turn your nose up about the falling bullets allowed by Hornady's feeder die...do realize that I was NOT using their PTX Expander, that came packaged with the feeder die, so it's possible that it...used on a Hornady case-actuated Powder measure, may work better...I hope.
I did buy the parts to convert my Uniflow to use Hornady's powder-thu die and their case-activated linkage. It was tailor-made for the Uniflow...in spite of what Hornady will tell you. Anyway, moving the Uniflow/Hornady converted lower, off the stationary #3, mounting it to #2 on the tool head is the next thing to try. In other words, we will give Hornady a chance to make stand-up (pun intended) bullets on each and every case. Using the powder-thru/PTX system will also give me another station....for a crimp die or lock-out if I need one. Anyway, that will be coming in Part 3.
As you observed, it wasn't a big deal to right the bullet...you just don't want to have to worry about missing one...like the last one...for example.
Oh, BTW, notice the mirror on the side of my press in the video? The next picture shows you what I see from my loading position....you see, something had to be done, since there was no room for a powder check die, or Lock-out die.
You gotta have two things: Light and mirrors. I bought a package of itty-bitty mirrors at a craft store, and some "Plastic Tac" and positioned the little square one in the back upper inside corner...positioned to reflect the top of the case to the big mirror which was positioned to show every thing to me at my reloading position. I epoxied the bigger mirror to a "Third Arm" found in Hobby stores. The upper tac'd mirror has stayed for two weeks and doesn't seem to be loosening at all....I was planning to epoxy it...but don't need to...besides, it's adjustable this way.
The picture above is only using light from the lamp shown in the first picture in this post. For bottle neck cases you need additional pinpoint light...I bought an LED light at Hastings that works great....but you can buy a "Third Arm" model that has a similar light built-in.
The "Third Arm" can be mounted most anywhere you can drill a hole and drive in a cut off hex wrench....The whole thing pivots out of the way when not being used.
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