Hornady Powder Thru Expander

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Brazos

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I have a Hornady LNL progressive press I bought about 4 years ago. At the time the only problem I had with the Hornady system was there was not enough stations to use a powder cop die and a taper crimp die because Hornady did not have a powder thru expander combing the two operations freeing up a station for a powder cop or lock out type die. I even e-mailed Hornady at the time to tell them this was an unsafe condition and Steve Hornady e-mailed me back and said he would have his staff rectify this problem and to expect to see something soon. I have not reloaded too much since but see they have them now and ordered some. How many of you guys have powder thru expanders and how are they working for you? Any tricks to get it to work right or is it pretty straight foward?

Thanks,

Brazos
 
They are simple to set up, and makes the powder drop work better than before. Especially with some powders that do not meter as easily.
 
First time loader and setup my press for .45. Withing 20 passes of brass I had the perfect bell from the PTE.

There used to be a problem with the 9mm size, but I hear that has been corrected. My .355 PTE just arrived the other day and I haven't tried it out yet.

Justin
 
I just bought a .451 one for my LNL AP ... works fine.

Not sure about this "new" revision, anyone got any info?
 
I do not know. I don't have the old version. They did not produce them for 5 mths (I had one on order the whole time) while doing R&D. I've read they were not belling cases for some people.
I have not used it yet, but I have polished the case contact area.
 
I haven't had any problems with the powder through expanders. They sure don't look like they bell much but I've had no problems seating bullets.
 
I had some difficulty getting with getting enough case belling with 45ACP. If I adjusted for case bell the powder measure would not return to the bottom of its stroke. Not good. While I was talking to Hornday about this, they noted that I was using the old powder measure lower (the one with the angled spring). The PTE doesn't work with the older lower end. I purchased a new lower end and the PTE works just great.

JD
 
FYI they just finished redesigning the 451/452 PTE. I have one of the 1st ones.
When did they do this? I have had mine for about a year now and it bells alright for jacket bullets but I don't think it bells enough for lead.
 
Hey Jenrob... a trick I figured out for getting that little "extra" bell for some lead bullets... unscrew the long solid drop tube on your powder measure about a 1/4 to a 1/2 turn... I get a little extra bell for those .001" larger lead rounds that way. No need to do this for jacketed bullets.
 
I can adjust my PTE on .40 S&W and .45 auto so it will bell WAY to far. It is a matter of adjusting the top assembly so there is no up/down play in the PTE and the metering arm contacts the top of the slot it rides in far enough before the end of the stroke. Also the verticle arm that slides into the screw on the bottom must sit parallel to the whole assembly and not push up/down on anything as it slides in to be tightened.

I adjust the adjust amount of belling by screwing the die down or up a bit.
 
You definitely could adjust the bell as SDefender states by adjusting the die... I hate adjusting the die after I've got it locked down in the bushing, though, and I also have found when adjusting mine to have enough bell to seat some LRN bullets by trying to use the powder die to adjust it, the die bottoms out hard (camming over) on the shellplate before I get enough bell (this is with a LnL AP, Hornady New Dimension .45ACP dies and #1 shellplate, and new PTE) ... so I figure out that unscrewing the powder drop tube just a bit has the same effect, and I don't have to mess around with the powder die (I bought separate ones for each caliber to eliminate wasted time with adjustment for caliber changes, at a little over 11.00 apiece I figured why not).
 
Actually I have a separate powder assembly for each caliber I load- .40 S&W and .45 auto. I find it MUCH easier to just change the whole thing out for a caliber change. And I found a sweat spot that fits both the jacketed and plated bullets well.

It is also very easy to just screw the powder assembly up or down 1/4 turn to compensate for bullet differences, once it is adjusted to begin with that is. I found the Hornady instructions to be lacking so I just figured out my own way of setting the thing up.

This takes a little more money but the time and aggravation savings for me is well worth it.

I am planning on loading .327 magnums in the future so will need another assembly for that too. I do not have one yet, but as soon as the brass is available one will be coming home with me.
 
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