Thoughts on Hornday Custom Grade Dies

[Alex]

Just curious how many people use the Hornady Dies coated with Titanium Nitride. I just bought four of them on ebay brand new for $24.00 per die, 9mm, 45 acp, 38 Special, and a 45/70 which I don't think is the Titanium but rather a steel die. Seemed like a pretty good price and I'm sick of loading with steel dies and having to lube the pistol cases.

 

[WalkerTexasRanger]

I have had good luck with the Hornady dies. I have these and Redding dies in .223 and the micrometer Redding and compressed loads do NOT get along. Using any compressed load, I stick with the Hornady...

 

[Alan Smithiee]

I have the .380, and have had problems with the little steel ring that is supposed to hold the seater in on the seating die. pain in the butt when your rolling along and it drops out...

 

[444]

I own a number of sets of Hornady dies. Both pistol and rifle. I also own Lee, RCBS, Redding, and Lyman dies. I like the Redding and Hornady dies the best. They are certainly the most impressive when you open the box. You can see the quality of them immediately. I opened a new box of Hornady dies in front of one of my friends who previously had only owned RCBS dies. He immediately said he was going to have to buy some Hornady dies. As far as practical use goes, one of the reasons I like them so much is because they are so easy to adjust.

 

[Chuck Perry]

I use them almost exclusively in my Dillon 650. Never had a problem.

 

[JollyWhiteGiant]

I had troubles with the expander on both .30 and .22 caliber dies, don't beleive the no lube needed line they give you about their dies. I have also found that cases stick much more easily in Hornady dies than in RCBS dies. With Hornady dies I had to lube all cases with quite a bit of lube, with my RCBS dies I only have to lube every 3rd one or just very light lube on all of them.

My Hornady .45 ACP dies I kept getting severly overcrimped rounds, switched to a lee factory crimp and haven't had a single one since. Never had troubles with lee dies overcrimping with the regular 10mm set I have.

The floating bullet guide they have is a good idea, but ti doesn't work all that great with my .45 dies. I still get bullets going in slightly off, and it jams and woun't go up every once in a while (happens with my rifle dies too).

For pistol dies you are better off with Lee dies IMO.

 

[tex_n_cal]

I like their dies fine for bottleneck cases. I don't think the seater dies are quite as precise as the Redding or Forster Competition seaters, but they cost a lot less.

The Hornady dies for straight walled cases, though, come with a expander plug that is pressed into the body. This design makes it hard to clean and impossible to turn down to correct diameters. I like to have the expander plugs at least .005" or so smaller than the bullet diameter, and the Hornadys, like most others, are too big from the factory.