Anyone here having trouble with Hornady's Hand Priming Tool?

[amlevin]

I recently bought a Hornady Hand Priming Tool. Liked the idea of a single tray for both large and small primers as I always misplace the one I'm not using. I just tape the punch that's not in use to the bottom of the tray so it doesn't "wander off and hide on me too".

The tool itself is great. Easy to use and with the "shutoff" feature on the tray cover I don't have any primers spilling out when I put it away with a few primers left in it.

Unfortunately---------

When I started using it, I started having more FTF's than I ever had in 40 years of loading, using some of the most questionable primers one could imagine.

Hornady for some reason they won't reveal has put a rather large radius on the edge of the seating face of the punch. This focuses all the seating force to the center of the primer face and if a primer is a little "stiff" going into the primer pocket it "dishes" the primer face. EVERY SINGLE MISFIRE that I've experienced whille using this tool has the distinctive edge marking of the dished primer face.

Can anyone explain to me the value of the radius they insist on applying?

Here's a couple pictures of both the "punch" and a couple of cases I primed using both a BR-2 primer and a Wolf Primer.

Just wondering if anyone could clue me in because Hornady has been no help.
I've been looking carefully at how the punch is adjusted and will just be using this tool as a Hobby Project, making an adjustable depth priming tool with a "Flat Topped Punch".

Yeah, I know, I should have just bought a Century 21, right?

 

[Kingfisher]

I've got the older style Hornady tool and the edges are pretty square. They're certainly not as round as the one you've got. I've never had any problems. How much force are you having to apply when seating the primers? I only ask because I would think that they should seat into the pocket before they start to deform. This leads me to another observation. You're shooting military brass with a crimp. Have you run a swager into all the pockets to remove the crimp? If you're having to smash the primers into a pocket that is still crimped, you could be applying enough force to them to deform them in the process. My point being, if Hornady made the tool with beveled edges, and there's a bajillion of them out there, then they didn't expect you to have this problem. Since you're having this problem, I'm just trying to make sure that it's not induced by something else in your particular process/setup.

If this is all something you know, then I apologize for patronizing you... just want to make sure.

 

[jonbearman]

If there is enough stroke,I would turn it so the radius is gone and just break the burr on the edge.

 

[Kingfisher]

That's the problem, the tool is pretty much pre-set for depth. It bottoms out at the top of the stroke. If you shortened it, you wouldn't be able to fully seat. On my older tool there's a little washer/bushing pressed on to the stem, and in theory if you had to, you could move it. Looks like on the new ones it's actually machined into the stem?

 

[amlevin]

Kingfisher-

Yes, the brass in the pictures was military. I used them to illustrate the problem when I sent the pic's to Hornady. The primer pockets were swaged with a Dillon Super Swage and actually went into the pockets pretty easy. I purposly squashed one of each to illustrate how the punch damages the primer when running into a tight pocket as I experienced with a bunch of Lapua as well as Winchester .308 brass.

jonbearman and Kingfisher--

The ram is adjustable. Hornady just tells everyone it isn't. Inside the piece the ram sits in there is a set screw. Hornady sets this screw at the factory and then puts a drop or three of blue loctite in the socket. When you look in the hole all one sees is the cured loctite so it doesn't look adjustable.

A couple of drops of acetone or laquer thinner (I used the latter) and the loctite can be picked out of the socket of the set screw and adjusted as needed.

Since I posted, I just chucked the punch in a cordless drill, went to the grinder and removed the domed top of the punch. I then just broke the sharp edge, polished off the face with a diamond lap I have on the bench. Took a couple of trial and error adjustments but I now have a tool that even with Wolf Primers that tend to be a little tight when seating, I have absolutely no "dishing" of the primer as I had before.

As for Hornady's having a lot of tools out there and thinking they would know about the issue, I'm not so sure.

Earlier, when I bought this tool, I ordered a #1 shell holder to fit the .308/30/06 cases I load. Had problems with the cases actually fitting into the shell holder. They fit fine in my Lee shell holder and RCBS, but the Hornady was so tight that only one out of 5 cases, Winchester, Lapua, and even some Hornady cases would actually fit.

I sent Hornady an e-mail. Response said "there is no problem that they know of". I did a search and on several Forum found that others were having the same problem. After a couple of e-mails they sent me a new one. It worked fine. In my opinion they seem to have a problem just listening to the Customer and go through an initial denial phase before helping. Compare that to the Customer Service at Dillon.

 

[Kingfisher]

Glad to hear you got it fixed bud. Like I said, meant no offense just trying to offer some suggestions. Hornady has been good by me on some stuff I've had to call them about previously, so that's too bad they were jerking you around on the tool.

 

[redrockranger]

Unimpressed with the Hornady. I should have replaced a LEE with another LEE. Poor feel from the HORNADY.

 

[amlevin]

Unimpressed with the Hornady. I should have replaced a LEE with another LEE. Poor feel from the HORNADY.

My hands don't care for the Lee design where you have to press with the thumb. Also don't care for their "Safety device".

Next time, if I ever wear this tool out, I'll probably do what I should have done and bought a Century 21 and use one of the several Lee trays I've accumulated over the years.

This is an example of what happens when chasing a lower price

 

[wapiti25]

I'm using a hornady, It is not great but mine works. My punch has the radius like yours and I do prime reworked miltary 30-06 and 308 brass. No dishing of the primers when I get the crimp removed properly. I start the crimp removal with the rcbs/wilson de-buring tool then use the rcbs swage tool. Not all the brass reworks the same, sometimes I have to go back and re-do some.

 

[redrockranger]

My smith said there are more experts on the internet and more knowledgeable than the professional.

Sounds like you saved a few bucks on the Hornady than the 21st Century!!!

I doubt you will ever wear it out.

 

[Nick Caprinolo]

Not all primer pockets are the same. First thing I do is use a primer pocket reformer on all new brass. It cuts the prime pocket uniform so that depth and width of the pockets are exactly the same. I wonder did you clean the primer pockets before reloading?

 

[timeout]

Zombie thread.