Hornaday hydrolic forming die..

[Rustystud]

I talked with Lonnie Hummel,great guy) this morning at Hornaday. He told me about their Hydrolic case forming dies. I am about to order a set for forming 6mmBX from 6mmBR brass. Has anyone here already been down this path and can they share their experience.

Nat Lambeth

 

[swehrman]

Here's a past discussion on the Hornady die.

http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/6mmbr/vpost?id=2327659

-- Scott

 

[drano38]

Rustystud,
I've had mine for about a year. Yep, Lonnie is great.
I formed about 220 cases for my 6mm Dasher.
Would I do it again? I think so, but it does take time, and the arm gets tired swinging the hammer. I could form 20, deprime and blow the the cases dry w/ an air compressor in about an hour.
It saved barrel wear, and prevented throwing 6mm BR velocity bullets down range.
My first match w/ the formed, unfired brass, I shot a 7.9" group at 1,000 yard IBS match from my Savage w/ a Benchmark barrel. I'd never shot 1,000 yards before, and am still a 600 yard IBS beginner, so I was happy w/ the 7.9" group.
Here's a few things I learned:
- Don't do the forming on your good press. Go to a gun show and buy something that will withstand the stress, and preserve your good press for churning out great ammo. A friend of a friend sold me an old Pacific cast C-frame for $20.
- If the press leans back like my old Pacific, do what it takes to make the ram vertical before you form. Its much easier to hit the ram rod straight when the die is vertical.
- Hold a piece of hard maple board on top of the ram to absorb some of the shock and help prevent off-center hits from bending the small ram rod,don't ask how I learned this idea).
- Set the die depth to be a couple thousands too long for headspace,I used my Hornady headspace gauge to measure). Then use your full length size die to bump the shoulder back to your chamber length.
- If you bend the ram rod with an off-center hit, call Lonnie--you'll have a new one in about 3 days,free of charge so thank him in advance).
- I used a 3 lb blacksmith hammer. Wish I could have found a 3 lb lead-filled dead blow hammer. Would have been less stressful on those off center hits.
drano

 

[SongdogHunter]

I too have one for a .20 caliber wildcat on the Bee case. I'm under the impression it works better with larger cases. The capacity of the 218 Bee case is so small.

SDH