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Why does Hornady do this?

So, one day I jumped back into the boutique round/dumb guy pool and bought everything I needed for a 6mm ARC. As the title notes I have questions about what/why Hornady does what they do. The point is when I bought Hornady dies for the 6mm ARC the seating stem is just some kind of generic stem with a hole in it. It dents the bullets when I seat them. Hornady says if you plan to shoot high BC bullets you need to spend another $40.00 on a ELD stem. Considering the 6mm ARC is supposed to be a long range round from an AR, I would have thought that the dies would reflect that. And, not include a seating stem made for stumps.
 
So, one day I jumped back into the boutique round/dumb guy pool and bought everything I needed for a 6mm ARC. As the title notes I have questions about what/why Hornady does what they do. The point is when I bought Hornady dies for the 6mm ARC the seating stem is just some kind of generic stem with a hole in it. It dents the bullets when I seat them. Hornady says if you plan to shoot high BC bullets you need to spend another $40.00 on a ELD stem. Considering the 6mm ARC is supposed to be a long range round from an AR, I would have thought that the dies would reflect that. And, not include a seating stem made for stumps.
Just Drill a Hole in the Stem DEEPER and "Lap" the Stem ( chucked up, in a Lathe / Drill ) with, Lapping Compound On, a High BC, Bullet.
 
*stares at my lee dies*

I have bought a few sets of Lee dies, but honestly, they take second fiddle to my Redding dies. I used to load 6.5 Grendel with the Lee Pacemaker set, but I replaced them with Redding equivilants, and get a micrometer seater out of it.

The one thing I do like in Lee dies is the generic decapper, I have used it for much of my decapping. It has a small expander ball that doesn't touch my necks.
 
I have bought a few sets of Lee dies, but honestly, they take second fiddle to my Redding dies. I used to load 6.5 Grendel with the Lee Pacemaker set, but I replaced them with Redding equivilants, and get a micrometer seater out of it.

The one thing I do like in Lee dies is the generic decapper, I have used it for much of my decapping. It has a small expander ball that doesn't touch my necks.
Well for the $100 extra your spending on them id hope the $45 set would be second fiddle :D

Honestly though the Redding does I have for my .17-5.56 KAK are absolutely amazing....but for $150 they honestly better be
 
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I’m using Hornady neck bushing dies for 7 Sherman short mag and, I have to say, they are damn good. I’ve used Forster, Redding, custom from my own JGS sizer reamer/Newlon, and Warner Tool Co dies; the Hornady’s work as good as any of them. Go figure.
 
Well for the $100 extra your spending on them id hope the $45 set would be second fiddle :D

Honestly though the Redding does I have for my .17-5.56 KAK are absolutely amazing....but for $150 they honestly better be

No, actually it wasn't. I bought the 2 die set for 6.5 Grendel which was about $50 on sale. It didn't have a micrometer, but the price was not much more than the Pacemaker set. Later I bought the micrometer for it when Midway had a sale, and I got that for about $40. My Pacemaker set was about $30 on sale. The Pacemaker set is a great value, but I just prefer the Redding and have mostly Redding dies for all of my loads. Yes, the 2 dies and micrometer did cost more, but not $150 as stated. I like the micrometer!:)

Does Lee offer a micrometer for their seating dies?
 
And here's why the micrometer works better for me.

Both the non-micrometer and the micrometer and about the same to adjust. But let's say I seat too far, then I need to pull the bullet and re-seat it. Having the micrometer takes me less tries as I can pretty much see how far it's adjusting, where the non-micrometer doesn't show me that. For that reason, it saves me time in the end, and if you consider that you need to pull and re-seat a bullet, that's a PITA, for me.

I have a 6.5 Creedmoor seating die from Hornady I got from someone else and it has a micrometer. It's their match grade set. This is what I have, not trying to fool anyone on price or product. This is not a bad die for free! LOL

hornady-6.5-cm-match-seater.jpg


You can see I have several 6.5 Creedmoor dies, but 2 sets were traded for here on AS. I only have 2 sets of Lee Pacemakers, 6.5 Grendel and 300 blackout, both of which have been replaced with Redding equivilants.

One thing I do like about the Hornady seating dies is the seater portion which moves up/down, not sure why but I like the sound it makes...LOL

some-dies.jpg
 
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