Lonnie Hummel of Hornady sent me one of their new case forming dies to try out this week...I've been waiting on it for some time..They have ramped up production for them and are putting in place the additional machinery and personnel to make these,so that not to put their normal die production behind schedule.You will need to purchase a good rubber mallet to form the cases...they don't supply them with the die set...Also...you will want to do this on a very solid surface and your press should be a good strong o-type press...since you will be hitting down on top of the die very hard..I have mine set up in my Hornady loc & load press with the loc & load die bushings..
It's a very well made die and shell holder that you can get..and looks like this...
What you do is set this die up as you would any other reloading die in your press...slide in the shell holder which is perfectly flat & solid on the bottom..Prime your case with a used spent primer( now you have a use for them..
) Fill the case completely up with plain water to the case mouth...Pull the ram out of the die..it slides in & out easily...Slide the water filled case in the shell holder being careful as to not spill any of the water...You want the case dry & oil free...so don't use any kind of grease or lubricant on them...
Now comes the fun part...You slide the ram into the top of the press.Put a small rag around the stem as I have here..before hitting it to catch the very small amount of water coming out of it...You will want to with it dry after usage...
You then take your rubber mallet and hit it very firmly on top a few times...Remove the case...and take a look...If you have hit it hard enough...your case will have expanded to the desired amount..If not...it will look very Weatherby like with the shoulders slightly rounded...like this..
The unfinished case is on the left...and the perfectly formed case is on the right..
It may take a few tries to get it right...but isn't very difficult at all...Here's a picture of a 243...a 6mm...and a 6mm AI...You can see the difference between all 3...
My cases measure out within .002" on the body & neck...and comes up a little short on the neck length...but...since I don't have the 243 barrel re chambered yet...won't really matter a lot...We can set the final dimensions of it when it gets re chambered..I was forming these out of new bulk Winchester 6mm cases...All that is left to do is to run the case thru a full length die set if needed to adjust the shoulder bump...but Lonnie has told me that that can be accomplished to within shooting specs with the forming die. He has used this die and formed them...and shot at several Benchrest competitions successfully...
So...the only other thing I have to do is to get over to the other side of the state and let Chris Mathews rechamber my 243 Elite barrel in the next 2 weeks...I already have the reamer from Dave Kiff of Pacific which is what the die was made off of...You can send Hornady a couple of fired cases or a set of prints as I did to make your dies for you...Cost of the die is about $132.00 and the full length 2 die set is $109.0...Not bad for a full custom set up...and they can do this for any wild cat from 22 cal up...including all of the Gibbs line too...and will save all the fire forming to get the case right. They can do these in just about any configuration you would want...If your interested...call Lonnie at Hornady...1-800-338-3220 and press 0 for operator
Part 2 in a few weeks...
Mac
