Hornady Reloading Products

[theoldgringo]

Hornady has exemplary customer service and I'm guessing it's because they get a lot of practice.

Yesterday I bought a box of Hornady 6.5 Jap (per the label) and also took delivery of three #34 Hornady shell holders for the same caliber. Why Hornady? Because my Hornady case trimmer requires a Hornady holder. I get one each for the press, trimmer and primer tool. Without going into the details of sequence, here are the facts; The factory bullet casings do not match the specs as shown in the Hornady reload manual. The rims on the bought bullets measure between .052 and .055. thickness. The manual shows .059. None of the casings will fit any of the shell holders. The rims of the cartridges are thicker than the space allowed in the holders. The only one which will slide in is the (only) one which measured .052. Actually, dimensionally they are virtually identical to the #1 holder.

This is not the first product of theirs that has been delivered to me defective. Either they have very real production problems, problems with out-sourcing, or maybe their QC simply sucks..........and now I'm stuck with dealing with a vendor (Graf) and potentially never getting from them what I need................

I needed to vent. Has anyone else had this problem with Hornady stuff?............tog

[ryalred]

I use a lot of Hornady products and have never had a problem--maybe I've just been lucky. Sorry you've has some bad experiences--its exasperating to purchase something new that's defective.

[Sidetracked]

I have some friends that absolutely get offended when I buy a Hornady product. But... the reasons they feel 'slighted' are trivial to me. I don't have a problem with them.

Then again, there is the .220 Swift shellholder that won't accept ANY of my brass. I had to buy an RCBS holder for my american brands of brass. For my Norma brass, I had no choice but to chuck a case in the drill with grinding compound, and ream out the Hornady holder.

[theoldgringo]

A little more information; When I got home I decided to break out the new shell holders and make some new bullets. Placed one in the press to de-cap the brass and, lo, the brass wouldn't go in. I should mention this is Hornady ammo and, thus, Hornady brass. I couldn't get the stuff into the holders. At this point I decided to get out the calipers and check some things.

That's when I discovered the box of ammunition labeled 6.5 Jap (as on the label) actually contained 6.5x51. I got out the Hornady manual(#7) and checked the specs on 6.5 Jap. The rim, or base of the case should be .059 thickness. The largest case in the box measured .055 and the thinnest, .052 (one case only). The .052 was the only case that would slide into any of the shell holders............soooooooooo...........What that means is; Hornady is boxing ammunition which is sized under their own published specs and they are selling shell holders that absolutely will not fit the cases for which they were intended.

I give them this. About 6 mos. ago I bought a power adapter for their case trimmer which had a drill shaft that was not in alignment with the trimmer arbor. Hornady is just west of here so I gave them a call, told them the situation and the Hornady rep said he would get one to me ASAP. Couple of days later I got a call. It seems that all the Hornady trimmer power adapters were out of alignment and , as far as he knew, always had been. Bottom line is about three weeks later the rep called me, thanked me for pointing out the problem and sent me a straight one. I consider that great customer service but I really don't want to need to deal with customer service after each buy and what's the deal with the thin case rims on loaded ammunition, really.
nuff said..............tog

[theoldgringo]

Three more photos. The first shows a flat "thin" case rim and a primer protruding from its pocket.
The rim should be .059 and should be beveled as is the Prvi Partisan brass in the second photo.

The third (in the next post) is self explanatory.............tog

[theoldgringo]

last one............tog