Hornady Dies

[StoneHendge]

I'm using the Hornady sizing die without any issues. I use it without the expander ball. I'm not getting any scratches. But I did have issue with the seating die of all things. It was crushing my shoulders and I'm not sure how or why. I switched to a different seating die so just avoided the issue.

I'm using the Hornady sizing die without any issues. I use it without the expander ball. I'm not getting any scratches. But I did have issue with the seating die of all things. It was crushing my shoulders and I'm not sure how or why. I switched to a different seating die so just avoided the issue.

I have the same problem with all my Hornady seating dies. I adjust the lock ring to where I can seat the bullet without any crimp (It's the crimp ring set too far down in the die that's causing the crushed shoulders). I buy specific taper crimp dies for the cartridge I'm loading & put just a slight crimp on the case.

I did get a Hornady die (7.62X40WT) to crimp without crushing the shoulder but it was a frustrating effort. It has to be exact. There's no wiggle room between having a crimp & crushing shoulders. Go .001" too far & you're spewing expletives.
Your trim-to length has to be consistent as well.

My crushing with the Hornady seating die shouldn't have been the crimp ring because I for sure 100% had the die adjusted out intentionally so that the crimp was not coming into play.  I had 2 out of I think 30 total rounds unexpectedly crushed. I think the collar that slides up into the die is somehow getting bound up and freezing. It's that collar that did the crushing. That's the only thing coming in contact with the brass. I found no reason to explain why the collar would jam. Maybe the brass wasn't centered in the shell holder and crooked. That's only thing I can think of.

The die could be crooked