Kudos to Hornaday

[Dave P]

So I thought I was an experienced reloaded - knew all the tricks and pitfalls.

I was resizing some 223 cases, but I used a sloppy shellholder, instead of searching for the right one. So naturally , as I try to withdraw a case from the die, the head slips out of the shellholder.

Now I have a stuck case. I didn't want to mess with a screw-in case remover, so I put it in the freezer. Next morning warmed the die a bit with a torch, and tapped out the case with the decapping spindle. Nothing to it.

Of course, this bent the pin/spindle a little bit. And of course it snapped when I tried to straiten it. Hard steel does that, ya know?

So I call Hornaday for new parts. I expected to hear :" $5 parts plus $10 for shipping". But no - the nice lady just took my address and said the parts are on their way! Cool!

 

[TXDego]

Did same thing, broke the pin and bent the rod on my .223 die. Called Hornady, they sent me 2 pins and 2 rods, zero cost, and zero grief. Very please with Hornady at this point.

 

[LarryFlew]

must be the week. Did the same with my Lee 223 this week and also sending a freeby replacement. Did have to send them a picture of the broken one.

 

[dickttx]

I did the same to a Lee 38 Super die a few weeks ago. Never did discover how I did it. E-mail to Lee. They said to e-mail a photo. Three or four days later it arrived.
Really, I think nearly all the reloading manufacturers take real good care of you, even when you do something not too bright.

 

[hounddawg]

Hornady was good to me when I was learning the ropes on my LnL. Got ham handed once and broke a part out of sheer stupidity once. I had a new part free of charge by Monday. The lady spent about half a hour answering my questions and walked me through a lot of what to do's and what not to do's also

 

[Xfire68]

Hornady, Lee and RCBS have all sent me parts for free without me asking them. I have always said how much the items was and they all say don't worry it's on us.

Hornady has sent me free press parts as cheap as a $.50 spring to a $100 subplate.

 

[hounddawg]

I think most companies realize that re loaders share info both good and bad and if they want repeat and new business they have to act accordingly

 

[FrankenMauser]

.223 cases are nasty little buggers.

If you're going to stick a case... it'll be a .223 case.


I've gotten some screaming deals on "broken" .223 dies, being sold that way because some one stuck a case and couldn't figure out how to remove it.

The best was last year. I managed to snag an RCBS full-length sizing 2-die set, with an RCBS small-base 2-die set for a whopping $10 (maybe $15 ?). ....even after telling the guy how to remove the cases.
One case popped right out with a punch and the decapping stem removed, and RCBS took care of the other stuck case for $7 (including all new parts in/on the original die body).


I've never stuck a case in one of my own dies, though (only other people's ).
It comes back to one of my reloading room rules:
NEVER size brass without a stuck case remover present. If you have one, you'll never need to use it.