Hornady brass wall thickness - ended up a Lee die issue

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Hornady brass wall thickness - ended up a Lee die issue

Postby Sweetcorn » Wed Jan 02, 2019 7:24 pm

Have any of you guys measured the wall thickness of Hornady brass?
I just started reloading for the 450 and had virtually zero neck tension on some .452 XTP mags I was loading.
After some screwing around, I measured the brass and I'm seeing mostly .013" with the occasional .0125" wall.
Any of you guys run into anything similar?

Edited title, see post below
Last edited by Sweetcorn on Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:48 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Hornady brass wall thickness

Postby Texas Sheepdawg » Thu Jan 03, 2019 12:19 am

Welcome. I have not, personally, but I’ll let the others chime in. Welcome to our electronic campfire. Pull up a stump.
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Re: Hornady brass wall thickness

Postby Al in Mi » Thu Jan 03, 2019 5:46 am

have you resized the brass and used the expander? and if so, what die set?
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Re: Hornady brass wall thickness

Postby Sweetcorn » Thu Jan 03, 2019 9:23 am

I've checked brass that I've resized and brass that's just been once fired. They all measure about the same. If I just barely touch the brass with the expander die, I can push a bullet well beyond seating depth easily with my thumb and pointer finger.

Right now, I'm using a Lee die set, but I have a Hornady die set that I've ordered and it should be waiting for me at home today. I called Lee and asked if they had any issues with out of spec sizing dies, or complaints in general about their 450 sizing dies. They said no, but I could send the die set in and they'd inspect it.

It really seems to me that the case walls on my brass are too thin.

From the cartridge callouts I've seen, the loaded case should measure ~.480" where the bullet is seated, away from a small taper crimp.

On my brass, wall + wall + bullet diameter = .013" + .013" + .452" = .478"

Seems like my brass should be .001 to .0015 thicker per wall. That would enable the sizing die to squeeze it in enough to where I could have some neck tension.

I will be able to try out the Hornady set tonight and see if there's any difference, but I'm not expecting to see much. Next step will be to order some Starline brass, but I wanted to see if others here had similar issues with Hornady brass.
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Re: Hornady brass wall thickness

Postby Al in Mi » Thu Jan 03, 2019 10:11 am

there was another board member here that had same issue awhile back, he had Lee dies if I remember right.

looking forward to what your Hornady die does.
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Re: Hornady brass wall thickness - ended up being a die issu

Postby Sweetcorn » Thu Jan 03, 2019 4:09 pm

So my new dies arrived and I hurried up and tried them out.

Brass resized with the Hornady dies came out perfect. The right amount of neck tension.

I'm really disappointed with the Lee dies. The sizing die is worthless.
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Re: Hornady brass wall thickness - ended up being a die issu

Postby Al in Mi » Thu Jan 03, 2019 5:13 pm

Can you measure the outside of a case resized with each die? Preferably just below the case mouth.
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Re: Hornady brass wall thickness - ended up being a die issu

Postby Sweetcorn » Thu Jan 03, 2019 5:33 pm

The brass resized with the Hornady dies is .002" smaller on the O.D. just below the case mouth than the Lee dies.
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Re: Hornady brass wall thickness - ended up being a die issu

Postby Al in Mi » Fri Jan 04, 2019 6:24 am

Sweetcorn wrote:The brass resized with the Hornady dies is .002" smaller on the O.D. just below the case mouth than the Lee dies.


I'd say Lee has a problem
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Re: Hornady brass wall thickness - ended up being a die issu

Postby Sweetcorn » Fri Jan 04, 2019 12:46 pm

Al in Mi wrote:
Sweetcorn wrote:The brass resized with the Hornady dies is .002" smaller on the O.D. just below the case mouth than the Lee dies.


I'd say Lee has a problem


Lol, since I bought the Lee dies, it's my problem now.

In all actuality, I'm not sure what I'll do with the Lee dies. I'll most likely send them back to Lee and see if they can do anything about it. I won't be returning them to the store for someone else to buy because they're (honestly) unsafe.
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