if you like hornaday reloading dies MIDWAY has a pot load of em on sale right now looks like.... i just was there an saw lots of different dies from them on sale...

2 of the last 3 sets of their "carbide" pistol die sets I purchased are leaving scratches on the brass with the resizing die. No problem with the rifle dies. The dies that seem to have problems are .480 Ruger and .357 Spec/Mag/Max. Never had this problem with any other brand of dies, so I'm gonna have to lay it in the makers lap. My polished brass...not range brass.

Bought these "on sale" also...might be a good reason they are being dumped.

I have had nothing but excellent experience with Hornady dies. They are about all that I buy these days.

last two sets I got were New Dimensions. I really like the floating seater plugs when I am working with flat base bullets. No problems with either set.

D

last two sets I got were New Dimensions. I really like the floating seater plugs when I am working with flat base bullets. No problems with either set.
DHornady New Dimension dies with the floating seater plug do a great job of centering the bullets in bottleneck cases. Best I have found for the .44-40.

Dies have been working great, with the exception of the sizer. If I put a dab of Hornady Unique case lube on about every 10th case it minimizes the scratching, but I should not have to do this with a carbide type sizing die. Anyone else using the carbide style dies having a problem like this? If I clean the dies before use the problem goes away for a short while, I'm at a bit of a loss on this since the cases are clean, new in some instances.

My Hornady pistol dies in 45 casul (used for 45 colt) work great, with no scratches. They are Titanium Nitride coated, not carbide. This is the same coating used on steel and carbide tooling to improve longevity. If it is designed to stand up to tasks like cutting steel, sizing brass should pose no problems for it. I especially like the Hornady seater die.

I also have 8x57 hornady dies (not Titanium Nitride) and at least the sizer works great on them too (I haven't gotten to the rest of the steps for that cartridge yet).

Dies have been working great, with the exception of the sizer. If I put a dab of Hornady Unique case lube on about every 10th case it minimizes the scratching, but I should not have to do this with a carbide type sizing die. Anyone else using the carbide style dies having a problem like this? If I clean the dies before use the problem goes away for a short while, I'm at a bit of a loss on this since the cases are clean, new in some instances.

you're right !.. carbide sizing inserts should not scratch you brass... you should get ahold of hornady an i bet they'll send you a new die..

I called Hornady today to find out what the issue was that was causing the scratching of the brass. I knew it had to be something I was doing as it is happening with three sets of dies from two different vendors. I've been reloading for 20 years using RCBS carbide die sets and have never had this problem. According to Hornady you must first chamfer and debur all brass before sizing in their dies as some small bits of brass will get stuck on the sizing rings and scrape your brass . Simple enough fix I guess, I'll just buy a RCBS carbide sizer and be done with it. Hornady was the only game in town for non-lube sizing when I bought these dies and the rest of the die set works great.

I've tried three sets of Hornady dies and had trouble with two of them. On both sets the sizer die would not size the case down sufficiently. The 41 Mag set was so bad that new unsized brass cases would not even touch the sizing ring! The other set, 45 acp, would size ok for cast bullets of .452" but with certain brands of brass and jacketed bullets you could easily push the bullets deeper in the case with your fingers. Both were sent back and replaced, but it still cost me shipping in both instances for a problem that should never have left the factory. I will stick with the green ones from now on.