Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Need Hornady die help

After using a Hornady 270WSM die for the first time, the neck expander/de-priming rod keeps coming out of the die along with the shell. I have tried to keep tightening it up but it keeps pulling through the die. Anybody ever tried to rough up the rod with sanding paper to prevent this?

I have those dies, with no problems in a couple hundred reloads, but I spray lube the inside of the necks. If lubing doesn't do it, call Hornady.

sent you a pm.

I took a cresent wrench to the two lock nuts on mine after useing gun scrubber to degrease the stem, and it is there for good now, I think. It hasn`t moved in a few years now anyway. Hornady now makes a threaded stem becase of this problem that will fix it from what I`ve heard. I`d call and see what they say about one. You very likely could do as you asked and rough up the stem Too. I don`t see why it wouldn`t work as well.

Had the exact same problem with a set of Hornaday dies for my 338 WM. I tried roughing up the stem, did not work. Replaced the expander ball with smaller one Hornaday sent me, did not work. Took cresent wrenchs to the lock nuts, still would not work. Used graphite on the inside of the neck as well as lube on the outside, still had problems.

When it started stretching my brass too much, I took the entire inside out of the die and use it to resize the outside of the brass, then run it through a neck sizer to get the neck resized. Much quicker and no problems with expander balls and rods coming out. No ill effects on brass that I can tell.

Hornaday was no real help, thought it was something I was doing wrong. Good luck.

I've got about 7 sets of Hornady dies and haven't had a problem with the slipping thing but have read posts like this. I use a crescent wrench and a deep well socket. I even use mine to neck up other calibers and neck down some as well. BTW....some of my hornady dies seem to make almost "O" runnout after a bit of fiddling and getting the stem centered. I love the elipitcal expander that hornady uses and wish my other dies had something so smooth.

It's important, especially with the older smooth-stemmed dies, to use the proper tools to secure the stem. Failure to do that has always been related to any problems I've had with them. Make sure the threads on the collet are not dry - they will tighten more easily and securely with some lube- but the stem can (should) be dry.

I imagine Hornady may also replace the old version parts with newer ones if you give them a call.