Got a Pacific/Hornady 366, 12 ga loader that I've been slowly resurrecting over the past year or so. Pretty much have things up to par, but am running into one issue - the auto advance.

To be specific, I'm having an issue with the auto advance at station 7. If the shell plate is empty the auto advance works as it should. When the handle is pulled down the pawl rotates clockwise and drops into a shell opening. When the handle is raised, the pawl engages the shell plate and rotates the plate counter-clockwise. The shell plate can be full up to station 7, and everything is fine. But if there is a shell in station 7, the pawl does not rotate back clockwise and re-engage the shell plate and prep for the next advance. Again, this happens whether there are shells in each station, or just station 7. I've adjusted the spring tension on the pawl, cleaned the pawl, spring and retaining screw. I've even gone so far as to try different hulls - Fed GM, Rem STS, Win AA, Gun Glubs, old Peters Blue Magics and Rem Premiers - makes no difference. To this point, nothing seems to get me past this issue.

Any ideas? I suppose a call to Hornady may be in order in the morning. This one has me dumbfounded.


I never thought I'd grow up to be a grumpy old man, but I did, and I'm killin' it.