I bought my new 450 BM upper, a box of factory ammo, put a cheap Chinese 1-4x scope on it and proceeded to shoot one sighter @ 50 and then 5 3 shot groups @100, the worst being 1" ! I also bought the gold plated Hornady 4 die set.
Before going on, I load for 5 handgun calibers from 38 special to 460 S&W. In all cases I use Lee 4 dies sets with ZERO problems.
As the Hornady dies cost a lot more and were also a 4 die set I made the fools assumption that they worked the same.
So I proceeded to take some once fired empties and run 4 thru all 4 dies. (decap, bell, seat and taper crimp). I then stuck one in the chamber, dropped the bolt and could not get it to eject. The extractor rode right over it. A light tap with a 40 cal rod popped it right out.
Next I tried a few once fired as is. Went in and out no problem.
Then I ran a once fired case thru the first three dies, skipping the taper crimp. Inand out no problem.
Now let's make up some dummy rounds. I had some 200 pointy tips for the 460 (.451) and the Lee 300 gr GC sized to both 451 and 452.
Made 2 of each, using just the 3 dies. Chambered, ejected and fed thru the magazine A +. Even the .452GC which had a bit of a bulge, functioned fine.
None of them were the least bit loose in the case (Rubber mallet test)
Then I ran them all thru the taper crimp and they all jammed in the chamber and took the rod to remove.
Since the upper shoots very well with factory ammo and dummies function with no taper crimp, I think Hornady has screwed up.
I have, have/had several sets of Hornady dies for oddballs like the 244 H&H, 220 Arrow and 400 H&H and had no issues.
All my Lee 4 die sets (38/357, 9mm, 44 mag, 45acp and 460 S&W) have taper crimp dies and work perfectly.
I can't find anyone else with "Hornady issues" using the search function. Have I got a lemon or is this common ?
Thanks.