Hornady Hydraulic Form Die......Questions

[demarpaint]

Any Wildcat shooters using a Hornady Hydraulic Form die? I heard about it the other day, and gave Hornady a call to get some information. It sounds like a good idea for forming brass for a Widlcat w/o, using cornmeal, or actually fire forming. Sounds like a good way to save wear on a barrel, but I have my doubts, and would like opinions from people who have used them. If anyone has used one let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Frank D

 

[Fiftydriver]

For small, thin walled cases, it would work well. Cases the size of belted mags are marginal in results and on the Lapua cases, waste of time.

The larger capacity wildcats simply have to much volume which cushions the PSI spike and you will not get anything done except beating the hell out of your press.

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[demarpaint]

Thanks Kirby! I had a feeling that was going to be the situation, Wambo a buddy of mine emailed me last night recalling you mentioned this over a year ago in a thread. My search didn't turn in any results. I was planning on using it for a 30-338 Lapua, and thanks to this information, I'll pass. Maybe for one of the smaller Wildcats its just the ticket! In theory its a great idea though!

Frank D

 

[CatShooter]

The reason that people don't think these dies work well on large cases is that the case has a large volume, so the piston stroke is "used up", before filling out the case.

The solution to that is:

Use oil instead of water (works better whether you are using small or large cases). When the piston is down, withdraw the case, and fill it with oil AGAIN, and hit it a second time.

The piston is actually more effect on large cases than small ones, because the pressure/force developed is the ratio of the surface area of the piston, divided into the surface area of the inside of the case... the larger the case is, the more effective the piston is. You just have to replenish the oil, cuz the volume eats it up.

Wash the cases in hot water and liquid Tide, dry with a hair drier.

Adjust the headspace (the "crush"), by adjusting the die for as much "crush" as you need for the first firing.

On BIG guns, it's a shame to use up precious barrel life on fireforming, or spend a day at the range shooting Cream of Wheat and still not have fully formed cases.




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[Fiftydriver]

Catshooter,

Using oil definately helped, especially with the smaller cases but when we tested this die on my 7mm AM and 277 AM, both based on the Lapua case, nothing worked well. Water only resulted in a slightly rounded shoulder. Oil produced a bit more shoulder puch but not much, still would need to load with a fireforming load before going to full pressure loadings.

We tested light oil as well as heavy oil. Did not make any differnece that I could see.

If you could hook one of these dies up to a closed curcuit hydralic system they may work very well but for the heavy cases, they simply do not work.

Plus, the fact you have to wash the cases with thinner to get the oil out is a pain in the rear. Drying cases is enough if a pain but oil inside the cases is not my idea of a good thing.

Just my personal opinion.

For me and my wildcats, I simply formed up a fireforming jig that screws into an old Rem 721 receiver. Works great. I have stubs for anything up to my 338 AM so all I need to do is change forming barrels.

Much easier for me anyway.

In my testing, oil did not make enough difference to change my mind on the function of these dies on lapua class wildcats.

Kirby Allen(50)