Hornady Bullet feeder die Problems

[Beermster1]

I have recently gotten a Hornady Bullet feeder die for .44 mag and Im having some trouble. I have followed the directions closely and either the bullets dont dispense one at a time or they all come out at once. I have spent hours playing with this thing on the Dillon 650 and also just on the bench. Any one have some sugestions ?? Thanks

[at_liberty]

I have recently gotten a Hornady Bullet feeder die for .44 mag and Im having some trouble. I have followed the directions closely and either the bullets dont dispense one at a time or they all come out at once. I have spent hours playing with this thing on the Dillon 650 and also just on the bench. Any one have some sugestions ?? Thanks

Are the collets marked for caliber? A set for 45 would probably drop 44 bullets.

[Beermster1]

Yes they are marked and I tried switching them but still not working.

[kdsd731]

If I remember right when I had that problem with 45's I bent the collets inward a little and it stopped dropping the whole tube of bullets. Then I just adjusted the die until it worked right. If you can't get it to work, just give hornady a call on Monday.

[DougMurray]

kdsd has it about right. The lower collet ("A" collet) has a small ring near the top that is supposed to capture the bullet. Then, when the shell enters the bottom of that collet, it is supposed to expand just enough to allow the bullet to drop into the case. At the same time, it is pushed upwards into the "B" collet, which squeezes down on the next bullet in line to keep it from dropping.

So what I do is take the "A" collet out of the die and adjust it so it just captures a bullet when dropped into it from the top. If the bullet falls through, then you carefully squeeze all four fingers together (the collet - not your hand :-)) until it just captures the bullet. Then check to see if a case pushed into the bottom of the collet will release the bullet. If not, gently pry the fingers apart until the collet holds a bullet but still releases it when the case pushes into the bottom. I push a penknife blade into each of the slots to open up the fingers without overdoing it. Since the blade is tapered, you can determine how much the fingers are opened by how far you push the blade into the slots. I never have to do anything with the "B" collet except adjust the die so I just hear the collets shaking when the die is assembled.

Note that the weight of the bullet stack above the die will sometimes cause a bunch to fall out. My 45ACP feeder die can reliably support a stack of fifty 200 gn plated SWCs. YMMV.