Tonight I sat down to load a couple hundred .45 Colt cartridges for Cowboy Action...I had bought 150 used .45 Colt cases from friend (most of them looked once fired) and I started with these to put them into my rotation.

In among the 150 were 20 Hornady nickel cases...I don't mind nickel cases mixed in...I just load them with the others...

Long story short, when I ran them through the powder measure on my Dillon they would not bell and when I tried to set the bullet, it would not set into the case...it really breaks your rhythm and makes you look for problems with the powder die/funnel that you can't find because they don't exist ...

After the 4th case I put my brain back in and measured the Hornady cases...they measured 1.220" not the 1.280" regular .45 Colt cases average...

Did someone trim these .45 Colt cases you might ask...

A google search found the answer...NO...they came that way...you see, they were loaded with that rubbery/plastic tipped bullet from Hornady, which requires a shorter case to crimp that particular bullet for what ever reason...their regular bulk brass is normal length to SAMMI specs unlike their Leverevoluion ammo's brass...

So...if you load .45 Colt and run across Hornady nickel brass...measure it to make sure it is not to short or you might take time out of your reloading to chase gremlins that are not there

Not my photo, but you can see how much shorter the cases are...

Yup. Hornady sucks. They do this with .45-70, too. I understand WHY they do it (the ogive of the FTX bullet requires it in order to meet the proper OAL), but it doesn't make me hate them any less. I spent an outrageous amount of money on some factory Hornady Leverevolution .45-70 ammo when I bought my 1895, consoling myself by thinking "at least I can re-used the brass once my dies come in"...Only to ultimately discover this bullshit.

Hornady in 357 mag is the same thing 140 FTX the case is .040" shorter I put the hornady cases in the scrap bin

This is new info to me.....thanx!!

I just had this same experience loading 357 Magnum. I toss the Hornady's in the trash as I come across them.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Yup. Hornady sucks. They do this with .45-70, too. I understand WHY they do it (the ogive of the FTX bullet requires it in order to meet the proper OAL), but it doesn't make me hate them any less. I spent an outrageous amount of money on some factory Hornady Leverevolution .45-70 ammo when I bought my 1895, consoling myself by thinking "at least I can re-used the brass once my dies come in"...Only to ultimately discover this bullshit.

That is probably the best review I have read in a long time.!!

Thanks!

Wow!, I actually learned something. Thanks!