Notes
on the Hornady 366 auto shotshell
reloading Press:
Part II: General problem solutions
Part
I:
Introduction, mounting set-up, powder/shot
bushings
discussion for
loading legal
Int'l trap and skeet shells recommended spare parts.
Part
II:
General problem
solutions/tool
adjustments for best results.
Part
III:
Some reasons and solutions for poor
quality crimp results. Includes
a special section
on 410 bore skeet reloading.
Part
IV: On
changing dies to a different gauge, setting up a
new die head or
just
checking
to
insure the 366 is in proper adjustment.
Part V:
The 366's annual maintenance.
Part VI: Some thoughts on the buying of a used 366. Also includes the essential tool and recommended spare parts lists.
Index:
Disclaimer
On crimping
On Crimping New Hulls
On taper-loc adjustment
On wads do
not flow easily through
wad guide
366 Foibles and their solutions
This
article
is mainly written for those who
have owned 366's
for while and are interested in possibly picking up some tips,
or otherwise experienced loaders looking for information
on the Hornady 366 auto shotshell
reloading press. Use of the
information is at your own risk. These
notes come from nearly 40 years
working
with the
Pacific/Hornady 366 reloading tool; others
will have had different
experiences. If you are not an experienced reloader, please,
please,
please buy
the several excellent books that are on the market
and become intimately familiar with the process and
the very necessary safety
procedures. Reading the MSDS statements available on the
various manufacturer's websites provides valuable
information as well as the powder recipe booklets forewords. These
booklets are available either by download or by mail at no charge to
the requester. Many of those sites offer how-to-reload information as
well. Always follow exactly the loading recipes
supplied by the
propellant manufacturers. Reloading is not a place for short-cuts and
sloppy guesswork.
And
obviously, you cannot safely reload
with best quality when
you
are tired, in a hurry, or otherwise not able
give
your full and proper
attention to the job.
Two
current shotgun reloading information
books
come immediately to mind: Lyman
5th
edition Shotgun Reloading Manual is
one. Another is the
Reloading for Shotgunners,fourth edition
by
Kurt D.
Fackler and
M.L. McPherson. They are available from www.amazon.com,
where you
buy components or any good sporting goods store, online
or not.
MEC and RCBS ("The RCBS Handbook of Shotshell Reloading") also offer
shotshell reloading instruction manuals at a
reasonable price. Better
yet, in
addition to
the books, find someone who is a
well-experienced reloader to help you get
through the learning stages explaining
what the books may not make
clear to you and who can
answer the occasional question that
comes
up from time to time.
Perfect
crimping is achieved by selecting a component set that exactly matches
the volume of the the hull together with careful wad (ram) pressure,
pre-fold
and final crimp die adjustment. Convex crimps, concave crimps,
perhaps with
shot showing or case bulges/rings/crushing are signs of an incompatible
set of
components or tool mis-adjustment.
The
perfect component set will also deliver near-perfect, consistent crimps
with hull variations caused by multiple hull reloadings as well as
minor variations in
hull length, provided the operator uses the 366 consistently, i.e.
bottoms the operating lever every time.
(The
final crimp die seems to work very well when the crimp plunger is set
to the top of the lock nut or slightly below (depending on lock nut
thickness), and the crimp die bushing is screwed into
the die head casting so that the bushing's top is about 1 3/16" (31.5
mm) above the pad. Depending on the thickness of the locknut, there
will be around 10 threads exposed. Test shells are
then run through and the the crimp die bushing is tweaked so the crimp
is as desired, then locked down. Future minor adjustments are
made by loosening the lock nut and tweaking the crimp plunger
and re-tightening the crimp plunger lock nut. Unless you have a
too-long component combination, this setting will not cause case
crushing
when loading the AAHS (Reifenhauser-style) case and will crimp all
others very well.)
Initially,
a component set selection can be made by matching the factory load as
closely as possible. Often, because of product availability, or a
desire to not work with those components, this is not possible. For
example, Winchester uses a dense ball powder in the factory AAHS bunker
load. If a bulky powder such as Red Dot is the preferred choice, then a
shorter or more compressible wad will lead to more consistent
crimping with less effort. Substituting, with checking for available
recipes, Claybuster CB12L (more compressible and softer recoiling),
Duster "Clear" or
CB1100-12 (slightly
shorter) in place of the Winchester AA12L are but three
possibilities. The AA12L
factory wad tends to cause convex crimps even
with dense powders and wad crushing especially when
the case ages over multiple reloads as the
case mouth plastic weakens. Remington cases
are the least fussy/most forgiving as
to component length, particularly if the wad is on the long
side.
Inconsistent
crimps can also be
caused by hulls of quite different lengths than the pre-fold
and final
crimping stations were set for. You can see one coming by
examining
the the level of pre-fold before the hull gets
final-crimped:
about a 1/4" pencil hole is often right. Here's
what it should look like viewed from the operator's position, together
with trouble on the right:
 |
 |
Note the word "often". The 1/4" hole is best thought of as a nominal starting adjustment. There are occasions where more or less prefold will be needed for perfect, flat crimps. For example, if your 366 is set up for a bulky powder like Red Dot and the only thing your dealer has on offer is a dense powder like HS-700X, then simply lowering the prefold to bring in more plastic could save the day and eliminate the need to change to a longer wad.
Conversely,
some component combinations will yield
otherwise very nice
crimps, but the crimps are slightly more convex than is liked. Backing
off the prefold will often resolve the problem. However, care must be
taken
to
not get carried away: too little prefold (as in the right picture
above) can result in the crimp
plunger jamming the case mouth plastic against the die and
you may
well have to pull the die assembly out of the casting plate and take it
apart to free the jam.
Remington hulls are among the least length consistent: I've measured
hull lengths between 65 (2.56”) and 72
(2.83”) mm, depending if the hull is of Gun Club type (field
hull) or Nitro
27 type (premium target). Winchester AA's are among the
better: usually around 68 (2.68”) to 69 (2.78”) mm.
For better consistency, using hulls from the same lot
helps, but is no guarantee.
Yet another reason for inconsistent crimps includes not insuring the
the machine's handle is bottomed consistently (full, complete, stroke
so that you feel bottom).
Holding the handle at the bottom-most position for second or so also
helps set the crimp
properly. A good quality control habit to develop is to look at the
finished crimp as it comes out of the crimping die; better to deal with
pellet-leaking crimps
on the reloading bench.
Above, consistent crimps. Note that they are all pretty much flat with very little concavity or convexity. These 24 gram Winchester AAHS shells were loaded with Alliant Clay Dot and Claybuster CB1100-12 wads.
To
start
the crimp of new 12 ga hulls, as
Cheddite and
Fiocchi's (the latter seem easier to work with) from
Precision Reloading and
Ballistic Products, you will
need a metal crimp starter. The plastic starters
won't do it. They
are dull by design to optimize crimp starting with
fired hulls. Use
the sharper-edged brass metal crimp starters that MEC
sells. See pictures below.
To mount in a 366, modify a
spare crimp starter bushing (Hornady part #392102) by
clearance-drilling
it out for a 3" 1/4-20 bolt (The
MEC crimp starter has
1/4-20 threads). Drill carefully to keep the
fit as tight as possible to
minimize crimp starter wobble. Using a drill press
is better, and walking up to size
with wire size
drills is a good way to ensure a snug fit.
The brass crimp starter does not have to
rotate freely; it's better if it's
fixed and perfectly centered. You will also need two
thin 1/4-20 nuts to
enable locking in the proper setting of the crimp
depth.
Setting for proper crimp depth is a matter of experimenting.
Set the
crimper too high initially then walk it in by small increments to
eliminate wasted hulls.
The 8-fold die seems to work better with results equal to the
cosmetically-perfect
English-made Lyalvale Express shells. The 6-fold die
delivers results that appear somewhat like the old Remington Plastic
Target/All
American load's Venko crimp. Must be operator error... Could
be because the 8-fold crimper I have is larger: 0.991 vs. 0.875 for the
6 fold crimper although both are the 12 ga crimpers.
 |
 |
Left: typical result with plastic crimp starter die. Right, with MEC brass crimp starter die.
Brass crimp starter assembly. Thin 9/16 x 18 locking nut not shown.
Trivia:
A picture of the Remington-Peters Venco crimp. Remington used this crimp on the Plastic Target and All American shells including 20 and 28's. With the introduction of the RXP, this crimp style was no longer used. (Next time you cut open a target shell, look at the crimp from the bottom...)
Only a slight rounding is required to insure easy chambering and tighter crimps. If the cases have occasional case mouth cracks, it probably is not practical to add significantly more roll-over as some cases will buckle. Reifenhauser type cases (Like Fiocchi's and RIO/Kemen/Wolf to name two. Trivia: the name comes from the German inventor of the plastic tube extruding machine.) will need more. Adjust in ¼ turn increments; it's a pretty sensitive adjustment. Too much rounding also substantially increases the force required at the bottom of the operating handle stroke as well as increasing the likelihood of case wall crushing. In general, most brands of shells will come out within factory specs without using the Taper crimp station. Further, results will vary with the length of the shell. . . Suggest using this station only after shell diameter measurements are made. Further discussion here.
Binding problem(s) in the 366:
The
operating lever should move
very freely, with only the significant resistance developed on the down
stroke to knock out the primer, create the crimp/Taper-Loc and to
resize the hull; on the upstroke from
driving the hull out
of the resizer ring. There may be additional resistance when a
primer is
rusted or otherwise frozen requiring greater force to drive the primer
out, assuming there is no junk (foam earplug?) in the hull.
Check
the following if there is a lack of smoothness and the
need for more force than seems reasonable (the parts descriptions are
as used by
Hornady in their 366 parts diagram):
Remove the measure assembly. As you remove the measure
assembly screw, note if the screw unscrews easily, without effort. If
it's binding, after taking off the measure assembly, see if there is
any foreign matter on the die head casting putting the measure assembly
out of alignment. Confirm that the operating handle now moves freely.
The 366 should have no hulls in the index plate or resizing station for
this test.
Take the measure assembly and flip it upside down (empty, of course!)
on the loading bench. The charge
bar should go back and forth easily. If it doesn't,
take out the
charge bar, remove the powder slide, then remove the measure assembly
set screws
and
the sub-measure plate (watch the powder slide spring!). Check that
there is no debris in the measure channel. Put the powder slide on the
table
and confirm it lays perfectly flat and has absolutely no bends.
If it does, then probably the best thing to do is replace it.
This plate has to be perfectly flat or it will cause binding.
Now check the powder and shot
seals to confirm that they are
smooth and not projecting up excessively—they should be flush
or perhaps a touch low (unless you have card stock under the powder
seal to help combat the ball powder housekeeping issue) and completely
intact. I've also
occasionally found shot somehow got on the outside rim of the
shot seal—now looking looking quite flat and polished! It's
probably wise to remove both seals and make sure there is no debris in
the seal openings. While things are apart,
inspect the shot rotor rivet on the sub-measure plate for tightness.
The rotor should be
wobble free. If it's wobbly, you can try tightning it, but you'll
probably wind up just replacing the assembly—and Hornady does
sell
the rotor and sub measure plate combination as an assembly.Take a look
at the cam bearing on the charge bar. If it's
frozen,
it's probably better to replace it.
As you reassemble the unit,
pull on the powder slide spring to insure that it is in the furthest
out position. When putting the powder
slide in, make very sure that it's in position, usually going home with
a bit of a click. It may take some fussing with. Install and slide the
charge bar back and forth. It has to move
quite freely.
Check that the powder slide spring drops perfectly/locks into
the notch on the powder slide. If
you've found the powder slide slips into the "off"
position in the past—even with charge bar moving
freely—take
a look at how the powder slide spring fits into the powder slide notch.
Sometimes the notch in the powder slide is a bit small and a slight
enlargement with a small round file fixes the problem, allowing the
spring to engage deeper. Finally, rotate the shot rotor. It should move
freely.
Re-install the measure assembly back on the 366, confirming the measure
is in the die head cutout perfectly and that the powder
measure screw threads in effortlessly. The measure attaching bolt must
thread in easily after mounting the
measure casting assembly. If it does not, you may need to do a bit of
fitting work on the measure casting assembly or use another one if you
have it.
Finally, confirm that the shot
rotor and powder slide move freely between positions. Sometimes
the shot rotor slide spring can ride up during installation and bind.
As a finishing touch,
wipe on a drop or two of oil on each of the support bars. The
binding issue should
now be resolved. . .
Another
source of excessive resistance is if the primer deprime punch is bent.
If
bent, the punch will not align to knock out the primer perfectly as the
punch
will hit the side of the primer flash hole and will slide
in—when
you provide the additional force—from the off-center of the
hole.
Adjust the deprime punch guide so
that the tip of the primer deprime punch is exposed only a little more
than needed to knock out the primer -- about 1/4" (A 1/4-20 nut will be
needed
to hold the de-prime punch guide in this position). This deprime punch
guide
position will also enable you to eject a resized 27 mm (1.10") "brass"
hull—although with some extra effort—if you choose
to load
these.
If the
index plate moves with too much effort after
switching to an import primer, as from a Remington 209P to a Fiocchi in
an STS hull, the cure is to insure the primer is seated flush with the
hull's base. Euro primers tend to be larger than domestic primers and
thus do not go into American target hulls without additional seating
pressure. A small adjustment to the primer seating station is needed.
Make sure you have the proper recipe for the new Euro primer in your
load!
If the
shell binds in the taper-lok station on
ejection, it may be because the brass has sizing issues, perhaps
because the hull was not resized properly causing the hull to bind up
between the casting and the index plate. Some guns damage hull's brass
so
badly, that the resizing operation cannot bring the dimensions back
into tolerance. Alternatively, it may be that debris has accumulated
and
a
quick clean will eliminate the problem.
In the
instance of hard operating handle resistance rather than binding, when
there is
insufficient pre-fold, the crimp plunger can hit the case mouth and
rather
than a smooth push-down, the case mouth is crushed (causing the
resistance) until the plastic
folds down.
Left: the center of the crimp has been crushed back. Right, this is the way it should look with proper pre-fold: nice, sharp crimp center points.
On wads that do not easily flow through the wad guide:
1 -
Resistance can
be
caused by old or missing wad guide finger(s) causing wads to catch on
the hull's lip.
Examples of
old, broken and new wad guides. The old wad guide now measures 13/32"
or
10 mm whereas the new one measures 5/16" or 8 mm across the top. The
missing finger example can be used—with a bit of
luck—if time is
taken to align the missing
finger section with the hull's outward fold each time,
pretty much destroying production rate. Best to keep a few spares in
your spare parts box!
2 - If
the
wads catch
on the hull lip due to wad guide fingers not entering the
case
perfectly, could be the case is
tipped on
the
station. Causes could include: primers seated properly? Something under
the hull? Wad pressure spring needs
attention? Indexing not engaged or index plate not perfectly flat?
Picked-up hull cooked by the sun into
an arc?
3 - In some
cases—especially 6 folds—after
the case has been reloaded several times the case mouth tends
to
close up a
bit.
Using
a wad guide
spring helps as the wad guide fingers get placed into the case before
the wad ram starts to
move the wad. Alternatively/additionally, a Precision
Reloading MMHS7
hull saver tool can be used to open up a questionable case mouth a bit
before loading. Ballistic
Products also offers tools for this.
4
- Case
mouth damaged, perhaps by being caught on the powder drop tube
or primer seating ram.
5 - Case
mouth too damaged, as by previous bad crimp.
6 - Wads
with cushion-section discs, as Remington TGT8 and 12 tend to
have flow resistance at the disc portion during insertion
(makes
you wonder if
the
overpowder cup caught on the case mouth forcing constant
checking).
7 -
Some 24
gram-usable wads that go through the wad guide easily
include Federal 12S0, or its Claybuster equivalent, B&P's T2
(BP's "078Lighting"), plus the Winchester line's WW12L and
WW12SL and their
Claybuster equivalents.
8 - If you
have an old black-anodized steel wad guide assembly, try a new one.
The wads seem go through easier on the newer aluminum
assemblies.
(See also The 366: part V for
the annual maintenance.)
Every
few sessions, wipe a thin
coat of oil on each of the main guide posts by putting a few drops of
good quality gun oil on a
Kleenex or rag and wiping the support posts. The 366 requires
only an occasional drop of
oil in
the base
casting oil holes, on the charge bar cam bearing and
auto-index cam
bearings. Use only
best quality non-gumming oil. If you
wouldn't use it on your Perazzi, don't use it on your 366 for
the same reasons.
Cleaning
as
obvious. Dab of grease on the wad guide clip, if
used. Clean and a drop of oil on the swing-out wad guide rod
under the return spring
retainer. Dab of grease on the resizing
rod head. Check that the charge bar cam bearing spins freely.
Check that the prefold die spins very
freely. If it doesn't pull the die and rod out of the machine,
wipe off the rod and run a Q tip down the bushing.
After
loading many, many shells, the primer seating station can get
sticky or sluggish. Perhaps the hulls in-station now consistently have
a
tilt.
This means it's time to clean accumulated debris out and check the
primer seater assembly
spring. When you remove the assembly
from the loader, hold a container
below to catch the falling debris. While you have the primer seater
assembly out, disassemble it
and put the
spring on a flat surface to confirm the top of the spring is parallel
to the bottom. If
it isn't (and it won't be if hulls are a-tilting) bend the spring
parallel or replace
with a new primer seater spring, whichever seems to be best.
A
very
occasional check of the final crimp station for crud buildup and
cleaning with a bore brush also belongs on the maintenance list,
especially if you
load papers. A dab of silicone spray couldn't hurt.
If
you have unknown
hulls you've picked up from the
ground, resize them first to make things a lot
easier. Shells that come from
proper-sized chambers, as Perazzi's, for example, are quite easy
to resize—if you choose to—with little effort
required. The fun begins when you
pick up hulls
that have been through pumps and autos whose
chambers allow the hull base to
really expand and are pulled out of roundness by the
extractor.
The resizing effort may well be not
worth saving the hull if it works
satisfactorily at all.
When
reloading steel based
hulls, absolutely resize the hulls first as often
the steel base sides will crush. (A partially crushed side may look
okay on the reloading bench, but it will likely be tough to close the
gun
at the range. It probably will also cause binding in the index plate.
The steel "crunch" makes
the base
diameter larger.) Or, as an alternative,
put
a supply
of resized shells aside for use when one crushes.
The old purple Fiocchi's were
especially bad for this. Use
of an older,
worn, resizing ring helps
minimize the steel "crunch." For hulls that have a very small amount of
crush, a good
"pass" test is if the shell fits easily into the shell plate, although
you possibly may find the hull binds on
ejection from the Taper-Lok station.
An example of 8 mm steel rims crushing when resizing. Usually this happens because the hulls were fired in an autoloader and the extractor pulls the steel away from the hull's side.
Another
example of unusable cases. The bulge is often very difficult to
eliminate
and it's best to just junk hulls that have this. It's a real bummer to
see this in STS and AAHS hulls.
Consider
putting pieces of tape on the head die casting above the Taper-Lok and
pre-fold dies. Prevents crud accumulation.
Add
the small bore wad rod
spring clip (Hornady part #390021, wad rod spring) to press against the
wad seating
guide rod. Decreases problems with the wad catching on the
hull's case mouth. (The
plastic wad guide is forced into the case mouth before the wad
ram starts to press on the wad, minimizing the chance for case
mouth tearing.)
Keep a
candle
to drip sealing wax
on the occasional “oops” crimp for a leak-free last
trip
to the range. Saves you from
tearing the shell down
and
remaking it. Just be careful and safe with the open candle
flame. Of
course
you
can always fix the bad crimp folds with a needle nose pliers and a
spare crimp fold die. If you want to take the time: you can get them
good enough, tho rarely perfect.
If
you shoot different
loads in each barrel,
consider
an extra 12 gauge
head so that you can leave your regular die
head set for
your normal first-barrel load: the
one you shoot the most. Saves the
hassle of getting everything back to where it
was before you started
twisting everything to accommodate the second
load. For example, if you use two separate
loads for bunker, as
AAHS 8's in first barrel and Remington NITRO 7 1/2's or Baschieri
&
Pellagri 7 1/2's in
the second barrel (two different hulls
and component sets), each head can
be adjusted/optimized for
perfect crimps with
each load. Saves a lot of time and
frustration getting things just
right. It's
a less than one-minute change-over.
Buy
the after-market
larger reservoirs. They are often seen for sale on the www.trapshooters.com
forum. One such is www.basicdesignmachine.com. Jim
Skeel: **xskeeljc@verizon.net**x is a
new, recent supplier and
his
product looks very nice (Remove the **x for his email address). The
factory-supplied small tube shot reservoir contains
enough shot to
load something like 125 shells. The
after-market tubes more than improve that.
The latest offering will
accept the entire 25 pound bag of shot (I suspect
it's no fun changing shot and powder
bushings when the shot tube is
full!).
If
you use ball
powders, the after market
reservoirs will neatly eliminate powder tube leakage. Adding a
business-card thick washer
tube-side under the rubber powder measure seal
will minimize leakage via
the charge bar. The older rubber seals were
thicker than those currently available and the
business-card washer will make up the difference.
As
noted
above,
the charge bar must move
easily after adding the washer to prevent other
problems, as binding and erratic drops. The standard 366 powder
tube will leak when using ball powders until you put tape around it to
seal
the gap where the tube
meets the measure casting. Buy
a “coal-shuttle”
handle to replace the ball-type handle that comes with
the machine.
It's easier on the palm for long loading sessions and/or with
the harder to resize hulls. Make sure the handle will
fit your machine
model before purchase.
Always
ensure the hull's pre-fold
is sufficient. The shortest hull needs to have at about a
1/4”diameter hole from the die. If it is
substantially wider, you run the risk that the case
mouth will be caught in the final crimp
die,
forcing you to remove the die from the head and carefully
dismantle it.
Should this
happen, before removal, count the threads exposed above the
head die casting to
make re-installation easier. If too
tight, and the component selection length is
correct, you will have a
convex, domed crimp that often will open—especially with
older
hulls—and leave you with BB's in your shell pocket
at the
range.
When
loading those
precious 28 and 410 hulls, establish a loading sequence: confirm the
shell plate has indexed, then start to lower the operating handle and
insure that the primer punch enters the case cleanly. Continue down
with the operating handle, aligning the crimp starter manually
to the
hull's folds. Then check that the hull under the shot drop tube is
centered with the drop tube; finally, check that the powder drop tube
is about to enter the primed hull perfectly, then bottom the operating
lever. While most of the time, especially with new hulls, things go
perfectly, this procedure will guarentee perfection will happen every
time. The need for extra care is greater with the hull's reloaded count
because of the less than wide open case mouth and the less than flat
brass bottom's (causing tilt) of some scrounged hulls. 28 and
410 hulls, are relatively expensive to come by and the name of
the
game is to get the maximum life out of them (larger bore hulls are more
available: the occasional one that comes out defective and
must be disposed of isn't costly). Besides, cosmetically perfect small
bore hulls that always go bang are great for the ego! And your scores...
On
start up, the first
powder drop will be heavy, perhaps as much as a grain or
so. The second drop
will be on the light side with the third and subsequent drops
pretty much spot-on. Shot drops are similar.
If
you ever wind up with
powder and shot mixed (usually happens when a wad is omitted), have a
bowl-shaped piece of
non-static, non-ferrous (as
copper) window screen handy. The
screen's holes allow powder to drop through into a
receptacle of your choosing while the shot
remains on
the screen. You
also could build up a screen-holding framework if you like, as some
do. Have
a few resized hulls at the ready. Put a
dead
primer in one, mark it clearly and have it available. These hulls will
come in
handy to expedite the occasional minor
oopses that happen: forgetting to put a fresh case in,
rejecting a case after
resizing for various reasons and no-primer instances.
With
long 24 gram wads, the supplied wad ram can be too long if you're
looking
to use
zero wad pressure. Sometimes you get into a situation where the wad cup
petals are too tall for the wad ram to go over and you have to slip the
wad up into the ram before seating it in the wad guide. The solution
is—you guessed it—take the ram out of the 366 and
take off about a
1/16" of the ram and reface it with the original bevel. You'll find
that it's still plenty long for just about all your loads, even though
it's shorter.
Speaking of wad rams, substituting a (smaller diameter) 20 gauge wad ram (part #390158) for the normal 12 gauge ram will help if you find that occasionally shot cup petals are being folded into the wad cup during the seating operation. You'll still need to check that the wayward petal is laying against the hull wall after insertion, otherwise it can cause a convex crimp if shot gets between the petal and the hull wall, but it can often save the need to bend the petal out manually—except in the worst cases—before placing the wad in the guide.
The deprime
punch guide can be
adjusted to a more
comfortable place on the
upstroke. The actual proper place is at the lowest point where the
primers are knocked out totally reliably—about a 1/4". This
point will insure the
deprime punch guide centers the deprime rod in the hull's flash hole.
You can adjust the deprime punch guide up until the deprime punch rod
starts to very occasionally miss the hull's flash hole for a more
comfortable upstoke, then come down a bit.
Don't
forget to wash your hands thoroughly
when
you've finished the loading session and have the shells all
boxed
up. Lots of bad stuff accumulates
on your hands, if only from handling the fired hulls.
Finger foods while reloading are definitely not a good idea. Need
details?
See the various MSDS (Material Safety Document Sheet)
documents on
the manufacturer's web sites.
366 Foibles and Their Solutions:
All reloading machines have their problems from operator goofs and normal wear and tear. The 366 is no exception. By paying quality attention and allowing nothing to distract you, you'll never experience these problems!
If
you have an OE
(Operational Error) involving shot drop and shot flies all over
the index plate, you probably will find the
index plate
becomes jammed and will not rotate. This is a very easy fix,
taking only a moment or two.
To fix, remove as
many shells as you need to—loosening or even
removing the index plate if truly
necessary—and use
the long handle screwdriver tip
(see tool list)
to dislocate the wedged-under pellets from
the index
plate ring. Run a resized hull around to make certain you
dislodged all the jamming pellets.
If
you experience powder spilling down from the powder drop station onto
the reloading bench, then
you've got a hull-without-a-primer OE. The 366's primer drop
is extremely
reliable, but every once in a while, perhaps due to a tough
resizing hull or not
quite bottoming the operating handle, it happens. Of course,
you could have run out of
primers too!
At
this point, probably the best thing to do is: 1 – place a
powder
scale pan under the station and gently
tap the hull to get the
remaining powder out. This eliminates a messy
trail of powder that creates a
housekeeping problem when you rotate the index plate back to station 1
to remove
the hull. 2 – if you use the auto-advance
feature, move the pawl to a neutral
position, rotate the index plate
and remove the primerless hull. Replace it with a
resized hull that has a dead primer (this
hull will not need a wad in the next
station).
Rotate the index plate
back to position. 3 – Load 2 shells. 4 – when the
dead-primer hull gets
filled with shot, rotate it out and dump the shot.
Leave that index plate position empty. 5 – Re-engage
the auto-advance pawl and continue loading. This
seems to be the the
smoothest way to maintain production
and minimize the powder
spillage housekeeping.
To
minimize the messes
caused from the above OE's, get a large baking jelly roll pan
(Available at any good cooking store or www.cooking.com
for
one URL.) and mount it under the
reloader.
You will need to make a notch to accommodate
the operating handle unless the machine is
mounted on
risers.
This will catch the vast majority of the falling shot
and
powder flakes, making clean-up easy with
a small brush and a piece of paper. A section of copper
screening is
useful to separate propellant particles from shot as noted
above.
Keep
an eye on the primer
feed stop unit. At the first sign of wear—the tipoff
is when 2 or 3 primers start dropping instead of just
one—replace it. Procrastination will not pay
here: well no, maybe it will if you really enjoy the experience of
the
better part of
a full tube of primers emptying out
in front of your eyes! Nor is it
fun rounding up
every last one of those now devilishly-hiding,
well-dispersed primers.
Replace a worn primer feed stop unit at the first
hint of trouble. A spare primer feed stop unit is a very
necessary spare part in your
inventory, along with the primer feed spring. It's no fun reloading
without these.
A
few final
thoughts:
The
hulls that
require the least effort to reload and consistently turn
out perfect with very low bad-crimp rejection rates
are the
best
hulls. This is true regardless of the reloader model chosen, 366 or
other. Less
effort means less fatigue enabling more quality
shells at a
given
sitting on those occasions when that's
important. Not
resizing shells
is an option,
but it will depend on the guns you or your hull
suppliers use.
Some autoloaders and pumps damage hulls badly
enough that the hulls are
not worth the trouble to reload them. The shell index plate is designed
for
re-sized
hulls, but
does have a certain amount of tolerance. If the
hulls will run
easily through the reloader and chamber without
difficulties in your guns, then not re-sizing is an
option and will speed up production, reducing the
effort needed per stroke and eliminating a step. The Hornady
366 gives you the choice as
the resizing station is separate.
Of
course, the
other option is always to remove the measure assembly and resize all
the hulls first. It's amazing how much that speeds up production. Only
thing faster is loading new, primed hulls!
That
said, the last time I
tested for this, the easiest plastic shells to reload
while still resizing—by far—were the 2 (2? Aren't
they really 3
piece? Brass, tube and base wad?) piece AAHS's in 12 and 20
gauge. The 20 is the easier of the two: you can almost
operate
the handle with the baby finger. The worst, as you would expect, are
the steel-based greater
than 8mm "brass" hulls. Otherwise they reload quite well. Federal Gold
Medal
is next easiest with Remington STS type and 8
mm steel based (Fiocchi) hulls roughly in the
same category. If
you choose not
to resize, the AA's are slightly
easier to crimp, then the
other brands follow with little difference between them. Bascheri
& Pellagri hulls,
www.bandpusa.com
are a special case:
the B&P hulls resize extremely
easily, but are hard
to get off the size-die eject bolt due
to the
smaller flash hole. If you don't resize,
and you may well not need
to with the 8mm "brass"
(Flash) Gordon-system hull,
this problem is eliminated by the skipping
the resize/deprime station and just using
the deprime
station. The index
plate will hold the hull in position
as the operating handle goes up eliminating
the need to physically pull the hull off of the universal separate
separate deprime punch rod. Otherwise,
they reload beautifully. (Hodgdon offers Bascheri
&
Pellagri reloading
recipes on their website: www.hodgdon.com.
And of course you get to use the famous B&P T2 wad!)
| Chuck Dietl's comments: You may also want to think over a separate hull sizer (particularly for steel based hulls), such as the MEC Sizemaster, which uses a collet [resizer instead of a ring style -Adm] and takes less effort. |
From a
reloading efficiency standpoint, the
best wads are the ones that are easiest to pick up in proper alignment
to
insert into the wad guide. The result is maximum shell production. It's
also nice if they have the property of sliding with no effort
through the wad guide
into the hull. Probably the best wads are the
Federal/Claybuster 12S0
and Baschieri
& Pellagri T2's.
There is something
about the tactility of these wads that the fingers can quickly grab
them with the
least effort with virtually no fumbling and get them
equally easy into the wad guide. Particularly with the
B&P's and their end of shot cup ties/stitching, there is never
a
need to
fumble with an errant folded-in
shot cup
petal. The 1 ounce AA12SL and Claybuster CB1100-12 PINK wads
are virtually as good. The rest of the pack follows, although the
center
disc wads,
as Remington TGT-12 or Downrange XXL's have always seemed a bit
uncomfortable
to
work with. The hardest
to
deal with, and hence the slowest production comes from,
the Gualandi REX. It needs checking every time to be
sure
the
wad is aligned with shot cup up.
To determine how much of a problem static is, run a few 8mm "brass" translucent white (“clear”) cases through the reloader. You can instantly see if powder flakes are statically clinging to the case sides (a static problem) instead of all falling to the hull's bottom (no static problem) so that the wad's overpowder cup can contain it properly. Examination of the loaded shell will reveal any powder migration out from the wad's over-powder cup, either by candling or by disassembly. Using translucent plastic cases will allow you to actually see just how much a problem exists after the shell is loaded. The migration problem is worse with wads for tapered wads because of the small diameter overpowder cup. It's much less with wads for straight-wall cases as the larger diameter overpowder cup will push more of or all of the powder particles down as the wads gets seated on the powder. And the larger the flakes, the more likely they will be pushed down. Regrettably, large-flake, as Vectan AS24 or B&P F2 powders are not available in the USA...
 |
 |
Putting a Cling-Free sheet in each box of stored-away hulls seems to help, as does occasionally exchanging the (now graphite-coated) shot tube for the powder tube. You can try grounding the machine, but the only good ground worthwhile trying is a short piece of heavy wire -- at least 8/0 -- or flat copper strap electrically solidly-connected to a cold water pipe... Avoid rugs or other static generators on the floor. Static draining mats are available from office supply stores, but they need a solid ground to work best; electric outlets generally offer unreliable grounds.
Since there are always problems that I have never or rarely experienced (for example I don't use the auto-advance or gas assist features so I cannot comment), I would be glad to add further suggestions and solutions or hear comments. Email: admin@bunkershooter.com.
(I don't use the auto advance as I quickly found that I had to be careful to raise the operating lever smoothly in order to insure the primer dropped into the priming station. Hard-to-resize steel-base hulls made this difficult. Since my original 1971 366 didn't have the auto-advance and I had loaded tens of thousands of shells without the auto advance it was easy for me to go back and operate without it. I also found the auto-advance would occasionally get out of adjustment and I had to adjust the back bearing and/or pawl assembly. Removing it meant one less thing to go wrong and less effort on the operating handle's upstroke. With the AAHS's ease of resizing perhaps I wouldn't have given up on it as the hulls come easily out of the resizing die making it effortless to smoothly drop the primer.)
End part II, 40 years with the Hornady 366.
Link to Part I: Introduction
Link
to Part II: General problem solutions
Link
to Part III: On poor crimps, 410 reloading
Link to Part IV: Changing gauges
Link to Part V: Annual maintenance
Link to Part VI: On buying a used 366
Thanx
to Chuck
Dietl
for reviewing and sharing his comments to make this
article better.
Appreciation
is extended to Ryan
Vijil for
the inspiration to write this series.
As
always in America
in these times,
use of the
information above is at your own risk.
A final note of appreciation and a big thanks to Hornady for keeping the 366 reloader in production and parts easily available!
Rev 3.1Last revision: 3/2012