Hydro forming dies, Whidden or Hornady?

[Alibiiv]

Presently we (son and I) are having two, .280 Ackley Improved 40 degree (wildcat) built. We have settled on this caliber, we figured that if we are going to make our own brass anyway, we might just as well have a unique rifle made. The rifles are being used for target shooting to 500 yards and hopefully a mule deer/antelope hunt. I am looking to purchase a set of hydro forming dies, the only manufacturers that I have read about are Hornady and Whidden. Is one company better to go with for ease of use or reliability, or are we talking the Ford or Chevy debate? I believe that I have read where dimensions of the gunsmith's reamers are helpful or required when getting the dies made?

 

[Salmonchaser]

I just started looking into this myself, for my .338 Jarrett. Looking forward to any information.

 

[Alibiiv]

I just started looking into this myself, for my .338 Jarrett. Looking forward to any information.

Stay tuned! There's a lot to be learned from these forums.

 

[Orange Dust]

Tagging in. I would like to know also. Great way to save barrel life on a cat

 

[Bullwhacker]

Watching as well....

 

[NEMTHunter]

I Have used the Whidden Hydro die set. It works great. I gave them the reamer drawing and they built it from that. One thing I learned is keep the O-ring in the ram lubed.

I know nothing about the Hornady.

 

[Alibiiv]

I Have used the Whidden Hydro die set. It works great. I gave them the reamer drawing and they built it from that. One thing I learned is keep the O-ring in the ram lubed.

I know nothing about the Hornady.

Great thanks for the reply. Are these dies messy to use? The reason for asking is that my press is attached right to my loading bench with all of the other reloading equipment; bullets, primers, powder, scales and all the rest of reloading stuff.

 

[can1010]

I have a couple and if set up right will work great and save a lot of range trips
I use the Whidden and they should be able to make a 280 AI without a reamer print
like said earlier keep the ram and O-rings well lubed with gun grease

 

[NEMTHunter]

Great thanks for the reply. Are these dies messy to use? The reason for asking is that my press is attached right to my loading bench with all of the other reloading equipment; bullets, primers, powder, scales and all the rest of reloading stuff.

Depends on your idea of messy. It can make a mess if your not careful. You can take simple measures to keep that from being a problem. To me it was not bad. BUT I did use a rag at times to help keep water from flying around. The biggest thing to me was to keep as much water out of the ram of the press. Mine will rust. So I would dry and oil the ram of the press after each use.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Called Whidden today, the person I spoke with was confident they had done a 338 Jarrett, the answer man was out of the shop. One way or another I'll be ordering tomorrow.

 

[Bravo 4]

Presently we (son and I) are having two, .280 Ackley Improved 40 degree (wildcat) built. We have settled on this caliber, we figured that if we are going to make our own brass anyway, we might just as well have a unique rifle made. The rifles are being used for target shooting to 500 yards and hopefully a mule deer/antelope hunt. I am looking to purchase a set of hydro forming dies, the only manufacturers that I have read about are Hornady and Whidden. Is one company better to go with for ease of use or reliability, or are we talking the Ford or Chevy debate? I believe that I have read where dimensions of the gunsmith's reamers are helpful or required when getting the dies made?

How is the .280 AI (wildcat) you are building any different than the SAMMI .280 AI? If they are one and the same, then why don't you just buy commercially available Nosler or Hornady brass?
I have a Whidden hydraulic form die (for a much larger case) and personally don't really like using it.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I have a couple of Hornady dies they seem to work just fine. They don't need an O-ring.

I don't remember if I sent him fired cases or reamer drawing or a reamer.

 

[Alibiiv]

How is the .280 AI (wildcat) you are building any different than the SAMMI .280 AI? If they are one and the same, then why don't you just buy commercially available Nosler or Hornady brass?
I have a Whidden hydraulic form odie (for a much larger case) and personally don't really like using it.

I have a couple of Hornady dies they seem to work just fine. They don't need an O-ring.

I don't remember if I sent him fired cases or reamer drawing or a reamer.

The original.280 Ackley Improved (wildcat) is .014 thousandth longer than the accepted.280 AI SAAMI case that has been adopted by Nosler as their standardized round. For whatever reason Nosler chose to make their case .014 thousandths shorter than the original 280AI wildcat and as a result have created a nightmare for everyone to try to figure out. All of Ackley's original wildcat cartridges essentially used the same donor cartridge dimensions only he changed the angle of the shoulder to 40 degrees, and straightened out some of the taper on the sides of the casing. And that's my best explanation on the subject

 

[TOM H]

The original.280 Ackley Improved (wildcat) is .014 thousandth longer than the accepted.280 AI SAAMI case that has been adopted by Nosler as their standardized round. For whatever reason Nosler chose to make their case .014 thousandths shorter than the original 280AI wildcat and as a result have created a nightmare for everyone to try to figure out. All of Ackley's original wildcat cartridges essentially used the same donor cartridge dimensions only he changed the angle of the shoulder to 40 degrees, and straightened out some of the taper on the sides of the casing. And that's my best explanation on the subject

Did you know that Nosler has loading data for 280 Rem Ackley Improved in their manual # 4, 1996 and that case length is 2.525". Manual # 5 has same data 2002.. When Nosler # 6 came out 2007 it had SAAMUI Spec 280AI,
they made few changes to the case that was in manual 4/5. If you want PM your address I'll send you data for those 3 manual's. My wildcat 280AI is cut from reamer that Nosler used. I also knew back then it wasn't standard AI. Why would Nosler publish 20yr of data for 280AI case length 2.525" that's not Ackley and no one noticed.