Hornady Concentricity Gage

[Jester8]

Picked up one the Hornady Lock N Load concentricity gage last night after reading some reviews on Midway. I have never worried about concentricity before and thought that it would be nice to see how concentric my loaded rounds were.

The unit was pretty easy to set up, and it allows you to remove the runout in your cartridge by way of a screw that pushes the bullet one way or the other. Some cartridges that were .004, I pushed back to .0005, and so on. Was really able to get it to dead nuts 0, but I figure that was good enough. Seems like a well made product and I would recommend it.

With virgin brass the bullets were running about .002-.004 concentric. Some were a little further out. Never thought they would be that far out of spec. Interesting to me.

My fireformed annealed brass ranged from .001-.0025. I thought that was pretty good too. I am going to check and see how my new Lapua brass will be. I am using standard RCBS FL dies. Nothing fancy.

Just thought that I would share that in case anyone else was thinking about buying one of these units.

What are you guys typically seeing for bullet run out on your reloads?

 

[vman]

Re: Hornady Concentricity Gage

I dont know what my runout is, as I dont have the equipment.

I was actually looking at this unit a couple of months ago. I might put it on my christmas list.

 

[Wild_Bill]

Re: Hornady Concentricity Gage

i would use them to chek the runout but if you push the projectile to straighten them you will loosen your neck tension creating primary ignition issues i just have the rifle throated correctly and after you fire form the cases you should not have to worry i think more people worry about things that realy dont make much difference intoe wash especialy at long range where the air density changes will create more problems than a .004" run out projectile you must also halve that making it 2 thou out when the cartrige is fired the projectile is not supported and can alighn in the throat.

tro some of the worst rounds then straighten some and shoot both at 1000 yards and see if there is a difference if there is not any difference you know you can just keep loading as you are and shoot more.

It is a good tool to check you loading procedures befoe fire forming and after and leave it at that.

 

[gcoulsey]

Re: Hornady Concentricity Gage

I have also owned this for a while now, and find it a great tool also,
The pros and cons of pushing the bullet straight versus altering neck tension has been discussed previously on similar threads about the tool,
But in a nutshell,
I ran some tests at 500 yards with straigh rounds, and compared them to
Rounds I purposely bent out about .005" and back straight again,
And POI and velocity spreads were the same.

Over 500 yards my shooting ability masks any possible small variations in tension Caused by the tool, whereas keeping the rounds straight certainly keeps my groups tighter than not using it at all.

Worth the time and money spent for me

 

[427Cobra]

Re: Hornady Concentricity Gage

I owned one, its a POS, my Sinclair tool always reads .001 or less, the same rounds always read .003 or more run out on the Hornadee tool, I think a straightening tool is a good idea, but not the Hornadee tool.

 

[vman]

Re: Hornady Concentricity Gage

Fair enough. Perhaps I wont need one then. I listen to Bills advice whenever he gives it

After reading over Bryan Litz book recently, I have realised that unless I get to the level of an elite world class 1000 yard shooter, all of this nit picky detail stuff like bullet pointing and runout will most likely be masked by my lack of solid experience.

 

[Jester8]

Re: Hornady Concentricity Gage

In response to vman, and 427Cobra,

Do you think taht the unit is made cheaply? Sinclair pumps out some good stuff. Should've probably looked at those first. I too am starting to question the accuracy of the gage itself now that you mention it. I don't really know of any good way of testing its accuracy. Do you have any suggestions?

vman-I hear where you are coming from. I was just curious, probably as you are. I am going to play around with it some more. Hell, if I can't see any noticeable results (which at my shooting ability I don't shoot tiny bug hole groups anyways) I can always take it back.

Either way, thank you for your input guys. It's always good to get other peoples point of view.

 

[Jester8]

Re: Hornady Concentricity Gage

That makes good sense Wild_Bill. I will try it out.

 

[427Cobra]

Re: Hornady Concentricity Gage

I think it was the way the case is held, and FWIW measuring runout on new brass is a waste of time, until the case has been fired and the dents blown out and the case it self is concentric no tool will read TIR, I bought a NECO CAT to straighten the few that need it.

 

[gcoulsey]

Re: Hornady Concentricity Gage

I havnt had the quality issues with mine that cobra has done,
I did cross check the rounds with a different gage, rolling them on a v-block,
And both dials agreed with each other over 10 randomly picked rounds,
That was good enough for me, so I've trusted mine since then.

There certainly is a knack to using it though, holding the black ball end very gently to stop it from rotating as you turn the round over,
If your heavy handed with the black ball it will effect the reading..

I did polish the stem in a drill that holds the bullet tips, because I was getting a tiny ring mark with AMAX bullits.. Barely touched it with the dremmel and it's fine now.

FWIW, I'm really pleased with it, I'm no BR shooter though!!

 

[Chanonry]

Re: Hornady Concentricity Gage

I appreciate the benefits of the ability to rectify runout in some circumstances but I do think this is missing the point.

My view is that we can use quality tools and consistently load to very low runouts. The gauge is good for measuring runout as various stages to isolate process problems so the process itself can be rectified.

Once you have a solid process you don't need to measure everytime never mind bend the bullets that are out of spec. You can just sample test. More consistent quality and less time?