Updated from old Pacific trimmer
I needed a trimmer that had a replaceable cutter head, & since I'm a Hornady fan, this was the natural choice. Works like a charm.
Beats my Forster Timmer Any Day
I am on a long range F-class shooting team and shoot an average of 200-400 rounds of .308 a week. With that said I have always used a forster trimmer and the brass was ALWAYS +/- .003 from the desired trim setting. I bought this trimmer just to give it a try about a month ago and was impressed from the first second. As with everything I use I double check everything for the first few hundred rounds to make sure I trust something. I used my mic on my .308 brass on over 200 rounds and I believe I had maybe 4 rounds that were not right on the money and even those were over/under no more than .001". I will say that it took a few testing trims to get it exact trim length but after that it was great. If I had to change calibers daily my review might be a little lower but for my use it is great. My only complaint is the locking nuts in theory should be locked tight and not easily able to move but II had them tight and somehow I moved them and didn't know so I had a few pieces of brass that were too short before I caught it. To correct this I drilled and tapped an extra set screw on the forward ring just like a die set screw so now that is a moot point.
Outstanding Case Trimmer
This is one of my favorite Hornady reloading tools because it is easy to use and rock solid. The cam-lock feature is very innovative and it holds the case head securely. The cutting head squares the case mouth beautifully. This is a trimmer not a cutter so adjust accordingly. The cam-lock trimmer will trim to a uniform case length every time once the lock nut and knob is secured. The instructions were also very helpful.
Now with more pilots
This trimmer now comes with 10 pilots. The pilot numbers are 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 15, 19. You need to refer to the Hornady cross reference chart that lists the dies, shell holders, etc. for the corresponding calibers.
Good and Bad
I like the idea of a trimmer that will handle larger calibers------using a shell holder of the proper caliber is great-----BUT,I have 50+ shell holders that will NOT work with this trimmer---you must use Hornady shell holders---so now I have 75+ shell holders
Needs more engineering
This trimmer drives me nuts trying to set it to a specific case length that I want. The two piece "micro adjust" is anything but as the lock ring drags the adjust ring with it and not in a uniform manner.I'd like to sell this thing.
Buy something else
Works OK if you are only trimming 0-0.005". Anything more will produce inaccurate results. If you want +/-0.001" accuracy you will have to re-adjust / re-chuck every case. Best use = hi-vis paper weight
Stripped out
Bought one of these and got it home. Went to install the cutter and it stripped out the threads in the mandrel. Returned it and got another to have the same thing happen. So I had to wrap the threads on the cutter with plumbers tape to get it to tighten. I can see one lemon... But two in a row.
