Not up to Sinclair quality
Longer XL aluminum body with good plastic thumbscrew, and takes the excellently machined Sinclair bump and bullet inserts perfectly. Also will take the Hornady inserts.
But, I expect the edges of the slot of the comparator to make full contact with the caliper blade. However the slot is cut at a rounded angle, so the “flat” part of the cut only has about a 70% contact with the blade of the caliper! So the comparator body is easily shifted, and has minimal firm contact with the caliper. Screw it on tight to the blade and hold it up to the light, and there are gaps on both sides, and entire sections of the flat that don’t contact the caliper blade. I spent 30 minutes flattening the contact flat with a file, but it’s wider open at the top as well, so it’s at an angle, so more file work to make it at 90 degrees top to bottom. The thumbscrew non contact side of the slot is even worse. Take a look at the pics here on the website, expand them and you can see the marked up outside of the body at the slot, as well as some of the rounded slot edges. The cheaper red Hornady body is dead flat with no gaps or visible spaces. This is up to $27 now, I think it was $8 or $10 less when I bought it, and I still feel like I paid too much. I have a bunch of Sinclair stuff, and it’s all first rate, but this is not in that category. You won’t easily find XL comparator bodies anywhere else though, so just try to buy it on sale then expect to spend time with a file fixing the hacked in slot they shipped it with. Whoever allowed this to leave the Sinclair factory is not a good ambassador for their product line. At least their pix here represent some of the same lousy machining. Disappointing, especially as it would have been so incredibly easy to cut the slot properly.
Had To Modify to fit RCBS Calliper
After I used my Dremel tool and a flat file to widen the slot for attaching my RCBS calliper and adding a missing set screw to hold the inserts, I was able to measure cases consistently. This was not the quality I expected from Sinclair. I waited for the Sinclair tool to be in stock rather than order the Hornady tool that was in stock. I was getting 1/2 MOA groups with my reloads with one rifle without this tool, but I thought maybe I should make sure I was sizing the cases correctly. Not sure I gained anything.
Little disappointed
Already have the hornady version with inserts for bump measurements. Needed bullet comparator and wanted the stainless inserts offered by sinclair. Bought the sinclair base to have an extra even though the inserts work with either brand, didn't want to be swapping inserts for bullet and bump measurements. The sinclair base has a groove just barely over the width of my starrett caliper jaw, which is good except for the burr from tapping the set screw. Won't fit without some work. The hornady has a wider offset groove with set screw tapped from either side allowing a centered or offset body position relative to the caliper. The offset allows cases and completed cartridges to tip in and out of the caliper opening easier. The hornady set screw is solid brass with a round finished nose for clamping to your caliper. The sinclair has a rough unfinished steel screw with plastic knurled screw head. Probably won't hurt hardened stainless caliper jaw, but I prefer the solid brass. I think the best set up is the sinclair stainless inserts and the hornady bodies.
