Notes on the Hornady 366 auto shotshell
reloading Press:

Part I:      Introduction, mounting set-up, powder/shot bushings discussion for 
               loading legal Int'l trap and skeet shells plus 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 maintence.

Part VI:   Some thoughts on the buying of a used 366. Also includes the essential tool and                      recommended spare parts lists.

Index:

Disclaimer

Purpose

Personal history

General machine recommendations

New or Used?

Special note for multi-gauge or 4 gun skeet shooters

Mounting

Powder bushings

Shot bushings

Good habits

Recommended Tools

Recommended spare parts

Disclaimer/Safety Cautions:

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 40 years of 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 booklet 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. The Lyman 5 ^th 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 (RCBS:"The 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. You will also find that Hornady's tech support is second to none and will be of tremendous help. They're just plain good people!

366 Purpose:

The Hornady 366 is a versatile shotshell reloading tool that will allow the easy assembly of single shells for experimental purposes with a scale, as to determine best component combinations for a perfect crimp, or to do high volume production—about 400 12 gauge shells per hour—as needed or desired (The 410's and 28's loading rate will be slower, as you might expect. A range of 200 - 400 shells per hour is perhaps more realistic, depending on case mouth condition.). Part description terms used throughout will be as used by Hornady in their latest manual's parts diagram, on page 23, now available at www.hornady.com. IF USING an older manual, you will find some of the parts are described slightly differently.

Personal history:

Why I came to buy a 366: At the time of the 1971 Grand American, I was still shooting Remington 1100 autoloaders for skeet. I was also using a MEC model 400 single stage reloader (no longer made). Nice machine, but as a single stage model, it was never intended for production. With the center handle operating position, it was also bothering my wrist and elbow, probably as a consequence of needing the highest possible production rate.

The MEC 400 had an optional #348 resizing die that was designed to squeeze the shell body dimensions closer to SAAMI factory specifications. The die was tight enough that most factory shells would drop no more than about about 70 - 80% of the way into the die. I decided to start trying to choose a new machine by size-testing shells made on the demonstration reloading machines at the Grand since getting reloaded shells to reliably chamber was of equal importance to increased production. After testing all the machines on offer, the Pacific (Hornady) was the clear winner. 

For a partial history of the 366's evolution, see http://pacificreloaders.awardspace.com. Site also shows early catalogs, setting up the Pacific 366-DL and more. An additional URL resource is: http://en.wikipedia.org. Note that Hornady has recently uploaded many of the earlier Pacific model instruction manuals onto their website.

General Machine type recommendations:

Everybody has an opinion based on their personal experiences. Or that of their friends. All the tools have their virtues and difficulties. And one loaders virtues/difficulties is another's “So what”, as you may have noticed on such forums as trapshooters.com or shotgunworld.com. For information on other brands of loading tools, please look under reloading on the master links page. Many new machines have come on the market in recent years (RCBS, Dillon and Spolar to name three), and it may be that one of them will be of greater interest. I will say that the Hornady has given me 40 years of service with very few problems; it has never failed me. I can unhesitatingly recommend it.

Here are my biased observations on some alternatives: If all you need is an occasional few shells, then a single stage loader like the MEC 650 will do the job. A Ponsness-Warren 375 is more expensive, but a very nice alternative with fast, easy die-head option gauge change if needed (by few, I suggest if you are shooting more than 75 shells a week, the machine's slowness will quickly catch up with you and reloading will become a true chore.)

Next step up, with a commensurate increase in the operational knowledge and experience required, the MEC Auto-Mate/9000G is worth considering, but I am not clear as to the production per hour figures. It likely will eliminate the resizing effort issue. If you need more than 20,000 shells a year and/or the operating handle of a manual press bothers your hand, arm or elbow, then perhaps a hydraulic model Ponsness-Warren with automatic hull feeder is the way to go: just insert a wad, press the foot pedal and you get another shell. If you REALLY need production, look for a small model (used?) BSM commercial loader (See www.bsn.it for a nice video of the latest small model in operation). Push the start button and get a 1200 boxed shells per hour production rate and since it uses only new primed hulls, the shells will always chamber (Well, should!). You'll probably need a week or two in Italy to learn how to operate, adjust and maintain it though. And, yes, they do make faster/bigger models that crank out in excess of 10,000 shells an hour. But, all tongue in cheek kidding aside and all things considered, for the price—about $250ish used, $550ish new—the Hornady 366 can't be beat. Figure about 400 12 gauge bunker shells in about an hour of steady, error free effort: far more cartridges than you need for a day (probably even for most weekends) of bunker shooting.

It should be mentioned that there are after-market suppliers of hydraulic and electric motor power-assist systems for the 366. They are not inexpensive. Hornady itself has yet to offer them and that may be significant in itself. While I have little personal experience with them, comments are made from time to time on shotgunworld.com, trapshooters.com and other shooting websites. Because these systems insure more consistent machine operation, one would expect the benefits to include more consistent crimps and powder/shot drops. Also, if you have hand, wrist, arm, elbow or shoulder issues, this may be an excellent solution. It would seem wise to have gained considerable experience with the 366 before trying these out.

Does the 366 load 3" 12 gauge shells? Hornady says no. But they do sell the final crimp dies that can be used in no-longer-made 155 and 260 (260 operating manual) single-stage loaders. Both these models show up very reasonably priced on the used market and if you already have a 366 with appropriate bushings, you'll feel very comfortable using the 260 model. The 260 model also uses the same bench mounting holes: no new setup for loading a few hunting shells.

So how does the 366 work? For those who haven't had a bit of hands-on with a 366 and would like an overview, here's a youtube video:

New or used 366?

New is always a nice way to go. The machine is clean, pretty, adjusted (for the Remington brand STS shells) and ready to go; you are virtually guaranteed excellent results from the time it comes out of the box. Any minor problems will be quickly resolved by a careful reading of the manual—a thorough understanding of the machine's operation is very strongly recommended before you start reloading—or advice from the very nice folks at Hornady's technical service, toll-free at 800.338.3220. Fabulous people to work with. And you'll love the introductory phone system answering message!

Buying a used 366

Buying used is a money saver... but you get what you pay for. However, the machine has been manufactured so long that the design has been thoroughly debugged; anything wrong is easily diagnosed and quickly resolved. You'll find that folks at Hornady are very happy to supply parts and advice

A used 12 gauge 366 runs about $250. A price exception may exist if the machine is virtually new with very, very, few shells run through it. A cheaper price can be a good deal, but this usually means that the machine will need work and you will need some way to evaluate the 366 on offer to decide if it's worth the effort and cost to get it back into condition. There are enough 366's around that you can wait for the right one for you to turn up.

Where to try: ebay, trapshooters and gunbroker among other websites. Don't forget to look on your club's bulletin board for the possibility of a local buy.

For a deeper discussion on what to look for when buying a used 366, click here.

After proofing this article, Chuck Dietl, commented: The very early 366's had a pull system for indexing and this can be retrofitted. However, they also had a non-indexing primer station and this takes more work to retrofit. Also, the machine came as an auto index or manual rotation so take care to understand what you are buying. The manual machines cost less and you may not care if it indexes automatically (Lachmiller had a machine which transitions to the new Pacific which was very fast without the auto index.) and I do not use the auto index feature on mine.

Multi gauge or 4-gun skeet shooters

Many multi-gauge shooters acquire a loader for each gauge and install them in a row on their reloading bench. A space-saving, alternative is to set up a die head casting for each gauge. You could just change out the die set, but going the completely set-up die head route means that no adjustments are required to turn out perfect reloads immediately. Further, using this system after a practice time or two, it will take less than five minutes to change to the new gauge. Within gauge, as for example a first barrel bunker load vs. a totally different case and component set for a second barrel bunker (or sporting or hunting or ?) load, it's less than a minute.





A completely set-up and adjusted 20 gauge die head (Wad guide, shell plate and shell plate ring not shown.). You will need parts in addition to the die kit. Here is the The supplemental die head parts list:

Set up/mounting

Installing the machine on the bench: Bench/table needs to be of really solid 2" (50 mm) planks, especially if you choose to resize European-designed UEE and Fiocchi steel-based hulls fired in some large-chambered autoloaders. 1" (2.54 cm) planks/tabletops are no problem with all others. 1/4-20 (M6 - 1) mounting bolts will do with large fender type washers to spread the stress over a larger area of the base casting. Or, perhaps a piece of 1/8" (3.5 mm) steel between the mounting holes. With UEE type and other hard to resize hulls, it's probably better to go with the 3/8" (8 mm) bolts—and large, SAE-thick fender washers. When deciding the final mounting position, make sure the operating handle in its bottom-most position clears the bench edge. An alternative is to mount the machine with risers. The dimension is about 1.61” (41mm) from the center line of the front mounting holes to the bench front or 27mm 1.06” (27mm) from the front of the base casting. Here is a 366 mounting hole dimension sketch. Use of a 5” (127 mm) to smaller 102 mm 4" (102 mm) PVC adapter as a bench feed-through for shells to drop into a under bench box will eliminate loaded shells skittering on the reloading bench. I find a 30" (76 cm) bench height comfortable to load sitting, with a 4' (1.2 m) width adequate for a single machine, adjustment tools, hulls, wads and electronic scale. You may comfortably sit or stand when reloading with the 366. Standing is better for resizing the UEE, cheddite and Fiocchi hulls since you can more easily put your entire body into the resizing effort when needed—an important consideration if you will load a lot of these easy to obtain hulls ejected from autoloaders and pumps.

Hornady has offered risers in the past if you want the machine a bit higher above the bench for loading comfort. I have the Hornady older-style 3" (76 mm) high aluminum "I" beam risers. I used them when I had a stand-to-reload setup. The later Hornady style was of threaded round stock; hardwood blocks would work as well. Another route is to cut electrical conduit or black pipe to the desired height with threaded rod and washers to bolt things together. Long machine bolts with stop nuts and washers would also work if desired. Currently, this is the Hornady riser set: www.hornady.com. The older model Hornady risers are sometimes seen on ebay.

If you need a bench and are making a bench from scratch, you might see the September 2008 (P42) edition of American Rifleman for loading bench construction ideas. If you choose not to make a bench, Grangers, Home Depot, Lowes, Costco and others can supply reasonably priced benches in many sizes that are more than rugged enough and can be accessorized with shelves, drawers and such.

Powder bushings:

The ideal is to have all the bushings that Hornady sells (Hornady bushing chart). That way no matter what powder brand your supplier has left in stock, or the storage conditions your purchase experienced before you bought it, you have the bushing to load it. Unfortunately, this is an somewhat expensive solution. The current Hornady list price is more than $5 each and there are 27 bushings suitable for 12 gauge target loads available. Be aware that the available number seems to be decreasing with time. . . A compromise is the 405 through 498 for 12 gauge powders (probably 426 through 492 is adequate for most bunker and ATA loads); 300 through 402 for 28 and 20, the 256 and 266 group (Ponsness-Warren offers bushings for Hodgdon's Little Gun powder, or you can go the adapter-for-MEC bushings route) for 410 bore to cover the Hornady bushing gaps. If you load only one or two gauges, you would need to just acquire just those groups.

Perhaps a more realistic alternative: with most lots of Hodgdon, IMR and Winchester powders, having the bushing recommended in the table for the loading recipe amount called for with your favorite powder, plus the next 3 larger will usually suffice. Normally, the bushing one size up from the Hornady chart number will be perfect. With Alliant powders, it seems necessary to have 6 or more bushings either side of the Hornady chart recommendation for the amount called for by your chosen reloading recipe as, when using Red Dot vs. PROMO. Obviously, if you load more than one powder type, you need additional bushings. More than a lot-to-lot variation, the different bushing needs problem is worsened by distribution chain storage before you buy the powder. If powder sits on your dealer's shelf for a while, the bushing volume needed for a given recipe charge weight increases especially if the storage room temperature gets up there. On rare occasion, the needed powder bushing is quite a bit larger than recommended and for safety's sake that makes it time to call the manufacturer with the lot number for advice on how to proceed.

A footnote on bushings for the 20, and 28 powders: Hornady has dropped a few of these bushing sizes from the catalog. Some of the Ponsness-Warren bushings fill in the gap and one can always buy a MEC bushing adapter (www.precisionreloading.com, www.ballisticproducts.com and Whiz White: whiz@swsupply.com are three sources) to use MEC's more complete bushing selection.

Another alternative is to make, or have someone make up, any bushings desired. Hornady bushings are in 0.003" increments. One such maker is Jim Skeel: XXXskeeljc@verizon.netXXX. Remove the XXX's for his email address.

Please note: YOU MUST HAVE AN ACCURATE SCALE WITH A CHECK-WEIGHT SET TO INSURE THAT ACCURACY TO RELOAD SAFELY.

A greater than 600 grain scale is to be preferred as this will allow you weigh the finished 24 gram shell. A 24 gram shell will average around 545 grains, depending on the powder charge, the case chosen and the wad weight. After finding the average weight and deviation tolerance of your shells, you are able to pick out the shells that deviate significantly from that norm, as shells with no powder or grossly wrong shot weight. If you're concerned about the bunker tournament cartridge control police, you can pick out the risky heavier shells as well. The scale can be beam balance or digital electronic. They each have their virtues. Scale test weights are available from the scale manufacturers and through any good local sporting goods store or online. Scale test weights also allow you to confirm scale linearity: some scales are less accurate at one end of their range. The test weight will also allow you to learn how quickly the scale will "settle" or arrive at the final, accurate, reading and insure that you know how much time to allow for accurate readings. An extra powder pan or two is very useful at times, as well.

As you may have seen, powder bushing tables are only a STARTING guide to what a given bushing will drop. The actual charge dropped will vary with the lot number and the storage conditions that the powder experienced before you bought it, plus the amount of machine vibration occurring during the loading cycle as the 366 is operated. After bushing selection, a powder drop variation after the first few start-up shells are through the loader of +/- 0.3 grains is pretty typical and +/- 4 grains is pretty typical for premium, well graded shot. Most of the time, the drops will be on the money, but occasionally, strange things happen. Check your drops frequently and, most especially if your instincts tell you it's time.

To check the powder and/or shot drop from a given bushing, just disengage the auto-advance paul from the shell plate (if you use it), tuck it to the side, then gently rotate the plate back clockwise to pull out the hull that the powder has just dropped into (some loaders have cut away the shell plate ring to expedite this. Seems easier to just move the paul and rotate the shells out? You only go through this occasionally. . .). Gently tap the powder from the hull into the powder pan and take the measurement. It should be noted that the first powder drop usually will be heavy—somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5 grains depending—the second will be light—perhaps 0.3 grains—and subsequent drops will be pretty much normal. This means that on start-up you need to check the first 4 or more drops to learn what the bushing will drop. The shot drop behaves about the same way—important to be aware of if you're worrying about the cartridge control police at a bunker match. Be certain that you are bottoming the handle consistently to insure a proper drop.

The least messy way to change bushings is to remove the powder/shot drop assembly from the 366, hold the caps on with one hand and flip it up on its back, tube side down on the reloading bench, then slide out the charge bar to access the bushings. Sounds simple, but it's a potentially messy process. Here's how to do it without problems: First, if you're not sure you have the correct bushings installed, put only enough shot in to make just the start up shells. Powder is light, so a third of a tube is fine. When you flip the assembly over, make sure you have your hand securely in place on the tube caps to insure they don't pop off and dump the contents everywhere (Yes, you can do this with a full tube of shot, but do it very carefully!). Once you have the assembly inverted and before pulling the slide out, jog the charge bar a bit to insure all the shot has fallen out of the shot bushing. Finally, when pulling out the charge bar, keep your hand under the shot bushing to catch any pellets that may still remain. After re-installing the powder/shot drop assembly to the 366, you will need to measure at least 3 shells to insure an accurate measurement. In general, each consecutively ordered bushing will change the drop 0.3 of a grain. But sometimes, for whatever reason, things aren't linear and you may have to skip a bushing number to get an exact drop.

Shot bushings:

Hornady offers two 7/8 ounce bushings (and no specific 24 gram bushing). The #9 shot (American 20 ga. skeet #9) bushing seems like the best bet for a single, no-fuss bushing purchase: with premium high antimony West Coast shot, carefully micrometer-screened for average true 7 1/2 size and found to be particularly well-graded, this bushing drops an average of 361 grains (actually about 23.5 grams). Interestingly, this is about the average shot weight of the Winchester AA factory 24 gram factory load. Poorer quality shot is unlikely to get you into trouble with the cartridge control police with this bushing. (From my notes: West Coast 7 1/2 = 361 grains, Remington 8's = 362 grains, West Coast 9's = 365 grains and soft, junky reclaimed shot = 368 grains. All well under the maximum ISSF 24.5 gram/378.092 grain loading tolerance.). The Hornady 7/8 ounce "field" bushing will drop around 379 grains with the same selected West Coast 7 1/2's. This allows easy drop size reduction with electrical tape to the exact 24 gram/370 grain weight, if desired.

If you choose to go this route, remember there will be significant variation in drop weight due to shot grading issues and differing machine vibration during the loading cycle. Because of that, in general, it's best to set the bushing to drop about 365—367 grains to avoid cartridge control procedure problems at the larger bunker tournaments due to the occasional excessive drop (You know which shells the Referee will pull for the cartridge control test: I'm sure you've heard about Murphy's law.) Use of selected premium, well-graded shot will allow a bushing to be set to 24.0 grams/370 grains without exceeding the loading tolerance limit, although some occasional drops may well be pushing it pretty hard.

Since the needed bushing volume varies so much between lots of shot and sizes of shot, depending on the quality, sizing, grading and how it's hardened (antimony percentage or “other hardeners" including none), it's probably less hassle to have several shot bushings that are pre-set to drop different amounts in 2 grain increments when the goal is to get exactly 370 grain shot drops. Adjusting the volume is easiest by using electrical tape. Note that electrical tape is available in different thicknesses. If you need to remove or add to the tape thickness for the next lot of shot, a little Goo-Off or equivalent on a Q-tip cleans the bushing nicely of adhesive debris to insure a clean, non-sticky bushing surface. Use of an (the smallest handle one) Exacto knife with a #11 blade will allow small slices of previously installed tape to be removed cleanly from a bushing, but use care as Xacto makes those blades really sharp! Adding or removing about 1/8" of a single layer of standard electrical tape can adjust shot drop about 2 grains.

Good 366 habits to have from the start:

Start of session: look carefully to confirm the powder and shot slides are set to the shut off positions before beginning. (It's best to carefully empty the powder and shot tubes and store the stuff safely at the end of each loading session.) If you're loading 410 or 28's confirm the shot drop tube is very free in the die head casting. If it binds, it will crush the top of the case and when the operating handle is returned to start position, you'll find BB's everywhere.

Every time you start to return the handle, look to see if a primer dropped. After the hulls have moved, check to see if the just-wadded hull is normal and no tears developed indicating improper wad insertion—see picture example below. Use needle-nose pliers to carefully pull the wad from the case to check the overpowder cup for tears, if in doubt. If it has, double check the wad guide fingers; make sure a finger hasn't torn away. Look to confirm the pre-fold is the amount needed for a perfect crimp.

Look at the crimp on the shell as it comes out of the taper crimp (Taper-Loc) die. Remember, you are the only Quality Control person and this is the final check. Pretty shells earn bragging rights!

Any time there is more resistance than normal and the operating handle pressure doesn't feel right, stop and check everything. Could be as simple as a hard to resize hull from an autoloader. Could be a wad catching on a hull lip. Could be junk (stone, cigarette butt, gum, foam ear plug, a dime, etc.) in the new hull preventing the deprime punch from knocking out the primer. Even the most careful hull inspections always somehow seem to miss something: another reason to not use scrounged hulls! Could be shot/powder shutoff(s) binding. If in the slightest doubt, scale the drops and inspect all hulls. Note—and remember—that machine timing has the shot starting to drop first, then the powder.

An example of not realizing that maybe something isn't quite right with the feel of the operating handle until too late. Inspection showed the case mouth (left) as shown. This always means the wad caught on the case mouth, usually because the case was cocked going into the wad guide (not paying attention!). Pulling the wad out with needle-nosed pliers showed OP lip was torn (right). If I hadn't stopped and checked, this was a guaranteed blooper/pookie load—good for kidding by fellow shooters; maybe also a missed target. See additional notes in Part II.

Before mounting the measure casting assembly, check that the shut-off plate screws are snug—but not too tight—and that the slide springs are positioned correctly to engage the sub measure plate's and shot rotor slide stop slots perfectly. This will insure consistent drops. Confirm the powder and shot rotor slides move smoothly. This will insure that the charge bar moves effortlessly, preventing the machine from binding during the operating bar operation and eliminating light/erratic powder drops. The measure attachment bolt must screw in easily, without binding, as a final test that everything is right (there is further discussion of 366 binding issues in part II of this article).

When loading, make sure the operating handle has bottomed. Bottoming has a unique feel and with practice, it will become habit. How long do you need to stay there? Use a translucent white (“clear”) plastic hull and test: watch the powder fall. The complete fall time is the minimum time needed for the operating handle to stay at the bottom.

To adjust the primer feed for a perfect primer drop every time, adjust the primer seating punch first (assuming you have the resizing die perfectly adjusted per the 366 manual, see page 4). Generally, the primer feed stop unit fingers will have a noticeable bulge-out when adjusted correctly as the handle bottoms. The adjustment is quite sensitive: adjust no more than a 1/4 turn and test.

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: it's never pleasant to experience 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 scattered-everywhere, devilishly-hiding, primers. Replace it at the first hint of trouble! Don't wait.

To replace a primer stop, place the flat blade of a screwdriver with the wide part of the blade facing the shaft with the tip on the outermost portion of the stop's plastic rim and tap gently with a small plastic-head hammer. The plastic stop will pop off; the new one will go on with a very gentle tap from that same small hammer. It's probably best to do this by removing the die head and positioning it so that job can be most comfortably done.

Recommended tools for the 366:

Minimum and Essential 366 tool list.

Recommended spare parts:

Primer feed stop unit, wad guides, primer tube filler spring and C-washer for swing out wad guide. Once in a while, you'll want to change the spring in the primer seating station and the 1/4-20 x 1” hard steel bolt at the top of the primer knockout linkage. Having a spare primer depriming rod is useful. On rare occasions they can get bent and it's certainly quicker to put in a good one than stop everything and go through the straightening process. Sometimes you'll find the rubber washers in the measure casting have gotten pretty chewed up. If you load a lot of steel-base hulls, you may want to have a spare clevis link and resizing ring as well. And if you use the auto-indexing feature, the spring occasionally breaks along with the pawl becoming worn. Note that the 410 uses a different pawl. There is an old spare parts rule that still seems to apply: if you have two spares for a given part, you'll never need the second one. I don't think that works for wad guide fingers though! If you have the spring-loaded primer seater and/or new model Taper-Loc and pre-fold dies, then you may want spares of the press-on nuts. They don't seem easy to come by locally. To make it easy when you talk to the nice ladies at Hornady (800.338.3220), here is the "Official" (:–)) shootingbunker.com recommended spare parts list:

(The entire 366 parts list is here: Hornady 366 manual. The list works back from page 23. Suggest keeping the/an old manual handy as it can be clarifingly useful for cross-reference.)

*Minimum spare parts recommended. Some of the common parts are easily obtainable in local hardware stores, although I never could find press-on nuts of the proper type in Home Depot or Lowes. Ace hardware did have them. Note that Hornady supplies the clevis and cam bolt in a hardened steel for greater longevity. Chart updated to reflect the latest data in the new Hornady 366 manual. Suggest keeping the/an old manual handy as it can be clarifingly useful for cross-reference especially if you have an older model.

Parts orders: Hornady: 800.338.3220.

Lock stock and Barrel: 800.228.7925; www.lockstock.com. Parts are discounted.

Bushings, wad guides, crimp dies, etc are usually available from many sporting dealers.

After market items:

Larger shot and powder tubes (these will help the housekeeping issues with ball powder as well): www.basicdesignmachine.com. These are quite large, static coated and the design eliminates the infamous ball powder leakage mess—at least from the tubes. A second source is Jim Skeel: **xskeeljc@verizon.net**x. He is a new, recent supplier and his product looks very nice. (Remove the **x for his email address.)

Shell quantity counters are available on ebay as well as on other sites. As long as there are no Operational Errors (OE's), they work well. With an OE, you have to keep track of any additional machine-fixing operating lever operations and subtract that count from the final total.

(But isn't it easier to just decide how many shells you want to load, bring out that many primers and just load them? You want 110 shells, just put 10 primers into the the drop tube, then put the primer pack of 100 into the primer drop tray and dial them as you go along into the tube. You get exactly 110 shells and OE's don't matter any more: you don't have to worry about counter accuracy. Of course, if someone came up with a talking counter with an attractive/fun voice and a bit of vocabulary to tell you how many you've loaded, that could be entertaining; might even make the loading session go by quicker! )

The Hornady auto spring loaded primer seater is attractive if you want to load any hull and have the primer seat properly. Just set it to seat the primer perfectly for the deepest case you will use and the spring will compensate for the highest cases. One downside is that you have to supply the muscle to move the spring. A second is the need to keep a spare press-on nut as a spare part. If you stick with one hull all the time or don't mind making the minor adjustments, there is no advantage to installing the spring loaded primer seater.

End part I, 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

Link back to the home page

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 this press in production and parts easily available!

Rev. 2.7
Last revised 3/2012