Hornady050076 Lock-N-Load Ammo Concentricity Tool Gauge,Red

I have the RCBS master gauge as well and while it is a fine quality system, for checking concentricity and run-out, this Hornady gauge is far easier, faster and more consistent to use. A good quality press and dies should produce extremely little to no run-out, but if you do have some this gauge can help correct it. To do so however, requires patience and care. Lack of both will lead to failure and damage to the gauge.This is a fine example of the quality and innovation that Hornady has become well known for and along with many of their other tools, almost anyone can produce high quality precision rounds that can well exceed the best of mass produced, off the shelf ammunition.

Relatively easy to use, though it's surprising how much pressure it takes to shift the projectile. The screw for making that adjustment has a little blob of nylon on the end that lasts for next to no time at all. After that, you're putting a ding in the side of the bullet with the end of the screw or trying to get a replacement screw from Hornady (which won't last any longer. Easy fix. ACE hardware sells 10-32 thread nylon acorn nuts for 69 cents each. Cut the head off of a 10-32 screw and chuck it in a drill. Thread the acorn nut onto that and turn it down against some 80-100 grit sandpaper to reduce the excess diameter (you don't need the hex and you do need to be able to get it into position) and then to remove some of the excess length (same reason), then re-round off the tip. Remove it from the threaded shaft you made for the drill, back the adjustment screw on the Hornady tool out until the tip *just* protrudes from the yoke, then thread the adjustment screw into the modified acorn nut. You now have a FAR more robust nylon tip that is also easy and inexpensive to replace if it ever wears out again (not so far).If you are a stickler for appearance, you can order the acorn nuts on Amazon in black nylon instead of white.Shoot straight.

Excellent quality, sturdy metal gauge that is robust and accurate. Something that is the norm more often than not for Hornadyproducts. This eliminated on variable I was wondering about with 243 loads for a Ruger Precision Rifle. I thought it was highlyunlikely that I had a problem with runout because of the Redding competition Dies, Seater, Lapua brass, and this confirmed it.However, I did use it for a built AR that I was loading for and found Lake City new brass with big problems that I had loaded in an effortto find out what the upper liked. I also found out that the Dillon crimp die blew the run out to extremes. Well worth the money, peace ofmind and the elimination of yet another variable.

I had the RCBS Concentricity gage but in my opinion there's very little comparison. This one spins the cartridge much smoother which results in a much more accurate reading. Plus you're able to straighten the cartridge out if needed with very little effort. I was quite pleased with the readings I got with this tool. I checked 1 of 5 while loading some .243 this past winter and if the gage moved it was at most .0005 which thrilled the hell outta me. The RCBS tool was such a bother, for me, that I'd stopped using it a couple years back unless it was for someone going on a hunting trip.

I've found that the concentricity gauge (a) works well and (b) is unnecessary. I have a Dillon RL550B press using Dillon dies for .223. From this press, Sierra bullets are always within spec when they come out of the press -- concentric to between .0015 and .0025". Trying to move bullets seated this close to perfectly concentric is a study in frustration, and there's no experimentation that shows an improvement in accuracy with concentricity below these accepted tolerances. A couple of my friends have told me that they also stopped testing concentricity on custom-loaded ammunition because it's essentially always perfectly acceptable in concentricity right out of the seating die.This tool is unique in that it can not only measure concentricity but also can push imperfectly aligned bullets into place. I purposely pushed one out of line to test this and found it difficult to get it back to tolerance with the bullet-nudging device included. It's probably not impossible, but for me it wasn't nearly as simple as folks on YouTube show it to be. That's another reason that I thought it unwise to try to "improve" seatings that are already within tolerance.This might come in handy for someone shooting factory ammunition who finds it NOT to be within spec and wants to improve the ammo before use. But that's probably not cost effective. For the $100 that this gauge costs, one can buy a great deal of better ammunition before the cost differential in the brands adds up to the purchase price of the Hornady gauge.I'm pretty sure that this is the best, and surely the most useful, concentricity gauge out there, but I'd suggest trying to find out if one really needs it before buying.

Excellent addition to my reloading bench. I load my own competition ammo and using the concentricity gauge put my already great loads over the top. Using the gauge I am able to make sure all my competition rounds are true to within .001 to .002.....anything under .003 is great. Improved my 5 shot groups at the range from .67 at 100 yards to .46 best groups I shot. That's splitting hairs on already sub MOA groups but when shooting competition out to 300 yards...it can be the difference of a win or loss.The only issue I found is the screw in bolt to true the ammo is pretty useless....I just adjust the ammo with my thumb. Still give it 5 stars!

Solid piece of hardware that does exactly what it says it will do. Used it to measure run out on 555, and 6.5 Creedmoor. Easy to set up, results are very repeatable. Correcting runout is a bit of an art, no issues once you get a feel of how hard to turn the knob. I’m interested to see if my shooting is good enough to be influenced by runout.