Hornady 366 Parts Diagram Online
He didn’t have a replacement. But the diagram reminded him of something: part #44, the Seater Punch Return Spring. If the spring was weak, the punch would drag. He replaced it with a spring from his spares jar—a generic coil that was 0.002 inches thicker.
He decided to strip the primer system first. He loosened #58, caught the detent ball (#63) with a magnetic pick-up tool just as his own note predicted, and slid out the primer slide. There—wedged under the slide, invisible to any inspection port—was a flake of crimped brass from a military .45 case. A tiny shard, thinner than paper. That was the sponge in the stroke.
He traced the primer system first. There it was: the Primer Slide (#39), a tiny steel boat that ferried primers from the drop tube to the seating punch. Next to it, the Primer Slide Spring (#40)—a fragile coil no bigger than his pinky. That , he thought. That’s the liar. hornady 366 parts diagram
But he checked the seater punch anyway. He rolled it on a piece of float glass. A whisper of a wobble. Not bent. Just… tired.
That was the difference between a shooter and a reloader. A shooter saw a tool. A reloader saw a system. He didn’t have a replacement
He reassembled the 366 by the diagram’s reverse order. Lower tier, then upper. Cam followers greased. Pawl timed to the shell plate’s detent. When he finished, he dropped a primed case into station one and pulled the handle.
Arthur wiped the diagram clean of graphite smudges and refolded it along its ancient creases. He slid it back into the manual’s pocket. The 366 wasn’t just a reloading press anymore. It was a map of decisions—Hornady’s engineers on one side, his own repairs on the other. And between them, the trust that came from knowing exactly where every spring, pin, and punch lived. He replaced it with a spring from his
But the diagram told a deeper story. To replace #40, you had to remove the Primer Slide Stop Pin (#41). To reach #41, you had to loosen the Carrier Bracket Screws (#58). And those screws shared a line with the Shell Plate Index Pawl (#53). Everything touched everything else. The 366 was not a collection of parts. It was a grammar of motion.
The 366 had simply stopped feeling right . The stroke was spongy. The index pawl hesitated. A single #209 primer had failed to seat yesterday, crushed sideways in its pocket like a tiny, silver pancake. That one misfeed meant distrust. And in reloading, distrust meant you pulled the handle again, slower, listening.
The stroke was crisp. The index was sharp. The primer seated with a sound like a cork popping.
Arthur’s eyes drifted to the upper tier: the Powder Slide Assembly (#85–92). The diagram showed the brass powder bushings nested like Russian dolls, the metering insert (#88) drawn with an almost anatomical precision. He remembered buying the machine used, finding an old #88 clogged with Unique powder that had turned to lacquer. The previous owner had never cleaned it. Had never looked at this diagram.