Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Hornady LNL does not seat primers below flush


Recommended Posts

I was told that a Hornady LNL is not designed to seat primers below flush.  Since below flush and a range is typically given in loading manuals this seemed odd.

I sent a message to Hornady and asked.  They got back to me.  The answer is, " The AP will seat primers to a flush fit position.".

Is this a deal breaker problem with this press?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The LnL AP's primer seating is pretty disappointing, but functional better than 99% of the time IME, more like 99.a whole lot of nines. In over 10k rounds I've had 3 failures that I attributed to high primers and possibly two others that got ejected and not retried or inspected.

You must remember to push the handle forward until it stops not just a half hearted bump, they will not seat as deep as you can do with some other tools, they are just barely past flush, usually 1-2 out of a hundred looks high to me and get a trip through my RCBS bench mounted which always gets them further in.

Things to minimize it, keep the shellplate tight, shim the subplate if it has too much play, put a washer/dime/etc where the primer spud contacts the frame. With the exception of the first these are all stupid things you shouldn't have to do, but life will go on. I'll make an extended spud or mod one, one of these days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

+1 on Beef15's advice to push the handle all the way forward.

Only time I ever have a problem with primer seating is if the shell plate has loosened up.  I have loaded over 30k rounds of pistol and a few k of rifle on my LNL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/12/2017 at 8:42 AM, Livin_cincy said:

I was told that a Hornady LNL is not designed to seat primers below flush.  Since below flush and a range is typically given in loading manuals this seemed odd.

I sent a message to Hornady and asked.  They got back to me.  The answer is, " The AP will seat primers to a flush fit position.".

 

This has not been my experience, My LnL (4 years old or so) seats primers well below flush, like 6-7 thou last time I measured with Federal SPPs. Maybe they changed the specs on the punch spring or something?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, jester121 said:

This has not been my experience, My LnL (4 years old or so) seats primers well below flush, like 6-7 thou last time I measured with Federal SPPs. Maybe they changed the specs on the punch spring or something?

It seems to be hit and miss.  Some people can and others cannot.  
Hornady says the press does not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If someone would comission a large order of longer seating punches for that nut Hornady uses, they'd sell every single one of them.

Ballistic tools? You listening? (Sold my LnL long ago, but wished for this part every day I used the press)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I had a LNL I glued a spent primer to the bottom of the primer seat rod thing. It allowed the primers to seat slightly below flush. The thickness of the primer is how flush. Also there is a thread somewhere that shows what others have done which involved filing the primer punch where the nut meets the base of the press so it could thread ever so lightly more into the press. I saw someone take the primer punch and place it in a drill and locked the drill into a vice then took a file to the nut and turned the drill on so the filing was evenly spread. Hope that makes sense and gives you an idea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll add I had reliability issues with using the method of glueing a spent primer to the punch. It pushes the punch too far up and eventually gets stuck and doesnt reliably retract to the original position and the primer shuttle gets caught on the punch not allowing it to feed the next primer. I would recommend filling the base of the nut/primer punch mechanism to allow it to thread deeper into the press. A little more involved but a more reliable permanent fix instead of a bandaid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...