Hornady LNL Die selection

[ben b.]

noylj,

...It now seems that most users with this type of setup place the bullet during a pause on the upstroke - after the press has indexed the casing to station 4. I imagined this to be a possibility, but wanted validation from experienced users...

Yes. I am reaching for a bullet as I look at the powder cop on the ram's upstroke, getting the bullet in my fingers as the ram goes down, and placing it in the case after the powder cop station as the ram starts back up, frequently as the shell plate is still moving. I usually am (lightly) holding the bullet in place on the case mouth until the shell plate indexes and stops moving, but I don't typically need to. I pause sometimes if I fumble around getting the bullet in my fingers or setting it place, but a typical smooth placement doesn't need a pause.

[roadapple]

Thanks for the great replies. Keep 'em coming. I appreciate the feedback concerning the ubiquitous Hornady vs. Dillon debate. The are exceptions, however the LNL seems to be the preferred press among those who've used both (the LNL and 650XL). Based on the totality of my reading, the LNL does seem to be the better mouse trap overall. I want to make certain that everything goes together and functions properly with an absolute minimum of cranial hemorrhaging. Ergo, I want to choose the correct equipment from the start. Reloading is not something that I want to do, but rather something that I need to do.

You might want to start out on a single-stage, or turret press. There is a lot going on with a full progressive. A good single-stage, or turret press, can be had rather economically. When purchase a full progressive later, you can re-use the dies, and most of the equipment. The single-stage, or turret, will still be useful for load development, or other chores in preparation, or crimping, bullet sizing, etc... If you have your heart set on a L-n-L AP, you can get a L-n-L Classic that uses the same bushings. I believe they let you move the dies from press to press, without any additional adjustment. Check on that to make sure. I have a L-n-L AP. I thought I was going to have to sell it because of primer seating issues. Search the forums for these. I wish I had. I finally got it ironed-out after several months. In the interim, I needed ammo so I bought a RL550b from Dillon. It works great. It only has four stations and manual indexing, but you can use it as a progressive, single-stage, or turret press if you want. I have been told that the Lee CLASSIC Turret press is a good one, as well as their Classic Cast single-stage (which can be converted to the L-n-L bushing system, but I do not know if you will need to readjust your dies to make them work in it). I'm not trying to sell you anything, just offering suggestions from my own experience and research. I loaded on a single-stage (RCBS Jr 2) for more than ten years. I augmented that with a Lee Challenger Breech-lock, and then shortly afterward, a Forster Co-Ax. The Lee is functional, and the Forster is amazing. I have RCBS, Lee, and Hornady dies. I really like the Hornady dies, especially their bullet seating dies. I like the Lee Factory Crimp dies a lot as well. The RCBS are good dies too. I load for 26 different rounds now, so I needed a progressive. I still have the single-stage presses mounted on the bench though, and use them for small batch precision rifle loads. I hope this information is of help.

Happy Loading!