Hornady LNL Progressive Issues

[dkamps]

Background;

I stepped away from reloading because I was having issue after issue with my LNL. I kept trying to find remedies, but something else would just pop up.

Most of my issues were timing related; I would like to get that reloaded to work instead of dropping more dime on a Dillon, which I will probably get in the future as to load two calibers.

 

What I would have happen: would be loading great for about 75-100 rnds, then I would have the shell plate not index correctly (just barely, not exactly noticeable at first), causing powder to miss a case, ruin the lip of the case to be sized, put powder underneath the shell plate since it missed causing more issues etc. (this was when I was loading 45 for single stack)

 

I read the manual about adjustment, googled forums, tried pretty much everything I saw, but I'm willing to try again.

 

Has anyone had this issue?

Does anyone know the cure?

Do I try to get hornady to warranty a pretty old press?

Do I suck it up and buy a 550 or 650?

 

Thanks for the wealth of knowledge.

Edited May 23, 2018 by dkamps

[MemphisMechanic]

Honestly?

 

Just clean it up and sell it for some pretty good coin and buy a Dillon.

 

The Hornady constantly needs fiddling and tweaking. I walk up to the 650, load, and walk away.

[dkamps]

8 minutes ago, MemphisMechanic said:

Honestly?

 

Just clean it up and sell it for some pretty good coin and buy a Dillon.

 

The Hornady constantly needs fiddling and tweaking. I walk up to the 650, load, and walk away.

 

That's what I've been thinking as well. I have a lot of components, but Ill only be loading one caliber for a while now.

 

You are happy with the 650? Have you thought at all that you would rather have the 1050?

[MemphisMechanic]

Of course. I’ll buy a 1050 & autodrive as soon as $7,500 is lying around.

 

I like everything about the 650 with all the fixings and a bulletfeeder, except the fact that I still have to pull the handle at around 1,000 rounds an hour!  

[dkamps]

Well the mark7 is definitely out of the cards for me right now..

 

Cost for cost; did the 650 save you much over the 1050 if you could do it over again? At this point I'm ready to buy once and cry once, recoup my investment over (less than?) a year of shooting. I get factory ammo dirt cheap, but not reloading cheap, and its starting to add up.

Edited May 23, 2018 by dkamps

[MemphisMechanic]

I’d go 1050 if I did it over again.

 

Had my 650 since 2008. I wasn’t making very much money at all back then, still barely out of college. So a 650 was already 6 months of squirreling money away.

 

Edited May 23, 2018 by MemphisMechanic

[Beef15]

Hornady has a life time warranty, and very nice CS, if they aren't terribly helpful/knowledgable try to talk to someone else.

 

Far enough off to tear up a case is pretty far off. Check pawls for damage, go through adjustment procedure again, very small changes on the screw make big changes in indexing. I had to fiddle with mine for a bit every few hundred through the first 2k or so, but haven't touched them since, but it was never that far off and mostly on the downstroke.

 

There is a thread on AR15.com about tuning the LnL, mostly shimming the subplate if necessary to fix indexing, have thought about doing it myself in hopes of better primer seating.

Edited May 23, 2018 by Beef15

[Tunachaser]

I added an O-ring to the bolt that holds the shell plate on, it stops the bolt from working loose which is a common cause for issues.  Next make sure the pawls are correctly adjusted.  

[firewood]

1 hour ago, Beef15 said:

Check pawls for damage, go through adjustment procedure again, very small changes on the screw make bit changes in indexing.

 

This bears repeating.

 

Most if not all of the problems with the press (once the pawls and the primer shuttle/feed tube assy are adjusted) can be traced back to the shell plate coming lose.

[SWprotected]

I have 2 LNLs and both work very well, I did add a lock washer to help stop the bolt from coming loose on the shell plate. As mentioned above the pawls adjustments are very small.

 

[dkamps]

Thanks for the info everyone, I will be giving hornady a call.

I will look at readjustment, and if anything in the drive or pawls may be worn or broken.

 

A lock washer or oring is a great idea, ill add that as well.

 

My goal is to have a set up I don't have to adjust for ~2000-3000k rounds at a time. To be able to do that in one sitting every month or so.

 

[Tunachaser]

"My goal is to have a set up I don't have to adjust for ~2000-3000k rounds at a time. To be able to do that in one sitting every month or so."

 

That is not a problem with with the LnL.

[ExStreetWalker]

I purchased my Hornady LnL AP in 2007.  It seemed like I was spending more time fiddling with it than loading.  It was always some small thing with the priming system being the biggest problem.

 

I picked up a Dillon 650 XL in 2014 in a sweetheart deal.  I wasn't able to actually start using it due to a move from Oregon to Texas and some health problems till 2016.  The Dillon just flat worked.  I picked up a case feeder for it about 9 months ago.  I sold the Hornady last month.  I'm very happy with my 650 XL.  I don't shoot as much as some but more than most, around 500 rounds per week.  That boils down to less than an hour sitting at the press.  I've had one problem due to a weak spring and that was quickly solved and cured with a call to Dillon.  I always hated calling Hornady as the CS there was luck of the draw.  

 

A 650 with a case feeder will work for almost anyone.  I shoot mostly .45 ACP, but have conversions for .44 Mag, 10mm, 9mm, .38 SPL and .357 Mag.  Yeah I have seperate tool heads for .38 and .357.

 

My only gripe is that changing the primer size on the Dillon is more involved and takes longer than it did on the Hornady.  However, the Dillon primer system WORKS.  After years of fiddling and some aftermarket parts I had gotten my Hornady priming system to where it as 96% reliable if it was kept spotlessly clean, let it get dirty and it went to hell.

 

I will be setting the 650 up for .223 one of these days, but I don't shoot all that much of it and am currently loading most of what I shoot on a single stage since it's going through a bolt gun.

 

IMHO the Dillon 650 is head and shoulders above the Hornady LnL AP.  The case feeding system on the Hornady seems to have been an afterthought and the Dillon 650 was built around the case feeding system.  There's also a much better aftermarket support for the Dillon.  Lots of little upgrades that can make a big difference.

[bjones6686]

3 shooting friends have LNL presses. All complain about all the fiddling and adjustments it constantly needs. The only thing they like on the LNL press is the micrometer powder measure adjustment. I've been trying to get them to drink the blue koolaid. I started out on the Square Deal B and upgraded 18 months later to a Super 1050. I only reload 40cal for competition so the Super 1050 is a no brainer. Added a Mr Bullet Feeder to speed uo the reloading process even more. 

[dkamps]

15 hours ago, Tunachaser said:

"My goal is to have a set up I don't have to adjust for ~2000-3000k rounds at a time. To be able to do that in one sitting every month or so."

 

That is not a problem with with the LnL.

 

Hasn't been my experience sadly. I would love to try and get it to that level of serviceability since I own it!

 

Thank you to everyone else on their input vs the Dillon's... Ill be saving for the blue 1050 koolaid.. but in the meantime, this weekend will be trying to get that LNL to work properly or find out the reason its failing me.

Edited May 24, 2018 by dkamps

[SWprotected]

11 hours ago, bjones6686 said:

3 shooting friends have LNL presses. All complain about all the fiddling and adjustments it constantly needs. The only thing they like on the LNL press is the micrometer powder measure adjustment. I've been trying to get them to drink the blue koolaid. I started out on the Square Deal B and upgraded 18 months later to a Super 1050. I only reload 40cal for competition so the Super 1050 is a no brainer. Added a Mr Bullet Feeder to speed uo the reloading process even more. 

I don't know your friends, but its simply not that hard to keep a LNL running if it was I would not have them. I am not going to say they are better than a 650 but I do think they have some advantages. The LNL index is smoother, and the powder measure I think is better. The effort to change calibers is pretty minimal but there usually is some adjustment required after a change. The case feeder on the 650 is better from what I have seen but the Hornady does work it is the part that does require some tweaks to make it work right. As far as CS goes I would not know as I have not needed them. I have loaded thousands of rounds on the LNL without issue, I usually clean it off every 10-12k but that's about it.

 

Edit to add: LNL nor 650 compare to a 1050, 1050 is whole other class.

Edited May 24, 2018 by SWprotected

[dkamps]

3 hours ago, SWprotected said:

I don't know your friends, but its simply not that hard to keep a LNL running if it was I would not have them. I am not going to say they are better than a 650 but I do think they have some advantages. The LNL index is smoother, and the powder measure I think is better. The effort to change calibers is pretty minimal but there usually is some adjustment required after a change. The case feeder on the 650 is better from what I have seen but the Hornady does work it is the part that does require some tweaks to make it work right. As far as CS goes I would not know as I have not needed them. I have loaded thousands of rounds on the LNL without issue, I usually clean it off every 10-12k but that's about it.

 

Edit to add: LNL nor 650 compare to a 1050, 1050 is whole other class.

 

I will be redoing my whole set up with a nice new workbench this weekend. I'm going to inspect the parts on the LNL and see if anything needs replacing and call CS.

Its good to hear that there are LNL's out there working, and working well. I will be loading about 15k rnds on the low end to 20k rnds on the high end per year.

 

the 650 looks nice, but buy once cry once, 1050 is next if I can get the LNL to work right... then the 1050 will be set up for 40 and maybe 223 and the LNL for 9mm, or just 223 case prep.

[SWprotected]

I load 9 major on one of my LNLs and 40  on the other, I probably loaded 25K 9mm last year, I have loaded about 7K this year so far which is why I am confident in the machine. My older press probably has close to 100K on it, like I said before a 1050 is a different animal and has some great features. The swage station alone is almost worth it. A bunch of my buddies have 1050s and they are completely happy, the only complaint I have heard is cost both initial and to change calibers and even with that said I haven't heard anyone say they regret buying one.

[xrayfk05]

I have both the 650 and the LnL AP, both have their quirks, both work really well for extended loadings sessions.

 

If I had  to choose 1 I would keep the LnL, I really like   the way caliber change overs work etc.

[StuckinMS]

I have loaded well over 150,000 rounds on my LNL.  Adjusted the timing 2 times.  I clean and lube about every 20,000 rounds and that's it.  For less than 25% of the price of a 1050 I can justify adding the Mr. Bullet feeder and load at 1200 rounds per hour!  Easy to change over and the extra coin saved over the blue stuff will buy lots of components. Press is 4 years old and going just like it did on day 1.  

 

Get yours set and you will be fine. 

[EEH]

33 minutes ago, StuckinMS said:

I have loaded well over 150,000 rounds on my LNL.  Adjusted the timing 2 times.  I clean and lube about every 20,000 rounds and that's it.  For less than 25% of the price of a 1050 I can justify adding the Mr. Bullet feeder and load at 1200 rounds per hour!  Easy to change over and the extra coin saved over the blue stuff will buy lots of components. Press is 4 years old and going just like it did on day 1.  

 

Get yours set and you will be fine. 

Boy I’ve got a neighbor that needs your help.

[EEH]

150,000 in four years wow 

[dannyd]

I have loaded 55,340 rounds on both my LNL's.   With Very little problems.  Owned a SDB and 550 both took about the same amount of upkeep as the LNL's for same number of rounds loaded.     

[StuckinMS]

5 hours ago, EEH said:

150,000 in four years wow 

Unfortunately we can't afford more.  My 13 year old and I do want to pick up the pace a little.  We shoot 3 matches a month locally, but would love to do more live fire practice. 

 

OP:  your hornady press will serve you well once you get it set up correctly.  Hornady has given me the best customer service I could ask for.  Just call and explain your problem and they will walk you through it.  Let us know how it goes.  

[SlvrDragon50]

No problems on my LNL here. The only problems I get are when I don't clean the press properly causing primers to not always feed.

 

Hornady CS is fantastic. I wouldn't side upgrade to a Dillon 650, only to a 1050.