How is everyone doing with their Hornady LNL?

[Lugnut]

I've been using mine for over a year now and am quite pleased. It seems like there are a bunch of folks here and elsewhere that have purchased the LNL and was just curious how they are making out. Mine hasn't been without glitches but no one makes a press that is without issues.. but let's not go there on this thread. Here's a summary of my experience.

I've probably reloaded 15-20K rounds- mostly .45ACP, 40 S&W and now 9mm.
The powder thru expander set up for the 9mm was a bit of a PITA but I got it working just fine.
Ejection wire still sticks occasionally with the small 9mm cases.
Autoindexing and the extra stage for powder check is awesome.
I've found you do need to clean the primer feed pieces or they will get sticky... I used EddieCoyle's advice (I think it was his) and ran steel wool over all the pieces.
I have spare primer feed slides for Large and Small primer- when the slide gets stuck the primer plunger can chip it.
I can't remember last time a broke the case retainer spring.
Primer seating works well but I feel I could use a slightly longer lever for Winchester cases- they seem tighter that most pockets.
I don't have a case feeder and feel that one would speed up reloading significantly.

I find when I have spare time at night I'll go downstairs and crank out 2-300 rounds at a time. I usually stick with one cartridge at a time so this is easy.

What's everyone else's experience?

 

[Dick]

I'm generally pleased with mine after several thousand rounds in about 6 different calibers. I don't use the powder-through-expander feature, but may work a bit with that in the future. Like everyone (I think), I've experienced a bit of stickiness in the primer feeding mechanism. It seems to be working itself out, but I may take the fine steel wool approach if it doesn't.

The inability to use non-Hornady dies in the last station and keep the ejection wire in place is an annoyance, so if I need to have a die in that station I usually remove the wire and simply eject by hand. I'm not using an automatic case feeder, so taking a fraction of a second to kick the loaded round out before I put the new case in really isn't a problem. I know there are a couple of different work-arounds, which I may try sometime.

 

[EddieCoyle]

I like mine a lot. I don't use the powder through expanders because they don't make them in all the sizes I need. I load over 20 calibers on it, and I have the case feeder. The case feeder is awesome - I about doubled my reloading speed with it.

At first, the primer feed system gave me some problems, but after deburring the parts, I haven't had any trouble.

Cartridge ejection used to be a problem with .32 ACP, .380, and 9mm, but I found a solution: I seat and crimp with the seater die, and leave the last station open. Since there's no die in the last station (and I don't have to worry about the cartridge lining up with a separate crimp die) I adjust the ejector wire so that it sticks way out into the last station - so far that it almost ejects the case as it is fed in. On the next pull, the cartridge falls right out.

 

[Bugs100]

Like Lugnut said, no one makes a press that is without issues.

My secret to curing almost every problem is powdered graphite and canned air.. When I first got the press I cleaned real good and poured a little powdered graphite through the powder measure and primer system and I've never had a problem with the primers feeding.

The canned air I found is great for keeping it real clean and I think that's the biggest secret to this press.

I use to chip the front of the slide all the time, untill I realised it was mainly my fault because the primer punch was getting dirty but the canned air solved that.

 

[tele_mark]

The only issues I've had with mine were one of the screws that held the sub plate to the ram kept coming loose. I think I finally found the right flavor of Lok-Tite to remedy that. And, I have to keep on top of keeping the primer punch clean, or you can get issues with the punch not going all the way down and snagging with a primer in there. Really, no major complaints after almost 2 years of use, but I'm sure the Blue Koolaid folks can convince me otherwise.

 

[Fixxah]

I have only had LNL and couldn't be happier. I load only .45 ACP but will try .30-06 in near future. Only slowdown is loading primer tubes. Anyone have tubes loaded in quantity to speed things up?

Larger o-ring on powder bushing keeps it in place very nicely. I also like the fact that the press is relatively wide open so you can see everything without having to move around like others have to.

 

[Lugnut]

Seems like everyone has similar experiences- pretty good. I think their service has been great too.

Fixxah- all I can say is I load the Small Pistol primers directly from the tray and it goes quick (Win Small Pistol). These are some things you can buy to help preload the tubes but I don't have one.

+1 to the canned air like Bugs said. I use it every session before I start.

 

[EddieCoyle]

I bought a whole bunch of extra primer tubes from Dillon. I'll load 1000 primers into tubes before I start loading.

 

[Cross-X]

What, no Dillon?

 

[JimB]

lube advice

I got the info from Dillon as i have one. But this applies to any press.

Where metal meets plastic, put a small dab of grease there. The metal
can wear a groove in the plastic possibly changing your adjustments.

Where metal meets metal, use Moly Lube, i put it on my case expander
/ powder drop there was a noticalbe dirrerence in resistance.

CRC makes Moly Lube, it comes in a spray can and is a dry lube.

Its available at Grainger, doubt you will find it elsewhere.

JimB