More LnL Curiosity. Primer Seating Issues

I have not experienced what you are with my LNL; that final upstroke nudge seats my primers just like they are supposed to. Are you SURE you're pushing all the way and not stopping short when you feel some resistance?

Could there be something preventing that piece from coming completely up and not allowing full seating to happen? I know when it runs out of primers, it can get stuck sometimes.

Could some have a military crimp? Or very dirty pockets?

On my LNL-AP if the primer is setting high (over 0.004") the shell plate will not rotate. So make sure your shell plate is tight. I do one swift firm forward motion till I can not go any further. If your setting down doing this grab the from support so you don't move back wards. Mill spec brass needs to have the crimp removed.

Could be military crimp, they take a really hard Slam, not just a steady push, IF they seat at all. Sometimes they mangle the primer trying to force it in. You can't push too hard on the handle to cause the primer to go off or anything like that. You do have to develop a technique to seating primers. I just ram that handle hard on the primer stroke. Kinda hard to describe in words though.
If you can then seat them with a hand primer either you're not putting the right amount of force at the right time or something is not right with the press, imo.

Check to make sure the primer mechanism is also screwed in all the way.

Or it could be the LnL AP primer system is actually a POS design. Now that I've primed on my Dillon.. that thing has easily twice the pressure ability and doesn't wibble wobble like a LnL.

And I am the opposite; I HAD a Dillon and the primer assembly was the POS and never worked right, even with Dillon folks on the phone talking me through it all and sending it back (pre internet You Tube. It was always jamming primers in the feed mechanism.

That's caused by the drive hub being taller than the sub-plate. When the drive hub is too high, it holds the shell plate too far above the sub plate. Because the primer seating stem only has a fixed amount of travel, the case isn't held close enough to allow for full primer seating. Some don't have any issues out of the box while other guys just prime off the press because they haven't found a fix for the issue. Unfortunately, Hornady should have tighter tolerances which would prevent this issue from happening.

Here is a thread that will explain how to shim it. You can order the shims from eBay or Amazon for a few bucks and if you don't have a depth micrometer, just find the correct thickness of shim through trial and error that removes most of the play and still allows the shell plate to rotate freely. By shimming the sub-plate closer to the shell plate, the primer seating stem will have enough travel to fully seat your primer.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/...y-Lock-N-Load-AP-progressive-press/42-414607/

You will also find that you will be removing a lot of shell plate tilt which will give you more consistent case sizing, expanding, and bullet seating depths.

Here is another thread that you might find useful:

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/lnl-ap-drive-hub-slop.862125/

I dont think there is any such place that adjusts presses. The shim fixes a lot of issues and they are easy to get through ebay or amazon. The fix is as simple as taking the screw out that holds the shell plate and the other screws that are on holding the sub plate. Once I had the shims, I think it took all of about 15 minutes to find the correct spacing and put everything back together again.

The extra spacing also causes the shell plate to tilt. it will tilt more if there is more resistance on the opposite side of station #2 with is where you are sizing and priming. That might explain why you are seeing that inconsistency between .005 - .018. However, shimming the drive hub will take care of this issue and the priming system will work like a champ.

I have Dillons, Hornady LNL, Redding T-7, and a Forster Co-ax and they all require slight tweaks every now and then to get everything running smoothly. Its not just a Hornady issue.

BTW - I prime on my Hornady LNL AP for pistol because of the speed. However, I have an RCBS bench priming system that I use for precision rifle loads and it is flawless. If you decide you would rather not prime on your press, I would HIGHLY recommend this:

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012932670

Its fantastic!

I recently bought a lnl . My thread "I went red. Hornady lnl" goes over my primer seating issues and stuff I measured and tried. Lots of good links for trouble shooting in there too. In the end my biggest issue was my great big heavy bench wasnt really solid. Has a goofy leg set up that let it rock and used up the force I was expending onto it. I wasnt having the crazy high primers like you are experiencing though.

There's a measurement I took for how far the primer seating punch extends up from the shell plate. Maybe check yours against that. I think it was .060" if I recall correctly.

Drainsmiths method for the setting the timing is linked in there too. It's a little involved but cutting a case let me clearly see that the punch had plenty of depth available to seat the primer very deep.

The shims under the ram helped tremendously on mine even with the wobbly bench. With a .002-.003" gap between the shell plate and the sub plate it was amazing.... but there's variance in the shell plates so gotta shim to your tightest plate And live with the extra slop on the others. The more gap the harder it is to seat from my experiences.

Only other thing I can think for you to check is the punch itself. Make sure it can collapse the nut down to the frame of the press and it's not hung up or binding somehow. And that's its tight in the subplate.

I spent a lot of wasted time on mine chasing problems and it was mostly the bench. When I build a new one I'm going to be bolting the front legs to the concrete to make sure it cant rock or lift the front and eat up the force of priming.

James.

Blue68f100 brings up a good point on the high primers not letting the shell plate turn... I'm betting u have a big shell plate gap and those shims would help a bunch. Mines not as tight as a .004" proud primer locking me up ,but .010" is dragging to hard to ignore. Just pushed one out a little to try it.

Ruger 15151 said:

I dont think there is any such place that adjusts presses. The shim fixes a lot of issues and they are easy to get through ebay or amazon. The fix is as simple as taking the screw out that holds the shell plate and the other screws that are on holding the sub plate. Once I had the shims, I think it took all of about 15 minutes to find the correct spacing and put everything back together again.

The extra spacing also causes the shell plate to tilt. it will tilt more if there is more resistance on the opposite side of station #2 with is where you are sizing and priming. That might explain why you are seeing that inconsistency between .005 - .018. However, shimming the drive hub will take care of this issue and the priming system will work like a champ.

I have Dillons, Hornady LNL, Redding T-7, and a Forster Co-ax and they all require slight tweaks every now and then to get everything running smoothly. Its not just a Hornady issue.

BTW - I prime on my Hornady LNL AP for pistol because of the speed. However, I have an RCBS bench priming system that I use for precision rifle loads and it is flawless. If you decide you would rather not prime on your press, I would HIGHLY recommend this:

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012932670

Its fantastic!

Click to expand...

If I didn't reload as much handgun, I'd go back to using my single stage - EVERY round ALWAYS came out perfect - but my older shou8lders do not need to make so many strokes to complete one round.

Watch all of these videos from Hiboy, then go back and follow along each one to set up your press. His stuff is what I used to set mine up and I've never had any problems.

egd said:

Watch all of these videos from Hiboy, then go back and follow along each one to set up your press. His stuff is what I used to set mine up and I've never had any problems.

Click to expand...

You wanna know what's really really really really funny about that... I saw the video, and I'll see if I can find it, where Highboy76has had ENOUGH. He couldn't get the primer depth problem solved on the LnL and basically said the heck with it.. Literally turned around went to his new Dillons, and basically never looked back and had nothing but praise when he pulled the handle for the first time.

Here's the start of it...

Or it could be the LnL AP primer system is actually a POS design. Now that I've primed on my Dillon.. that thing has easily twice the pressure ability and doesn't wibble wobble like a LnL.

Click to expand...

Then why did Dillon just recently abandon their priming system on the 650XL and go with the Hornady priming system for the new 750.

I can seat primers on my LNL-AP with two fingers to .005" under flush with Fiocchi small pistol primers. CCI go in not quite as easy and Winchester primers even harder.
On my press it depends on the how hard the primer cup is.

So there is something wrong with the OP's press and we need to find out what it is.

Now, what's wrong with Ghost in the Fogs press? I don't know yet, but comments like A R Bossman's contribution, doesn't help anything. I thought we were all here to help re-loaders with the their problems with their presses.

I don't suffer from brand loyalty but the brand loyalty comments from the Dillon owners have turned me off to ever buying a Dillon anything.

Every time someone has a problem with the press brand that they own, no matter what brand it is other than Dillon, a Dillon owner has to show up and Pee all over everything.

Blue68f100 said:

On my LNL-AP if the primer is setting high (over 0.004") the shell plate will not rotate. So make sure your shell plate is tight. I do one swift firm forward motion till I can not go any further. If your setting down doing this grab the from support so you don't move back wards. Mill spec brass needs to have the crimp removed.

Click to expand...

This sounds right to me too. As I said above the brand of primer you use has something to do with how hard you have to seat them. I recently opened a box of Fiocchi small pistol primers I bought the last time they had the 12k boxes for sale. They are really soft and require the minimum amount of pressure to seat them.
My Winchester primers, I have to seat them hard.
With the LNL-AP, and the Dillon 750 the primer shuttle has to be lined up with the shell plate and fully forward to seat a primer with minimal resistance.
If there is debris in front of the shuttle it will not be completely lined up and will add a lot of resistance to the effort.
Like Blue68f100 said,

Blue68f100 said:

On my LNL-AP if the primer is setting high (over 0.004") the shell plate will not rotate. So make sure your shell plate is tight. I do one swift firm forward motion till I can not go any further. If your setting down doing this grab the from support so you don't move back wards. Mill spec brass needs to have the crimp removed.

Click to expand...

Make sure your shell plate is tight, Hornady directions say to screw the center bolt in by hand, then put the spring on. Then finish tightening the bolt.

If you have done that already, then do like Ruger 15151 said in his post,

Ruger 15151 said:

That's caused by the drive hub being taller than the sub-plate. When the drive hub is too high, it holds the shell plate too far above the sub plate. Because the primer seating stem only has a fixed amount of travel, the case isn't held close enough to allow for full primer seating. Some don't have any issues out of the box while other guys just prime off the press because they haven't found a fix for the issue. Unfortunately, Hornady should have tighter tolerances which would prevent this issue from happening.

Here is a thread that will explain how to shim it. You can order the shims from eBay or Amazon for a few bucks and if you don't have a depth micrometer, just find the correct thickness of shim through trial and error that removes most of the play and still allows the shell plate to rotate freely. By shimming the sub-plate closer to the shell plate, the primer seating stem will have enough travel to fully seat your primer.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/...y-Lock-N-Load-AP-progressive-press/42-414607/

You will also find that you will be removing a lot of shell plate tilt which will give you more consistent case sizing, expanding, and bullet seating depths.

Here is another thread that you might find useful:

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/lnl-ap-drive-hub-slop.862125/

Click to expand...

What kind of primers are you using?

I have a hard time priming PPU and S&B brass on any press I own because their brass is hard and the primer pockets are tight to start with. I usually separate them so I don't get them mixed in with my domestic brass. There is nothing wrong with using them as long as you know domestic primers are gong to seat harder in them than domestic brass does.

Suedenflames68 said:

I recently bought a lnl . My thread "I went red. Hornady lnl" goes over my primer seating issues and stuff I measured and tried. Lots of good links for trouble shooting in there too. In the end my biggest issue was my great big heavy bench wasnt really solid. Has a goofy leg set up that let it rock and used up the force I was expending onto it. I wasnt having the crazy high primers like you are experiencing though.

There's a measurement I took for how far the primer seating punch extends up from the shell plate. Maybe check yours against that. I think it was .060" if I recall correctly.

Drainsmiths method for the setting the timing is linked in there too. It's a little involved but cutting a case let me clearly see that the punch had plenty of depth available to seat the primer very deep.

The shims under the ram helped tremendously on mine even with the wobbly bench. With a .002-.003" gap between the shell plate and the sub plate it was amazing.... but there's variance in the shell plates so gotta shim to your tightest plate And live with the extra slop on the others. The more gap the harder it is to seat from my experiences.

Only other thing I can think for you to check is the punch itself. Make sure it can collapse the nut down to the frame of the press and it's not hung up or binding somehow. And that's its tight in the subplate.

I spent a lot of wasted time on mine chasing problems and it was mostly the bench. When I build a new one I'm going to be bolting the front legs to the concrete to make sure it cant rock or lift the front and eat up the force of priming.

James.

Click to expand...

This also holds true with any press.

The issue isn't with the hardness or diameter of the primer. It's caused by excessive drive hub height in relation to the sub plate. When the drive hub is high, then the shell plate is also high relative to the primer seating pin so it doesn't have enough travel to fully seat the primer. The shims bring the primer seating pin closer to the bottom of the shell plate (and case) so it now had enough travel to fully seat the primer, regardless of the brand.

Tightgroup tiger - excellent points! The Hornady seats any primer like a champ if:

- pawls are timed properly
- there is no debis ( powder grains) in front of the shuttle.
- The drive hub is spaced correctly either from the factory or shimmed


It is always funny when these guys who bleed Dillon Koolaide chime in on how fantastic Dillons are. Every press has its querks. I own both Hornady LNLs and Dillons and both need tweeking to run smoothly.

tightgroup tiger said:

Every time someone has a problem with the press brand that they own, no matter what brand it is other than Dillon, a Dillon owner has to show up and Pee all over everything.

Click to expand...

I own both, currently on my wall. Two LnL's and one 650. I didn't believe any of the hype. Till a 650 dropped into my lap. On JUST the primer system, you can see how many corners Hornady cut, and why people have been complaining about it since they made it 10+ years ago? Has Hornady done ANYTHING.. a little. They made the primer pin a solid round and not stepped to keep powder from making it stick up. They stuck to their guns that the divot in the body is all by design. They don't care.

@Ruger 15151 What Dillons do you own?

AR-Bossman said:

You wanna know what's really really really really funny about that... I saw the video, and I'll see if I can find it, where Highboy76has had ENOUGH. He couldn't get the primer depth problem solved on the LnL and basically said "F THIS!!!"

Click to expand...

Ha! When I started with an LNL, his videos definably helped me set up the press to operate nicely! But the spring washer that he used to solve the shell plate bolt loosening issue made primer seating depth issue much worse. The reason is that the spring washer made shell plate deflection much worse! That is when I experimented with a flanged bolt. I have been happily priming on the LNL since I started using the flange bolt with a large fender washer. I only avoid using the tightest of tight primer pockets with the press now...like S&B, RWS, CBC, and GFL. I prime those on my Lee bench primer.

One day I may taste some blue koolaid, but prob not anytime soon.