I post this to hopefully help folks with LNL's or who are considering LNL's with what shell plates are out there and what they need. I wish it had been clearer when I was making the decision to buy a wire eject LNL or wait and get the EZ-Ject. I have attached pics that hopefully detail what I will describe below.
Many years ago I bought a Hornady projector. It came with what I call a Generation I Shell Plate. It indexed poorly to say the least. The biggest factor, IMO, was the use of one tiny ball detent. (My frustration with that, and the resulting damage, has been posted here)
Hornady soon came out with an improved design which I call the Generation II Shell Plate. It was no longer blue steel and had two larger ball detents. I soon replaced all my Generation I plates (except .38 Spl which worked like a champ) with Generation II plates. That cured most of the problems. Some deburring & polishing fixed the rest of the problems. Even my 9MM plate worked like a champ on my Projector. (My 9mm shell plate solutions have been posted as well)
The mouth to the Generation II plates has a "point" on them. (It was later rounded off in the Generation III Shell Plates) This is not a big issue with the Projector because the ejector piece on the Projector rotates and moves as the brass is pushed out of the shell plate.
Then came along the LNL and the wire eject system. The wire is stationary and will not work with the Generation II Shell Plates with the "point" in the mouth where the brass goes. (These Generation II shell plates come in boxes marked "LNL/Projector", but they will not work on the LNL)
Hornady soon came out, or possibly at the same time, with what I call the Generation III Shell Plate. It eliminated the "point" in the mouth where the case goes and the entrance is nice and rounded. That, and some deburring & polishing, pretty much fixed that problem, 99% anyway.
Then Hornady came out with the EZ-Ject system, requiring what I call the Generation IV Shell Plate. It seems identical to the Generation III Shell Plate except that it has a groove machined underneath for the EZ-Ject "ejector".
So, now I have 4 generations of shell plates and am at least a little irritated with Hornady they way they keep making changes. The good news is if you call Hornady they will help you out to some extent, and the changes are improvements.
I bought a non EZ-Ject because I did not want to have to mod my 12 or so shell plates, but it turns out I had to anyway.
I have modded some of my Generation II plates to match the Generation III plates with the rounded contour. I have also sent some of my plates to Hornady and they have machined them to work on the EZ-Ject. I will send the rest one of these days. I decided to order the EZ-Ject conversion sub plate because even with the mods the LNL does not eject as well as my old Projector when using Generation II and even Generation III plates, plus that will get that wire out of the way. Not fiddling with it switching shell plates will be a good thing.
I sure hope the EZ-Ject works well. I have not seen any fussing about it here, but nobody raving about it either.
Many years ago I bought a Hornady projector. It came with what I call a Generation I Shell Plate. It indexed poorly to say the least. The biggest factor, IMO, was the use of one tiny ball detent. (My frustration with that, and the resulting damage, has been posted here)
Hornady soon came out with an improved design which I call the Generation II Shell Plate. It was no longer blue steel and had two larger ball detents. I soon replaced all my Generation I plates (except .38 Spl which worked like a champ) with Generation II plates. That cured most of the problems. Some deburring & polishing fixed the rest of the problems. Even my 9MM plate worked like a champ on my Projector. (My 9mm shell plate solutions have been posted as well)
The mouth to the Generation II plates has a "point" on them. (It was later rounded off in the Generation III Shell Plates) This is not a big issue with the Projector because the ejector piece on the Projector rotates and moves as the brass is pushed out of the shell plate.
Then came along the LNL and the wire eject system. The wire is stationary and will not work with the Generation II Shell Plates with the "point" in the mouth where the brass goes. (These Generation II shell plates come in boxes marked "LNL/Projector", but they will not work on the LNL)
Hornady soon came out, or possibly at the same time, with what I call the Generation III Shell Plate. It eliminated the "point" in the mouth where the case goes and the entrance is nice and rounded. That, and some deburring & polishing, pretty much fixed that problem, 99% anyway.
Then Hornady came out with the EZ-Ject system, requiring what I call the Generation IV Shell Plate. It seems identical to the Generation III Shell Plate except that it has a groove machined underneath for the EZ-Ject "ejector".
So, now I have 4 generations of shell plates and am at least a little irritated with Hornady they way they keep making changes. The good news is if you call Hornady they will help you out to some extent, and the changes are improvements.
I bought a non EZ-Ject because I did not want to have to mod my 12 or so shell plates, but it turns out I had to anyway.
I have modded some of my Generation II plates to match the Generation III plates with the rounded contour. I have also sent some of my plates to Hornady and they have machined them to work on the EZ-Ject. I will send the rest one of these days. I decided to order the EZ-Ject conversion sub plate because even with the mods the LNL does not eject as well as my old Projector when using Generation II and even Generation III plates, plus that will get that wire out of the way. Not fiddling with it switching shell plates will be a good thing.
I sure hope the EZ-Ject works well. I have not seen any fussing about it here, but nobody raving about it either.
