Hornady LNL with S&B Brass?

Hello All,
I recently aquired a new Hornady LNL and I've set it up next to my 650. On my first run, I noticed that about every 5-10 rounds, the brass would hang hard on the Ez-ject where the head of the brass would try to ride over the ez-ject nub. The brass I was using was all S&B. I inspected the ez-ject ridge and didn't notice any burs. This is the 45 shellplate as well. After fighting with it a bit and calling Hornady, I changed the shellplate to the 9MM, ran around 30 or so pieces of brass through it and I had 0 failures. Hmmmm. So, I moved back to the 45 shellplate and decided to try a different headstamp brass. I proceeded to cycle 30 pieces of Federal brass through the press with no ejection issues. After closer inspection of the S&B brass to the Federal, it does appear that the S&B has more of a taper to it. Has anyone else had issues with S&B .45ACP brass in the LNL? Is it simply an incompatibility issue or is something else wrong? As I mentioned earlier, I did call Hornady on Monday and described the situation as thoroughly as I could and they thought I might have either a bad subplate or shellplate and they want to replace the subplate first. I did inform the rep that I was using only S&B brass and he provided no indication that this brand was an issue. I had not tried a different brand of brass at the time I spoke with Hornady. Thoughts?

 

I have 1-200 pieces of S&B brass floating around, never has given me an issue like that. Did you fire the factory loads or is this range pickup?

 

They were my original factory loads and i'm now on my 3rd loading of them. My 550 and 650 have not given me problems with this particular brass.

 

FWIW, S&B brass always gives me an issue just using my hand press. I swear it's twice as strong as regular brass. I even run a magnet through my collection to be sure.

 

The only issue I've had with S&B is tight primer pockets, regardless of caliber.

I just installed a case feeder and find that quite a few 9mm balk at sliding into position. They seem like an overly snug fit.

 

I never noticed a problem with them on mine. S&B brass if I recall besides having a tight primer pocket the bases are slightly different than other mfg. Check to see if it's tight on the shell plate. One thing I did to mine early on was to polish the contact spot on the ezeject nub. I also did a mod posted here to make the retainer spring drop down just a hair earlier. Now if the retaining spring is not getting out of the way it will act the same way. The mod was to taper the square ledge where the spring slides off the base. The taper only goes back 1/4" and down about 1/16". This allow the spring to get out of the way a little sooner.

 

This piece of info is perfect timing for me. I've been having a problem with 38/357 cases tipping toward the center of the shell plate and hitting the edge of the crimp die in station 5. Called Hornady about it on Fri but that guy wasn't much help at all. Well, in fairness, his solution was to return the subplate and they'll see if it needs to be re-machined. I just don't want to be with out the press for however long. All along I kinda figured I'd wind up grinding the ramp a bit. I can't show a pic of it now, but looking directly at the left side of the shell plate, the spring retainer is clearly at a severe angle thus lifting the edge of the case. I thought I had seen photos of a repair job sometime back, but can't recall where.

 

I do the same as Walkalong, I don't prime on my LNL.
I have not had any probs with S&B brass on my press no matter what cal. it is.

Smokeyloads

 

I have had that issue with 45 ACP aguila brass when using the #1 shellplate instead of the recommended #45 shellplate. I would check the rim thickness. There was just enough wiggle room for the brass to be able to move to too much on the down stoke causing to to hang up as the shellplate advanced. With the #1 plate I had this issue every 5 rounds or so, since switching to the #45 plate it has only happened once or twice.
Jim

 

I had nothing but problems with my LNL AP EZ-Ject and 40 brass. Same issues, either hanging or indexing all the way to station 1. Using a lock washer on the shellplate bolt cut it down, but didn't eliminate the problem.

 

I've had brass catch on the nub as well. Make sure that the shell plate bolt is tight. Every now and then you have to reach in and jiggle things that get hung up on a LnL.