Hornady Lock-N-Load AP

[saltysquid]

Well, I made the plunge. I was debating on either the Dillon 550b or the Hornady LNL AP and went ahead and ordered the Hornady. I ordered from Midsouth, which is backordered, but they predict about a week and a half on getting them in. I can wait. The free 1000 bullets nudged me some, but researching them seemed to provide happy users of both brands/models. Comments from other owners, good or bad?

 

[dmftoy1]

I think you'll be very happy with your purchase. I'd do a search on this forum and then sit back and read for an hour or so. All of the presses have their quirks and there are some pretty good writeups on the various issues you might encounter with your LNL. I'd imagine if you do a bit of reading you'll be estatic when you use the press as you'll know enough about it that it will work flawlessly.

Have a good one,
Dave

 

[hornadylnl]

do a search on my user name. I've made several posts regarding the lnl ap. You'll be happy with it. Here is a great write up on the lnl. http://www.cs.odu.edu/~rtompkin/hornady/blue.php

The 550 doesn't compare with the lnl feature wise. It is of the same class as the 650. I've never used a Dillon but I'd say that from everything I've read, the Dillon is just a hair better than the lnl but you have to decide if that hair is worth potentially several hundred more dollars depending on what accessories and amount of calibers you want to reload. I did the math on caliber conversion costs. For $925 in shellplates, I can load over 150 calibers on the lnl. Of course I will never need all those shellplates. I can only buy 13 caliber conversions for the 650 for that same money.

I've been happy with my lnl. It has its quirks but you'll be able to work most of them out once you use it awhile. You'll figure out how to tweak it to run the best. I've run about 5000 rounds of 223, 30/06, and 45 so far.

 

[saltysquid]

Thanks guys and I have already done/still doing a lot of searching and reading on it here and some other places.

 

[bobhead]

I bought a LNL AP a few months ago and I love it. I loaded 200 rounds of 223 match ammo last night. It loads great ammo and it loads it fast. If you didn't get the automatic case feeder, put that on your shopping list. I wish I had bought mine long ago.

Like any piece of fairly complicated machinery, it might require a bit of tweaking and adjusting to get it running smooth but once you get everything right, it's great.

 

[LHB1]

Congrats on the Hornady LNL AP. I happen to like them also. Currently have two LNL AP presses and recently gave an older ProJector AP press to a young man wanting to start reloading. +1 on researching previous posts on LNL AP's. If you have any problems or questions, call Hornady (800-338-3220) and talk to Doug (X206) in Customer Service.

Good shooting and be safe.
LB

 

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

I was one of the early Hornady LnL owners. I got rid of a Dillon RL550B to get the Lock N Load AP. The Hornady is a far superior press to the 550 and is directly comparable to the 650, but a much better choice for reloading rifle cartridges than the 650.

Here's a link to a .pdf file comparing the three major brands (Lee, Dillon and Hornady) of automatic advance presses. I think the most critical element is the low runout you get with the Hornady, a critical factor in long range accuracy of a rifle cartridge. That, along with the suiperior powder measure, makes the Hornady worth it even if you don't get a casefeeder.

Link:

http://www.comrace.ca/cmfiles/dillonLeeHornadyComparison.pdf

After reading the above document, any residual doubts you have related to Hornady should pretty much be erased. If either of the other two preses were superior or a better buy, he would of kept them, not the Hornady.

Regards,

Dave

 

[saltysquid]

Thanks guys good info, and I have that bookmarked already Dave. Thanks for posting it though. I have downloaded the manuals at Hornady, googled for days and searched a number of forums. I appreciate any info or links though, I could have missed some.

 

[Shoney]

I have both the LNL and the 550. They are both good machines, but the LNL is better and more versatile. If you were to consider ONLY the new price to new price of each machine with 5 cartridge changeovers, the LNL is far lower in cost.

Whether the 650 is superior to the LNL is very debatable. However, there is no debate that the 650 has a much higher in price not only for the machine but for accessories as well.

You will be happy with the LNL!

 

[saltysquid]

Thanks Shoney.

 

[robctwo]

I'm just a bit over 53,000 on my LnL. My reloading buddy finally got rid of his Lee progressive. He went through the LnL/Dillon/RCBS search. His conclusion was that the LnL was cheaper and better than the Dillon 650. I decided that in 2004. I do know a bunch of guys who swear by thei Dillons. good for them.

 

[joevilla71]

Hey Salty,

Just FYI, They told me it would be a week or 2 ... ummm 2 months ago. That wait was a killer so I ended up looking online for used.

Later,
Joevilla71

 

[saltysquid]

Thans guys, and if it turns into a ridiculous amount of time I will look elsewhere. Their price is enough cheaper than anyone else's though that it's worth waiting some.

It does look like they are VERY scarce on the internet and there are none at any time locally. If it turns into a nightmare wait I guess I could jump ship for a dillon 550b, but I would prefer the lnl.

 

[Guy B. Meredith]

Why settle for something other than what you want just for impatience? You will be living with the decision. I still wish I'd gone for the Suzuki rather than the all popular Toyota.

 

[saltysquid]

Well, I was on the fence and the free bullets kind of nudged me over to the hornady. I will wait a while and see, but if it turns into a couple of months I don't know if I have that kind of patience. You are right though, better make sure.

 

[Idano]

Salty,

You won't be sorry, I bought mine in October and I have run probably over 10,000 rounds through it between what I have prepped and what I have loaded and I love it. I think everyone here has pretty much summed it up that since it is mechanical there will be problems and there will be a learning curve. I would have say that 99% of the few problems I did encounter were contributed to a lack of experience with the machine. The more I use the press the only problems I have now seem to be related to the cases. Occasionally a dinged rim will cause it not to feed into the shell plate or allow the extraction wire to kick it out.

The best advice I think I can give you is don't try to reload anything on it until you set it up and run a lot of cases through it first. When I got mine I got the case feeder at the same time so it needed to be setup too. So I probably cycled 1,000 casings through while I was setting it up to make sure I had all the timing setup correctly and that I got a good feel of how it was suppose to feel when running normally. I didn't do this with the first progressive press, a Lee LoadMaster, I had and may be why I was never really happy with it. Do continue reading all the threads on the Hornady AP there is a wealth of information out there by many of the folks who have have posted here on your thread. If you do run into problems don't hesitate to ask I know DaveInFloweryBranchGA has definitely helped me diagnose problems with the extraction wire when I first started.

 

[saltysquid]

Thanks Idano.

 

[leper65]

I back ordered a LnL from Midsouth at the beginning of February. I e-mailed Hornady late last week too see if they are shipping them or not and they said they had some very large orders to fill and that Midsouth should be getting their order in about a week to 10 days.

 

[saltysquid]

I could live with that amount of wait time. It's pretty much in line with the date they had there when I orded. Now they have it pushed back to next month for new orders.

Edit: I just called midsouth and they said they don't expect any until may 17th.

WOW, REAL bad news. I called Hornady and they said it would be a month and a half. They said one of their presses broke down (I guess a press that makes a part for the presses) and it would be that long anyway. That's why there are none out there and won't be for a while.

 

[leper65]

I just got an e-mail from Midsouth saying my LnL has just shipped!

 

[saltysquid]

Congrats!

I just talked to midsouth and they said they got 17 in last week, so these are going out. She said she talked to "Chris" at hornady that handles their orders and that he said their press that was broken is fixed now and it should be 2-3weeks so I'm going to sit tight for a little while.

 

[saltysquid]

Scratch that, I drank the blue Kook-aid. Let the lashing begin.

 

[Idano]

Salty,

Sorry to hear that, I hope you at least drank from the 650 glass and not the 550 sippy cup.

Best of luck with your new purchase god knows you'll need it.




Just kidding, the 650 is a good machine, however, the 550 is antiquated but still has loyal following.

 

[saltysquid]

I went with the antiquated 550b sippy cup. I really considered the 650 but I won't be reloading enough, probably a few hundred a month, to care about self indexing or even 5 stations so I really didn't think I need it.

To each his own though.

 

[Idano]

You will enjoy it regardless, I just could resist taking a jab at the 550 owners. There is nothing wrong with 550 other then I think it is overpriced when compared to the 650 and Hornady AP. If it was $100 cheaper then I think the 550 would be a lot more desirable IMO.