Lock n' Load progressive & Lee Auto Drum

[Toprudder]

Now as many of you know I have a friends and family shoot weekend every Memorial day and Labor day weekend. With the Memorial day weekend we have a "My Johnon is biger than your Johnson" contest with our reloading equipment. Our first contest was powder measers Lee, RCBS, Hornady, and Dillon. WE did 100 drops of ball powder, 100 drops of flake powder, and 100 drops of stick power. Now, that "cheep" plastic turd of the Lee came in first. And not by a little the RCBS came in second with the Hornady close behind. All I have to say to Dillon is don't run stick powder. So don't be afraid to run your Lee on the Hornady.

Funny you mention that, I use the Lee measure on my Dillon press for 223, specifically for use with stick powders.

 

[thomas15]

I have roughly 25,000 rounds of pistol through my LNL-AP. My complaints are few but there are a couple of things that you should understand. The first is that most of the problems are the result of two (2) things, #1 a lose shell plate and #2 debris in the primer shuttle.

Even with a lock washer on the cap screw that holds the shell plate down it will work its way lose. And it only takes a very small amount of debris in the primer shuttle to cause issues, generally resulting in a primer that doesn't seat all the way which brings everything to a grinding halt.

Once you get it dialed in it runs like a clock. Without breaking a sweat I can produce 400 rounds/hour or more without using a shell and/or case feeder. The LNL, like all other presses must be solidly mounted.

 

[RealGun]

I have roughly 25,000 rounds of pistol through my LNL-AP. My complaints are few but there are a couple of things that you should understand. The first is that most of the problems are the result of two (2) things, #1 a lose shell plate and #2 debris in the primer shuttle.

Even with a lock washer on the cap screw that holds the shell plate down it will work its way lose. And it only takes a very small amount of debris in the primer shuttle to cause issues, generally resulting in a primer that doesn't seat all the way which brings everything to a grinding halt.

Once you get it dialed in it runs like a clock. Without breaking a sweat I can produce 400 rounds/hour or more without using a shell and/or case feeder. The LNL, like all other presses must be solidly mounted.

"400 rounds/hour" suggests you must have extra tubes of primers already loaded...no time out for pecking more primers. I wonder too if the context is a case feeder or even a bullet feeder (probably not lead bullets). I have an LnL AP with case feeder and wonder about some of these numbers for output rate that I read.

 

[Blue68f100]

I averaged around 300/hr on a std setup LNL-AP. That includes time to fill primer tubes. I added a brass feeder 1 yr later, mainly because I damaged my left wrist and had to have surgery on it. The cast only left me with just the tip of my finger exposed, so it was hard to pick things up and rotate my wrist into position for the brass. With the brass feeder I do around 500/hr comfortably without rushing, just a good easy pace. I can do over 600/hr if I want to preload primer tubes and get at it. These days being retired I see no reason to rush through things. This is handgun ammo only. Rifle loads you have to wait for the powder to finish dumping before you move on, so it slows the process down. The first time I loaded rifle ammo I dumped a load of powder all over the press by moving to fast, powder was still dumping. What a mess that makes, needless to say I learned to slow down. Rifle brass is deprimed and wet cleaned prior to loading. I do prime on press for all my ammo. 223R plinking/blasting ammo is the only one that I use LNL-AP press on. All precision ammo is loaded in a Redding SS Boss II press.

 

[k4swb]

"400 rounds/hour" suggests you must have extra tubes of primers already loaded...no time out for pecking more primers. I wonder too if the context is a case feeder or even a bullet feeder (probably not lead bullets). I have an LnL AP with case feeder and wonder about some of these numbers for output rate that I read.

I also wonder the same.
I can't sit much longer than 15-20 minutes at a time. I do not have bullet or case feeders.
That out of the way, I can easily load 100 rounds on my LNL in 20 minutes if primer tubes are already filled.
IF, and that is a big if I don't drop anything or do something else stupid, I can occasionally hit 100 in 15 minutes but I almost always fumble finger enough to add the extra 5 minutes.

I've always wanted to see some of these loaders loading 500-600 an hour without feeders.