Hornady lock n load auto progressive press

[CAG23]

Thank everyone for all the input but please comment more specially if you have this press.... I think I like this press and am going to check out the Hornady reloading manual (what would make sense is that the press would go with the manual, or at least make reloading with Hornady presses easier) and the ABC's of reloading.......I have heard a lot about this book.

[C.G.]

I bought my LNL AP in March and have been very happy with it; eventually got a case feeder for it which makes reloading very fast. I started with a single stage Rockchucker Supreme which I still use for developing rounds or small batches. Although I no longer agree that one needs to start on a single stage press I am not sorry that I did and as I stated I still use the single stage. One nice thing was that I got 1000 free 9mm bullets, even if it did take about 2 1/2 months to get them.
If you haven't read this, you should it is a fairly good comparison of AP presses:

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

[bruss01]

If you're going to be starting in reloading, an aversion to monotony will not be your friend.

Before you ever sit down to load your first round, resign yourself to the fact that you will do it RIGHT in every minute detail, regardless of how long it takes. If it takes you a month to load 100 rounds, be fine with that. This mental attitude will serve you well and protect your sight, hearing, fingers, etc and may save a gun or two of your collection even.

Sit down and READ, cover to cover, at least two comprehensive books on reloading before you try to load your first round. I like the Lee Manual and ABC's of Reloading. If you don't like reading and want to jump right into creating loaded rounds, do yourself a favor - take up a different hobby than reloading.

Look at reloading as a process-oriented task, not a goal oriented task. In other words, don't say "I'm gonna load a thousand rounds today!" but rather "I'm going to carefully load perfect rounds for the next 2 hours. I may get 100, or I may get 1,000 - but they will all be book-perfect".

Good luck and welcome to the hobby! Stay safe!

[RugerNo1]

I love My hornady LNL AP press. I finally obtained some 45 and 357 dies last week so I'll be able to crank out more ammo than the old Dillon Progressive that my neighbor let me borrow(now I know why he let me borrow it, it's a POS). I also load plinking 223 and 308 ammo with it. However, I discovered ball powder is a must because you will crush your brass with the case activated powder drop if you try stick powder. For that reason most of my rifle stuff in done on an old Hornady single. But, no regrets whatsoever.

[SkyStorm82]

I love My hornady LNL AP press. I finally obtained some 45 and 357 dies last week so I'll be able to crank out more ammo than the old Dillon Progressive that my neighbor let me borrow(now I know why he let me borrow it, it's a POS). I also load plinking 223 and 308 ammo with it. However, I discovered ball powder is a must because you will crush your brass with the case activated powder drop if you try stick powder. For that reason most of my rifle stuff in done on an old Hornady single. But, no regrets whatsoever.

What model Dillon was this?

[k1dude]

I recently purchase a Hornady LNL AP press myself and I'm a complete beginner too. When I bought it a month or two ago, I couldn't even find a single stage in stock anywhere. So I thought why not buy a progressive, I'll save a bunch of money by skipping the single stage. I'm hoping I didn't get in over my head. Where I bought it was offering a great deal too. Unfortunately I haven't even cracked it open yet because I'm still trying to get the rest of the stuff I need before even starting (shell plates, primers, brass, bullets, scale, etc...). I've bought Lee's book and the ABC book. I need to read them first. I'm thinking maybe I should add the Lyman book.

[fairfaxjim]

Yes, I have the Hornady L-N-L AP press. It works. Actually, it works quite well. I have mine set up right now to do rifle rounds, .308 and .223. I do my handgun rounds on a Dillon Square Deal B press. I started with a progressive press. Like Randall said, just break up the operations until you know what to do at each stage. With rifle calibers, sometimes case prep requires some of that anyway. You definitely need dies, and a shell plate for the calibers you are going to load. You will need some LNL bushings to mount dies, I added the Powder-Cop die and use the Dillon 3 die rifle dies on mine. You will need a primer flip tray, powder scale, digital caliper, case gauge for the calibers you are loading, if doing rifle, some sort of case trimming/chamfering/deburring setup and tools for that.

Reloading manuals are actually several resources rolled into one. They are a safety manual, sometimes a basic engineering text on basic balistics, a "how to reload" manual, a text and history on different cartridges, reloading data, and a sales pitch for the products of the company that published the manual. Whatever one you start with won't be your last, and you will be getting data from different sources, if for nothing else, than to compare it with your's.

Not sure exactly what your "On the EDGE of Sonoma" location means, but I am in Fairfax, not that far from Sonoma. I would be willing to let you have a look at my setup, and run you through what I have and did to get there. PM me with an email if you are interested.

[fairfaxjim]

I recently purchase a Hornady LNL AP press myself and I'm a complete beginner too. When I bought it a month or two ago, I couldn't even find a single stage in stock anywhere. So I thought why not buy a progressive, I'll save a bunch of money by skipping the single stage. I'm hoping I didn't get in over my head. Where I bought it was offering a great deal too. Unfortunately I haven't even cracked it open yet because I'm still trying to get the rest of the stuff I need before even starting (shell plates, primers, brass, bullets, scale, etc...). I've bought Lee's book and the ABC book. I need to read them first. I'm thinking maybe I should add the Lyman book.

k1dude - don't know where you are located, but if in the SF Bay area, same offer to you: I would be willing to let you have a look at my setup, and run you through what I have and did to get there. PM me with an email if you are interested.

[CAG23]

Thanks for the offer...will get back to you about it. Looks like it may be a bit before I venture off into this....besides reading the ABC's of reloading, I gotta get the wife on board with the idea. Gotta let her come down from the Kimber that I just bought. Did a lot more research on the internet and it seems like this may be the press that I wanna go with if and when I so choose to reload (when wife ok's), and it looks like I can put the RCBS lock out die on the press in after the powder drop to check the load. In no way does this mean I can relax on the attenion to the powder drop stage, I like it cuz it seems like an extra safety feature. I guess if you are watching as closely as I will be watching, catching a double or no load would be the same as with the visual die.....Thoughts or opinons about it? And what would the average lifespan of reloaded brass be? i.e how many times can you reload brass?

[fairfaxjim]

Thanks for the offer...will get back to you about it. Looks like it may be a bit before I venture off into this....besides reading the ABC's of reloading, I gotta get the wife on board with the idea. Gotta let her come down from the Kimber that I just bought. Did a lot more research on the internet and it seems like this may be the press that I wanna go with if and when I so choose to reload (when wife ok's), and it looks like I can put the RCBS lock out die on the press in after the powder drop to check the load. In no way does this mean I can relax on the attenion to the powder drop stage, I like it cuz it seems like an extra safety feature. I guess if you are watching as closely as I will be watching, catching a double or no load would be the same as with the visual die.....Thoughts or opinons about it? And what would the average lifespan of reloaded brass be? i.e how many times can you reload brass?

Whenever, I'm not going anywhere. You may want to check it out before you get too deep into your reading, a picture is 1k words. Will make the reading more meaningful to have maybe seen it too.

I would recommend at least the Powder Cop - which is a visual die only. I provides an indication on the top of the press - you can't always see the powder level in the cases. The RCBS lock out die goes a step further. The Dillon powder alarm is a noise maker. All work, and since there is room on the press for it, I use it.

As for brass life, that depends on what you want to get out of it. It varies a lot - you need to inspect all the brass before reloading and will learn to see the signs of brass that is bad.

[Blwnbwtie]

I got my LNL AP today and got it all set up. Very big upgrade from the Lee Loadmaster that i was using. Indexing is so smooth, and no mechanical hiccups with the primer system. The only problems i was having with the primer system is me figuring out how much effort it takes to fully seat a primer. The Lee had a lever to seat them which made it a lot easier, but that was about the only good thing about that press.

One other thing i found that was interesting was people were always saying how they were using a dowel or a coat hanger in the primer system to see where they were at with primers and to make the last few feed properly. The AP now comes with a dowel for this, all i did was add a piece of masking tape to show where it was while empty. Another thing is it also come with an instructional DVD, not sure how good it is because i watched the ones on the website before i got it, but i would assume it is the same videos.

So far i am very impressed with this thing, i just need to get used to the primer system.

[C.G.]

Mine also came with the primer rod, but old instructions (which was no big deal, because like you I watched many a clip on Hornady LNL AP on YouTube.)

[Blwnbwtie]

Hornady also had a very good bunch of videos on thier website for setting up the press. https://www.hornady.com/inst_video_mr.php

I reloaded about 300 rounds of 223 last night. By the end of it i was starting to get the hang of the priming system and started to get a pretty good rhythm going. I still seems like there is a lot of effort involved in seating the primers, but im sure i will get used to it soon.

Also i recommend getting the micrometer adjustments for the powder measure, unless you want to buy a new standard one for each load, but the micrometer one seems to make more sense.

[RugerNo1]

I love My hornady LNL AP press. I finally obtained some 45 and 357 dies last week so I'll be able to crank out more ammo than the old Dillon Progressive that my neighbor let me borrow(now I know why he let me borrow it, it's a POS). I also load plinking 223 and 308 ammo with it. However, I discovered ball powder is a must because you will crush your brass with the case activated powder drop if you try stick powder. For that reason most of my rifle stuff in done on an old Hornady single. But, no regrets whatsoever.

What model Dillon was this?

Not sure exactly. The Dillon had what I suppose are the older accoutrements like: no auto indexing(you had to advance it yourself), a hand-push powder drop, a wonky primer seater that never worked properly, and always managed to get stuck no matter how attentive I was. The guy who owned it told me I was a real piece of art. My opinion is that the Hornady is leaps and bounds better than the Dillons I have had the opportunity to toy around with.

My $.02

[ar15barrels]

Not sure exactly. The Dillon had what I suppose are the older accoutrements like: no auto indexing(you had to advance it yourself), a hand-push powder drop, a wonky primer seater that never worked properly, and always managed to get stuck no matter how attentive I was. The guy who owned it told me I was a real piece of art. My opinion is that the Hornady is leaps and bounds better than the Dillons I have had the opportunity to toy around with.

My $.02

That sounds like a 300 or a 450.
VERY old and should not be used to form an opinion on currently available Dillon presses.