just about ready to give up

[Blue68f100]

The anvil can drag if debree has gotten into it. Then the only fix is to take it apart and clean. I end up doing this probably every 1000 rounds if I'm not handling cleaned prepped rifle brass. The very tiny E-Clip and be a chore to handle.

 

[Captaingyro]

By my informal tally more than fifty percent, and possibly as many as three quarters of all complaints about progressive presses in these online forums involve the priming system. So, I do what so many others do: size/deprime, tumble, hand prime. When it comes time to load I've got bags of pre-primed cases ready to go to town.

Because I don't fiddle with priming I can run my LNL for thousands of rounds without a malfunction, and without having to stop to load and/or change primer tubes. I'm convinced that hand priming actually saves time in my reloading process.

When you think about it, it makes little sense to use a machine designed to exert tons of pressure to seat a BB-sized primer. As long as I can size, expand, charge, check, seat, and crimp with one pull of the handle there's still enough "progressive" left in a progressive press for me.

 

[Beach Bum]

fmiller4..Get your press working right and prime on the press , is this not why you bought the LNL.....When I bought my first Progressive I read everything I could on the LNL and the XL 650 I chose the dillon ......My point is this I read a very interesting article on....ar15.com it was titled " How to tune the Hornady Lock -N-Load AP progressive press " The guy that wrote it was a machinist and had some very interesting insight and very simple and economic solutions to the very problems you speak of .....JUST GOOGLE THIS ARTICLE ...along with the information from Drainsmith you should be up and running and doing everthing on the press in no time....GOOD LUCK

 

[Damon555]

If you can't or don't prime on your progressive press then you are not using it to its full potential. If my 550b didn't feed primers well I wouldn't be a happy camper. Luckily the Dillon has been 100% perfect through tens of thousands of rounds. I labored over my decision when I purchased the Dillon....the LNL was in the running but big blue got my business.

 

[rfwobbly]

Fmiller4 -
My 550 has the exact same "primer drag" as you describe when I use particular brands of primers. CCI primers are very hard for me to seat to a reliable depth, whereas Winchester and Federal do much better. I think the CCI thicker cup must be much less forgiving.

Change primer brands and see if things improve.

 

[joed]

I've owned Dillon progressive presses for 15 years now. I noticed a number of friends went with Hornady during that time because the press was cheaper and Hornady would even give them bullets. But, of the friends that went with the LNL only 1 primes on the press, all have had primer issues. It seems counter productive to me to not prime on the press.

Never owned a LNL but I don't have anything against them, I'm not singing "buy Dillon". Each press brand has their quirks and Dillon has their own, but priming isn't one of them (at least for me). One of the things I learned quickly with my first progressive is that it is very important to have it securely mounted. If the press moves at all you will have priming issues. The second thing is cleanliness. When knocking out the old primers the crud has to go somewhere, it usually ends up under the shell plate. It's very important to keep the press clean or eventually you'll have priming problems. On my Dillon presses after every loading session I remove the shell plate and priming system and clean it thoroughly. These issues should apply to Hornady or any progressive press.

Some have told me they use air to blow out the crud from under the shell plate. I've never tried this solution so can't comment on it.

 

[Cannibul]

When I got my LnL AP I had the priming problems. A Dremel with a felt wheel and polishing compound solved it. I removed the shuttle and polished it on all sides. Then I polished the raceway. I didn't get aggressive and change the spec. I just cleaned both up. I also lightly chamfered the top of the shuttle where the primer drops in.

Lubed it up with powdered graphite and it runs 99%. For some reason the last primer always hesitates. I've learned to just rap the tube and it drops.

The powdered graphite is the key. I've tried other dry lubes and none of them work nearly as well.

Also the wire guide has to be properly adjusted. On my press you want the back of the shuttle even with the back of the raceway.

I also have a Dillon 650. Both are good presses. Both have their quirks. For some reason the priming system on my 650 has started to not feed 100%. I need to tear it down and see what's going on. I have a feeling it's got some powder or crud in the system.

 

[Billyzz]

The solid mount advice is gold.
It doesnt seem like that would screw up my 550b
But it will

 

[joed]

Cannibul also pointed out another tip and that is to use powdered graphite on the primer shuttle. Never use oil, it will trap the crud from the old primers and cause you grief by making the shuttle stick.

 

[RealGun]

Cannibul also pointed out another tip and that is to use powdered graphite on the primer shuttle. Never use oil, it will trap the crud from the old primers and cause you grief by making the shuttle stick.

Hornady's own One Shot product works to slick things up.

 

[The Remnant]

FMILLER4, Man, I feel your pain. I have wrestled with mine, too but I have been able to improve mine but I have never had to adjust the pawls. First, as others have said, I smoothed the top & bottom of primer shuttle & the raceway with fine emery cloth & also the bottom of the Housing Body Primer Tube. I was having a problem feeding large primers so I got a 3/16" piece of hardwood dowel to use as the primer follower. I cut it to length, sanded it & crimped an old rifle case to the top for a little extra weight.

My press is about 7 years old & it had the primer cam wire that was bolted through the press. Naturally, I broke the plastic bracket & bent up the wire (insert strong back, weak mind joke here) but Hornady shipped me a replacement that now appears to be standard on the press. It has a spring-loaded cup that holds the bottom of the wire so if the shuttle hangs up, it just pops out of the cup. If yours is the old style, I suggest getting the new style from Hornady.

The biggest thing I have found is keep it clean. All it takes is a sliver of brass or some powder to gum up the primer feed operation. Every 50-100 cases, I hit the primer feed area with canned air & Hornady One-Shot works well as a dry lube. I also got a 6" long set of tweezers to pick up those little suckers.

I was also having a problem getting a consistent powder feed with the powder drop until I put a powder baffle in first. It looks like the newer presses come with that, too.

 

[taymag]

For anyone reading this that may be deciding on a LnL press... I believe most (all in my case) of the issues have been resolved. I have loaded around 4000rds of 9mm coated cast without a single issue including priming and using the ptx in the powder drop so I am able to use the powder cop. (obviously being fairly new I have a little user error, but nothing that I could point back to a suggested improvement for the manufacturer)

I may be lucky, but this press has been nothing but a dream for me, and before I gave up I would just buy another press considering I think they have made some changes.

 

[joed]

What has surprised me about this thread is the people that don't size or prime on the press. Some time ago there was a thread on here asking how many don't prime or size on their LnL. I don't think there was one person that admitted to not priming or sizing on the press. Yet there are a few now.

The LnL is a good press, I wouldn't pass one up. But, when it comes to priming there are only a few things that will mess it up. The first is the press has to be very secure to the bench, any movement will cause problems. I have huge washers on my Dillon presses to help spread the stress over a bigger area to prevent movement. Cleanliness of the primer shuttle is the second biggest area that will prevent problems. I'm all for the graphite versus any other lubricant on the primer shuttle. One Shot is an oil which tells me it will cause problems, but if it works for you so be it.

 

[Walkalong]

I was already hand priming when I went from the Projector to the LNL. I have never put the priming parts in. Never got them out of the packaging/box.

 

[RealGun]

What has surprised me about this thread is the people that don't size or prime on the press. Some time ago there was a thread on here asking how many don't prime or size on their LnL. I don't think there was one person that admitted to not priming or sizing on the press. Yet there are a few now.

The LnL is a good press, I wouldn't pass one up. But, when it comes to priming there are only a few things that will mess it up. The first is the press has to be very secure to the bench, any movement will cause problems. I have huge washers on my Dillon presses to help spread the stress over a bigger area to prevent movement. Cleanliness of the primer shuttle is the second biggest area that will prevent problems. I'm all for the graphite versus any other lubricant on the primer shuttle. One Shot is an oil which tells me it will cause problems, but if it works for you so be it.

I don't believe One Shot is an oil. It does not look like or perform like the conventional concept of oil. It claims not to interact with powder or primers. It acts like a wax in an evaporating medium. Drops on my terrazzo floor dry to a glaze.

 

[taymag]

Whether one shot is an oil or not, it does not collect debris from what I can tell, which is all that matters. Even if you use graphite though, keeping the tray/shuttle clean is the important part. I use a lightttttt coat of one shot and I have never had a single problem with priming on the press, hell that's one of my favorite parts, I HATED priming probably more than anything before I got a progressive.

 

[joed]

I was already hand priming when I went from the Projector to the LNL. I have never put the priming parts in. Never got them out of the packaging/box.

Good thing you said that, I was checking your name against that thread. Just kidding.

Probably just got used to not using it. I can see that happening, I've done things like that too. Usually about that time someone comes along and shows me how I should have been doing something all along.

If it works for you doing what you're doing then that's great. Still have the Projector?

On another note, how's the weather in AL? Stay warm.

 

[joed]

I don't believe One Shot is an oil. It does not look like or perform like the conventional concept of oil. It claims not to interact with powder or primers. It acts like a wax in an evaporating medium. Drops on my terrazzo floor dry to a glaze.

Glad you told me that. I use it on my brass. It feels somewhat like oil when it first goes on. Noticed when it dries though that it feels somewhat tacky. I'll keep it in mind if I ever find myself out of graphite.

 

[mstreddy]

Joed,
Let me pipe in again, I do use the primer system on the LNL. It works very well. I also use the One Shot on the shuttle and track area. For most of my pistol rounds I load full progressive. Start with tumbled cases, go through the press and out comes a finished round. 38 Spcl, 357 Mag, 40 S&W, 45 ACP, 45 Colt, 380 ACP, and even 32 ACP.

For 9MM, which incidentally is the round I load the most, I actually run through 2 batches on the progressive. I have a Lone Wolf barrel which is very tight, it is the tightest chamber in 9MM, that I use on my Glock 17. Because of this tight chamber, I have to size the brass as far down as possible. I'm also using the Hornady bullet feed die and tubes, so I have to expand the mouth a fair bit more than normal. Given all that I found that it goes a lot smoother when I size/deprime, prime and flare in one batch. Then I switch dies, powder, bullet feed and seat/crimp for the second run. I loaded 400 rounds yesterday and another 200 today at a nice even pace.

For some rifles, 223, 308, 30-06, I resize/deprime on the RCBS Rock Chucker, case prep as needed, then I go on the LNL for the primer, powder and seating. 300 Blackout, if it's been prepped (primer pocket crimps) goes full progressive.

 

[THEWELSHM]

I've had one for years, the first thing I did was strip it down and clean. Then timed the primer release ( the adjustment on the black nylon peice) put a plate in with all the same caliber resize dies and adjust the paals until the brass cycles easily on its 5 station travel...... job done

Thewelshm

 

[Walkalong]

If it works for you doing what you're doing then that's great. Still have the Projector?

Gave it to a friend.

On another note, how's the weather in AL? Stay warm.

Nearly 65 today. I wish it would get and stay cold. Well, coldish.

 

[Blue68f100]

In your post you state "When I screw the primer ram in all the way it blocks the movement of the shuttle." Do you mean the "Primer Seater Punch" blocks the Primer Slide? The Primer Seater Punch should be screwed in all the way and cause no interference with the Primer Slide. I have found that the Primer Seater Punch is pretty soft and easy to destroy if tightened too much.

If you get a problem with a primer dragging for some reason, stop, remove all of the cartridges in progress, remove the shell plate and fix the problem - do not try to force the press to rotate. If you force rotation, you may damage the Pawls. You should never force the press to rotate for any reason.

If, while priming, you sense that no primer was seated, do not advance the press, stop and remove the case in the priming position, fix the problem by unsticking the primer slide, put the case back in, and seat the primer. This way you will never have a case full of powder without a primer spilling powder as it travels around.

This happens when debree has gotten into the punch assembly. It keeps the punch from dropping down (setting high) making things drag. There is only 0.003"=0.010" clearance between the shell plate and base. With the avg being in the 0.003"-0.005" range. The only way to fix it is to take it apart and clean it.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I size and prime everything that goes through my LNL-AP also. I never had a problem with it in over 25,000 rounds now. That's what my counter says but I didn't put it on until a good year after I bought it. My case feeder I can't say that about, it like to stick a 9mm about every 200 rounds. I can live with that. It takes about 3 seconds to reach up and poke it one.
As far as sizing and priming, they all go through. My press does well with this. If you have tumbling media or are loading with dirty brass, I can see why you are having a problem because that dirt will get into everything eventually. My brass are all squeaky clean before they get to the press and I have no problems with priming, sizing, and loading in one pass.
All machines are different to some degree, I'm just saying my AP isn't one of the problem childs I keep hearing about from other members.

 

[Billyzz]

To the op
Read them owners manuals and when you get mad,confused,frustrated
Quit and do something else.
But keep at it.
Eventually you will be cranking out ammo.

 

[Billyzz]

One more thing.....Why would I want a Dillon anything?

You wouldnt.
You spent a fortune on the red stuff.
Hate to think how much moolah you have sunk in that photo.
More than i got!