Hornaday LnL and other loading tools review

[madmo44mag]

After many years of loading on a old dated Hornaday Projector progressive I traded it for a Lock n Load about a year ago.
I have not loaded much on it since I got it as supplies where low and loaded ammo count was high. I loaded 500 9mm and 500 45 acp up till now.
That was enough to tune the press in.
I watched all the tips & tricks videos on You Tube.
Made a few modifications myself to suite my loading style and put the press up.
I was able to score 16 lbs of AR-Comp powder and seeing how I have some where in the range of 20k 55gn FMJ bullets, brass and primers it was time to get busy loading .223
Now days so much of the brass I pick up is Lake City I bought a Dillon Super Swedger.
So those of you that load 5.56 / .223 know the drill.
I am still using dry media to clean with so clean the brass, de-prime and swedge then load it.
Hat’s off to Dillon on the Super Swedger. Great product.
My old projector press did a good job of loading .223 / 5.56 but there was always primer issues. Not fully seated, flipped primers, no primer and crushed primers.
The new LnL ran like a champ.
Out of 2,200 rounds loaded I had 3 primers that did not fully seat, 2 no primers.
The Hornaday powder dispenser loaded with +/- 2 tenths of a grain of seat charge weight.
I recently bought Hornady Lock-N-Load 1911 Auto Primer Tube Filler and after I mastered the proper technique to use it I was very pleased. It will load primer tubes in under 30 seconds and takes less that 2 minutes to set up for use. Beats the hell out of picking primers up one by one.
What can I say. Life is good and .223 / 5.56 is no longer such a PIA to load.

 

[LE-28]

That's a pretty good average with the priming, that's damn good. I have had the same results with mine. Not with .223 but with 9mm. I have over 23,000 loads through mine of 9mm, 327FM, and .357 mag, obviously with 9mm being 80% of the work, and really could count on one hand the times I've had primer problems with it.

I put a counter on it a year after I bought it and it is showing almost 21,000, I probably put 3k through it the first year I had it so I'm trying to be conservative. It's the most trouble free press I've ever even heard of. From the problems other have expressed with theirs that's not always the case.

I think any of the big three, (Dillon, Hornady, and RCBS, in alphabetical order to not offend anyone) could all give that kind of service in the right hands, barring the occasional lemon that they all produce. They are all good machines, with good warrantys and are only as good as the operator that sets them up. I was never one that appreciated a certain color and in all honesty, still run a Lee Pro1000 that I've owned and operated for 23 years. I won't prime on it but everything else still works fine after all these years. I have no plans on replacing it anytime soon.

Glad your having good luck with it.

 

[madmo44mag]

I use to help a commercial re-loader years ago and he ran a lot of Dillon presses and Horaday presses.
I always liked the Hornaday equipment better.
It was easier to set up and less proprietary.
Dillon makes a great product just cost more in the long run to run multi calibers on.
The LnL is a great improvement over the old Projector press.
I found that if you put a o-ring around the bolt that holds the primer tube in place and just snug it finger tight you never have a problem with the primer shuttle picking up the primers. It gives a little wiggle room and the primer always falls right side up.