Yesterday I clamped the new to me Hornady LNL AP press onto the ultra mount (I'm waiting for the quick change plate to arrive), set it up for SP priming, poured in some HS-6 into the hopper and made some test loads since I've never loaded with it. There were some quirks but I consulted the manual and figured them out post haste.

Today at all came together, I got my:
in-line fabrication quick change mounting plate
adjusted the flair die a tad to perfection
Installed a Lee factory taper crimp die
dialed in the powder drop with TiteGroup.
I ran it through a few cycles checking for seating depth and crimp and was satisfied so I cranked out 120 rounds of plated 9mm pretty quickly.
I don't have any other shell plates or I would've set up for 40 Smith & Wesson or 223 to really test it out.
I believe if I'm gonna do rifle on this press I'm gonna need another powder drop.

CONGRATS!

Looks great.

From all your pics, you’ve got to have the brightest, cleanest, reload room I’ve ever seen!

#jealous

Cheers Jim! I finally upgraded last week too. Made some 9mm test loads that ran well then buckled down and did some serious production. It’s alarmingly quick and consistent. Definitely had some quirks to learn just like you.

Ohhh. A progressive press.

Here, from the title, I thought you were going to vote Bob Ferguson for governor.

Oh did someone other than Jukkou post a bait title?

You win the Waguns post of the night award.

Bite yer tongue Lad!




Thanks Mike. Your dungeon has a window!!! I would kill for natural light but did get programmable LED lights with an on/off option.
I definitely need a case feeder to get better production.



It’s all the white surfaces Steve, brighter is better to a point. I have worn sunglasses in there before. Lol

Yeah I get a little light through the window and a lot of space in the garage. There’s a strange tendency with the case feeder etc to just crank out rounds. But in the back of my head I’ve got good ol Wes Sage telling me to caliper those rounds for coal and mesure the powder drop to make sure it’s not walking off.

The machine held up well to a lot of handle pulls but I’m still glad I had Wes in my head reminding me to slow down and check.

Sage advice!

Wes & Larry are good people

Speaking of walking off, I checked to make sure that the powder drop was consistent and the OAL was good and was in a grove after roughly 50 rounds I check and the OAL lengthened on me… So I reset the seater and checked every 10 rounds and check to make sure the shell plate was tight. I am in my own head or a monkey on one shoulder looking down making sure I’m doing things right.
I like this press!

Caveman Jim, that's excellent.

The LNL was my first press, and it's still what I use for 99% of my reloading. (I do have a Lee turret for a few oddball calibers.) Yes, it has quirks and there is definitely a learning curve, but all in all I've been really happy with it.

Assuming that you have a complete press kit, you should have a separate insert for the powder drop that's used for rifle. You don't need a separate powder drop assembly.

I think it's always prudent to check the rounds occasionally as you're loading, but I generally haven't found that the press will "walk off" on me. Jim, you mentioned that your OAL changed; I have found that if you set OAL using only a single cartridge in the press, the OAL will be longer once you are loading "progressively" with a full shellplate. I assume it's because there's more resistance, so the press doesn't close down quite as far, but I'm not sure of that. So I have to set my OAL on the lower end when starting out.

I bought the case feeder a few years ago and it has been a nice addition, though it has its own quirks that you need to learn and it has by no means been trouble-free. However, when doing large quantities, it's nice to have.

Bingo Steve, that’s how I set it up originally just for checking the seating but after I got going I noticed it was different, check every five rounds, adjust, if satisfied check every 10, adjust if needed, satisfied keep checking every 10. That’s how I do it. It walked from 1.1250” to 1.135 inches +/-. I’m definitely a stickler for checking things quite a bit because I hate going back and redoing things.
It will definitely be a journey for me.

I hear you on hating going back. I’ve spent nights with the kinetic puller whacking away due to stupid mistakes on my behalf. I did a lot of measuring and weighing over the first 500 rounds then started to measure less and less once I was satisfied the dies were dialed and locked.

Once you start developing a rhythm and everything gets dialed in it’s really off to the races. I did a lot of ca-chunk ca-chunk the last few days. Cheers to your upcoming nights in the loading room watching the ammo cans fill up!

Good googly moogly Mike!!! I’m gonna have to buy a few more reloading components, seeing firsthand as they disappear quickly on this progressive press. Will mainly need more bullets since I have a good supply of powder, primers and of course “Brass”!
I will definitely upgrade to a roller handle and case feeder.