Hornady LNL AP rant

jbrown13 · 08-10-2012, 22:06

Last week the toggle casting on my LNL AP broke when the pawl adjustment lock screw snapped. I called Hornady and talked to Lonnie and he put together a warranty order. When I got the e-mail confirmation I didn't see the grease fittings listed, and the old grease fittings can't be re-used because they are drive type fittings. So, I called Hornady back and explained the issue to a Brad, and he assured me the grease fittings would be installed in the new toggle. Today I receive the new toggle and no grease fittings. Don't those people know what it is they're selling? The press, and especially the case feeder, have been a headache since day one, and continues to be a headache. If you don't know what you need to send out with a part to make it function properly, you need to go back to school on your product or find another line of work.

Colorado4Wheel · 08-10-2012, 22:33

Dude that sucks. I know how you feel.

fredj338 · 08-10-2012, 22:57

Hornady seems very hit & miss w/ their CS. SOme guys rave about how good, others not so much. I am in the not so much camp, but everyone has bad days. My buddy has spent literally hurs on the phone w/ the tech & engineer guys sorting out his LNL over the last two years. He has it about right now, but it's almost unrecognizeable as a LNL. He is a machinist by trade so there ya go. Now your press choice, that is on you, you'll likely end up selling it & going blue, my buddy is after loading on my 650.

alitke15 · 08-11-2012, 09:53

I have the LnL AP and love it, all of my CS experiences were great (all 2 of them). The only issue I have had is the primer carry system. Not the best idea in my eyes. I am looking at getting another loader for Christmas so that I do not have to switch anything out when going from 5.56 to .40S&W and am looking at a 1050 just to see how it works mostly. I have no complaints with the LnL but am still curious as to how the blue side lives.

jbrown13 · 08-11-2012, 12:57

Hey Fred. I hear what you're saying and agree 100%. However, I figure it would cost me about $1350.00 to buy a 650 w/ case feeder and 2 caliber changes, and I'm not sure my conscience would allow me sell this white elephant LNL to some other poor unsuspecting soul. I've lived with this thing for some 2-1/2 years and loaded and shot thousands of rounds of pistol ammo with it, and I think I know all the gremlins, but I must admit I did find a new gremlin recently when I started loading a new caliber.

alitke15, I'm glad you're happy with your LNL, but it sounds as if you haven't actually produced a lot of finished ammo with it yet. Once you get production up and running let us know how you feel about it then. Both of the calibers you load are not calibers that I load, and I've found that some calibers run a lot better than others.

F106 Fan · 08-11-2012, 13:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by alitke15

I have the LnL AP and love it, all of my CS experiences were great (all 2 of them). The only issue I have had is the primer carry system. Not the best idea in my eyes. I am looking at getting another loader for Christmas so that I do not have to switch anything out when going from 5.56 to .40S&W and am looking at a 1050 just to see how it works mostly. I have no complaints with the LnL but am still curious as to how the blue side lives.

If you want to seriously consider the 1050, get the manual from Dillon. It isn't overly helpful in terms of the features of the press but it does go through all the adjustments.

The 1050 is PRICEY. The 650 is much more affordable and nearly as fast. However, since you want to load 5.56, the 1050 has the advantage of a primer pocket swaging station.

I load .45 ACP on a 1050 but .223 on a 650. The .223 is a PITA to reload because, regardless of what anyone says about .223 not being crimped, the Wally World Federal IS crimped (or at least the pocket has a depressed ring that prevents inserting a new primer without swaging).

If I had it to do over, I would load the .223 on the 1050 for the swaging station and the .45 ACP on the 650. Then when I ran into a .45 case with a small primer pocket, I could just toss it out of station 2 and move on. It's more difficult to handle on the 1050 because it hangs up in the swaging station and the press doesn't fully cycle.

Richard