Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading Hornady LNL AP advice

Yeah, I know: Buy a Dillon.

I really like my Hornady LNL AP. I've had it for a few years now. This is a question for those of you who have a Hornady LNL AP and have some serious experience with it. I was using mine over the weekend to load 9mm. About 30 rounds into a batch of several hundred, the whole thing locked up tight. The pawl adjustments were out of whack, and it took me the better part of half an hour to get it all unstuck and get the pawls back where they needed to be.

1) Is this normal? From what I gather from the manual, those pawls hardly ever get adjusted.

2) How many rounds can you process before having to stop and adjust things?

3) I also find the center screw that holds the shellplate on tends to loosen. I know that tightening it periodically is required, but I seem to need to do it a lot. I'm tightening it per instruction and not over-tightening it.

I have had mine probably four years and haven't had that happen. I have loaded several thousand 9mm on it and quite a few thousand 45 acp so far. I have had to adjust the pawls once or twice over the years. All in all it has been a pretty trouble free machine. Once I tighten my shell plate screw it doesn't need tightening again. I like my LNL AP.

Steve........

Never had one lock up from the pawls being out of adjustment. After the initial set up I think maybe one tweak in around 6-7K.
I do use a lock washer on the shell plate bolt.
Mine has some play in the drive shaft at the bottom where the pawls egage and turn it. Cleaned it up and greased it with red grease, seemed to help the whole thing to work better.
Here is a link that may help.
https://www.ar15.com/forums/Armory/...d-AP-progressive-press/42-414607/?page=6
The shim trick was the fix for my primer seating problems and helped with some powder spill issues as well.
I like the press design but it seems they have some tolerance stack issues, some folks get a press that just works and some get one that they have to "fix" a lot.
Good luck

This is an update.

Over last weekend, I completed the changeover from 9mm to .223 Rem and started cranking out some loads. Within 30 rounds, things were going tits-up I wrote Hornady an email on Monday and heard nothing back. Last night, I called the 800 number. The fellow that answered asked me a couple of questions, and then said I should ship it back to them, and they'd figure out what was wrong and ship it back, all on their dime. It's all covered under warranty.

UPDATE:

Hornady just sent a shipping advice, notifying me the press is on its way back. I called the 800 number and had them read me the notes.

Bottom line, the ram had come detached from the yoke. They rebuilt it with new parts and got it all timed out. The press will be in my hands in a few days-- all at no charge.

I'm quite impressed at their warranty service.

If I don't have to twiddle a pawl again for 5000 rounds, I'll be quite happy.

Good to hear!
Thanks for sharing. My shell plate bolt comes loose often. I’ll have to start using a lock washer. My pawls have been a bit out of adjustment for quite awhile. I got lazy and started hand advancing the shell plate slightly. After reading your post I realized I should have reset them a long time ago. Glad I did. Funny how we can just accept things and not pay much mind. The LNL AP isn’t a perfect progressive press but it’s really good. Someday I’ll get a blue one just to compare. I’ll say though that I couldn’t live with a 4 hole press. And I also could not ever feel safe with one that doesn’t auto-index. The powder measure is second to none and caliber change over is very easy and quick. It definitely has some check marks in the pros column.

My problem was known to the guy on the phone; it was his first guess. Your situation is a bit different. There's a good video on youtube about adjusting the pawls:
[video:youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxVqQPukWlY[/video]

It's the one I used. It worked really well. Give that a try. It might be a real game changer

My problem was that the adjustments weren't staying put. I'd get 30 rounds and then I'd start getting a problem like what you have. A few more rounds and it would lock up.

I know some serious reloaders using the Hornady Powder Measure on their Dillon Presses.

Hornady is a better option.

Just sent my LNL AP in for the second time. Don't know what is happening but it will lock up for no apparent reason. This time I noticed the the alignment tab on the drive hub, where the shell plate attaches, is sheared off. Told the Hornady tech I wanted any/all updates done to the press and the timing/indexing issue resolved. We'll see.

On a side note, I'm considering adding a bullet feeder. Not the full-blown Hornady set up but something similar to the primer tubes used on the LNL AP. I have the case feeder and I'm not impressed. Too much fiddling around during the loading process and as such it saves very little time. I suspect the auto bullet feeder might be the same 'can of worms'. Looking into just using the bullet feeder die with a section of clear tubing that'll hold 50 or so bullets. Drill one end of the tube so that a stop pin can be inserted, load the tube with bullets and then attach the tube to the feeder die. Saw a comment on another forum where a guy did the same thing, only he used the drop tubes from an RCBS.

At this point I would expect them to just replace that unit.

Having several decades of working with progressives of many brands, for me, I don't see the usefulness of a bullet feeder that compensates for the expense and additional maintenance involved in getting them to work properly.

Even when working well, there is no end advantage in time saved...for me that is...but I don't have a problem handling bullets and placing the bullet on the case, maybe others do. Otherwise my left arm is just hanging there with nothing to do.

I have seen during every competition, inevitably, there is one or more FTF issues on the firing line. Some are relatively benign, but some are catastrophic in nature.

An error in powder charging is the most dangerous situation one will commonly encounter as a progressive reloader, and that's why I prefer to visually confirm the powder charge with a quick glance just before I place the bullet on top.

Just one simple rule...

No Powder - No Bullet

It's the only task that I have to concentrate on.and a simple enough rule that even I can follow it.

I could use a powder cop, but it's another mechanism and I am still checking on it so there is no time saved.

I don't load to have the satisfaction of seeing a machine work in harmony with itself, I load to shoot, so I prefer the time saving advantage of eliminating as many mechanisms that I have to adjust and maintain whenever possible.

I have loaded over 15000 rounds on my Hornady LNL AP, I’d bet. The serial number is 4 digits!

I left it as a wire eject model for years, but recently bought the conversion stuff. The new eject is much nicer.

I do have to adjust the pawls about every 1000 rounds. I added locktite to the loose one and it goes longer now. I’m on my second set of pawls....they wear out. The ram head must be rock solid tight to the ram. I locktite’d mine. The new ram head doesn’t allow the Shellplate to be tight and run, so it needs checking every 500-1000 rounds.

All ‘n all, even after 20 years, I still like this press and still have no Interest in going blue. With good dies, it can deliver 1000’s of dimensionally accurate rounds!

Update:

Sent my LNL AP off to Hornady a little over 10 days ago. Called them, explained the problem and they issued a RMA and FedEx Sshipping Label. A few days later I get a call from the tech. We discussed the issues that I was experiencing with the press itself, as well as the case feeder. The tech did point out that my press was an early version and asked if I had added the various upgrades. I had not. He said that during their inspection they would look at everything and send along any upgrades when they had it ready to go.

A few more days go by and I get another call from the Hornady tech. Press is ready to be shipped out. Everything is 100%. I ask what they found to be the problem. The list was relatively short, but the 2 main culprits were the drive hub and the pawls. The indexing tab on the drive hub was sheared off (??) and thus the shell plate was rotating, too far, not far enough, or when it wasn't supposed to. The biggest issue was the pawls. The tech said that my pres was only the second one he'd run across that had the same issue. Apparently, the recesses that are threaded and secure the pawl adjustment screws, were 'egg shaped' and only partially threaded. and not truly securing the pawls themselves.

In the process of discussing the fixes that Hornady provided, the tech also mentioned that he was sending the new version of the primer feed break-away assembly, as well as some small parts that should eliminate the issue I had with 'bouncing' cases coming out of the case feeder. We'll see. I like the case feeder, but given that it has been as finnicky as it has been, I disconnected it and have been feeding cases by hand. They also upgraded the press to the more positive shell ejector system.

Press was on my doorstep when I got home last night.

Cost for all this : $0.00. Big shout out to Hornady for their warranty service.