Lock and Load AP

[Tawadc95]

I'm in the depths of deciding on a new press, I'm down to a L and L ammo plant or the XL750.

I'm leaning towards the L and L for several reasons. Can anyone here convince me by their experience I am possibly making the wrong choice?

I like the ability to remove the powder measure from the press easily, it appears mechanically simpler but I'm a bit undecided about the spring as a case retainer.

This will be for 9mm, 45 acp and .223, I'll continue to use my 25 year old Piggyback for other cartridges.

Thoughts please and thanks

[olstyn]

I own a LnL AP. Overall, I'm quite pleased with it. The spring as case retainer works just fine. It comes with two spares and after 5+ years, I'm still on the first one. I would say that the only real weak points are that the primer feed system is sensitive to debris and that the bolt which retains the shell plates has a tendency to occasionally loosen. Keep an eye on those two things and you'll be happy. The LnL bushings are excellent for multi-caliber use; if you've got multiple powder measures, you can swap calibers in maybe a minute, and you never have to set dies, because the bushings retain the existing settings.

[Tawadc95]

I own a LnL AP. Overall, I'm quite pleased with it. The spring as case retainer works just fine. It comes with two spares and after 5+ years, I'm still on the first one. I would say that the only real weak points are that the primer feed system is sensitive to debris and that the bolt which retains the shell plates has a tendency to occasionally loosen. Keep an eye on those two things and you'll be happy. The LnL bushings are excellent for multi-caliber use; if you've got multiple powder measures, you can swap calibers in maybe a minute, and you never have to set dies, because the bushings retain the existing settings.

Olstyn,
Do you use a case feeder and how are your die stations set up?
I don't know if I'll use the bullet feeder.
I will have the powder in 2, rcbs lockout in 3, seat 4 and crimp 5.

[olstyn]

Do you use a case feeder and how are your die stations set up?
I don't know if I'll use the bullet feeder.
I will have the powder in 2, rcbs lockout in 3, seat 4 and crimp 5.

How your stations are set up will depend on what you intend to do and personal preference. I have a bullet feeder but not a case feeder. IMO either is a MAJOR improvement in speed/smoothness, because one big thing your non-lever-pulling hand would otherwise have to do is eliminated. Obviously having both would be ideal, but I'm not made of money. I primarily load 9mm, plus a little bit of .380 every now and then.

My die stations are 1 - size/deprime, 2 - expand/powder drop, 3 - Hornady powder check, 4 - Mini Mr Bulletfeeder bullet dropper (do NOT buy the Hornady bullet feeder die, it only works well with jacketed bullets, and the Mr Bulletfeeder die is a much more elegant/robust design), and 5 - seat/crimp. I know people say it's tough to do seat/crimp in one step and get it right, and I will admit that it took some time/effort to get the crimp part set correctly, but honestly once that was set, I haven't had an issue, and with the LnL bushings being what they are, I've never had to touch the setting once I got it dialed in. (Adjusting seating depth for different bullet profiles independent of the crimp setting has not been a problem.)

[jeep45238]

I had one, and then got a Dillon 650.

The Hornady retaining spring was nice, and the press ran smooth. It also couldn't hold OAL tolerances (I'm talking over 3x the variation of the Dillon), they wouldn't sell me parts for the case feeder - at all. The case feeder was added as an after thought, versus one designed from the get go.



Every press has it's pros and cons. I found that drinking the blue koolaid was more like seeing the light, and even though life happened and I'm on a Lee right now, I'm going back to Dillon once I can.

[BigT]

I have a 650 and a LnL AP

The red press is currently in pieces under my bench and hasn't been used in years. Since about the time i got the 650, which has loaded a metric shit ton of ammo. I want to try see if I can load rifle or something on it.

go blue

[Tawadc95]

Thanks for the comments and the time to do such!

[SecondsCount]

I have a 650 and a friend has the LNL. He seems to like my 650 better than the LNL but I have a casefeeder and he does not.

One thing that he complains about is the inconsistency of the powder measure on the LNL when throwing smaller charges.

[olstyn]

One thing that he complains about is the inconsistency of the powder measure on the LNL when throwing smaller charges.

I'd be curious to know which powders and what target charge weights he's observed this with. Mine is roughly +/- 0.05-0.1 gr when using N320 with a target charge weight of 4.0 grains. If I use Unique, on the other hand, it's noticeably worse. Certainly I won't dispute that Dillon also makes an excellent press, but as I said earlier in the thread, overall I've been quite happy with my Hornady.

[knownothing]

I can only speak to the LNL as I do not have experience with any Dillon press. I load 9mm and 223 currently, and am just north of 7K rounds on it, not including processing brass. I do not use case feeders or bullet feeders.

What I like:
The powder drop has been very consistent for me. I only use flake and ball powders, reliably throws consistent charges anywhere from 3.5 to 27 grains as needed.
The bushing system is a good idea and makes changeover to new dies quick and easy.
The priming system has worked very well for me, and has been trouble free once I got the “feel” of the press.

What I dislike:
The indexing plate can get dirty and not fully index cases to the next position, requiring a bit of a nudge to position the cases correctly before lifting the shell plate to the dies.
I need to buy a case feeder to increase my speed, but knowing a few folks who have them and hearing them complain of how loud they are, that’s a major detraction for me.
Changeover for the powder drop from 9mm to 223 can take a minute, and it’d probably be best if I just bought another powder set up so I could have one for rifle and one for pistol.

Overall, with my limited experience, I don’t regret my purchase and the press is able to do what I need it to do. Dillon could very well be better, but knowing how the Hornady is the less favored of the two by most accounts, I’ve been pleasantly surprised as how well it has worked for me.