Hornady Lock n Load AP...FIRST IMPRESSIONS!

350 Mag

350 Mag

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Well after finally getting my back-ordered parts from Hornady, which WERE ordered on the 17th of April:mad:, I put the finishing touchs on my set-up today.


I loaded up:

10mm Auto
155gr Rainier FMJ
Starline(once fired, tumbled and deprimed brass)
CCI 350
11.0 gr of BlueDot
1.255 OAL

So far this is what I have:

Station 1: RCBS (size and deprime)

Station 2: Powder charge(using Powder Through Expander)

Station 3: Hornady Powder Cop

Station 4: RCBS (seating)

Station 5: Lee FCD



Impressions:

Case feeder works perfect.

Station 1 No problems

Station 2 Problem With the once fired brass the primer pockets were not cleaned and causing me seating difficulties. Hard to seat and primers coming out a little on the high side. I tried some virgin brass and this eliminated the problems.

Powder through expander. Slightly inconsistent but worked well enough. Brass would all have to be EXACT same length for it too work perfect, I think.

Powder charges were fairly consistent and I am using the rifle rotor. There was a little spilled flakes of BlueDot but not much. I never tried AA#9 through it but will and if I get as little powder spilled I will probably cancel the pistol rotor on back-order.

Station 3 No problems, I did find with BlueDot that the Cop is pretty much reduntant. When I go to put bullet in case I found myself always visually checking the level of powder regardless. Might have to look into RCBS lock-out die.

Station 4 No problems

Station 5 After grinding down side of the FCD to clear ejection wire that works ok. I did find that the odd round jammed on the ejection wire after crimping(as finished round was being spit out), but this is not big deal.

So far I am liking it ALOT....:rockOn:

In order to solve my primer issue I believe I will have to bite the bullet and tumble my once-fired brass then deprime and clean&uniform primer pockets?

Does anyone have any insight on this issue of dirty primer pockets making seating hard?

I have been told that CCI primers take more seating pressure because the cup is harder and this is starting to make sense. May have to try some Win primers and see if it makes a difference.

Also, what about RCBS lock-out die? Anyone using it rather than Powder Cop?
 
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Station 2 Problem With the once fired brass the primer pockets were not cleaned and causing me seating difficulties. Hard to seat and primers coming out a little on the high side. I tried some virgin brass and this eliminated the problems.
Click to expand...

I had a problem in station 2 as well.

I think the primers somehow got jammed in the primer tube; and the primer slide assembly got stuck. It should slide back and fort delivering a new primer to the press every stroke. When I pressed the slide assembly didn’t move as it was stuck, then the primer cam bent and slide assembly arm broke off.

I have new parts on order. They should arrive early next week. I guess I’ll have to be more careful next time.

Did anyone have a similar problem?

Otherwise I like the press, its very solid smooth operating.
 
whitbyman said:
I had a problem in station 2 as well.

I think the primers somehow got jammed in the primer tube; and the primer slide assembly got stuck. It should slide back and fort delivering a new primer to the press every stroke. When I pressed the slide assembly didn’t move as it was stuck, then the primer cam bent and slide assembly arm broke off.

I have new parts on order. They should arrive early next week. I guess I’ll have to be more careful next time.

Did anyone have a similar problem?

Otherwise I like the press, its very solid smooth operating.
Click to expand...


Before I assembled my press I took advice on this and other boards and ran file inside the lips of primer tubes and made sure no metal was left in there from factory.


Check the channel where the primers slide into the shell plate. If it has tool marks or is gritty this will cause primers to hang-up. I also used a small buffing wheel on my dremel and some Flitz and polished this channel up before assembling my press.

The press worked great. Timing is good. I imagine it will smooth out even more as time goes on. I hope to add KISS bullet feeder either this Fall or for sure next Spring.

The LEE FCD does give a little resistance when coming out of the top of the stroke but I will NEVER stop using that die.

I tried some NEW Starline brass this morning and primers seated alot better, but since high volume reloading I will save the CCI-350's for my single stage loads. I have no problem seating them with hand priming tool.

I am going to order some Win Primers Monday and try those, might as well make it easier on me & the press and lose the hard seating CCI's.
 
Primers

Years back, I had problems with primer seating with my Dillon press. I called Dillon about it and the fellow asked me what primers I was using. I told him CCI and he said that CCI primers are not round and using Federal or Winchester should solve the problem. I tried Winchester and things have been smooth ever since.
 
After a little research I discovered:

My brass is fine.

Dirty primer pocket or clean did not make much difference.

The hand-priming tool easily seated the CCI 350 primers below flush.

The timing of my press is FINE.

The primer plunger is not hanging up.

The ONLY logical conclusion is that the plunger was NOT travelling far enough up to fully seat the primer.

I took a nail and cut off just under the head about a 1/16 of an inch. I then superglued it beneath the shell plate where the primer plunger rests on the frame of the press.

I found that then I had TOO much travel in the primer plunger and it was causing it too stick in up position. So I carefully kept filing down the tip of the nail until I got just an extra little lift on the primer plunger.

I just finished loading 50 rounds. With moderate pressure on priming stroke(much less force than before) I was getting below flush seating with the primers.

I wonder if on some press kits the primer plunger is just a little short causing this hard priming issue...?

499660.JPG
 
whitbyman said:
thanks for the fix, I'll keep that in mind
Click to expand...

I also had a very slight timing issue. I had to tweak my left pawl out just a hair to get it to center the brass perfectly over the priming hole everytime.

Mine primes great now...but still don't like the amount of pressure it takes to do it? Seems to me something better could be engineered into it?

My RCBS hand-primer does much nicer job.

First time shooting BlueDot which I found to meter quite well, and it also sounds ALOT different than 800X or AA#9 in my 10mm. Sounds like a :shotgun:


Fired off 200 rounds today with no malfunctions of any kind and accuracy of the 155gr Rainiers was pretty good too boot.:D :D

No need for BRASS ROD and hammer yet....knock on wood :rolleyes: But I am very mindful of possibility of squibs when using a progressive.



The only nagging issue I have now is the ejector spring likes to jam the shell plate as it ejects a finished round...this happens about 20% of the time. I think I need to experiment with a little bit of a bend in it so it doesn't bind. This is just a minor issue for me.
 
Little update....

Press is running great...

Have loaded 800 rounds with no problems and good accuracy.

I just got payment for $150 CAD from contact in U.S.A who received 1000 Hornady XTP's FREE from the Get Loaded promotion.:D
 
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