Question about Hornady LNL AP press

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mac100

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I’m thinking of getting a progressive press as my single stage Rock Chucker is just to slow for pistol cartridges.
I already have all the Lee dies and scale, trickle etc.
So I’m thinking the Hornady would be a better choice if I can use all my existing Lee dies in it.
So my question is I have seen lock n load adapters for the die holders. Will my Lee dies fit in these adapters?
I would love to go with the Dillon but I believe they have their own special dies and I would need about 11 different calibers to load so that could get ridiculously expensive.
 
Virtually all dies made by all companies are interchangeable with all presses made by all companies. The only modern exception I am aware of is the Dillon Square Deal.

Your Lee dies will fit all Hornady presses. Your Lee dies will fit all Dillon presses except the Square Deal.
 
Dillon 650 FTW. Accepts Lee dies. Great for pistol. Very smooth press, very fast press. It will spoil you.
 
Ok that’s interesting. That changes things for my decision. Is the Hornady quicker to change dies on from different calibers and just setting up from say 9mm to 45.
I was looking at the Dillon 650 but it looked like switching calibers and removing powder from the hopper was not as quick and easy as theHornady.
Almost everything I read says once you buy a Dillon you will never look back but the expense for all the add ons gets expensive
 
I run a Hornady progressive and have no complaints at all with the system. It’s consistent and caliber changes are done quickly and easily with their bushing system. If I had to start buying from scratch again, I’d still go red.
 
Redblack said:
I run a Hornady progressive and have no complaints at all with the system. It’s consistent and caliber changes are done quickly and easily with their bushing system. If I had to start buying from scratch again, I’d still go red.
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Interesting. I’m really on the fence with this one but I have to say that I’m leaning towards the Hornady.
I am sure it would do everything I need it too and would be a huge improvement over my single stage press which I would still keep for precision rifle loading
 
Read the sticky at the top comparing the progressive presses. It's a good read. I went blue knowing what I was getting. The Hornady is good I'm sure, but if you have the cash the Dillon presses are hard to beat. I run seperate tool heads for my calibers so changes are quick. You can go even further and have a powder measure for every tool head to make changes even faster.
 
laker415 said:
Read the sticky at the top comparing the progressive presses. It's a good read. I went blue knowing what I was getting. The Hornady is good I'm sure, but if you have the cash the Dillon presses are hard to beat. I run seperate tool heads for my calibers so changes are quick. You can go even further and have a powder measure for every tool head to make changes even faster.
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I did read the stick and it was an excellent read but still feel like they are both good. From what you describe
About multiple heads, that sounds awesome but wonder how much more it would cost to buy say 6 setups like that.
I shoot every weekend and start off with rifles then pistols then shotguns so I am shooting quite a few different calibers and need to batch load for each one and for the most part I’m purchasing 223 and 9mm because I shoot those every trip.
I going to talk to some of the guys at the range and see if someone will invite me over for a display of how theirs works.
Seeing is believing
 
I also had too many calibers I wanted to do to go with a Dillon 650.
With the LNL AP, just needed the shell plates for the calibers and ran with 2 powder measures, each one setup for pistol or rifle with Micro adjust stems and no need for tool heads.
 
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Not sure how much those collets are for the hornady, but I thought the cost difference between those and the Dillon tool heads was minimal. Maybe time to go to a vendors site and load up some carts with both setups and see what works out to be cheaper. I’m not saying hornady isn’t good, but during these red vs blue threads, more times than not people sell red for blue, not the other way around.
 
I would buy (and did) buy an LNL over a 550 any day of the week. Manual progressing gets old in a hurry. As mentioned above, the LNL is better compared to a 650. If you can afford it, 650 in a heartbeat.
 
I have never sat behind a LNL so can't comment on their good or bad points but I have sat behind a Dillon 550 and a 650 for many hours so will give my opinion on both.

First of all when I started down the "big Blue road I swallowed the cool-aid big time, I was making good money and the urge to buy "lots" of unnecessary pieces was stronger than good sense or management. Like the OP, I was loading a lot of different calibers (I think 36 at one time but am down to a dozen or less now) and thought I needed a different powder measure and complete caliber conversion kit for every one I wanted to load on either press...not so...I had accumulated 8 different complete powder measures with their own bars (at over a $100 can each) before I realized all I needed was the little sliding charge bars at $18 each for each caliber or powder of choice (they take about 2 min to change) and likewise with the cartridge conversion kits (again almost a $100 bill last I checked), All the parts are inter-changeable in similar sized cases...once you have a couple or three different "kits" all you really need is a $30 shell plate for each case head size. Peruse the on-line parts list for caliber conversions and you will notice that the pins and case feeder parts have the same parts #'s for a lot of different cartridges.

As already mentioned the Dillon tool head and the LNL inserts are almost a saw-off so pick your poison here.

Besides the auto advance of the 650 over the 550, there is one aspect that places the 650 far above the 550 and that is the 5 stations for use...you can use a powder checker easily in a 650 and still crimp at it's own station...that in itself sells me a 650 over a 550 every time.

So, in a nut-shell, a little bit of ingenuity & diligent planning with an on-line "parts order form" the 650 can be made to be a "not much more expensive" alternative to any of the others.
 
I have used a Hornady L-N-L for several years now with RCBS .45 ACP dies. When I recently switched over to 9mm, it was with my set of LEE dies. I found that when I adjusted the sizing/decaping die in the L-N-L bushing, the body was not quite long enough. With it screwed down to touch the shell plate, there were not enough threads exposed to properly secure the locking ring. I have had these dies for almost 30 yrs so the design of the newer dies might have changed, don't know. I purchased a set of Hornady dies and all is good.
 
Hi!

I have made few hundreds rounds using hornady LNL progressive press, i was disapointed, the thing was untunable. After a good look on what other presses can offer, from lee to rcbs to dillon , i tried the loadmaster from lee having found one for a fair price in th EE. Absolute change, real need to tune the thing, but at this price this is unbeatable. The loadmaster with a rcbs or hornady powder drop is a really sweet thing now. With thousands rounds (rifle and pistol) done on this press now, i can say that without buying a dillon press i'm quite happy. The real important thing here is using hornady or rcbs powder drop.

Be safe!
 
I own the lnl and have sat behind the 650, I load over 20000 rounds a year plus process several thousand.223 cases on it and have never had an issue with ammo quality or the machine. As with most mechanical devises it comes down to nuts and bolts with the most important one being the "nut" pulling the handle. I've seem lots ammo from blue machines racked out of guns in frustration, IMHO the lnl is a little more forgiving because it uses a cam-over linkage and once it's set my 4year old can make consistent ammo. But the Dillion is nice with all its torqued up bimbo rotors and high speed thing-a-doohys.
 
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