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Posted: 8/23/2015 7:04:31 PM EDT
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I have had a LNL AP for a couple of years as well as a Dillon 650. I pretty much leave the dillon set for 223. I use the Hornady for 300 BLK, 10MM, 45 , etc.
I have two conflicting pet peeves....I don't like to spend hundreds of dollars on powder measures, conversions, etc but I also had adjusting the press for a new caliber. That is one of the reasons I run the LNL as I believe it to be lower cost / faster caliber changes. Anyways...Short of buying a powder measure for pistol and rifle etc what is the best assortment of items for more efficient caliber changes? Are the Hornady PTX dies worth it compared to the Universal PTX? What about spare powder dies? I saw a guy on youtube that had some caliber specific spacers for the powder measure that were pretty slick but I imagine he made them. |
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So I don't have a picture of this, but for my most used calibers I customized the length of the powder drop funnel that contacts the neck of the brass. So for 9mm, 45, and 223, I made the total length of the case + powder drop funnel to all equal the same overall length. This required a lathe, as my chop saw/dremel approach failed miserably. The end you cut off (opposite of the side that contacts the case neck) must be truly perpendicular otherwise it will cause uneven riding inside the case activated tube mechanism.
So now every time i do a caliber change I just take the top part of the case activated mechanism (removing the knurled set screw and spring) and swap the caliber specific part. So now each pull of the handle results in the same exact arc length travel of the powder drum in the measure. Also, I ditched the honrady powder measure and bought the RCBS quick change powder measure. Not because of the quick change, but because the same powder drum is used for both pistol and rifle charge weights. So I don't have to change the dumb drums. All this simplifies the caliber change process on the Hornady LNL. |
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Quoted:
So I don't have a picture of this, but for my most used calibers I customized the length of the powder drop funnel that contacts the neck of the brass. So for 9mm, 45, and 223, I made the total length of the case + powder drop funnel to all equal the same overall length. This required a lathe, as my chop saw/dremel approach failed miserably. The end you cut off (opposite of the side that contacts the case neck) must be truly perpendicular otherwise it will cause uneven riding inside the case activated tube mechanism. So now every time i do a caliber change I just take the top part of the case activated mechanism (removing the knurled set screw and spring) and swap the caliber specific part. So now each pull of the handle results in the same exact arc length travel of the powder drum in the measure. Also, I ditched the honrady powder measure and bought the RCBS quick change powder measure. Not because of the quick change, but because the same powder drum is used for both pistol and rifle charge weights. So I don't have to change the dumb drums. All this simplifies the caliber change process on the Hornady LNL. Do you use the hornady case activated powder drop or the RCBS? |
| I have a Hornady case activated powder drop die for each caliber I load, and I used the Hornady powder through expander on all but .30 Carbine where I use a Lyman M die. My 5.56 setup uses a dedicated RCBS Uniflow as I only use one load right now. The pistol calibers all have their own metering insert that plugs into the drum. I can setup for anything inside of five minutes. |
| I have the case activated powder drop, ptx insert, and a powder measure insert set up for every case I load for. Just takes a couple minutes to swap out. If I were shooting a lot of the .223, I'd get a separate powder measure for rifle instead of messing with swapping the rotor. As it is though swapping rotors is easy enough to not be particularly bothersome. |
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It's funny how there are so many choices and ways of how to speed up the process. Some good tips have been offered already.
For my part, with my LnL, I really like the Hornady Powder Drop and have bought the Micrometer inserts for both rifle and pistol. However, to speed things up and make things work the way I want, I also changed some things around. The first change was forced because I wanted to use the Bully Bullet Feeder adapter to load 9mm and 45acp, but it's too large in diameter to be able to use it with the Hornady Powder Drop. So I bought a Lee AutoDiskPro Powder Drop, and that changed everything. I still use the Hornady Powder Drop for .223, and the Micrometer Insert is worth the money because it does save time when changing loads. But for pistol, the Lee ADP works great, and I really got used to the disks where you can just swap it out quickly to go to a different load, and I have some extra disks to modify for some "in between" loads. While the Lee disks save a lot of time, it also occurred to me how damn inexpensive the Lee ADP is, so now I have 2 Lee ADP's, one for 9mm and one for 45acp. I could stop there, but I just might end up getting another Lee ADP for .357, although I don't really load that much of it... yet. All the rest of the dies for a caliber change are a no-brainer with the LnL because of the Hornady quick change bushings. I must have better than 30 of them by now and will pick up another pack on my next trip to the store, and that's why Dillon's got nuthin' on Hornady for caliber changes in either cost nor time. |
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Quoted:
It's funny how there are so many choices and ways of how to speed up the process. Some good tips have been offered already. For my part, with my LnL, I really like the Hornady Powder Drop and have bought the Micrometer inserts for both rifle and pistol. However, to speed things up and make things work the way I want, I also changed some things around. The first change was forced because I wanted to use the Bully Bullet Feeder adapter to load 9mm and 45acp, but it's too large in diameter to be able to use it with the Hornady Powder Drop. So I bought a Lee AutoDiskPro Powder Drop, and that changed everything. I still use the Hornady Powder Drop for .223, and the Micrometer Insert is worth the money because it does save time when changing loads. But for pistol, the Lee ADP works great, and I really got used to the disks where you can just swap it out quickly to go to a different load, and I have some extra disks to modify for some "in between" loads. While the Lee disks save a lot of time, it also occurred to me how damn inexpensive the Lee ADP is, so now I have 2 Lee ADP's, one for 9mm and one for 45acp. I could stop there, but I just might end up getting another Lee ADP for .357, although I don't really load that much of it... yet. All the rest of the dies for a caliber change are a no-brainer with the LnL because of the Hornady quick change bushings. I must have better than 30 of them by now and will pick up another pack on my next trip to the store, and that's why Dillon's got nuthin' on Hornady for caliber changes in either cost nor time. What the difference between the Lee ADP or the pro? Did you need the riser assembly? |
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One pm for pistol and one for rifle to avoid changing rotors. A complete set of change parts for each of the 4 calibers I reload: bushing, qc powder die, ptx, ptx linkage, and meter.
No adjustments are necessary unless the powder charge is changed. For a one-time powder change I use an extra micrometer meter. |
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One for rifle and one for pistol. Micrometers suck IMO. Mine kept rotating. hornady sent me replacements. Same problem.
Returned them to Brownells. Here is an easy way to adjust between calibers: 1. Use a separate expanding die. They work better than any powder expander, are cheaper, and can be locked in place forever. 2. Back the powder die way up. 3. Put a piece of brass under the powder die run it up to the powder die. 4. Spin the powder die downward until the drum rotates just shy of top position. lock the powder die down. This step works best if you remove tall die around it since the arm hits die as it spinds. 5. adjust the amount of powder. This is such an easy step. If you really want to speed this part up, you can buy separate inserts for the drum for each caliber but I think that is a waste. |
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Quoted:
What the difference between the Lee ADP or the pro? Did you need the riser assembly? Sorry, I was just abbreviating. The Lee ADP is the Pro (ADP = initials for "Auto", "Disk", "Pro"). Yes, I needed the riser assembly so that it would clear the Bully Adapter. It's a tight fit and you have to turn things to clear each other, but it works great for my 9mm and 45acp. |
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Quoted:
Do you use the hornady case activated powder drop or the RCBS? Quoted:
Quoted:
So I don't have a picture of this, but for my most used calibers I customized the length of the powder drop funnel that contacts the neck of the brass. So for 9mm, 45, and 223, I made the total length of the case + powder drop funnel to all equal the same overall length. This required a lathe, as my chop saw/dremel approach failed miserably. The end you cut off (opposite of the side that contacts the case neck) must be truly perpendicular otherwise it will cause uneven riding inside the case activated tube mechanism. So now every time i do a caliber change I just take the top part of the case activated mechanism (removing the knurled set screw and spring) and swap the caliber specific part. So now each pull of the handle results in the same exact arc length travel of the powder drum in the measure. Also, I ditched the honrady powder measure and bought the RCBS quick change powder measure. Not because of the quick change, but because the same powder drum is used for both pistol and rifle charge weights. So I don't have to change the dumb drums. All this simplifies the caliber change process on the Hornady LNL. Do you use the hornady case activated powder drop or the RCBS? I use the Hornady case activated mechanism connected to the RCBS quick change measure |
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Quoted:. . . Micrometers suck IMO. Mine kept rotating. hornady sent me replacements. Same problem.
Returned them . . . |
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Quoted:
Pull the cap off. Cut a 1/4" x 1/2" of thin paper. Insert paper inside cap and replace cap. With the gap closed a bit, the micrometer only rotates when you want it to. Quoted:
Quoted:. . . Micrometers suck IMO. Mine kept rotating. hornady sent me replacements. Same problem.
Returned them . . . Good tip... very poor design. Mine rotated so badly during a 223 reloading session that I had to tape it. I was getting crazy variation. Nothing dangerous but until I noticed the problem was the micrometer, I set that aside for cheap close range plinking. |
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