So after having my Hornady LNL press sit in the box for almost 2 years, I had today off from work so I was determined to get it up and running. I was using a Lee sizing/depriming die since I'm sending back my Hornady sizing die to Hornady as it continues to scratch the brass. But the rest of the dies I was using are Hornady. The seating/crimping die and the powder measure was probably what took me the longest to dial in. I spent basically all day 9am - 3pm playing around with the press and taking my time.
But I loaded up 12 rounds 357 magnum.
Zero brand 158 gr SJHP bullets
~13.2 gr of 2400 powder (varied from 13.1 - 13.3 as I weighed all 12 charges) Pretty decent I think? 14.9 gr is max according to manual
OAL varied from 1.580" - 1.587" due to the different brass I was using. Lyman manual listed max OAL of 1.590"
Winchester small pistol primers
So I ran out to my club's indoor range (no magnum/jacketed rounds allowed but too bad) and went through the 12 rounds with my 6" GP100. WOW! What a freakin fireball! The recoil was fairly mild, definitely less than factory Federal AE 158 JSP and PMC 158 gr JSP ammo which is what I mainly shot. But it was VERY clean and not smoky at all. The brass came out of the cylinder with ease and the brass didn't look much dirtier than it was prior to shooting (not like that really matters but I noticed that).
View attachment 112342 Was shooting fairly quickly at 25 ft, pretty good accuracy I thought.View attachment 112343
Questions/concerns:
1) I'm not sure if my roll crimp is good enough. No bullets jumped the crimp but not sure if that is the only way of knowing. It's tricky due to the mixed brass I have, the length of brass varies from different manufacturers so that's probably why my OAL varied so much (but not enough to be a concern?) I followed Jim's procedure from the massreloading website on how to seat and crimp at the same station and didn't really adjust it any further from what Jim outlines on the website.
2) I had a couple issues with the primers not seating all the way into the brass. I think I wasn't using enough force to jam it in or it could be the brass (can't remember the headstamp - either Remington, Fiocchi, Federal, or PMC). Only happened 2 or 3 times. Safest way to seat or removed the unseating primers?? I can't ram the primer in again as the brass won't fit in the shell holder with the primer protruding out.
3) Another issue was after dropping the powder into the case and lowering the ram/indexing the press, a few bits of powder would fall out from the powder drop die and into the case and onto the shell plate. Didn't seem to do it everytime, probably every 2 or 3 times I would say. Any advice on fixing that?
4) There were a few bits of unburnt powder in the bore but didn't seem more than what I've noticed after firing factory Federal AE or Remington ammo. Here's a patch I ran through the bore after the 12 rounds:View attachment 112345
5) How do most of you guys clean your ammo dispenser/measure/hopper? - whatever its called. I was just thinking switching powders and calibers (9mm and 38 spl are the other 2 calibers I'll be reloading) will be a PITA since I have to swap out the rifle rotor for the pistol rotor. The pistol rotor wasn't able to throw 13 grains of powder for 357 mag so I used the rifle rotor and problem solved.
Do you guys have several powder measures? At least one for rifle and one for pistol? I'm thinking it may be worth buying another one to have set up with the pistol rotor and won't need to disassemble the powder measure/drop every time I want to change calibers.
This is what it looked like after emptying the remaining powder back into the jug - which was somewhat messy with some powder spilling out. Maybe buy a funnel??View attachment 112346View attachment 112347 Does this look like a typical amount of powder remaining/sticking inside the powder measure?? I degreased it with Gunscrubber which seemed to work very well.
Do you guys trim pistol brass? I'm wondering if I really need to even with the varying lengths of brass I have. All 12 rounds seemed to have crimped and lined up well with the cannelure. I forgot to take photos of the last 6 rounds I made.
Oh and did I mention how fun it is to pull bullets?! Especially with my first few rounds that I overcrimped and bulged the case, took forever to pull the bullet on that one. I also noticed that the grooves inside the bullet puller were actually denting the lead hollow point (you can see it in the photos of my reloads) so I stuffed some cleaning patches in the puller to cover up the grooves so the bullets weren't being smashed against them and deforming the lead. Worked great after that.
Sorry for the novel of a post, I just wanted to get these questions answered. Thanks guys!
But I loaded up 12 rounds 357 magnum.
Zero brand 158 gr SJHP bullets
~13.2 gr of 2400 powder (varied from 13.1 - 13.3 as I weighed all 12 charges) Pretty decent I think? 14.9 gr is max according to manual
OAL varied from 1.580" - 1.587" due to the different brass I was using. Lyman manual listed max OAL of 1.590"
Winchester small pistol primers
So I ran out to my club's indoor range (no magnum/jacketed rounds allowed but too bad) and went through the 12 rounds with my 6" GP100. WOW! What a freakin fireball! The recoil was fairly mild, definitely less than factory Federal AE 158 JSP and PMC 158 gr JSP ammo which is what I mainly shot. But it was VERY clean and not smoky at all. The brass came out of the cylinder with ease and the brass didn't look much dirtier than it was prior to shooting (not like that really matters but I noticed that).
View attachment 112342 Was shooting fairly quickly at 25 ft, pretty good accuracy I thought.View attachment 112343
Questions/concerns:
1) I'm not sure if my roll crimp is good enough. No bullets jumped the crimp but not sure if that is the only way of knowing. It's tricky due to the mixed brass I have, the length of brass varies from different manufacturers so that's probably why my OAL varied so much (but not enough to be a concern?) I followed Jim's procedure from the massreloading website on how to seat and crimp at the same station and didn't really adjust it any further from what Jim outlines on the website.
2) I had a couple issues with the primers not seating all the way into the brass. I think I wasn't using enough force to jam it in or it could be the brass (can't remember the headstamp - either Remington, Fiocchi, Federal, or PMC). Only happened 2 or 3 times. Safest way to seat or removed the unseating primers?? I can't ram the primer in again as the brass won't fit in the shell holder with the primer protruding out.
3) Another issue was after dropping the powder into the case and lowering the ram/indexing the press, a few bits of powder would fall out from the powder drop die and into the case and onto the shell plate. Didn't seem to do it everytime, probably every 2 or 3 times I would say. Any advice on fixing that?
4) There were a few bits of unburnt powder in the bore but didn't seem more than what I've noticed after firing factory Federal AE or Remington ammo. Here's a patch I ran through the bore after the 12 rounds:View attachment 112345
5) How do most of you guys clean your ammo dispenser/measure/hopper? - whatever its called. I was just thinking switching powders and calibers (9mm and 38 spl are the other 2 calibers I'll be reloading) will be a PITA since I have to swap out the rifle rotor for the pistol rotor. The pistol rotor wasn't able to throw 13 grains of powder for 357 mag so I used the rifle rotor and problem solved.
Do you guys have several powder measures? At least one for rifle and one for pistol? I'm thinking it may be worth buying another one to have set up with the pistol rotor and won't need to disassemble the powder measure/drop every time I want to change calibers.
This is what it looked like after emptying the remaining powder back into the jug - which was somewhat messy with some powder spilling out. Maybe buy a funnel??View attachment 112346View attachment 112347 Does this look like a typical amount of powder remaining/sticking inside the powder measure?? I degreased it with Gunscrubber which seemed to work very well.
Do you guys trim pistol brass? I'm wondering if I really need to even with the varying lengths of brass I have. All 12 rounds seemed to have crimped and lined up well with the cannelure. I forgot to take photos of the last 6 rounds I made.
Oh and did I mention how fun it is to pull bullets?! Especially with my first few rounds that I overcrimped and bulged the case, took forever to pull the bullet on that one. I also noticed that the grooves inside the bullet puller were actually denting the lead hollow point (you can see it in the photos of my reloads) so I stuffed some cleaning patches in the puller to cover up the grooves so the bullets weren't being smashed against them and deforming the lead. Worked great after that.
Sorry for the novel of a post, I just wanted to get these questions answered. Thanks guys!
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