Rifle reloading with a Hornady LNL

[Three44s]

I noticed first run brass was mentioned being tried on a LNL. I would not envision that on any progressive.

I would get all the “cooty bugs” out of the way on a single stage press first before venturing into the realm of “progressivism”

First full length, trim to length, primer crimp removal, inside and outside mouth deburring etc. unless you are doing the length trim via a Dillon press mounted unit but the still leaves a primer crimp to deal with.

Three44s

[W.R.Buchanan]

The smaller the mouth of the case, the more likely powder bridging will occur with anything other than Ball Powders.

That why we use them for .223s in Progressive Machines.

If using stick powders and charging the case off the machine using a funnel I always toonce the funnel a few times to insure all the powder goes in the hole.

I use W748/BL-C2 exclusively in my .223s and W231 in my pistol rounds loaded on the D550B. This eliminates virtually any possibility of powder mishaps while mass producing ammo.

Randy

[Three44s]

To facilitate a possible move to my LNL I began migrating my newer loads in .223 to BLC(2) for that very reason.

Most of my .223 usage is in bolt guns but in case that changes I want the door open for loading much more on a progressive.

Three44s

[firewhenready7]

I like to resize and de-prime on single stage. After re tumbling to clean off lube, I check to see if I nee to trim case... Progressive for the rest of the steps.

[jeff423]

You might want to see if small base dies would be of any benefit.

[1hole]

I load for many different tube fed leverguns and Randy is right on, the Lee fcd makes crimping foolproof.

Applying to nothing, calling Lee's FCD "foolproof" depends on how determined the fools are.

I remember when Lee brought out that collet crimping die in the late 80s, IIRC; it sold like crazy from day one. I bought one myself, just to see how well it worked; loved it and soon had one for every bottleneck cartridge I reloaded.

Big green belonged to a holding company at the time, Blount I believe, and wanted to scare people away from the FCD (and all things "red"). Their "answer" was trying to make people believe the collet crimper was junk that would virtually destroy bullets; they quickly published a lot of magazine adds with a photo showing how "bad" Lee's FCDs were. The photo showed a massively squeezed jacketed bullet with a wasp waist they had massively over "crimped" with the FCD. That made an impressive advertizing photo for them ... except they had clearly cut the slots in the collet much wider than normal so the crimper fingers could be jammed down MUCH further than they were designed to do!

In plain words, big green lied about Lee's rifle FCD, and insulted my intelligence in the process! I make no claim to being real smart but I immediately saw the lying photograph for what it was.
I don't like liars of any color and don't recall buying anything green - at least nothing new - since then.

[Moleman-]

I remember that ad campaign. At their advice not to use their bullets with the FCD I stopped using them for the most part. Started using more Hornady and Sierra bullets after that as it was a deceptive ad in my opinion.