priming issues in LnL AP

[bohem]

I've had my Hornady LnL AP since late August, and generally I'm very happy with it.

I still have not had any luck getting the priming tongue to properly cycle and reliably feed the next primer into the priming station, I've had some success with LP and LR primers, but small primers of either flavor just plain don't work. 90% failure rate, the large primers are about a 25% failure rate.

I loaded 275 rounds of 223 last night and after round #27 I just stopped priming on it altogether. I ran it through as an autoindexing, self ejecting single stage basically.

I fed in lube'd brass for decap, primed it in the Lee press mounted Autoprime II, then fed the primed brass back into the LnL AP for powder and bullet seating.

In an hour I did 27 rounds as the press is supposed to be used, in another 90 minutes I did almost 250 rounds with the "auto single stage"

It's very frustrating.

I have taken it apart and buffed and polished the contact surfaces, wiggled, jiggled, realigned, check, etc everything.

I know exactly where it's hanging up. The tongue pulls back, and the first primer falls into the little pocket in the tongue. The next primer in the stack catches in the remaining space in the tongue.

This is probably why the "taller" large pocket primers do not stick as much, but they still stick.

Can someone please help me out? I doubt I'm the only person who's run into this issue.

 

[Rookie]

Re: priming issues in LnL AP

First, call Hornady. They have fantastic customer service. Problem solved.

My guess is that you are running the large primer "tongue" rather than the small.

 

[david777]

Re: priming issues in LnL AP

I run into the same problem every time I use the press. It really takes away from an otherwise nice unit. I can go 20 cycles or 200 cycles before I have problems but it is always a problem. If someone has some advise I would like to hear it also.

 

[bohem]

Re: priming issues in LnL AP

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Rookie</div><div class="ubbcode-body">First, call Hornady. They have fantastic customer service. Problem solved.

My guess is that you are running the large primer "tongue" rather than the small. </div></div>

I feel like a total moron... I know that I'm using the large priming tongue with SRm's.

OK, that part is explained, but it still doesn't explain why the LP's hang up as well. I'll try some 44 mags tonight (since I ran out of .223 powder last night)

 

[royboy]

Re: priming issues in LnL AP

I also had a similar problem.
A couple of questions:
1. does it fail with the pick up arm full back stuck under the feeder tube? I have a small wooden dowel sitting on top my primers that help there.
2. primer arm does not come full forward with primer.
Disassemble the primer seating unit that screws in from the bottom of the plate.
debur, clean and lube.

these solved my problems with the feed now if I can get my deprime to work properly

 

[mscott]

Re: priming issues in LnL AP

Do you have a rod for weight to follow the primers? I had troubles, but a small brass, wood, or plastic rod made it all work perfectly. I now use the Dillon low primer alarm with a plastic rod.

 

[david777]

Re: priming issues in LnL AP

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mscott</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Do you have a rod for weight to follow the primers? I had troubles, but a small brass, wood, or plastic rod made it all work perfectly. I now use the Dillon low primer alarm with a plastic rod. </div></div>

I'll give this one a try. Thanks for the tip.

 

[michaeltx]

Re: priming issues in LnL AP

I noticed the surface of the tubes on mine was a little rough on the outside. I used a little bit of 0000 steel wool and pushed it through the tubes about a dozen times and that helped smooth it out. I use a metal dowel in the tube on top of the primers as well. It's adds a little 'clank' noise when you run out of primers too, my version of the primer alarm.

 

[bohem]

Re: priming issues in LnL AP

OK, I went home and checked last night and I wasn't as dumb as I thought. I did have the small "tongue" with the primers. There's a difference in the small primer tongue to the large one.

The large one is flat on the top, the small one has a countersink around the top surface where the primer falls into it from the tube.

I do use the little fiberglass rod to follow the primers, I colored a blue line around it to show me when I'm out of primers.

I switched back to large primers last night and worked on running through some 30-06's and every single one out of 45 or so ran just dandy, not a single hiccup.

I'm going to call Hornady about the small primer tongue and see what they say. I turned the decapping spindle from my Hornady 30-06 FL die into a pretzel last night too, so either way I have to be on the phone with them.

Thanks for the help guys, I'll let you know what I turn up with them.


Royboy- What's going on with your decapp station? I haven't had any abnormal issues with it beyond breaking decapping pins on staked primer pockets, which is nothing new.

 

[bohem]

Re: priming issues in LnL AP

Just got off the phone with Hornady. They were very helpful and they're going to send me 2 more priming tongues to try out and see if there's an issue with the one I got. And they replaced the spindle I pretzeled all under warranty