Hornady LnL Bullet feeder with lubed boolits?

[Four Fingers of Death]

Will this unit work with traditionally lubed cast boolits or will it gum up quickly? I have sold a couple of pistols and am in a position to add acase feeder to my LnL AP. The guy at the gunshop tells me he has a LnL bullet feeder in stock as well.

With what I raised, I could cover both, but I hardly shoot jacketed in my pistolas and while I use commercial polymer coated lead bullets, I want to wean myself off them and use my cast stuff.

[Waldog]

I'm 99.9% sure that the bullet feeder is for jacketed bullets only.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Mick,

A couple of pieces of information for you:

1. The case feeder is kinda kludgey, requires a good bit of adjustment and "ain't all that." I found I didn't care for it. In my personal opinion, the bullet feeder is a better choice.

2. Here in the States, you can buy the bullet feeder dies separate from the motorized section for not a whole lot of money. Several guys have done this, adapted them to plastic tube with pins in each end (like a primer tube). They then load up several tubes, matching their primer tubes and cases and load happily along.

3. Yes, out of the box, the Hornady bullet feeder dies are made for jacketed bullets, but the interiors are machined steel parts (unlike the RCBS offering) and can easily be adapted/modified for use with case boolits. Same thing with adapting any tubing.

This has been done and you can google videos showing you how it's done.

Hornady is coming out with rifle bullet feeder dies as well. I have three of the pistol feeder dies. They also come with a case mouth expander (ptx) included at no extra charge.

I hope this helps your decision.

Best Regards,

Dave

[Four Fingers of Death]

Mick,

1. The case feeder is kinda kludgey, requires a good bit of adjustment and "ain't all that."

adapted them to plastic tube with pins in each end (like a primer tube). They then load up several tubes, matching their primer tubes and cases and load happily along.


3. Yes, out of the box, the Hornady bullet feeder dies are made for jacketed bullets, but the interiors are machined steel parts (unlike the RCBS offering) and can easily be adapted/modified for use with case boolits. Same thing with adapting any tubing.



I have heard a few reports that the case feeder is a bit pernikity. On youtube there are several home made ones which seem to work well. The reality is that it would take me along time to get organised enough to build one though. I'm slack, as Harry Calaghan said, 'a man's got to know his limitations!' The case feeders are around $AU500 here. A lot of money for something that might end up being a nusciance.

The bullet feeder sounds good, but you have to give up a station :(

No easy answers!

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

The case feeder is definitely persnickety along with often requiring mods to get it to work with certain cases.

Here's what made my decision for me to use the bullet feeder dies:

I can feed most cases into a press fairly easily and the station for putting them in is usually the most convenient to hand feed. On the other hand, I find it a good bit tougher to install the smaller bullets (.224, etc) onto the top of the cases straight. Adding a bullet feeder die will address that for me.

Giving up a station isn't a big deal when you have powder through expander/case activated powder drop. You can also combine seating and crimping. But why have to? Just get a good light and go slowly enough you can inspect each case for powder. You're better off to do that anyways, as the faster you go, the more likely mistakes are made and quality drops.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Some information about developing the tubes in this thread:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_42/349969__28_00_Bullet_feeder_for_Any_Progressive.ht ml

A link to modify the dies for cast boolits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJro27cx0yA

A discussion of the subject on this forum:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=120585

[cigarman454]

Some information about developing the tubes in this thread:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_42/349969__28_00_Bullet_feeder_for_Any_Progressive.ht ml

A link to modify the dies for cast boolits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJro27cx0yA

A discussion of the subject on this forum:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=120585

You are my hero I've been looking for this information. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. AWESOME :grin:

[noylj]

The case feeder collator is the same as Dillon's.
The "kludge" is the system to get the case to drop into the part that pushes the case into the shell plate.
As I have nearly always said, if you want a great progressive press and DON'T need a case feeder, get the Hornady L-N-L. If you NEED a case feeder, get the Dillon 650.
I never had any desire for a case feeder.
With age, though, I find that my left hand trembles when trying to do fine motor tasks like putting the bullet on the case. Right now, for 9x19, 9x21, and .38 Super, I am using the Lee Bullet Feeder die assembly to manual position the bullet for the case to pick up. This leaves a station open for an RCBS Lock-Out die. I still do the same motions, but they are faster and easier.
I move the bullet feed assemble by hand to line up with the case and then drop another bullet into the feeder die. It would be nice to automate this, but I think I would still just drop the bullets into the die and not try to fill a tube with bullets. That also causes some muscle-tremor and breaks the loading cycle, where dropping in another bullet and keeping 5-6 in the feeder die at all times does not cause any break.
The Lee will handle lead bullets just fine, because it has no collets or tubes that can get gummed up.
For the RCBS and Hornady, I would expect the moly-koted bullets (I am sure there is an Aussie source for coated bullets) to work just fine--except the tolerances may be too tight for the larger cast bullet diameter.
Go to YouTube and see what others are doing. There is a whole series on making the Hornady die work with lead bullet.

[Four Fingers of Death]

[QUOTE=noylj;1482404]For the RCBS and Hornady, I would expect the moly-koted bullets (I am sure there is an Aussie source for coated bullets) to work just fine--except the tolerances may be too tight for the larger cast bullet diameter.QUOTE]

Actually, if you buy commercial cast bullets in Australia they are all pretty much poly coated.

I was thinking that my home made ones might gum up the works. I suppose I could convert to a harder lube using a Pat Marlin Rock Dock and an iron as a heater for my lubesizer.

If the soft lube black powder boolits for my 44/40 were a problem I suppose I could use a tube into the die and gove the die a clean with a short rod every now and then.

Decisions, decisions. Thanks for the input.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

I'm about to set the bullet dies up to load .45ACP cast with 50/50 lube on my RCBS Pro 2000. Give me a month and I can give you a report on the Hornady bullet feeder dies. Right now, the press is giving some issues due to improper adjustment of the cams by the factory worker dude.

[Four Fingers of Death]

The idea of loading jacketed rifle bullets into cases without fiddly footing about trying to get them into the case straight and not almost jamming my giant fingers (yeah, I know, I'm one short, but the ones that are left are awful big) under the press sounds good. :D