Lyman Dies with Lock n Load

[Carrier]

My son and I bought these new Lyman dies awhile ago at a gun store sale to use with the used Rock Chucker he had bought last year. Will they work with the LNL or should I just go ahead and get the Hornady ones?

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p45/r404a/8a5b744610cdc644c10ef90563dc2092_zpsrlswjbhk.jpg

[firebrick43]

Um yes. Any brand dies with 7/8 -14 thread (99.9 percent of dies sold today) will work. Hornady sells lnl bushings that your dies screw into. Even hornady s dies require this

[EDG]

I am not much of a fan of Lyman dies but they are pretty good for handgun rounds.
The M die is excellent and in general I think they are better than Hornady dies.

[DR Owl Creek]

I have the Hornady AP L-N-L progressive press with the old style spring ejector, which I haven't updated to the new "E-Z-ject" system. The Lyman dies work fine in it, except for the Lyman taper crimp die in the 5th station, which will crush the spring ejector. The Lee dies do the same thing. I've never had that problem with Hornady, RCBS, or Redding dies.

Dave

[Hardcast416taylor]

This is my answer to the question of one die set has features that another brand of dies doesn`t. For what the die sets cost get several sets and make up a set from them both that will do what you want. My die set, as an example, for 38 spcl/.357 is now a 4 die set from a Lyman set and a RCBS set. I took the best features from both sets to get what I wanted in a single die loading set.Robert

[Maximumbob54]

Unless you enjoy headaches, avoid the Hornady New Dimension dies. I'm sure someone will disagree with me but I bought one set with my LNL AP and couldn't replace them fast enough. The TiNi ring doesn't work nearly as well as carbide, the expander is overly complicated, and the seater was about the same. RCBS and Lyman dies are close enough to be kin in design which means they both work just fine. This should include Redding dies if you want to pay at least 25% more for pretty much the same thing. But honestly most of my dies are Lee and I find they work just fine. They aren't without some minor complaints but with the money I save they are worth the minor efforts. And now that they offer custom seater plugs that corrects my worst complaint about them. It also helps Lee gives you the shell holder with the dies. My LNL AP is the newer model and I have used both Lee dies, Lyman, and RCBS on it. I don't care so much for the bushing system. They work fine enough if you set them just beyond finger tight but can work loose if you don't. I would rather just use the lock ring to set them and spin them in since it's not that often I swap them out on that press. I do favor Hornady's split lock rings over the lee o ring or any of the set screw models. The set screw models do favor the adding a tiny lead shot bit in front of the screw. They should really just come with that. As much as I did love the Powderfunnels.com PTX insert for the LNL AP, I vastly prefer the Lyman M die for anything and it really helps even more for a bullet feeder. Neither is mandated but either one is a very nice addition. And help yourself out ahead of time and polish the heck out of the prime shuttle and slide. I swiped a dab of Mother's mag polish the bottom of the shuttle and just ran it back and forth until it felt like greased glass. Oh, and buy a couple of extra springs for the extractor since you are almost guaranteed to break at least one or two until you figure out just how to get the thing back on when you swap out shell plates. I find it easiest to set the spring in place in the divot close by the first station and gently set the shell plate down. Once the spring is loosely held in place then tighten the shell plate down. Now wrap the spring around the shell plate. It makes sense once you try it a time or two. It's just way to easy to kink that spring by accident and you don't even feel it until it's too late. But it works really well even with the odd way you have to do it. I know, info overkill. I just really like the LNL AP once you set it up and tweak it just a minor bit. It's right between the cost of a Dillon 550 and a 650 but does pretty much everything the 650 does and costs less.

[Carrier]

I've watched the videos of Bill Morgan and found I will be doing some of what he has done as well as a few others. Like anything mechanical they have some issues that need to be worked out. I'm a mechanic by trade for 30 years so I hope I can figure this thing out.
I truly thank all for the advise and information.
I have never been around the bullet making part of this and was amazed at making bullets from 22 casings I saw on here.

[MT Chambers]

When was the last time anyone had Lyman dies that were out of spec?

[blikseme300]

The Lyman dies should work but sometimes shorter dies don't have enough thread for the locking rings in the Hornady bushings. I use a number of different manufacturers dies in my Hornady presses and there as pluses and minuses IMHO so I often have a mixed bunch set up in my AP's.

I like the New Dimension dies, especially the rifle dies, as the sleeved seater helps to align the boolit to the case. Most other standard rifle seaters don't have this sleeve. The only gotcha may occur if the sleeve ID is too small for an oversized boolit. This is easily fixed by opening op the sleeve using wet/dry and a dowel.

[Maximumbob54]

Good mention on the ND rifle dies. I've only tried the pistol caliber dies.

[DR Owl Creek]

You know what they say about opinions; everbody's got one. Here's mine on Hornady New dimension dies:

The Hornady New Dimension dies are always my first choice when buying a new set. The Hornady dies have basically a lifetime replacement warranty if anything ever goes wrong. Hornady will also make custom dies or accessories for you if you want. So far, I have 17 sets: 9 sets are for rifles, and 8 sets are for handguns. I do buy some other brands of specialty dies when Hornady doesn't offer what I want, such as Lyman M dies, Redding type S bushing dies, or taper crimp dies, as well as RCBS small base dies, etc.

With the Hornady New Dimension dies sets, first of all they offer 100 free jacketed bullets with each set you buy. That's at least a $20 to $25 value right there. If you figure in that amount, that makes them even cheaper overall than basic Lee dies. Even if you don't want to use the jacketed bullets, you can always sell them to someone who does.

I like the TiN coated handgun sizing dies better than conventional carbide sizers. You can seat the Hornady TiN sizers down until the shell holder/shell plate cams over without worrying about cracking the brittle carbide sizing rings like in other dies. This allows you to size cases farther down toward the base of the case too.

The Hornady expanders are easy to adjust. Just turn the die body up or down, and then lock it into place. If it doesn't expand the case enough for your cast bullet, with the "quick change" bushing system, it allows you to just pop the standard expander die out, and replace it with another die like a Lyman M die, and not have to reset anything. You can switch from a roll crimp die to a taper crimp die just as quickly and easily too, and again all without resetting anything.

I really like the Hornady in-line seating dies too. To me this is a big plus. They help to you to load your cartridges with really minimal bullet run out. On my rifles dies, I've also replaced almost all of the standard stems with the Hornady "Microjust" seating stems, which makes them like benchrest dies with 0.001" adjustment capability. See: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/394708/hornady-microjust-seating-stem

Hornady has always sent replacement parts like decapping pins and springs free of charge if needed. They also replaced a 45 ACP sizing die that eventually developed a problem, after I had it for at least 7 years and ran literally thousands and thousands with it. All free of charge and with no hassle.

Dave

[kfarm]

So far the only dies that don't work well with the lnl and even the hornady single stage press are Lee, they are just a tad to short. Have to take off the lock ring to get them to screw in enough.

[noylj]

1) Love the Hornady New Dimension dies. If you have a problem, call Hornady. They are my #1 choice and I have not had any problems.
2) Throw the spring ejector away and simply flip the round out of the shell holder with a finger--or get the EZ-ject. They say you can adjust the wire to work and not interfere with the crimp die. I couldn't. Maybe if you machined off the bottom 0.25" of the crimp die or something. Still, I couldn't get the spring ejector to work even without a crimp die in st. 5.

[williamwaco]

I have had the worst experiences in my 60 year reloading career with the Hornady New Dimension dies.
I have had five sets and 100% were BAD.

See:

http://reloadingtips.com/reviews/hornady-titanium-dies.htm

For more on these dies.

[kfarm]

I guess it's the luck of the draw but I've never gotten a bad die and I've got about 30 sets.

[noylj]

>So far the only dies that don't work well with the lnl and even the hornady single stage press are Lee, they are just a tad to short. Have to take off the lock ring to get them to screw in enough.
Lee dies worked well with my Hornady L-N-L and my 1050s. I simply remove the lock ring, remove the O-ring, and re-install upside down. Work as well as Dillon lock rings.

[noylj]

>I have had the worst experiences in my 60 year reloading career with the Hornady New Dimension dies.
>I have had five sets and 100% were BAD.
Totally NOT my experience. Did you talk to Hornady?
I find that the TiN dies size easier than almost any other die and they size lower than almost any other die. Did you align the sizing die by inserting a case before locking the die down? I would expect Hornady would have wanted to check those dies out ASAP.
Still, I have about 10 sets of New Dimension dies and they all work wonderfully.

[r1kk1]

I have quite a few Hornady dies but these are custom made for different wildcats. Not a problem.

CH4D also does TiN coating, but it's not a ring, they coat the whole die.

take care

r1kk1