Hornady L-N-L Auto charge

[Mgderf]

I see Natchez has a Hornady Lock and Load Auto charge powder dispenser on sale for $159.
Looks good, but I'd like to hear from actual users.

Is this worth the price?

Thanks

 

[ckcollins2003]

Mine is finicky. I got mine for about the same price as that last year and assumed it would be like the RCBS model. It isn't as good for me as my friends RCBS is for him. It often over-charges, even if you give it time to warm up like the directions say.

If you are patient with it and loading plinking ammo then it is useful, but it is not accurate or consistent enough to speed up loading precision rifle rounds. I have found the best thing I can do for it is keep it on the slow speed setting and set an empty primer tray under the front of it so that it doesn't dispense so fast that it over charges 3 out of 4 times. Honestly I don't use mine much... I can drop and trickle faster than it can dispense and the only time I have really used it is when I was short on time and loading a lot of .308 for an upcoming rifle shoot and one other time when I loaded a bunch of .223 for plinking.

If I could do it again, I would save the extra money and buy the RCBS.

 

[Mgderf]

Thank you.
Not really what I wanted to hear but I do appreciate the candor.

 

[stymie12000]

If set up properly, I get overcharge about 1 out of 7. That's with large extruded powder (4064, r33, n570, h1000). With easier powders (ball and smaller extruded) I almost get 100% good charges.

The key is to set it up correctly. Have it dispense slow and you have to play around with the setting for when it starts to trickle. Each powder is different.

One problem that I do have, is the accuracy. It's good for about .3gr with the large extruded. So now I use it with my gem pro 250 and hand trickle the last .2 for the larger extruded. For easier powder the accuracy is way better and I don't need to hand trickle.

I have no experience with the rcbs. But I wouldn't be surprised if the accuracy wasn't too much better with the large extruded powder.

So I guess it depends on what you need from it. If shooting groups at a 100 yards or loading ball/smaller extruded it does work and works well. If you need the lowest sd with velocity to reach out to 1000 yards or more. Then its not the best.

 

[ckcollins2003]

If set up properly, I get overcharge about 1 out of 7. That's with large extruded powder (4064, r33, n570, h1000). With easier powders (ball and smaller extruded) I almost get 100% good charges.

The key is to set it up correctly. Have it dispense slow and you have to play around with the setting for when it starts to trickle. Each powder is different.

One problem that I do have, is the accuracy. It's good for about .3gr with the large extruded. So now I use it with my gem pro 250 and hand trickle the last .2 for the larger extruded. For easier powder the accuracy is way better and I don't need to hand trickle.

I have no experience with the rcbs. But I wouldn't be surprised if the accuracy wasn't too much better with the large extruded powder.

So I guess it depends on what you need from it. If shooting groups at a 100 yards or loading ball/smaller extruded it does work and works well. If you need the lowest sd with velocity to reach out to 1000 yards or more. Then its not the best.

Well, myself and my friend use H4895 for our .308 loads, which is an extruded powder, but the RCBS charges it precisely almost every single time. I think I've only seen his throw off maybe once or twice and his is on the medium speed setting. The scale is also much more accurate.

Maybe I got a lemon, but I followed the directions and let it warm up every time and have changed the settings to help it not over charge, but considering the scale is complete crap I cant trust it to be accurate to the 0.1 grains that it said in the description. Like you, I am always getting powder charge that vary more than 0.1 gn.