Multiple Major Problems, That No One Could Fix.
First, I want to state Brownells customer service has been great, with regard to the purchase, and return, of this item. The one star review is for the press, not Brownells. If this were about Brownells, it would be a five start rating.
However, this is about the Hornady Lock-n-Load AP gets one star, because zero stars is not an option. The press has never worked for me, and I tried for over a year. I could not get through even one hundred rounds, without multiple major problems. Indexing, both up and down, would fail, and need re-adjustment every 50-75 rounds. The shell plate would come loose, and cause additional problems, every 50-100 rounds. The priming system had a wide variety of failures, and couldn’t go more than 25-50 rounds without a major problem. The powder drop would frequently stick in the up position, and fail to drop powder. Fortunately, I visually check for powder drop in every case. Therefore I caught it each time, and avoided the danger inherent to a “squib” load.
I spoke with Hornady customer service several times, and made adjustments, and replaced parts, at their direction. I also consulted with other owners of the Lock-n-Load AP try to figure out why the press was plagued with problems, and none of them could figure out why the suggested adjustments, and parts replacements, would not solve the many problems.
Finally, I sent the press back to Hornady, for repair, and when it was returned they had again replaced parts, most of which I had already replaced at least once, and claimed to have made adjustments, that I had already done at their direction.
All the times Hornady had me replace parts, and again when they replaced parts (many that I had already replaced at their direction), they stated the parts were “out of spec,” and causing the problems.
When the press was returned from Hornady, and they claimed to have corrected everything, I set it back up, and the priming system again failed in less than 30 rounds, and repeatedly caused failures, throughout the loading session. The shell plate again came loose, and began causing problems within the first 75 rounds. I had planned to load five hundred rounds that session, but gave up after two hours, of repeated problems, where I was only able to load just over 200 rounds. 100 rounds an hour is a pathetic rate for a 5 station progressive press. I could have done better with a turret press.
After that, I contacted Brownells, and returned the press. I have since replaced it with a different progressive press (unfortunately it's a brand not sold by Brownells), and that has been working very well. There were features of the Lock-n-Load that I liked, and I had hoped it would work well, but it was a complete mess. I tried hard for over a year to get it work, including sending it back to the factory. A great deal of my time, and money, were wasted on this.
However, I will say again, I was very pleased with Brownells handling of this issue.
