Hornady LNL Progressive, 5.56/.223 and .45 ACP brass catching

[JimDandy]

I've got a Remington 700 BDL in 300 RUM, a 1911 in .45, and just got an LE6920.

I've always been impressed with the Hornady LNL Ammo Plant ever since I saw a video of the thing on Youtube.

For background on where I'm coming from: My brother introduced me to reloading for the BDL on his single stage though I was observer more than learner so far. So I've got the basic premise, but wouldn't be anywhere near confindent in doing it solo in the right order, let alone safely hit all the steps.

I'm trying to figure out how to reload especially my pistol brass, though figuring out how to catch that stuff is my biggest hurdle there. My ejector throws them practically straight up, so any catcher off to my right would be...at least slightly ineffective, and I'd do better to surround myself with 5 gallon buckets on the floor, the table in my partition, and behind me to the wall practically...

So basically I have a couple questions... has anyone seen any decent brass catching ideas for this sort of situation?

Second, Anyone able to tell me much about the Hornady LNL progressive press/Ammo Plant and how much I'd be able to take advantage of that for 223/5.56 Nato ammo? I've seen some posts elsewhere talking about having to start and stop all the time to oil the cases and what not pretty much invalidating the advantage of the progressie part of the progressive press.

[PA-Joe]

Crimped military brass would be hard to process through a progress press. After the crimp is removed is should wokr ok. You should lube bottel neck cases.

[Sefner]

I have LnL but not the Ammo Plant (it's basically the bullet feeder plus case feeder). It is my understanding that the bullet feeder can only be used with pistol bullets but that a rifle adapter is coming soon.

As far as having to stop to lube rifle bullets... I use an aerosol can to lube a couple dozen all at once. I use Hornady's but there are other spray lubes that work just as well and are probably cheaper. I've loaded well over 1000 rounds with one can and it's still going strong. I just lay them out and run the spray over them real quick. I spray 25 or 50 at a time then load them up. When I run out I spray some more. None of this stopping to lube cases nonsense.

Your biggest time consumer with .223 is going to be case prep. This is independent of your press. PA-Joe is correct when he says that crimped primer pockets are a pain; they will destroy primers. My setup allows me to case prep each case once then I can reload them until they crack, so after that initial case prep it's smooth sailing.

As far as .45, I usually just go until I run out of a component.

[BenHa]

For 223/556 I pretty much take 2 steps.
1st is to decap, resize, then trim.
2nd is to use the decap die to make sure there isnt any media in the flash hole, prime, powder, powder check, seat, crimp

[JimDandy]

Now how about a brass catcher? My extractor flings my 45 brass almost straight up.... is there a sky facing, as opposed to shooter facing brass catcher?

[BenHa]

Havent used my LNL to reload pistol round yet. But with 223 it just falls in the the ammo bucket.

[Sefner]

He means to catch brass while he is shooting.

There is a brass catcher for ARs but it looks dumb in my opinion:
http://www.amazon.com/Caldwell-12223.../dp/B004SKCUME

You could always just lay down a tarp...