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Plan on buying Hornady LNL AP Press Tomorrow, What brand dies do I need for Smith & Wesson 500

2K views 13 replies 5 participants last post by  DeputyDog25 
#1 ·
I am a Newbie to reloading, just doing online searching looking at presses and videos. Have decided I want the Hornady press. I have a Smith & wesson 500 and when i was at Cabela's looking today I didn't even see bullets or dies for the 500. all they had casings. Does Hornady make a 500 die, or would it be 50 cal?
 
#3 ·
Yes, Hornady has S&W 500 dies, p/n 546585. You may need to order those online if you can't find them locally. Try Midway USA, Paf & Sons, or Mid South to name a few.

Pick up a copy of Lyman's 47th reloading Manual, the front section has excellent instructional content. Reference Highboy's excellent videos as necessary.

Be patient and go slow on your LNL press. I have one too and I'm very happy with it. I started out on a SS press in my early teen years and it still took a bit to get the progressive press humming.

Welcome to the forum. There are some real experts here with much wisdom who are extremely helpful.
 
#7 ·
Thanks. I have another question being a Newbie. I plan on using new brass for the 500 to begin with. Maybe load 50 - a 100 in a fast load with 300 grain then a thumper in 500 grain. After that I shoot through some of these then I will reload. So using new brass will I need to leave out the primer die and just prime, charge and seat the bullet? Will the die harm the new casings or would it be good to go ahead and set up the dies for re loading later? thanks!
 
#8 ·

I always run "new" brass through my resizer (what you are calling primer die). Even though you are not depriming, you still need to resize. Setup all of your dies, the only thing you are not doing with new brass is popping out the old primer.

Now one question you need to find out is if you need to need to lube those big 500 S&W cases. Normally you don't need to lube pistol brass but the 500 S&W might be an exception.

BTW, did you get your new press?
 
#9 ·
Yes I got the press! Have to get some hornady dry cleaner and disassemble the powder drop thingy . Have to get a shell plate , dies, casings, primers, scales, I did get the Hornady reloading book 9th addition, maybe it tells about lubing the casing. thanks. I wonder what size pistol would be considered small pistol? The powder drop has extra thingy that looks like it would be a bugger to change out whenever I do 45's and 9 mm in the future if they are considered small, idk.
 
#10 ·
...The powder drop has extra thingy that looks like it would be a bugger to change out...
Sounds like you are referring to the powder measure rotors. You should have 1 pistol and 1 rifle rotor. Actually they are a piece of cake to swap out. I stand to be corrected, but I recall reading anything 10 grains and over, you should use the rifle rotor. Please verify this since I'm just recalling something I read somewhere. Hornady Customer Service certainly can answer that. (of course 500 S&W is well above 10 grains I see)

I would pick up the Lyman 49th manual and read the front section. It's loaded with essential information and can really help anyone starting out.
 
#11 ·
Rather than buy a lot of that Hornady spray lean/lube cans, get a good spray bottle and use plain rubbing alcohol. Get some graphite tubes (and be careful, a little goes a long way) for a slight touch on the rotor. I use Harbor Freight blue nitrile gloves and put some on my finger and just wipe the surface of the housing where the rotor goes. Seems to work for me. Got part of that from highboy vid.
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Before you stick in the rotor, turn it upside down and ball park the powder adjustment by simply placing the amount of powder you want and screw the adjustment until it is close as you can finesse it later. Think of it like a Lee dipper. That will prevent a massive overfill spill or a scratched surface.
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Use some cheap liquid soap on a rag and wipe the hopper and let dry with no rinse. It will keep the static electricity from messing with you (just keep it off the metal parts). Same for funnels.
 
#14 ·
Congrats on your new press, I had one of the AP presses for a little while, but I sold it and went to the RCBS Pro 2000. I think you will really like the AP press once you get it tuned and running well. The press does have it's little idiosyncrasies but like I said, once you learn those and get it dialed in, you can crank out some pretty good ammo quickly.
 
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