Lee Pro 1000 Part 2

[nelson133]

A little while ago I posted here asking about a Lee Pro 1000 that I'd had for a while, but never used. I now have loaded about 1500 rounds of 9mm and thought I'd post my impressions.
It's a heck of a lot faster that single stage reloading, though the average speed is lower than it could be because of the number of times that I have had to stop and tinker with it. I am running somewhere between 125 to 200 rounds per hour.
The primer system is truly a PITA. You really have to feel those primers go in because if you don't seat the primer the spilled powder will stop up the machine and you have to clean it out again. If you get a primer jam, just clearing the stuck, crushed, tilted primer may not be enough, you must stop and examine it carefully or your problems may increase. Getting the primer tray properly inserted into the machine is part of the learning curve. Crushing a primer and having the pieces get into the mechanism is even more fun. Suggestion, if the primer doesn't feel like it's going in right, stop, don't force it.
Being a tinkerer and taking time to understand how the machine works is essential. Lots of little things need to be fiddled with and that skill will be needed, not that there is anything hard about it, but it is more complex than changing a light bulb.
The indexing works well and the indexing adjustment works well. It is very difficult to double charge a case, but you should check anyway. It is possible to double charge a case it you get to tinkering while running cases through the machine. I suggest taking the cases out of the machine before tinkering. when removing cases, I have found that it is best to raise the ram about 1/2 way and rotate the shell plate around to remove cases. If you just pull them out of the station, you can bend the little arm that holds the case and the the primer won't line up and you will have big problems, don't ask me how I know this.
Overall. I am pretty well pleased with the thing. Now that I have some idea of what I am doing, I am getting faster and the stoppages are less frequent and are.being cleared faster.
I liked it enough to buy a second one from Lee's surplus list for $82 and some caliber change parts from Midway. Now that I''m temporarily out of 9mm bullets, I'll have to start with another caliber.
Thanks again to all those who responded to my earlier post with helpful suggestions.

 

[benedict1]

The only info I might add comes from a friend who has used two Pro1000s for years--keep the primer tray at least 25% full--don't let it get below that because you need the weight of those primers pushing down on the trough to keep them flowing.

I know the feeling--when I get all of one caliber loaded and have no bullets for another, I don't know quite what to do with myself. Then I clean the guns. When that's done I sit and grump because I'd rather be loading/shooting.

 

[Primersinmyshoe]

I owned 5 Lee Pro 1000's at one time, all set up for different calibers.

The primer system is truly a PITA.

Hmm... That's how I chose my username

Now I have a Dillon XL650, no more Lee's. Life is good.

 

[trickyasafox]

i'd look for used ones. i've picked up pro-1000s for about 70 bucks plus shipping and you can often get them with a caliber.

draw all over your primer tray and shoot with a pencil. it works kinda like a dry lube and helped straighten mine out a bit. also, put a drop of oil on the index rod, that really smoothed up the operation on mine

i like em, i keep 3 set up (i only own three) for different calibers. To load the primer trays into the press, i hold the primers in with a small allen key till i have it just about seated in the shoot.

your definatly right, it has its quarks, but it does what i want it to do pretty well i like the case feeders, and once the priming tray is running well for me, its nothing to turn out several hundred rounds.

depending on what caliber you are gonna switch to, send me a pm. i have a couple duplicate shell plates i got in trade and if they are a caliber you need, i'll mail em to you for free. I'm pretty sure one of them is a number 2, which is the 45acp shell plate if memory serves.

 

[philbo]

+100 nelson. Your description is almost exactly my learning process on the 1000 I picked up lately. It's not fancy, but once you learn to feel the primer seating it really speeds things up. I also just picked up another 1000 from Lee in 45 colt for $86 shipped! Lee produces the best bang for the buck... pun intended.

 

[dpart77]

I'm thinking about the Pro 1000 due to cost. Can you easily deactivate the priming system and prime the cases yourself? I have the Lee hand primer which I have used in the past with great success and was wondering if using pre primed cases would stop some of the headaches.

Thanks

D

 

[hornadylnl]

I just got a hornady lnl ap press set up. I have a lee pro 1000 set up for 40 s&w that I'd like to sell if anyone is interested. I've loaded around 750 rounds on it. I have the case feeder tray, bullet feeder kit (was useless, couldn't get it to feed right), double disk kit. There is some very light surface rust on the 3 upright rods. I think all lee pro 1000's do that after awhile. I'm considering putting it on ebay but if I can get an offer without paying their listing fees, I'd rather do that. The priming system is definitely the worst part to figure out. Once you get a feel for it, you can tell whether or not a primer is seated. If not, pull the case before you charge it to save the mess. I found that keeping at least 30 or 40 primers in the tray at all times helped tremendously.

 

[nelson133]

You could use primed cases and just install the dies you needed on the machine. The drawback of this would be the loss of a great deal of the time saved. If you don't fill the primer system, it is effectively deactivated.

 

[Ndenway]

I removed the case feeder system from mine years ago, I found that it caused the majority of the malfunctions, it shoves the case too hard against the shell plate and impeades rotation, I load a case in by hand and avg approx 250 to 300/hr,

it'll also cause your primers to fall off or turn sideways on the ram when it learches forward, then you end up with a crushed primer or jam in the slider,

also you have to keep the primer slide full, once you see an opening above the last primer below the hopper its time to refill the primer hopper, and the if you put more than 150 primers in, they won't feed into the slider without jaming alot,

the little gadgets bullet feeder gizmos are trash, so save your money, you'll spend more time loading it than it'll take you to do one at a time in the case,

and I like the older powder hopper with the spring return better, with the new one I had to replace the little chain with cable due to the repeated breakage,

depending on what powder and charge your using, you may need to refill the hopper everytime or everyother time you fill the primer hopper, you'll get in the habit of checking it the first time you load up a bunch and look up and the damn things empty, and your pulling bullets to find out just when it ran out,

also neither hoppers are suited to ball powders, they'll leak like mad if you use something like 4227 or h110, which is also fine, I switched to a flake type after the first clean up years back, I now use reddot and blue dot in the majority of my pistol loads,

the really great thing about the pro1000 is that a complete set up is cheap enough to just buy a new one when you add a caliber, by the time you buy a carrier and carbide dies your at about half the cost of a new one, so I just buy a new one and set it up to load one caliber, that way I don't have to mess around with adjustments after the initial set up.

 

[FDusett]

Lee Pro 1000 40 S&W

hornadylnl,

Do you still have the lee press for sale? Or did you end up selling it on E-bay?