Positive experiences with Lee presses - No bashing!

[230therapy]

I have an old Lee Turret Press...works great.

 

[GLOOB]

I have a Breechlock SS. It has the best manual priming system I've seen on any press. It also has the tube collection for spent primers, similar to the Classic Turret. It's a wonderful design.

 

[swiftak]

I use alot of Lee reloading tools. I actually love their dies. However in my honest opinion, I think that Lee presses are the worst that are made. Not bashing, just an opinion.

 

[RustyFN]

The only Lee press I have had or loaded on is the classic turret. I have been loading on it for five years. For me it has been a great press. The safety prime took a little tweaking but once I got it right it has been near flawless. It would drag primers off the cup and put them on the floor. I added a washer under the safety prime bracket and haven't had that problem again. I had a couple of guys tell me to raise the ram before turning the turret by hand and don't short stroke the press, I am still on the original ratchet and I have loaded thousands of rounds over those five years.

 

[Steve Koski]

 

[Steve Koski]

Whoops.

 

[J_McLeod]

I'll caveat this that my only experience has been with Lee. I'm a satisfied customer, and will probably stick with their products. My first press was a Lee Anniversary kit. It worked well, but I liked the hobby and upgraded to a factory second turret that I bought from the closeouts section of their page. I can't tell what made it a second and I love reloading ammo on it. Last month I broke my Lee safety scale, and they promptly fixed it and sent it back to me at no charge.

 

[J_McLeod]

Started reloadng in January of this year, did a bunch of research to make sure I can justify it, decided Lee equipment would suit my needs best for the money required. Figured if it didn't work out, I didn't have too much in it.

First purchase was the Breech Lock Anniversary kit with all the necessary goodies, Lee dies, and the perfect powder measure. Set this up with extra breech rings for 9mm and 45ACP. Used it for about a month with no problems, complaints or need to call for service or assistance.

After the first month of learning the process steps, decided to buy the Deluxe auto indexing turret set up for both calibers with the pro auto disk and adjustable charge bar. Couldn't be happier with this set-up, and found a neat internet 'fix' for the problem of the primer holder falling out of the ram on the upstroke. Placed a tie-wrap around one of the posts so that the arm hits it and makes it release from the shell holder on the upstroke. Perfect home solution that allowed me to use the on-press priming system instead of the Lee XR hand primer. That is the only operational issue with the equipment I've had.

Now use the breech lock as a deprimer only and the turret for loading. For my 300 to 400 rounds per week, it's the best solution for me. If I ever want or need to crank out more, I'll be looking at the Loadmaster before anything else.

I have no experience with any other brand or type of reloading press other than noted above.

Could you post a picture of your primer fix?

 

[RustyFN]

Whoops.

How did I know that you would be the first Dillonite to try and go off topic.

 

[Gadzooks Mike]

Lee presses are responsible for making all of the ammo I shoot. It all shoots. I'm positive.

 

[Hondo 60]

I have a Breechlock SS. It has the best manual priming system I've seen on any press. It also has the tube collection for spent primers, similar to the Classic Turret. It's a wonderful design.

I'll second that!
I've had several different Lee presses that I sold & upgraded, but still have my first.
That single stage is great for short runs & fixing mistakes.

 

[psyshack]

I really like my small, Lee populated bench. I will be replacing the right SS with a Lee .50 BMG press kit.

 

[1SOW]

I started on the Lee Deluxe Turret Press 'Kit' approximately 25K 9mm rds ago. I've upgraded to the Pro-Disc system, modified some disc holes, mounted a case light, made a primer catcher that works and taken the good advice of many posters still here on THR.

After I learned about full consistent handle pulls, my ammo will stack up against any color press out there. Oal consistency and SDs on the chrono are impressive.

The LEE press led me to enjoy reloading and shooting more than ever.

I recommend the LEE turret presses for new reloaders.

 

[Lost Sheep]

All? Every one?

I use alot of Lee reloading tools. I actually love their dies. However in my honest opinion, I think that Lee presses are the worst that are made. Not bashing, just an opinion.

I respect your opinion, I share it for SOME of Lee's presses. But pray, tell us which Lee presses you have actually tried or witnessed?

Would you allow for the possibility that Lee might actually build a good press? One that you have not tried out yet?

My friend snapped his Lee Loader (the least expensive press they make) off at the base when he tripped and tried to use it as a grab bar. Not the intended function, by the way. It proved to be incapable of the job. My friend weighs about 230#. Factory Sales offered to replace it for free even though I explained what happened and they were not even where he bought it!

On the other hand, I believe that the Lee Classic Turret is the best turret press manufactured today, bar none. Except for the fact that it only has four die stations. If you need more than four, it would be worthless to you. But the auto-indexing....well it is the only autoindexing press made anywhere in the world. And it is plenty strong enough for most cartridges.

Lost Sheep

 

[tooltech]

I still have some issues with the Pro Auto Disk swinging out and hitting the primer magazine. Still working on that.

My solution to that, is to center the body of the powder measure over the center of the press. This minimizes the centripetal force trying to fling the powder measure outwards. Especially when you really get cranking!

 

[tooltech]

I still have my very first Challenger press, a Reloader ("C") press, a hand press, and a Classic Turret. I sold my Load Master earlier this year. (I decided I had to have an LnL. I don't regret the LnL, but do miss the Load Master)

I sacrificed my Perfect Powder measure to build a double hopper for a Pro-Auto Disk. (on my LnL - the powder-through-expander is better than the PTX) I still have my Safety scale, but no longer use it due to some missing pieces. I have dies from several makers, but only use the Lee dies.

I really like the Auto Prime, but had to quit using it due to arthritis in my thumbs.

All the years using Lee equipment, the only trouble I've had, was I wore out 2 shell plate carriers on the Load Master. I ran a lot of ammo through that press!

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I have the aluminum Challenger Breechlock press. (At least I think that's what it is).
While it isn't as sturdy as the RCBS sitting next to it, it does the job well for straight wall stuff and bullet seating. I do like to fls bottleneck stuff on the RCBS, but the Lee works fine for what I do with it. It darn sure works fine for the $30 I got it for used at a gunshow.

As far as their dies go, I'd buy them even if they weren't less money than the rest. I like em better by far.

We're going to be getting a larger press soon. The RCBS is a Reloader Special and it's a little short. With seating .30-06 bullets, you actually have to insert the bullet into the seating die and then place it on the case. When we start reloading 7 mag stuff, it's going to be worse, so we need something with a larger opening. If I'm not mistaken, the Lee Classic Cast has a 4" opening. We may look into that one, as I've never heard anything bad about it.

 

[blarby]

On my single stage lee press, I have one of the ones that loves to throw the primer seating cup.

No amount of polishing, lube, dryness, or any other fix other than the perfect stroke allows it to remain in the ram.

Sadly, nights get long. Perfection isn't always obtainable. A silver dollar sized rare earth magnet at the base of the ram next to the main mounting screw has kept me from crawling on the floor cursing my lack of a perfect stroke many a time.

 

[Uniquedot]

I have owned every press they make except the bl challenger and my experiences with them all have been mostly positive. Currently i use a classic turret, a classic cast, and the loadmaster and the only problems i have had with them are the finish on the turret could have been better and the loadmaster does not like it when you dump brass with crimped primer pockets in the collator. I use dies from every major manufacturer and i prefer lee's pistol dies and usually their rifle dies with some exceptions. I have used many of their bullets molds as well as molds from other manufacturers and after using the 6 cavity lee molds i hate using anything else. I use lee trimmers mounted in a drill and liked the speed so much that my wilson trimmer and lyman found a new home. I would say that in the past couple of decades most all my experiences with lee products have been positive and any time i ever had a problem lee stepped up to correct it.

 

[Lost Sheep]

I still have some issues with the Pro Auto Disk swinging out and hitting the primer magazine. Still working on that.

My solution to that, is to center the body of the powder measure over the center of the press. This minimizes the centripetal force trying to fling the powder measure outwards. Especially when you really get cranking!

A riser also helps. Puts the Auto-Disk above the primer device. You can use two stacked atop one another if you need to.

Centering the Auto-disk is a good idea, too.

Lost Sheep

 

[evan price]

Lee Pro-1000 progressive press with individual shellplate carriers for each major caliber, with turrets for each caliber already pre-loaded with shellfeeder & pusher and an Autodisk powder measure with correct disk for the load I typically use on top. Caliber conversions take me thirty seconds for 9mm, 45 auto, 32 long, 38 spl, 357 mag, 44 mag, 223 rifle. All I have to do is swap the case collator and tubes to the new shellplate carrier and insert the hex rod.

I also have extra turrets for all of my other calibers, since my Lee 3-hole turret press uses the same turrets as the Pro1K. I keep a utility turret with Lee Universal Decapper and an RCBS Primer Swage die. I also have a Sizing Turret with the Lee push-through sizers installed I use the most- .357", .358" and .452". I removed the auto-index parts from the press and manually index.

All my bullet molds are Lee 6-cavity molds. Lee's scale works every time.

Lees gear works great for me. I only own a couple pieces that are not Lee and those were because Lee doesn't make it.

I've got an RCBS ProMelt furnace because it is larger than the Lee furnace and my oversize ingots fit it.
I've got the RCBS primer pocket swage kit because they make it.
I've got a Lyman 55 powder measure and Redding trickler for precision rifle because it came in a box with other stuff I bought.
I've got some mixed RCBS & Lyman shell holders & chamfer tools for the same reason.

Lee's dies are the best I've used, I sold my RCBS dies.

Lee's price point is what made it possible for most people to get into reloading at all. If the only option was to buy a high end setup a lot of us don't have a spare thousand bucks to drop into a single caliber reloader.

 

[swiftak]

Lost Sheep, I own, and have owned 2 lee turret presses and 2 lee loader presses. The turret presses never ratcheted correctly and the cheap nylon ratchet lasted about a week on both of them. The lee loader presses weren't too bad for a while, but but one cross threaded and the other broke off at the base where it screws to the bench. Like I said, I love the lee dies and some of the other tools. I use alot of them, but I believe the presses are at the bottom of the heap.I now use Dillon, and rcbs.

 

[jcwit]

The lee loader presses weren't too bad for a while, but but one cross threaded and the other broke off at the base where it screws to the bench.

The cross threading was your fault not Lee's, same as if you would cross thread a spark plug into your car, not the manufactures fault.

Now for the question, how in the world did you manage to break a press off at the base where it fastens to the bench? Just wondering.

 

[swiftak]

jcwit, thanks for inspecting my crossthreaded press for me and making a diagnosis.
You've never seen potmetal break under stress? Now tell me that Lee presses are as good as Dillon, RCBS, and all the rest. Say something else stupid and tell me that.

 

[BoilerUP]

I've got a Lee Classic single-stage press and its loaded everything I've thrown at it. Others might be better, but this works GREAT for my needs.

I'm also VERY high on Lee's dies & customer service; I've gotten 3 cases stuck due to One Shot that hadn't yet dried, bending the decapping pin while unsticking the case. One email or call to Lee, and they mail a new pin at no charge.