In praise of the Lee Hand Press

[gwpercle]

Fellows ,

I'm sorry for the blurred photos in the original post.
I wish I'd never used PhotoBucket !!!!!!!!

That's OK Ben , that was 9 years ago and I'm over it now ... but since we are still talking about the Lee Hand Press I found it along with the little Lee Ram Prime unit make a great priming tool for those of us with hand strength issues or the mickey mouse (flimsy) primer seating tools Lee now sells .
With this set up seating primers is easy and there are no issues in using it ...the New Auto-Prime hand tool with the folding tray sits in it's box because it doesn't work ... the Ram Prime + Hand Press works like a charm and has replaced it .
Gary

[Bazoo]

I use my hand press for priming with good satisfaction. I'm not super happy with lees ram prime unit though. It seems that it seats the primer slightly out of square on both the hand press and my spartan. Im looking to upgrade to one of the other brands of ram prime units and gift the lee on.

[GhostHawk]

Almost 6 years now on my Lee hand press. It remains my favorite for most work. Only move up to a big press if I am sizing 7.62x54r or similar.

I deprime with a FA hand deprimer, prime with a pair of RCBS universal hand primers. One large, one small.
I have a small C type lee press for sizing/gas checks.

Hand press does everything else. IMO it does it with better control and "feel" than most presses.

[Hogtamer]

I drilled 3holes in the base at an angle so I could screw mine upright to a wall to size .270. Great idea except I didn't lube the first case I was so anxious to see how it worked.....oops.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

The idea of at the range load development is very attractive, particularly with straight walled cases.

[Green Frog]

The idea of at the range load development is very attractive, particularly with straight walled cases.

I agree CC! A small tool box/bag with enough tools and supplies to load one or two calibers as they are being tested at the range sounds like a day in heaven! I don’t limit it to straight walled cases though as some of my rifles like to play too!

While this thread is about the Lee Hand Press, but the concept is equally well suited to a variety of the real hand tools including the various other hand presses, the 310 Tool and its imitators, and the various Whack-a-Mole tools dating all the way back to the 19th century. I love ‘em all!

Froggie

[gwpercle]

I agree CC! A small tool box/bag with enough tools and supplies to load one or two calibers as they are being tested at the range sounds like a day in heaven! I don’t limit it to straight walled cases though as some of my rifles like to play too!

While this thread is about the Lee Hand Press, but the concept is equally well suited to a variety of the real hand tools including the various other hand presses, the 310 Tool and its imitators, and the various Whack-a-Mole tools dating all the way back to the 19th century. I love ‘em all!

Froggie

I would bring my "small bag" to the office and get a lot of important reloading work done at my office desk .
May not exactly be a day in heaven but it was good day at the office when you get some reloading chores done .
Gary

[Green Frog]

I would bring my "small bag" to the office and get a lot of important reloading work done at my office desk .
May not exactly be a day in heaven but it was good day at the office when you get some reloading chores done .
Gary

True that! Almost makes me want to come out of retirement so I can slack off at the office!

Froggie

[W.R.Buchanan]

I agree CC! A small tool box/bag with enough tools and supplies to load one or two calibers as they are being tested at the range sounds like a day in heaven! I don’t limit it to straight walled cases though as some of my rifles like to play too!

While this thread is about the Lee Hand Press, but the concept is equally well suited to a variety of the real hand tools including the various other hand presses, the 310 Tool and its imitators, and the various Whack-a-Mole tools dating all the way back to the 19th century. I love ‘em all!

Froggie

Gosh Froggy,, what about mine?

Randy

[Pressman]

Mr. Frog Person Sir, what Randy says above. That is the tool to have, you will never go back to Lee.

[Green Frog]

Well, I’m a retired guy on fixed income, so I guess I’ll have to struggle along with my HDS Compac until I win my second lottery (I’ve already spent ahead to cover proceeds from the first one. )

Need some advertising, Randy? OK, the Lee is a Kia and the Buchanan is a Ferrari! Both will get you from here to there, but there is a difference on how you feel at the end of the trip!

Now, since the OP asked about the Lee, I’ll repeat that I had one, but had a chance to upgrade to the Huntington Die Specialties Compac, which is sort of a spiritual successor to Randy’s tool. I did perfectly fine with the Lee, but I prefer leather seats and more power in my cars, and I like little touches of quality in my reloading tools.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Froggie

[Green Frog]

BTW, with my Lyman tong tool (310) I can carry everything I need to load caliber (including a small container of powder, some bullets and primers) in a cigar box. That’s what I regard a convenient package to carry.

Froggie

[Alferd Packer]

I do ALL my depriming with Lee punch and base sets prior to cleaning the brass.
I countersunk a hole in top of a 4x4 with a paddle bit & drilled a 3/8th” angled hole from the center of countersunk hole to channel spent primers out the side of 4x4. Catch the spent primers in a container.
When everything is going right I can deprime 18 to 20 cases a minute without getting my sizing die dirty. One plus is you can tell how tight primer pocket is as you tap out spent primer.
After 5 or 10 thousand cases the pin in the punch will break, usually my fault. Not crazy about the new Lee punches that have a stepped end around the pin. They don’t self-center into the primer hole as good as the older straight diameter punches. A little slower to use.

That self-centering you mentioned was bugging me one day so I wound some tape around the hand punch at the bottom above the pin so it had a loose fit, but closer to the size of the 45-70s I was decapping at the time.
The tape helped to self-center the punch and I didn't have to hunt for the primer hole.
Of course the punch won't fit smaller cases without pulling off the tape, but I have several LEE classic sets for most of my calibers so I can just grab another for the 38s and 32s.
But a scrap of notebook paper tightly wrapped around the punch and taped to secure works just as well.

[Alferd Packer]

I use my hand press for priming with good satisfaction. I'm not super happy with lees ram prime unit though. It seems that it seats the primer slightly out of square on both the hand press and my spartan. Im looking to upgrade to one of the other brands of ram prime units and gift the lee on.

I don't know if it will work for you, but someone on another place had the same thing happen and complained to LEE about primers seating crooked.
LEE's reply was that some primer caps have a slight burr on the edges that is a manufacturing defect in that lot of primers.
He said when you encounter this you should seat the primer in a couple steps.
You do this by only seating the primer halfway by feel and then rotate the case 1/2 turn and seat deeper and let off just enough and give the case another 1/2 turn and finish the stroke.
It is actually very quick and easy, it takes much longer to tell how to do it, but its quick once you do it a few times and then it goes quicker.
I also read that many bench rest reloaders always seat their primers in this fashion to ensure even seating of the primers as well as correct alignment so as not to crack the dried priming compound in the primer.
But I've tried it and it does seem to seat the primer with less stress, but I'm not a bench rest shooter by any means.
I have noticed some lots of primers, or the cases are too tight, but the step method of priming overcomes this.
Especially noticeable with the hand press seating for sensitivity.

[Bazoo]

Alfred, sir, thanks for the suggestion. I do very similar to what you describe. I seat, then turn the case and give it another bump to ensure it's seated squarely. I'll give your method a try next priming session.

I think it happens with both winchester and CCI primers, but I can't remember now. It does happen with different lots of CCI large pistol primers though for sure.

[PhatForrest]

Just broke my second Lee hand press while sizing some 45acp. While not super durable in the long term, they are convenient.

[Bazoo]

Just broke my second Lee hand press while sizing some 45acp. While not super durable in the long term, they are convenient.

Where did they break? Do you load rifle brass too on them or exclusively pistol brass?

[Green Frog]

Just broke my second Lee hand press while sizing some 45acp. While not super durable in the long term, they are convenient.

If you’re working your Lee presses hard enough to break them with just 45 ACP brass, either you’re doing tons of them or they are being expanded all out of spec upon firing. Is there more to the story you want to tell us? I didn’t keep mine because I got a better unit, but I can’t see myself breaking it!

Froggie

[Rio Grande]

I use my Lee Hand Press exclusively, don't need another.
Loaded probably 2 or 3 thousand rounds through mine, rifle and pistol without any issues.
But then I load only a couple hundred max at a time. One day I'll size, next day expand, and so on.
I don't care for the bushings, loctighted one in, ha!
Guess I'm just old fashioned.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Gave the youngest boy mine the other day to size some boolits for the 357 rifle while he watched TV. Presto, 250 boolits sized!