Lee Pro 1000 for single calibre?

[joec]

I actually liked mine also but it actually produced too much for my needs so I sold it and went for the Lee Classic Turret and Lee Classic Cast single stage. Now I made a few thousand rounds on my Lee Pro 1000 for 9mm, 45 acp and 45 colt but just was never comfortable with it though ever round seem to work fine and never had a problem with the press operation. Now I did spend some time watching videos and other sources of information on making it work properly which I followed. If I ever needed to put out large quanities of ammo in the future I would consider it again however at this time the speed difference between my Lee Turret and the Lee Pro isn't a great reason for me.

Now with that said if you decide to change calibers I highly recommend a new turret and powder measure as well as the full shell plate setup other wise it can be slow changing it unlike the Turret which takes a few seconds to convert from one to the other. Oh and I now load the same three pistol rounds but also a 45-70 rifle and the Classic cast handles bullet swagging and 12 ga black powder brass shot shell loading for my cowboy action events among other duties.

[13Echo]

I have a Lee 1000 set up for 45 ACP and get along with it quite well. It does have a learning curve and the "destructions" are less than clear but it does work. I use it a bit differently though since I prefer to inspect each case I will run the cases through to size and decap and then clean in the tumbler. The case feeder makes this no chore at all. Since I do not like seating live primers and powder in the same operation I use the press to prime all the cases, again insuring all are seated properly. I usually end up with a large supply of sized, cleaned and primed cases on hand. Finally I use the press to load with the powder through die and measure in station one, seater in two and factory crimp in three. I do not have stoppages for primer problems or spilled powder and everything works smoothly and, if I have a primer detonation or tray detonate it won't be anywhere near a measure full of powder. I would do the same with a 5 station press. It is slower than a Dillon but much faster than a turret without case feeder and suffices for my 45 needs. I use a Lee turret for other pistol cartridges a Redding turret for black powder rifles and single stage for rifle.

Jerry Liles

[Spawn-Inc]

i meant to show a picture of how much i've flattened primers before with the pro 1000. i use cci or Winchester primers.

as i said in my other post, i've yet to have one go off (knock on wood).

[Four Fingers of Death]

i meant to show a picture of how much i've flattened primers before with the pro 1000. i use cci or Winchester primers.

as i said in my other post, i've yet to have one go off (knock on wood).

Dang! that looks familiar! haha! I've never had one go off either, turned them inside out with a Lee Auto Prime and RCBS Priming tools as well. I'm thinking you would not want to do it real quick like though. If I had five cents for everytime that has happened to me over the years, I could go out and buy a square meal, coffee and dessert at a reasonably priced cafe.

[Spawn-Inc]

Dang! that looks familiar! haha! I've never had one go off either, turned them inside out with a Lee Auto Prime and RCBS Priming tools as well. I'm thinking you would not want to do it real quick like though. If I had five cents for everytime that has happened to me over the years, I could go out and buy a square meal, coffee and dessert at a reasonably priced cafe.

correct, anytime they get crushed, it's always been slow, never a quick motion. which is why i didn't understand how people set them off. then i looked up all the primer tube detonations going on, and there seems to be some spring loaded ramp that is always the cause.

i've had 2 primers go off using the lee classic loader, which scare the **** out of you lol.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Ah! the Classic Lee Loader, I remember it well (actually, I still have a few). Like many others here I started with one of these kits, loading for my 44Mag. The only hammer my Dad owned was a carpenter's claw hammer, so I used that, (Duh!). I would tap it down to seat the primer soooooooo gently and was prepared for the odd detonation, but no matter how hard you tried to psych yourself up to relax, when they went off they would make you jump! Quiet safe as it was all well contained, etc. It never occured to me to try a different hammer (not that I was probably aware that there were more hammers than Carpenter's claw hammers and Engineer's Ball Peen hammers. A big piece of wood would have done the job well enough.

I did have a primer detonation on an old Texan 12Ga Shotshell press. I was loading the primer tube as I always did and a few primers in the bottom part of the tube detonated,blowing the side out of the tube, which then took off sideways, I was holding the top of the tube between my left thumb and index finger at the time, so it then pivoted about spraying my groin with flame and unfired primers, which took a bit of bark off my goolies while it shot unfired primers into the ceiling and hardwood beam above (these penetrated the hard fibreboard ceiling liner, but did not ignite the ones that hit the hardwood (and believe me, Aussie hardwood is plenty hard), even when they then fell back onto the concrete floor. The ultimate effect of the tube spinning around between my fingers was that it shot the last of the primers into my palm and tore it open, requiring four stitches.

How else do you load one of those tubes, except by holding it in one hand and placing the primers in one at a time. The modern tubes on the metallic cartridge reloaders have a restriction so that you force the tube inner down over the upturned primer, but I think the shotshell primer's shape would prevent this. I am happy to place one primer on the machine at a time now, but I have used that press with the primer feed tube from 1985-2009 and it was an old press when I bought it, so it probably had been in pretty regular use for some 35-40 years when the detonation occurred. Believe me a half dozen or so 209 primers going off, will get your attention!

[gunoil]

lee classic cast turret press. titianreloading.com,,, press by itself 92$ plus shippin. You already have some parts.

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...4ADB456B95.mp4

[Four Fingers of Death]

I buy all of my Lee stuff off Titan, great service, good price. I like the homemade bullet feeder, looks like an RCBS bullet feeder die.

[Any Cal.]

Yep, more info on the boolit feeder please! The last guy trying to use an RCBS wasn't able to get it to work, so I quit considering it.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I have several Hornady ones, but they are set for jacketed bullets, which we hardly ever use in Australia. I have to open them up a bit. There is a good youtube video on this. The internals of the RCBS are nylon and may not lend them selves to being adapted to take cast boolits (boolits being a poofteenth of an inch bigger).

I can't say for sure, never having see one in the flesh, only ever laid eyes on them via youtube.

[HeadLead]

I have 2 Pro 1000's and a Classic 4 hole turret press.

Until I learned to keep the press clean and made the right adjustments I hated the 1000, now I use one for 45acp and the other for 9mm. I have several shell plates and can change out to another caliber quickly if I desire to do so.

For the money, they are ok, but you need to stay up on them.

Sure would love to own a Dillon, but I spread my money around an lots of other neat stuff.

[Four Fingers of Death]

HeadLead, I have found that the complete Lee shellplate carrier assembly is a pretty good buy from Titan Reloading. Sure simplifies things, just swapping them out, well worth the money. If I had a big ultrasonic cleaner I reckon you could dump the whole lot in there and clean it and then lubricate it. Sure would save a lot of hassle, but I can't afford one at this stage.

You are right, they are good, but you have to keep them clean and be vigilant.