Never too late to learn my friend. I didn't start either until I was about 43 or so. 6 years of reloading, I have closet full of stuff, tools, supplies, etc. Its easy to learn, very hard to master. A great hobby. Keep us posted.
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Never too late to learn my friend. I didn't start either until I was about 43 or so. 6 years of reloading, I have closet full of stuff, tools, supplies, etc. Its easy to learn, very hard to master. A great hobby. Keep us posted.
Congratulations! I started learning with a Lee Loader in the 38/357 cal.. Just as Goodsteel said, it is more like a kit full of knowledge and experience awaiting to be tapped than it is a single tool.
I also spent the extra 20 bucks and bought a Lee Perfect Powder measure. I'd go on my back porch in the late evening while the crickets, frogs and whippoorwills were all chatting away and pound out some ammunition (also had a caliper). A couple of times a primer ignited... scared the **** outta me and silenced the wildlife lol
I learned a lot about how everything works together and how minor fluctuations in technique can effect the consistency of ammunition.
It all started when a customer at work gave me a free copy of Lee Modern Reloading. Now I've gone from having just a few tools and supplies to thinking about building an additional room to store all my stuff! Good luck, stay safe.
Welcome to the family. First time you use it fry to set off a primer and get it over with. It is much louder inside than outside btw.
It is just a cap.
Yaknow, there were a couple of variations of the Lee Loader that included a hand priming tool (predecessor to the current Auto-Prime™) that would take care of the "big bang" problem that has been repeatedly mentioned by so many posters. Even when I'm using my 310 tool or my Huntington hand press, the old original aluminum bodied priming tool with screw-on shell holders is likely to be in use.
Froggie
"It aint easy being green!"
Now I'm almost age 68, been using Lee Loaders since age 8.
Dad said when you center the shell over the primer, always press down and compress the spring under the washer, before you drive the primer in. You can feel it compress and bottom out .
Hold it down and a couple gentle taps. The primer goes in. If you look at the primer and its still not fully seated, repeat the same steps-taking time to press down solidly again to compress the washer spring.
Otherwise its just a slamfire for sure.
I have always done that and never popped a primer.I know its been several hundred thousand at least. I load for almost all pistol calibers and about 15 rifles.
Everyone I taught to load using the LEE never popped a primer except for my best friend. He hates the LEE and just balances the shell holder , or the shell on the primer loosely and whacks the rammer at an angle instead of straight down.The primer pops and he proves me wrong. One after another.
Never use a steel hammer. Either to seat primers or to drive the shell into the sizer.
No plastic or leather mallet available,. Use a short piece of hardwood. I believe a steel ball pein or claw hammer delivers a vibrating shock to the primer that can cuse it to missfire by crumbling or cracking the priming compound. I noticed my friends that use steel hammers with their LEE Loaders having misfires using primers from the same batch as mine. I never have msfires, but they do-enough to take notice. When they change to a wood or plastic mallet, the misfires stop. Also, the steel hammer beats the cartridge head when driving into the sizer die and can peen over the primer pockets edge or the shellcase rim.
Also,It helps to inspect the fresh primers with a flashlight. Once, I found a WW primer that was vacant. Nothing in it!-
Another thing,When you pick up each shell to prime, glance thru the primer flash hole and see the light. Nothing blocking the hole, usually the shell is clean. The tumbler grit can clog a hole from the inside=misfire.
There it is. One time I talked to my friend, the primer popper. He just said, LEE LOADERS are dangerous, I said, "you can lead a horse to water..."
It also helps greatly to either ream or swage the GI primer pocket crimp from any range pickups or surplus Military brass. That means inspecting brass.
A lot of people try to seat the primer in a pocket without removing the GI crimp. This too gives the LEE Loader a bad name.
Commercial store bought ammo won't have crimps when you reload that brass. Experienced reloaders already know, but then this is discussed in reloading manuals.
Just sayin
Last edited by Alferd Packer; 07-22-2014 at 05:06 PM.
Randy,
If you enjoy gadgets and tools this is the perfect hobby for you. There are so many do-da's, widgets, and gizmo's you will never amass them all. I been buying stuff since 1967 and still buy more stuff at least 2 or 3 times a year. But in all honesty the Lee Classic Loader, load sheet , funnel, dipper, loading tray and plastic ammo box will get you going nicely, load decent ammo and is FUN.
Welcome to the addiction ( after a while you going to understand why it's referred to as an addiction). Next the CASTING addiction takes over....even more things to play with . And for the best part...think of all the money you will be saving!
Gary
I do like gadgets! I like making them too, I already have some ideas for things that will help me for loading.Originally Posted by gwpercle
I am in the process of building a reloading bench. I know you don't need a bench for a lee loader, but might as well plan ahead!
Randy
Congrats on the wonderful world of reloading! I started out with an OLD press a C-H 3 station which I still have. I have obtained my first lee loaders in the last year or so because I really want to get the basic reloading it provides.
BullFrog
The Lord is my rock and my salvation
Joel 2:28-32
Great post by Alferd Packer above. It's a fact that much hinges on any given individuals ability to follow directions, show a little common sense and have an eye for details to get the most benefit out of the Lee Loader kits.
Just some trivia for you. There are several versions of the Lee kits. If you spend a little time looking around on E-Bay you can see most of them on any given day. The originals came in cardboard boxes with a cardboard tray then later with Styrofoam. The parts are all but unchanged to the modern kits of today.
Next up were the "Improved" Lee Loaders. These had the separate hand primer and a different tool for expanding and crimping the case mouth.
What you have to look our for is a kit that is absolutely identical in appearance to the Improved kits that was called a "Unitized" Lee Loader. This is the ONLY Lee kit that full length resizes the brass. I have a couple and they require quite a bit more force to seat the case and case lube is actually needed where the neck size kits do not require lube. They weren't around that long and I don't think they were nearly as popular except in cases where people either had multiple rifles they wanted to load for without worrying about keeping track of which rifle fired the brass last time or were shooting autoloaders or lever guns that were picky feeders.
Last is the "Zero Error Target Loader" which is sort of an Improved Loader on steroids. It has the hand primer, a case trimmer, deburr tool, inside case neck reamer and a micrometer adjustable die for precise bullet seating. By the way, in my opinion, the inside the neck case reamer is quite possibly the best way to true the neck on rifle brass there is. But like Ford vs Chevy, opinions on case neck trimming from the inside or outside vary...
Well, there is one other category and that is Lee Loader kits for shotgun shells. I've got pretty much all of those also but that's a different subject.
As for loading, it's already been mentioned about using a rubber/plastic faced mallet but I say choose carefully. I prefer some of the older ones that have a steel body and use screw on faces. I usually try to get the hardest plastic and hard rubber faces I can find. I feel it gives a more consistent case depth when seating in the die and is also less work to use. I also prefer any mallet that has a bit more weight over one that does not. It's much easier to use a weighted hammer gently than to have to pound hard with one that is light.
Last tip, make yourself a base of some sort to put the die on when you are pounding. I started making my own from about 1/2" steel flat stock scraps at work. I got the idea from a video on youtube that shows Dick Lee loading a bullet with the kit and he had a plate he put it on that sounded like steel when he used it though he never talked about it.
What I did was cut a piece about 5X7 inches or so then radius the corners and glue a piece of cushy closed cell foam on the bottom. In a pinch, a beer can cozy cut open and glued flat to the plate works great. This allows me to have a strong, flat, nearly indestructible surface to pound on yet the soft foam on the back has enough give that I can load at the kitchen table and not make a racket. The other thing it does is provide aural feedback when seating primers. When you use the steel plate, you can HEAR when the primer is fully seated. If you work around cars, you've probably seated a few bearings in your life and you know that when tapping a bearing in, it usually has a sort of deadened sound as it is being seated and when it bottoms out the sound changes to more of a ringing sound. Primers do the same thing. It's a matter of listening to it. Clunk, clunk, clunk, CLINK! and stop. Keep pounding or pound way too hard or with a steel face hammer and it'll be Clunk, clunk, clunk, clink, BANG! You can hit it a couple extra times in moderation and not blow a primer but if you continue to beat on it after you hear it seat or just hit way too hard to start with, you surely CAN pop a primer. No big deal, just knock it out and replace it.
Have you read the sticky post up top here about the Lee Loader? It's got a ton of great info and pictures too. I posted pic's somewhere about my steel base plates but not sure if it was there or in another thread. There is also a post floating around about using an adapter bushing to keep the whole stack of die, loaded round and decapping chamber aligned for the crimping process that you might want to look for. You'd have to make your own bushing but it's not that hard. It helps accuracy a LOT.
Last edited by Dave Bulla; 07-29-2014 at 03:03 PM.
Check out the sticky above and look up post #158 and #162 to see the bushing I was talking about. 152 has a couple pic's but 162 has a link to the whole story.
I have only used the priming function on a Lee Loader a few times. When I bought my first one in 1971 for $7.95 I got a Lee priming tool at the same time for $2.95 and still have it. I had two shell holders for it .30-06 size and one for .44 Spec/Mag cases. Recently a friend gave me one that has a bunch of shell holders with it. Now I have two of them. I use them most to finish seating high primers or loading only a few rounds. I find however with the Lee Loader they are a much better way to seat primers than the method the tool uses. Beating on primers will make them go off occasionally.
What I like most about the tool is the fact that it is the most basic reloading tool available. And yet it fulfills all of the functions necessary to complete the task of reloading cartridges.
Then you will branch out into other types of tools which can make your loading go faster.
Then when you get really technical and want to shoot bench rest you will find yourself loading with expensive versions of Lee Loaders, which puts you right back where you started, but you will know a lot more from the path you took to get there.
Randy
"It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
www.buchananprecisionmachine.com
Lee loaders have gotten lots of people started in reloading, myself included in 1964, seems like yseterday.
Charter Member #148
Never attempt to reseat a primer on a loaded round!
Not saying you did, but just saying this for the sake of safety for others.
The loaded round can very easily explode if there was an obstruction such as a piece of grit trapped under the primer preventing it from seating originally.
Mashing it into place can set off the shell.
You can imagine the rest!
Great advice everyone! thanks!
Dave, the link on post #162 is dead, but I think I read it some time ago. I have read the whole thread more than once, I tend to research things to death before doing them!
I like your steel plate idea, I had a similar idea as well. I will post a pic when I get it done. I also plan to make my own loader for doing shotshells, I was inspired by a video on youtube from Duelist54. He uses a kinda crude method but seems to work well. Just plan on making it a little nicer.
I saw a youtube video where the gentleman used a wooden block with foam on the bottom and it was very quiet and though at the time that was a great idea. Its alway a good idea to keep the little woman happy while doing stuff around the house!
Randy
Alferd: good point,,, I did overlook that possibility. Easy enough to pull the bullet and start over.
Randy
"It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
www.buchananprecisionmachine.com
Honestly, if you are doing things right, there should never be a situation where you have a high primer on an already loaded round. It's a simple matter to run a thumb over the seated primer to feel the seating depth. If it's proud, give another whack if needed. I even do this when priming cases on my Rockchucker press. You can also just stand the primed case head down on a flat surface. A case with a high primer will "wobble" and not sit straight. The nice thing about the hand primer is you can seat primers slightly below flush as is more correct and you also have a better "feel" for what is going on. The standard Lee Loader method does work just fine if done correctly. Remember, always listen for the "clink".
I should be doing some reloading soon. I have most of my supplies now, "George" stopped my house twice with some goodies.
I now have in addition to my lee loader, a lee turret press, 30-06 dies, case trimmer, chamfer tool, primer pocket cleaner, some cast and jacketed bullets. I have BrassMagnet and prsman23 to thank for those!!
Picked up some powder and primers this week and should have some brass next week.
Have a reloading bench in the works, repurposed cabinet and some used shelves and plywood. Should have it built for about $60 bucks. Got a lot going on in my house right now. Looking forward to doing some shootin and reloadin!!
Randy
Just picked up another tool to go with my Lee Loader, its a Lyman full length resizer. Picked it up on flea bay for $18. Thats a little more than the original price of $3.50!
Can't wait to try it out!
Randy
The Lee Loader was my first piece of equipment.Neat little tool.The 38/357.If you don`t want to do the plastic mallet do wacka do,just use a C clamp to squeeze the case into the die.Works great.Mom and Dad sorta fussed about the tap,tap,tap in my bedroom when using it.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo
Apparently Lyman made a bunch of these tools, especially in the common rifle calibers. I think they were mainly meant to be used for FL sizing rifle cases when loading on the TruLine Jr press. Its die sets mostly neck sized those cartridges and was a little light for FL sizing rifle cases anyway. While the common calibers can be found pretty reasonably, when you start trying to find some of the more obscure calibers, the prices go up very steeply! I was on a quest for the (not too uncommon) 32-20 and was amazed at the prices they seem to bring on flea-Bay.Just picked up another tool to go with my Lee Loader, its a Lyman full length resizer. Picked it up on flea bay for $18. Thats a little more than the original price of $3.50!
Can't wait to try it out!
Randy
Since they have been relegated to the "nice to have" category, I now just look for them when they show up... at a price I regard as reasonable.
Froggie
"It aint easy being green!"
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