Lee hand press for depriming

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've never used a Lee hand press...and ordered one last night.
I have one application where I think this will be good, please correct me, if I'm wrong.

Every winter, our local police use our Club's range for qualifications in the snow. If I'm lucky enough, I get the snow/ice covered brass...and/or during the first warm spell, when the range snow/ice melts, I get to pick up the wet brass.



It's best/easiest to deal with wet brass right away, if it's deprimed. So I usually use a universal decap die in my bench press, but the press gets thoroughly soaked. Then I clean the brass in a hot citric acid bath, then dry, then tumble clean...then it's gets sized,trimmed,ect...

ANYWAY, I'm thinking, instead of getting my bench press all wet, which is a pain to get it clean/dry, then re-oil, without unmounting and disassembly...I'm thinking the Lee hand press will be the way to go. It should be easy enough to clean/dry the hand press afterward.

any opinions ?

[jaguarxk120]

I would find a old CH alloy press, then clamp the thing down to one of the shooting bench's.

De prime the case's and spray the press down with WD40

[jmort]

You are on the right track. I have a couple few Lee Hand Presses. I like them for a change of pace and for reloading away from the bench.

[country gent]

One of the hand deprimers would allow the brass to be deprimed while picking it up. a harvey, Pope style, or one of the other hand deprimers work easy fast and comfortably. I use one I made for depriming all my brass. Its aluminum pliers style No shell holders are neededIt will deprime from small piatol cases to te big BPCR cases. Most of these units weigh less than a lb and fit in a pocket. Simple and easy to use.

[Green Frog]

Do any of the cases have crimped primers? If yes, I'm not sure any of the solutions mentioned will work, otherwise any of them will. For simple depriming however, that Lee will do any of them. I frequently watched one of the best Schuetzen competitors I ever knew decap his 32-40 cases between relays at the range... he would do about 20 or 30 in less time than it takes to tell about it. If it weren't too cold and miserable at the range when you pick the brass up, you could do it right there and leave most of the slush and mush right there! This is one time that WD-40 would perform as advertised... after I finished for the day I would sluice the tool and die with Water Displacing formula #40 and let the excess run off so it would be ready to use the next time! Sounds like you're on the way.

Froggie

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Do any of the cases have crimped primers? If yes, I'm not sure any of the solutions mentioned will work, otherwise any of them will. For simple depriming however, that Lee will do any of them.
...snip

Yeah, there usually is some 556 with crimped primers.

I did look at a Harvey decapper...it's simple and light, although besides costing more, it won't do anything else. ya never know, I might find other uses for it?
I may find other uses for the Lee???

[MT Chambers]

There's something to be said about depriming and resizing the case in one go.

[Wayne Smith]

There's something to be said about depriming and resizing the case in one go.

Not with brass in that condition. That wet I agree, deprime, clean, dry, and then proceed with processes that require lube.

[MT Chambers]

I'd just clean and dry the cases, then deprime and resize in one go, I don't usually have time to do extra steps in my reloading unless it is critical to accuracy.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I do not recommend using one of my presses for this operation. In fact my recommendation is to wash that stuff off and let it dry and then deal with it.

Then you wouldn't be defiling any of your tooling.

If you wash, let dry, then size and decap and then tumble to remove lube you are starting with clean brass direct to loading. I don't clean Primer Pockets very often.

The only step you are adding to the process is the washing the goo off the brass step. I feel this is a no brainer. I don't like water around any of my tools even my Lee Hand Press. I damn sure wouldn't let it near my BPM Presses.

If you are wet tumbling then you don't even have to let the stuff dry.

Randy

[.455 Webley]

I get a lot of my brass from a gravel pit up near Grand Marais MN and clean it up with a quick rinse with a hose. A lee press to de-cap with would speed along the drying nicely. Do they have standard threads or use that quick lock system?

[opos]

With the Lee hand press you have to stop..remove the shell holder and dump out the spent primers about every 20 cases or so..there is no place for them to go but to sit in the ram...just a nuisance but still there.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Lots of great input. I appreciate it.

I get a lot of my brass from a gravel pit up near Grand Marais MN and clean it up with a quick rinse with a hose. A lee press to de-cap with would speed along the drying nicely. Do they have standard threads or use that quick lock system?

Yep, 223/556 cases dry lots easier when it's decapped. It seems all the New Lee hand presses are all breechlock. The older ones, if you can find one, will just have standard threads.

=================

Randy,
I wouldn't dream of using a "work-of-art" press like yours for grubby work like this. I wish I could afford one, they are beautiful.

[garym1a2]

Get the one you hit the pin with a hammer. these have a simple base and no die. Try lee sku# 90102 or 90103.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Get the one you hit the pin with a hammer. these have a simple base and no die. Try lee sku# 90102 or 90103.

well, now I feel foolish, I didn't even know Lee made such a thing?

[Frogfeatures]

Lee Classic Loader ?

[William Yanda]

I use a Lee hand press with the universal depriming die to deprime bulk lots of 1X brass in various calibers.
Biggest drawback is the limited capacity for spent primers. I soon learned to keep count, otherwise the cavity filled, and one more primer wouldn't fit OR fully exit the case making it difficult to both remove the shellholder and empty the ram.

[Sasquatch-1]

I recently bought a Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Hand DePrimer Tool. It works very well and works on many different cartridges with the change of one of the three bushings included. I purchased mine for about $35.00.

[fng]

Help please I need a Lee hand press -
a friend lost everything in a fire, uninsured, I'm sending him what supplies I can spare, but since his shop burned down he's got no place to mount a press so I'd like to send him a Lee hand press if any of you have one you're not using I'm posting a WTB so I can help a brother in need

[Green Frog]

Get the one you hit the pin with a hammer. these have a simple base and no die. Try lee sku# 90102 or 90103.

I was thinking of this very thing for wet, dirty cases (especially those with crimped primers) and it really would be just as quick if you have a flat space to work on. Of course that's all this outfit does, but there would be no carryover of slush and mush to your other tools and your brass would be ready to clean. The Lee punch and base sets would handle the crimped primers by design and the standard ones by default.

Froggie