Lee Breech Lock Challenger gave up

[lightload]

It's always a good idea to match a press with its job task. Few of us would trade our Rockchucker for a Lee press, but some of us would buy a Lee press to use in addition to our main choice.

[dudel]

It's always a good idea to match a press with its job task. Few of us would trade our Rockchucker for a Lee press, but some of us would buy a Lee press to use in addition to our main choice.

Took that approach as well. Got a little Lee C press and Lee universal deprimer solely for depriming and keeping the Rockchucker and Dillon cleaner. It struggles a bit on heavily crimped cases, the alignment isn't the best, there's a lot of play in the ram and the arm. It's a sacrificial press. If it breaks or wears out, I won't be heartbroken or surprised. I probably won't call Lee; but likely pick up another. Might even have enough grunt for push through sizing with Lee sizers.

It's low quality; but it's also low price. No surprises and it meets expectations. Everyone is happy.

[jmorris]

If you take that approach to design many companies would be sued out of business.
Hip stem implants used for replacing arthritic hip joints are required to be tested for the equivalent of 15 years of walking.
That is 10 million load cycles. As a result you do not have to take a photo of your broken hip stem and ask for a replacement.
There is really no excuse for waiting for the customer to break something so you can replace it. That is crummy business.

Again, we are talking about a manufacturer that provides the least expensive reloading equipment on the market. Not one that provides parts to NASA or surgeons.

Might as well complain that a gas station hot dog doesn't taste as good as a porter house at a 5 star restaurant.

[Tackleberry41]

Took that approach as well. Got a little Lee C press and Lee universal deprimer solely for depriming and keeping the Rockchucker and Dillon cleaner. It struggles a bit on heavily crimped cases, the alignment isn't the best, there's a lot of play in the ram and the arm. It's a sacrificial press. If it breaks or wears out, I won't be heartbroken or surprised. I probably won't call Lee; but likely pick up another. Might even have enough grunt for push through sizing with Lee sizers.

It's low quality; but it's also low price. No surprises and it meets expectations. Everyone is happy.

Those little c style presses do have their uses. I have one screwed to a chunk of wood, some vice grips clamps it to any table. I wouldn't even try to full length size a 223 in it, but it works very well for priming or seating/crimping bullets or size pistol cases. The open design is easier to work with. And at $25 not something your to upset about if it does break.

[HATCH]

you can order them from titan reloading for $3 each.
Cost with shipping for two of them is around $12

I know because I had to buy one so I bought a spare.

[daengmei]

The press is made that way on purpose, it will break before you shove the case too far into the die and it becomes stuck. (see also "ziptrim" and Zipsize where trimming and sizing is done with the pull of a string).

MT I was able to remove the casing by slightly tapping on what was left of the linkage. Sounds right to me.


Also, I did think along the process that there was just too much pressure required. I did partial resize and turn several times on some of them. I should have stopped, but now that's an afterthought.

[r1kk1]

don't leave us hanging, what did he do about your suggestions?

He returned the brass. I believe he bought a COAX. Last I heard he was ordering stuff to upgrade the linkage.

Funny thing is Richard in his book said the little Reloader C can size the largest magnum cases. I take his information with a grain of salt. I can tell you I have never seen a broke Challenger frame just the older linkage, this is the first I saw with the steel linkage.

Take care

r1kk1

[troyboy]

I have resized 300 Weatherby ,243,223 and 308 with my Lee C press. Obviously not the proper tool for the job,but proves it can be done.

[robg]

I use a wamadet press for most stuff all steel but a lee c frame for bullet sizing and fcd

[Legion489]

Well Lee presses are not high quality and you get what you pay for. I bought a new Lee LoadMaster (it's a load of SOMETHING alright!!) and set it up. After three days of tinkering, rebuilding, stripping and more tinkering i had a total of 50 rounds of .45 ACP ammo that didn't have upside down primers (extremely common for the LM I was told), sideways primers (ditto), crushed case, etc., etc., etc. Finally sent it back to Lee for a replacement/refund. Lee sent it back with a nice letter that it was warped from improper heat treating from the factory, but that did NOT mean they would repair or replace it! Sorry, the 2 year warranty and love it or send it back was intended as a joke, didn't I realize that? Soon after that they replace the "Love it or send it back" to if you buy it from the factory or one of their approved sellers, not Scheels/Midway/wholesaler or the like. The last time they returned it to me they included a nice letter saying I had sent it back to them 27 times in two years (24 months) and they refused to repair/replace it, but NOW, out of the goodness of their little hearts, they would repair/replace it if I paid ANOTHER 50% of retail (MSPR the same as a Dillon 550!!), or who knows, they might not, they'd see.

Long story short, after two years of sending it back with broken/jammed parts and getting it back in the exact same shape as sent (called repair dept., talked to dept head, told that was impossible as the guy PERSONALLY checked every press, send it to him personally and he would fix or replace, got it back in same shape, broken parts and jammed) I had spent enough to buy a Dillon, so I did. NEVER regretted THAT! That also ended any problems with primers, crushed cases, needing to rebuild/tinker/broken parts/etc.

Sure some of Lee's stuff is great, I have owned or used nearly all of it, except for the CAST CALSSIC presses, and they seem to run hot and cold on the Lee sites. The Lee LM sites ALL trash the LM, and many of those people admit they like it! Lee does seem to repair/replace the small stuff (I got some obviously trashed moulds straight from Lee that they finally replaced, but were not happy about replacing), but the bigger stuff seems to be "you bought low end junk, you are stupid (Thanks Dick! I knew/figured that after I bought your LM press, I didn't need you to tell me that!) and got what you deserved." I love Lee dies, shell holders, bullet lube (you can buy the same stuff off E-bay MUCH cheaper! Developed for Navy to be sprayed on equipment to keep salt water off, also same as Z-Bart rust proofing), etc., but will never buy another Lee press.

[daengmei]

I'm gonna show my skill/newby mentality at this reloading....A lot of you are saying you're resizing. Full length resizing I thought doesn't always completely resize the case on some cartridges, they may not chamber in a very tight headspace chamber. The small base die I am using does resize the entire length. Is the amount of force needed still the same?
I do know that using the small base die needed by far more force than anything else I've resized.

[jmorris]

I'm gonna show my skill/newby mentality at this reloading....A lot of you are saying you're resizing. Full length resizing I thought doesn't always completely resize the case on some cartridges, they may not chamber in a very tight headspace chamber. The small base die I am using does resize the entire length. Is the amount of force needed still the same? I do know that using the small base die needed by far more force than anything else I've resized.

Sizing with any die does not do "full length", part of the case never enters the die at all.That said I do not own any underside dies, if the dies I have will not resize cases to the original dimensions, I return them.If I have a rifle that will not accept ammunition loaded to the correct dimensions I fix or return it. Who knows I (or someone else after I die) may want to fire factory ammunition out of one of them. If it takes special "undersize" ammunition to work that is going to be a problem.