I will say one thing, if it wasn't for lee, I'd have never started lead casting. 90% of my lead working tools are lee.
I will say one thing, if it wasn't for lee, I'd have never started lead casting. 90% of my lead working tools are lee.
I began with Lee too. I bought their cheapest lead pot and a 577 minne mould. I was so green I used range lead for the .577 minne bullets. To this day I have the mould, the Lyman ladle and the lead pot
R J Talley
Teacher/James Madison Fellow
I still have equipment and in some cases, brass I bought back in 1977. In Alaska, at my AC&W site, reloading was impossible but factory ammo was cheap so I bought loads of Win .357 mag and shot it all. I have the cases and the boxes and am still reloading them. 150 gen Kieth Bullet and 12 gen’s of 2400
R J Talley
Teacher/James Madison Fellow
I d never heard of Lee when I started reloading,and the only available moulds were old Winchester tong tools.My first Lee bullet mould was one with the ridges/grooves and chisel cuts for alignment......and it worked OK.Now I buy nothing else.
Getting back into reloading.
Had rcbs setup years ago worked flawlessly.
Ordered the classic turret press along with dies and extra turrets.
What junk..Never buy anything lee again.id rather just buy factory ammo.
I have loaded thousands and thousands of rounds on a Lee Classic Turret press in 14 different calibers. All performed splendidly.
If you can't master a LCT you should stick to factory ammo.
Steve in N CA
That's odd, my very simple little Lee tool works fine.
I don't like it as much as my old "space ship" deburr/chamfer tool. But I don't like that one nearly as much as I like my old Lyman case trimmer's chamfer/deburr tool.
All meaning I see a big difference between tools I don't personally like and "junk".
Reloading tools aren’t any different than any other product in a free economy. There are better and more expensive, or cheaper and lesser. Sometimes there’s cheaper and better. I’ve come to really like the Redding crimp-only dies. I’d like them because the finish is beautifully done. They look like fine machinist tools. I don’t really need them. I could seat and crimp in separate steps with my regular dies, including the Lee dies. But I finally bought a turret press, and it’s nice to see that extra die sitting there, looking so beautifully made. I have Lee dies, and RCBS and Forrester when I had a little more money. Now that I’m retired, I have what I have, and that’s going to be it.
I just like seeing that Redding crimp die sit there. It’s like a little piece of art. I don’t get that feeling with Lee products, even though I don’t fault them.
I also have 2 Pro-1000's 1 is turret w/ thru powder,, I am amazed w/ how LEE keeps adding to their line for these old ( junk ) pro 1000's ,, I can not possible count how many thousand rounds I have loaded on them. I added a plastic arm to my primer feeder ,, I can feed the last 6 -5-4-3-2 and yes even just the last " 1 " LR primer ( took a couple of days to get it right ) no springs ,, no elec. buzzers ,, they got the rest just right ,, " for me ". " One mans junk is another mans treasure ".
coffee's ready ,, Hootmix.
I started reloading on a Lee Starter Kit in 2011. Nice it came with everything I needed except Dies. a manual and Components. I passed my Lee kit onto a friend when he wanted to star reloading. I had picked up an RCBS Supreme Master Reloading Kit for $220 and got a $75 rebate from Vista Outdoors in the deal and am not sorry. the Lee Press was good, didn't care much for the Powder Measure or Safety Scale. I Still buy Lee Dies though for hand gun Cartridges (though I do have one set of RCBS Carbide Dies fo .45ACP but it was free. For Rifle Dies I only have Hornady Custom Grade Dies. I do like them Better. I have an RCBS Universal Priming Tool. I still have my RCBS Press on the bench and a old Lyman SparT 6 Station Turret on the bench too. For Scales I have an RCBS 502 Scale, a Pacific M (Hornady),an RCBS PartnerDigital scale. and ab RCBS Powder Trickeler.
I will never Bash Lee products in general.
1st press was a Dillon 550 (Pistol reloads)
2nd Press was a Lee Breech lock (Rifle reloads)
3rd Press was a Lee Classic 4 hole turret (Purchased for odd pistol loads and case prep)
4th Press was a Foreter CoAx (Rifle reloads, mostly replaced Breech Lock which now is our dedicated depriming station)
Waiting on 5th Press the new Lee APP press - (Will be used for bullet sizing and depriming.)
90% of my dies are Lee carbide.
I use Lee Factory Crimp too.
I am happy with all of it. Recently put everything but the Dillon on Inline Fabrication quick mounts, great product, wish I would have done it sooner)
I am not brand loyal I buy the tool that does what I think I need. And I am not afraid to put Lee stuff on my Dillon. I have autodisks, and autodrums permanently mounted on my 550 tool heads for my common loads.
Bottom line is I have a rainbow in my reloading room, Blue, Red, Green, Orange, Gray, Black, It's all welcome at my place!
The only thing I have purchased from Lee that I have not liked was their case trimmer. The little plastic adjustable piece has broke on two of them.
Attachment 258738
Ouch, that’s gonna leave a scar! No lee for me except casting gear and my old autoprimes which I’ve recently repaired with jbweld.
Almost all of my equipment is Lee red.
I absolutely love the simplicity of the Breechlock Progressive. It is extremely easy to recover from a mishap.
The Loadmaster worked but was difficult to recover from a mishap and it exemplified a Rube Goldberg(sp?) design too me.
The APP is limited to function, but it was designed that way and is not very expensive, so it works for me.
"What makes you think I care" ........High Plains Drifter
Rick C.
IMO, Lee stuff is kinda hit or miss. The design can be somewhat innovative, but the budget build quality lets much of it down. Sometimes their contraptions remind me of that old Mouse Trap game from when I was a kit.
I have an older classic cast press that works well...It's a hunk of iron, though, so not much to go wrong.
I also use some Lee dies...They're just OK. I mostly buy Lee dies for calibers I don't load frequently.
I gave up on their garbage priming tools after setting a primer off in one of their old ram priming contraptions back in the 90s. It worked right for a while, but eventually, it would feed 1.5 primers at a time sometimes and the one that was half out would get squashed. Eventually one squashed enough to fire. I've use an RCBS hand primer exclusively since then.
I'm interested in their APP, but all that plastic case/bullet handling stuff is worrisome. I can imagine it working well for a while, then eventually becoming a jam-o-matic nightmare as it wears.
Everyone is biased and I surely am. I started in 1990 with Lee loaders and worked my way through their single stations (several and still have them) and then to a 4 hole turret press. It all worked well. The turret at times had to be tinkered with, but still worked well. Local gunshop got a used Dillion 550 in at a good price. "I'll get that and no more tinkering. Set it and forget it." No. It has to be tinkered with occasionally while you're running it just like the Lee turret. They both do their jobs though and either press anybody wants to be shed of, I'll take.
David
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |