Lee hand press

[bearcove]

Stranded in my room working away from home, sized 250 9mm for my dad. Handy tool for a man on the road.

[jmort]

Have two. Very happy with them. Within reason, it does anything a mounted press can do.

[Lefty Red]

My main press for a long time. Still have one in my range box.
Can't believe other companies haven't offered them as well, for those that have to color coordinate. :)

Lefty

[Jacko.357]

A Lee Hand Press was the first Press I ever bought. I use it in conjunction with my Bench mounted Press now days to seat and Crimp with. I used it for some time to Neck up .303 Brit to .358, plenty of Leverage and does the Job easy.

regards Jacko

[r1kk1]

I have a couple of these that go into my range bag or hunting with me. Lyman used to have the Acculine and RCBS have their HDS compact. Lee I call knuckle buster. The HDS seems to be more robust just not sure how long a cartridge it would handle. I shake the spent primers from the Lee but have used a decapper and base for some cartridges. I think a Harvey decapper is in the future for me. I may buy a breechlock version.

Take care


r1kk1

[CastingFool]

I got one in a trade, I traded it off to someone else.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

I am working 750 miles away from home. Fortunately, I was able to bring a Buick load with me.

[whelenshooter]

I used to work on the road 5 days a week and many times took the Lee hand press with me. Hotel rooms all look the same after a while and tv sucks. That was before wifi and that'll only entertain you so long too.

[gefiltephish]

I have one on the way, due to arrive tomorrow.

[1066]

I mainly use mine at the range when I'm fine tuning a new load. I load a batch, all the same load and out to maximum length then shoot a group. For the next group I seat the bullet in 10 thou, using a micrometre seating die in the hand press, next group a further 10 thou, hopefully seeing the groups shrink then start to open again as I pass the sweet spot.

(anyone remember the Lyman 310 hand tool?)

[prsman23]

In a hotel room right meow. Wouldn't dream of leaving the little lee press at home.
I'm on the road 3 months of the year. Shoot on Sunday reload after work. Rinse. Repeat. I'd like one of the Lyman 310s. They still make them but I'm sure they are out there used

[myg30]

I never had a 310 but the lee hand press is really handi to take on the road. I deprime batches of brass while im in the hotel room after scouting around the town. When you travel alot it gets to be the same ole stuff.
I dont like to mess with powder charges at the range but the suggestion of seating deeper while testing loads sounds like a good idea ! Most of my cast rifle seats into the lands but never hurts to try seating a little deeper !

Mike

[Wayne Smith]

My main press for a long time. Still have one in my range box.
Can't believe other companies haven't offered them as well, for those that have to color coordinate. :)

Lefty

Lyman still makes the 310 hand loader, Lee makes the Lee loader still and Fred Huntington still makes his hand press. I have one of his.

[2wheelDuke]

The hand press is pretty useful, but I found out that there's some things it just can't do. This batch of .308 brass I'm working on illustrates that. I just got an RCBS primer pocket swage tool. There's a cap that goes over the ram to pop the brass off the tool when you lower the ram. There's not enough clearance between the ram and the frame on the hand press to fit that cap. It should be possible to modify the part of build a replacement with the Lee press in mind, but it won't work on the hand press out of the box.

The other issue I've run into with the hand press is that it just didn't have enough leverage to size down .308 that'd been fired in a machine gun. Brass that was fired from my rifle was pretty easy, but the surplus stuff felt like I was going to crack the press.

Still, it's a useful tool and I like having it available to me. Especially on long boring overnight shifts where I basically sit around and wait for a phone to ring.

[DeanWinchester]

For neck sizing only as I do for my bolt rifles, this little fellar is the stuff! Decap and tumble, then sit in the chair watching the Walking Dead and size away!

I have two now and one has the breech lock set up. Love em!

[Green Frog]

Lyman still makes the 310 hand loader, Lee makes the Lee loader still and Fred Huntington still makes his hand press. I have one of his.

What Wayne said! If I really want to recap and FL resize a bunch of cases, the Huntington is the way to go. I also like the appropriate 310 Tool or the old (screw in shell holder) Lee priming tools for that phase. Belling the case mouth and seating the bullet can be done with the press, the tong tool or even the Lee Loader... whichever is handy. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! :D

Froggie

[W.R.Buchanan]

2 wheel Duke: Try pushing the case about half way in then back out then back in. Two or three times si all it takes for any MG fired round to resize. I lube with Dillon case lube and don't be shy with it.

I bought some once and figured this out while trying to size them up. It was really hard to get them into the die all the way on the first push. They all went thru on the second push simply because I wasn't trying to do all the work in one push. Try it ,, it works.

Randy

[gwpercle]

I found my Lee Hand Press so handy I bought another...and use them both, I actually do more reloading with them than the two bench mounted presses I have in an outbuiling.
I would have liked a Lyman Tong tool but they are just stupid expensive...the tongs, special dies and shell holders they require would wipe out my meager budget.
The Lee is much more affordable.

Gary