Lee Pro 1000 bullet feeders

[Oaks&Pines]

I picked up a used pro 1000 at a GS and would like to add bullet feeders to it.

Brownells list the 9mm in three different bullet lengths - up to .46, .47 to .60 and .61 to .75

Having no experience with this press do I have to purchase more than one size (I have bullets that fall into 2 of the ranges right now)
or is there a way to shim one to work for all?

These appear to mount under the lock ring, so I am wondering where the size variation comes into play at the mount or base or ?

Just trying to wrap my head around this, don't want to spend more if I don't have to.:confused:

[Finster101]

I have 4 of those presses and don't have a bullet feeder on any of them. To me it would be in the way. I also have not read great reviews with them. Others may chime i with experience on the feeders. I'm curious as well.

[onelight]

I am with Finster101 , I have been using Lee progressive since they came out , the pro1000 the loadmaster and now the auto breech lock pro . But to be fair I have not used the Lee bullet feeder , I visually check powder level is one reason , and the other is any thing that disrupts the cycling of a progressive even occasionally puts the risk of a double charge or no charge or some other problem from stopping and starting the whole sequence . And looking at the way the Lee bullet feeder is made and designed to work I chose to not add it to things I have to keep my eye on. And I don't want my left hand to feel neglected :)
If I needed/wanted a bullet feeder I would want at least a five station press and would probably chose one that fed from the top of a dedicated die . But like I mentioned I have not tried the Lee .
So if you get one load a few thousand and let us know how it works for you.

[Garyshome]

The 4 tube one?
I've used 1 [with the lee collator] on a Lee app, works good with pistol brass not so well with rifle. Will save you some time.

[Oaks&Pines]

I currently use Lees 4 hole turret and thought brass and bullet feeders might speed things up and I sometimes worry about tilted bullets
going into the seater die, but I haven't had any problems yet (Two elbow and one shoulder surgery and need to get other shoulder done)
so I was hoping to give lefty a rest now and then :smile:
Does any one use the brass feeder on their 1000? would love to hear any thoughts or advice anyone has with this press, only planning on using it for pistol loads and will use my 4 holer in manual mode or my old Herters for rifle work.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Finster101]

I have dedicated setups for 9mm and 45acp. I use the brass collator/feeder on both of those with only occasionally having one come through upside down. I tried one on .223 and found that it did not work as well, at least not for me. Some of you guys running these machines may be like me in that once I get it fine tuned for the round I'm loading I leave it alone and don't make changes. At one time these presses were cheap and it seems you could frequently find one used on this forum which is where three of mine came from. I bought the first one new and set up for .45.

[rbt5050]

i never could get the bullet feeder to work right. if you like to tinker around you might get lucky.

[onelight]

I have used the case feeder and Lee collator on all the Lee progressives and it is not perfect but works extremely well for it's modest cost . You have to keep an eye on it for the occasional upside down case and on some cases I put a finger on the case as it is pushed out from under the tube some are prone to tip over but once you get used to it it saves a lot of time and motion . And the collator makes it fast to refill all 4 tubes.
When you are getting used to your pro1000 I would suggest leaving the tubes off and single feeding for a while as you get used to watching all the stages and checking function on priming it's one less thing to worry about while you get used to your press.

[Oaks&Pines]

I have used the case feeder and Lee collator on all the Lee progressives and it is not perfect but works extremely well for it's modest cost . You have to keep an eye on it for the occasional upside down case and on some cases I put a finger on the case as it is pushed out from under the tube some are prone to tip over but once you get used to it it saves a lot of time and motion . And the collator makes it fast to refill all 4 tubes.
When you are getting used to your pro1000 I would suggest leaving the tubes off and single feeding for a while as you get used to watching all the stages and checking function on priming it's one less thing to worry about while you get used to your press.

Thats great advice and I will be using it without the feeders until I am used to the feel of things. Having three times as much going on at the same time will take some getting used to.

[Tazza]

I too have never gotten the bullet feeder to work just right, the idea is great, but in practice, it never did a good enough job. You'd get it working, then it would hiccup, and drop a tube of projectiles on the floor.

[AR-Bossman]

I too have never gotten the bullet feeder to work just right, the idea is great, but in practice, it never did a good enough job. You'd get it working, then it would hiccup, and drop a tube of projectiles on the floor.

There's a reason no company that needs machines to operate (load ammo) extended periods of time use anything like what Lee has built. Dropper dies like the mr. bullet feeder are the only way to go.

[Tazza]

There's a reason no company that needs machines to operate (load ammo) extended periods of time use anything like what Lee has built. Dropper dies like the mr. bullet feeder are the only way to go.

I totally agree with you there!

[pastera]

If they work really depends on your bullets and loading style.

If there is no case to grab the bullet from the fingers the bullet gets dropped on the floor (you can hold the slider to stop this but that is a pain)

If you have bullets with a small hollow on the base then you have to reduce the number of bullets in the feed tube.

Smooth, even operation of the press will get it working pretty well but it isn't a great option if you have the stations to use a drop die.

The different length options are for different length bullets - you want the shortest die that will feed your bullet length.

[jetinteriorguy]

First off, the OP is not asking about case feeders, just bullet feeders. If you’re referring to the Lee bullet feeder it’s junk, I’d sell you one pretty cheap but would feel like a thief taking your money for it. If you’re talking about something similar to a Mr. Bullet Feeder they are fine with jacketed and coated/plated bullets but can have issues with lubed lead due to the lube building up in the die. You also lose the ability to seat and crimp separately in a four hole press due to the bullet feeder not actually seating, that’s done in the next step so it would have to be seated and crimped in the same step. If you don’t mind this then no problem, I prefer seating and crimping in separate steps to prevent coated/plated bullets from getting the coating scraped off exposing the bare lead underneath. On my loadmaster it’s really quite simple to seat bullets by hand.

[onelight]

The OP asked about the case feeder in post #5 .

[Bird]

I picked up a used pro 1000 at a GS and would like to add bullet feeders to it.

Brownells list the 9mm in three different bullet lengths - up to .46, .47 to .60 and .61 to .75

Having no experience with this press do I have to purchase more than one size (I have bullets that fall into 2 of the ranges right now)
or is there a way to shim one to work for all?

These appear to mount under the lock ring, so I am wondering where the size variation comes into play at the mount or base or ?

Just trying to wrap my head around this, don't want to spend more if I don't have to.:confused:

I use the bullet feeder for my 357 and 44 loads. To use the bullet feeder you have to have the ''newer'' carrier which was introduced back in the '90's, so if you have a newer pro 1000 that will not be a problem.
Brownells list dies and fingers for $11.99 and a kit for $34.99. If you already have the kit, you can just buy the dies and fingers you need.
The difference in the ability to handle different bullet lengths comes from the length of the cutout in the bullet drop die, that is where the fingers pick up the bullets from. Depending on the shape of the bullet nose and ogive, you may be able to use one drop die for more than one bullet length despite what Lee says.
In theory, if you bought the longest die, then you could add shims of 0.10 or 0.20 or whatever you need for your bullet length. Maybe affix with contact glue/cement.
If you had the longest die and tried to feed short bullets through it, the fingers would try to grab the bullets too high up, and would probably fall out. Also the shorter bullets may also fall from the die due to the incorrect length.
I use mine with the 4 feeder tubes, and it very rarely gives me problems when set up correctly. I like it.

[Bird]

I currently use Lees 4 hole turret and thought brass and bullet feeders might speed things up and I sometimes worry about tilted bullets
going into the seater die, but I haven't had any problems yet (Two elbow and one shoulder surgery and need to get other shoulder done)
so I was hoping to give lefty a rest now and then :smile:
Does any one use the brass feeder on their 1000? would love to hear any thoughts or advice anyone has with this press, only planning on using it for pistol loads and will use my 4 holer in manual mode or my old Herters for rifle work.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I also use the bass feeder with 4 tubes set up, and the collator fixed on top. Its quick and easy to fill the tubes. It does not invert the brass, but I still check each tube.
I see that you have the 4 hole press, mine is the older 3 hole press. I will pick up a 4 hole when they become available again.

[jetinteriorguy]

Sorry, my bad I missed that. The Lee brass feeder is pretty good as long as you advance the tube before feeding the last case, this keeps the last case from bouncing off the feeder base. At least this so with 9mm, been a while since I’ve done .38sp or .357mag and can’t remember if this is the case with them.

This is in response to post #15, thought I quoted it. Seems like I’m on a roll here, need more coffee.

[onelight]

I hear you Jet I have those days myself.
I like Lee tools for the quantities and ammo I load they suite my purpose really well but I will probably never put a bullet feeder on a progressive I have worked hard to build the habit of looking at the powder charge when I seat the bullet so it would make me nuts to have something in my way . But I do like to keep my right hand on the operating lever so the case feeder lets me do that and 300 to 400 per hour is plenty fast enough for me .
I have also learned that all the Lee stuff I have bought will work but some of it is really picky about setup and the components you use and if I have to spend to much time setting it up and keeping it going it overall does not add to saving time . An example is Lee's beam scale I had it was very accurate and if it was all I had it would work but the dampening on the one I had was so little I did not have the patience for it but it was only $20. So worth what it cost and would get a guy loading safely with accurate powder charges.
But all tools like a progressive have a learning curve some much shorter than others . And Lee stuff is different in a lot of ways a guy needs to read the Directions :) I keep learning that over and over.

[jetinteriorguy]

I’ve loaded somewhere in the range of 10,000-12,000 rounds in 9mm, .38sp., and .357mag using the Lee bullet feeder on my Loadmaster. For the most part it worked, but of all the things that caused issues this was the most troublesome. Nowadays I only load 9mm on the LM just to keep it simple. But I use a pretty modified method now with the LM and get very reliable results. I deprime, tumble, and prime off the press. Then stage one is size without the depriming pin, two is powder drop, three is powder check die, four is seat bullet by hand, and five is crimp. This eliminates any priming issues and bullet seating issues which were the two most prevalent failures even though they were fairly low occurrences.

[oldsalt444]

I love Lee products. Very innovative and the best prices. It's almost the only brand I use. HOWEVER - their bullet feeder is the biggest piece of crap I've ever tried to use. It's the only Lee product I've ever had to return. Those flimsy plastic fingers used to grab the bullet are extremely problematic. I gave up and I'm still placing individual bullets in by hand like I've been doing for decades.

[Oaks&Pines]

I'd like to thank everyone for your advice and for sharing your experiences with this press.

I did add the case feeder/collator and although I was missing the Z wire or rod have it working smoothly using a piece of copper
wire.
I do like to tinker and will eventually will try the bullet feeder, but even without it the case feeder will cut the work load in half
for my left arm, so I'm pretty pleased with that.:-D

[markmars]

I've always heard that the bullet feeder isn't the greatest. Been using the Lee 1000 for over 15 years mainly 9 mm and .556 mm. The case feeder works great on pistol and is ok for rifle. On .556 I manually deprime and hand prime my brass since I primarily use military pull down brass. The Lee 1000 is a great press, yes you have to tinker with it but I've heard from Dillon press owners you have to tinker with it also. For the price of one Dillon with out dies you can buy three Lee 1000 with dies.

[Heavy Metal 1]

The bullet feeder takes some time to set up, but it works fine for me. No time is saved with one since the tube of bullets must be refilled from time to time, but the bonus is it positions the bullets straighter than I can do with my big paws :)

[jmorris]

I had a Lee bullet feeder, it was the only Lee product I was really disappointed with.

The Hornady, KISS, MBF and GSI (Dillon only) are all far better.

[Kenstone]

I don't use a lee bullet feeder on my Pro 1000 but have one on a single stage I use exclusively for re-sizing coated bullets.
I added a spring to the pinching fingers because it often dropped bullets while moving out/under the die.281902
281903
I just spot drilled the outside of each finger and cut a single coil off of a large diameter compression spring.
I stretched it over the fingers and inserted the ends into those drill spots.
That spring helped a lot but I get an occasional tube dump if I fill the tubes, only because I use longer tubes than what comes from Lee :rolleyes:
And I had to cut a bevel/chamfer to the sizing die to spread the fingers too.
:mrgreen:

[Kenstone]

I'd like to thank everyone for your advice and for sharing your experiences with this press.

I did add the case feeder/collator and although I was missing the Z wire or rod have it working smoothly using a piece of copper
wire.
I do like to tinker and will eventually will try the bullet feeder, but even without it the case feeder will cut the work load in half
for my left arm, so I'm pretty pleased with that.:-D

Yep, anything you can do to keep your hand on the lever and reduce to one what your other hand is doing will increase thru put.
I have other progressives that adding a case feeder is near impossible but have enough stations to add an inline bullet feeder to the operation.
jmo,
.