Rounds per hour with a Lee Loader?

[sheepdog]

Hoe many round per hour can one expect to crank out with a Lee Loader?

[1hole]

"oe many round per hour can one expect to crank out with a Lee Loader? "

To even guess at that we really need to know exactly what you're calling a "Lee Loader" to be "cranked" on. The names of much reloading equipment get swapped around and missused so often we can seldom be sure what the asker is refering to.

The REAL "Lee Loader" is a hand held, neck sizing/seating die used with a hammer and has a plastic dipper for measuring powder. Most users will make about twenty rounds an hour with it.

[Throckmorton]

not all that many, maybe 50 ? the 'whack a mole' as called requires a lot of steps to complete a round..sizing,priming,adding powder,seating bullet.
and if doing rifle,possibly trimming the case to length.

[Dframe]

The old Lee Loader produces quality ammunition. It's just terribly labor intensive. Lots of slow steps to produce a round. I'd say twenty an hour just to be charitable

[Mk42gunner]

I never loaded any rifle or pistol rounds with a Lee Loader; but I have reloaded a lot of .410 and 20 Gauge shotgun shells. One thing I learned real quick was to process my shells in batches, i.e. deprime, prime, etc.

They will make good ammuntion; just do not be in a hurry.

Robert

[1Shirt]

Depends on how you do use the tool. If you take each case step by step, it is very very slow, and maybe 20-30 an hour might be in the ball park. However, if you do all your cases at each step (i.e. deprime all first), then go to next step, etc, etc, it will speed up the process overall. BUT, you need to keep track of the time the finished loaded ctgs take to complete, and divide the time by the number loaded. Might be able to get better than 50 an hour that way. Just a thought!
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[mooman76]

The only eperience I have had with the Lee loader was years ago with a 20ga. It took me an hour to do one box of shot shells.

[mdi]

There's a guy on youtube that reloads a bottlenecked cartridge in less than one minute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeEl9wZyabc

Not too difficult once you get a system going. When I started reloading I used a Lee Loader to reload 38 Spec. I only did one box of 50 at each setting, got tired of whacking the die after that. I did one box in 1 or 1 1/2 hour, taking my time and being careful..

[ironcowboy]

I do mine in batches, go cast a few hundred bullets, then deprime a few hundred cases, then size the cases, then flare, and then prime. Pan lube my bullets while doing those last two steps, then add powder and a bullet, seat the bullet and put it in a box, it takes me a few hours to run through those few hundred rounds, but i'd say well over 50 an hour...

[mike in co]

i dont use lee loaders for quanity, i use them for quality.
i own 2 dillon 550's ,a lee turret, a lymann all american, a lee classic single...think there maybe more....but when i load for most of my match rifles, i use lee loaders...do 20 to 50 for the match and thats it.

mike in co

[Bent Ramrod]

When I had my Lee Loader for my .22 Hornet, it would take me 2-1/2-3 hours or so to go from fifty fired shells to fifty reloaded ones.

[bohokii]

i dont about 50 44 magnum in an hour but i kind of cheated and used a perfect powder measure instead of the little scoop

but i didnt do it as batch processing i did them one by one

knock out the primer,lube the case and wham it into the die, (i divert from the lee instructions)whack it out of the die into the deprimer cup) then take the case and tap it onto a primer in the primer kerjigger then i did the next one til i had 50 sized primed cases then i used the measure to charge one then i used the other side of the die to seat a bullet

charge then seat 49 more times

then i thought hmm i think a set of dies would be a good investment cause i was noticing blisters on my hammer hand

[DLCTEX]

Quote:knock out the primer,lube the case and wham it into the die,
I assume you only lube the neck of the case, as that is all that gets sized.

[jdgabbard]

i dont use lee loaders for quanity, i use them for quality.
i own 2 dillon 550's ,a lee turret, a lymann all american, a lee classic single...think there maybe more....but when i load for most of my match rifles, i use lee loaders...do 20 to 50 for the match and thats it.

mike in co

Is the quality really that much better then from a press?

[Dframe]

Is the quality really that much better then from a press?
In my experiance no.

[mike in co]

In my experiance no.


yes.....and not done standing up...can be done almost anywhere....typically in front of this computer.

a press with a pull thru button often bends the neck....there is no tilt from the ram nor linkage with hand dies.

this is rifle, not pistol, tho i do own pistol.

and yes it can all be done in a batch, rather than one at a time.

mike in co

[cptinjeff]

Hello,

I just took my first "whack" at a lee loader last night. I have a dillon 550 b with all the stuff for all my calibers (8). I thought the lee loader would be fun to try and if not too much of a pain I would get a few so if I wanted to tinker with a caliber other than what the 550 is set up for I could "whack" out a few to test before shifting over the big machine.

I started with the .45 colt set. The only part that requires me to aguire some touch is the crimping stage (it is easy to over crimp!).

Another problem I was having was with the expander. It seems that if I expand the case so that I don't shave the bullet while seating, it no longer fits in the die. If I expand the case so that it still fits in the die....I shave some lead on the .452 sized boolit. What I'm I doing wrong?

I also bought a 30.06 set and used j-bullets and had no problems as their is no expander....kind of cool for someone who started out on a Dillon.

[1hole]

"I shave some lead on the .452 sized boolit. What I'm I doing wrong?"

Probably need to chamfer the case mouths.

[bohokii]

the pistol dies full length resize so you either have to use jacketed bullets or use the chamfer tool to make the brass have a funnel

[cptinjeff]

Thanks guys,

not sure what is so different...but last night I loaded about 20 rounds with the thing and didn't have a problem. I think the first couple I did I just belled too far and then those cases were not perfect after I "unbelled them". All is good now and I love the lee loader!!!.


Sorry to the OP for this :hijack: