I guess I am gonna be one of the first in line again.
LEE SIX STATION PROGRESSIVE PRESS
https://leeprecision.com/images/P/91918.jpg https://leeprecision.com/images/D/91823-HRes.jpg
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I guess I am gonna be one of the first in line again.
LEE SIX STATION PROGRESSIVE PRESS
https://leeprecision.com/images/P/91918.jpg https://leeprecision.com/images/D/91823-HRes.jpg
Interesting!
The priming situation is a question. The new press reminds me of the Classic series and that is a solid platform as my Classic turret Press demonstrates.
My progressive is the LNL and five stations are good. But Lees “six” is better.
Three44s
I will watch with interest to see how this pans out. As I have stated repeatedly Lee has some really good ideas, but the execution is sometimes lacking.
This design is stronger than the loadmaster, the offset sizing station is pure genius.
Again, it all hinges on the priming. Lee are famous for making progressive presses that don't prime properly and selling a dedicated priming press instead of just making it work.
im not knocking Lee, I have, use and like their products.....but isnt it a little late to enter the progressive press market what are the 2 additional stations for??? Ive been using a 550 Dillon for a long time with only 4 stations ????
I find it very interesting that the press is made from steel, except the toolhead which is aluminium.
The last all steel press I know of was the Pro 2000 from RCBS.
Having a Mickey Mouse case feeder is not good. Hopefully they will have something suitable.
The weak area of most progressives is the priming system. It is so bad that in most machines that people end up priming off the machine. That is one area where Dillon eats their lunch. Every Dillon has a decent priming system.
After seeing the Lee APP press and how finicky it is, I'm not optimistic. (remembering my dad launching cases across the room...:o)
I have a lot of Lee stuff, big fan. But if its anything like the APP it's gonna need some tweaking/tuning before it will work.
From the picture, it looks like the primer slide runs past the shellplate carrier, with a channel bringing the primers in.
That, and no blast shield required indicates it's a re-worked priming system.
If this is a working progressive from Lee, there may be a few in my future.
Up until recently I was using Pro 1000s for all my reloading. I had four of them set up for different calibers. I was happy with everything except priming. Quite frankly the Lee priming system sucks. I still see no reason to change my opinion on that.
I would like to have the six stations but I like the priming system on the auto breech lock pro better than I did the pro 1000 or the load master so I will probably not be a customer for the new press.
But I do look forward to seeing how it performs :)
With the app I can size when I de-prime before cleaning and that gives me another station on a 4 station press for the cases I use the progressive for, works great for my process.
I can tell you that more than 5 stations can be extremely useful.....worth a little modding if it takes that to make it efficient and reliable. I decided I couldn't resist buying an RCBS seven station press, in spite of the bad press it got. ;) I've never been sorry. Just took a little tweaking and education and it works as smooth fast. At Lee's price point, it's probably worth a try, but I'd miss my station seven.
As for priming, I don't see what the problem is priming off press. I deprime on an APP and tumble and trim if rifle, before I load anyway.....just not important to me to do it all in one session on the progressive, even when I can.....and you can't, loading rifle unless you like trimming with the Dillon press trimmer and ear plugs. Doesn't look fun to me.
Most people do not shoot enough rifle ammunition to justify using a progressive press. In my case, I have owned a Green Machine, three 1050's, a 650, two 550's and two SD's as well as a Star in .38 Spl. I have never loaded a rifle round on a progressive. I may start loading .223 this year on the 550 but it will be "blasting ammo" for playing at longer ranges and for coyote hunting. I have never shot CF rifle competitively, or in a quantity where having a high production rate on rifle ammunition was warranted. By using the RCBS X die, I hope to avoid trimming cases on subsequent reloads so that chore will be eliminated. My goal is to tumble clean and reload without any off press operations.
Pistol ammunition is where progressives shine. Even when I shot Bullseye, ammunition coming off a Star was accurate enough. Getting extra clean cases/primer pockets was not worth the added time and work of having a process off the press. Tumbled cases went directly to the press. I am a lazy reloader...LOL.
Additional case prep is not for everyone. For those who prefer higher productivity, a reliable priming system is a necessity. Otherwise productivity is reduced by 50% or more. For many users productivity is a key driver. People do not add case feeders or bullet feeders to increase quality but to reduce manual operations and gain small increases in productivity. Seems counterintuitive to take a 50% hit by doing an operation "off press".
I know two guys who gave up on the first generation Lee progressive. The priming system was not adequate. They were both CAS shooters, so super accurate ammunition was not required. Having to deprime and manually prime every case was unacceptable. I had the same issue with the Green Machine. If I primed off the press it worked OK but it was no Star. I loaded about 2000 rounds on the GM before giving up.
The new Lee, or any other progressive, lacking a reliable priming system will have limited market success.
I hope Lee has their priming system down pat to go with this new press so as to reduce the need to prime off press.
That said, for folks who want to clean pockets and/or prime separately, a case feeder can still make sense. Within their method a case feeder is actually twice as important since each case is run twice to accomplish loading compared to a reloader running their cases just once to Finnish the operation.
Three44s