BUILDING a 12 Gauge Lee Loader

Unfortunately, they stopped making the Lee Loader hand-loading kit for 12g at some point, much to my (and others) annoyance. They still make them for rifle and handgun, but not for shotshells.

I've seen people using them on youtube videos, and I've seen a few for sale on ebay, but they're becoming rare and the prices are going up (plus I have postage to deal with, because I live in Atlantis, aka Australia).

So I thought I'd just build my own kit.

Most of the parts are easy enough to put together. A wooden dowel, a quarter inch bolt, a block of wood with a washer on it and a hole drilled through or even a stack of washers glued together (for de-priming), a flat surface (piece of steel or hardwood). I use cut-down brass of various calibres as powder measures, and I load black powder for my old 1890 double barrel hammer gun, so I'll be running a square load (same volume of powder as shot) - so that's just one measure, which is a bonus.

The last bit is the crimper. I can see from the pictures it's a steel tube, and the dowel (sized to fit inside the shell) fits down inside one end to finish the crimp, but it also starts the crimp... I assume it has a cone-shaped inside to do that?
Anyone got any ideas how to replicate that?
Do you have the 12g Lee Loader and you can take a pic of the inside of the crimping tool?

Get a crimp starter from any of the shotgun loading machines and use it by hand. Or do a roll crimp over a card wad - roll crimpers are often found on e-bay.

Attachment 211673Attachment 211674
You are looking up inside the Lee "Body" at a small ledge near the top. The ledge has a slight bevel that as you push it down on the shell it starts the crimp. The next picture shows the "Rammer" that you push down through the top of the body to finish the crimp and set the slight indentation on the end of the shell. This is all done by hand pressure.
What I didn't know when I bought it is was it was built for paper shells. It has a note in the directions that say "Plastic shells cannot be crimped without a starting die to reform the crimp." After you use the crimp starter you then proceed as above to finish the crimp.
Hope this helps!!
:grin:

I'm with Wayne, you can find hand cranked roll crimper that will work fine.

I use a gasket punch and cut my overshot cards out of white plastic milk jugs. You can get quite a few cards out of a gallon jug if your careful.

Prime, charge, set your wad column, shot, overshot card, shove up into the roll crimper, push hard while you crank it 4-6 times, hey presto, finished shell.

You can use clear plastic packaging, clamshell packaging if you want to see whats inside.

I just use the white and write on it with black sharpie 6's, buck, slug, etc.

I have an old 12 ga. Lee Loader for 12 ga. Thats what I started reloading with. In those days you could buy the primers like pistol or rifle primes and put them in the old cup after punching out the old primer.

Lee used to make nylon 6 and 8 segment crimp starters for use with a hammer. I have both.

You punch out the primer + cup using the Lee Loader, punch the primer out of the cup (I used a finishing nail), use the Lee Loader and punch to replace the primer + cup, remove the hull to pour in powder, push the wad in through separate nylon wad fingers, shot/slug, then put whichever crimp starter suits on top of the hull and whack it with a mallet then reinsert the hull into the Lee Loader and use the big punch to finish the crimp. Slow but effective.

Agreed, the roll crimp is likely a better way to go.

Lee has stopped production but there are others:

http://www.lanesreloading.com/12Gauge.html
http://www.lanesreloading.com/pdf/instrutions.pdf

Well, "other" I guess. I was sure I had seen another one similar but can't find it now.

Wouldn't be hard to make one if you have a lathe.

Longbow

I started to load shotgun with an 12 ga and 410 one of Lee that the OP was talking about. If you where to like to make one yourself.I is to get most of the parts from Mec single stage loader and make the rest yourself.I had fix up one of my sisters for the 410 all she had to do is to get the parts that I told her from Mec and she would have her had loader almost like Lee. But she did not follow on it after. For some reason.If the Op like help on it PM me and I will help the out.

I made kits for both .410 and 20 ga for reloading brass hulls.

BPI or Circlefly for wads. I have a small steel body man's hand anvil I use for priming, has 2 flat sides, others are different curves.

Piece of dowel or even a whittled down tree branch for your pusher.

Deprimer I used a hardened finishing nail set in a dowel. Set it on a 2x2 block with hole drilled in the end.

With the brass hulls easy to glue in an overshot card.

I have not loaded that many rounds total. Maybe 40 for the .410 and 25 for the 20.

Some of those 20 ga loads are a .56 punkin ball. Need to test those out one of these days.

I have the Lee 12 gauge classic kit (circa 1967) and both Lee 6 & 8 point star crimp starters. My dad's buddy gave us sever al clay pigeon boxes full of once fired paper hulls back then so I bought the Lee loader ($10.00 new). Worked great on paper hulls. I think Federal & Winchester were 6 point star while Remington was 8. Tried loading the plastic hulls later but even with the star crimp starters most times the finished crimp didn't fold evenly. Wound up sealing with candle wax.
The loader kit has an aluminum adjustable shot scoop graduated in 1/8 oz. increments, and fractional drams for measuring BP.
I haven't loaded with the kit in 40 years ( ran out of paper hulls) but do occasionally use the shot scoop.

Yeah Lee stopped making those kits because the crimps always are challenging to get looking right, and they had too many returns on the product.. I have one and have played with it extensively and it just doesn't work very well at closing the crimp.

You can get a roll crimping tool from BPI that works great and they come in every gauge.

Randy

I agree, I really like the lee loaders for handgun, and I assume the rifle works well, but not the shotgun. I've tried all kinds of tricks, they make shells, but they don't make them nice. The lee load all II is a big step up from a lee loader kit. I am a Lee fan, but the two places they need to improve most in my eyes are a good shotgun reloading press and a powder scale.

Hard to beat the Lee Load All for reloading small amounts of shotgun shells.
Have MEC machines but still use the Lee Load All a lot.

I had a 20 gauge Lee Load All and it would do a pretty decent job on a previously loaded hull. Just don't expect the same from New Hulls. For some reason, it just doesn't want to close the crimp tight enough to stay. It looks ok when you finish a loaded shell but a day or two later, the crimp is opening up and will allow the shot to fall out. Besides, Lee does not make a 410 Load All. MEC loads a better shell but you do pay for the privilege. my experience anyway, james

The 20 ga Lee Load All I had was the only press, metallic or shot, rifle, pistol or shotgun, that I could never get to work to suit myself. While the Lee Loader for shot shells can be cantankerous, the OP is making the individual component tools to suit himself, so with any luck he should be able to make something to work on his specific application. Sometimes we folks in the "Land of the Free" forget the hoops our foreign brethren must jump through to do things we take for granted. The parts and tools mentioned in this thread that can be readily acquired at LGS or gun shows and tried, then modified or discarded if we aren't happy with them can be quite difficult to find and expensive to buy in OZ (or for that matter, Europe, the UK, South America, and elsewhere.) Combat Wombat (gotta love that screen name!) I wish you the best with your project. I bought a replacement crimp starter with proper number of grooves from MEC to use with a Lee Loader in 410, but the actual crimping punch is a mystery to me... I'll try to figure out how it is arranged.

Regards,
Froggie

I moved several years ago and could not find my 12 Ga. Lee Loader. Looked all over the new house and garage, then looked on ebay and saw HIGH!!! prices, so I made a set. I have the machinery to do it and had a 16 ga. for reference. Even made a 6-point crimp starter from holly.

Of course, after I made the set, I found the Lee set.

Attachment 211894

"Even made a 6-point crimp starter from holly."
Nice work.

Plus 2 on that crimp starter.

I made one for 410 shells.
I use mostly brass cases and glue the over wad in with nail polish.
I don't think they make plastic shells like they used to.
Either they are real flimsy now or I have gained tremendous strength and was a master at reloading.

I use a cylinder of plastic milk container or cardboard from primer packets as the shot cup sitting on a card wad just like ww super shells still do.

A crumbled up piece of baking paper between the power wad shot wad
Shoots reasonable groups and with home made swan shot cheap and available.

At $80 a carton of 12 guage trap loads these days I'd doubt if I could even reload for that if I could get all the components.

You can cut off the crimp petals and use thin over shot wad if you like and a small dab of nail polish works well or pva glue.

Using the cases in only one gun/barrel certainly helps unless you want to resize things.

Ohh gun was made for paper shells.
Have you checked the length with fired plastic shells?
I know the paper shells are shorter once fired and I doubt if you need the added pressure of trying to squeeze everything through a choked chamber at the start of the proceedings.

Just a thought.

Ok I know it is a minor point of order but I would like to point something out. "Lee" did not stop making the shotgun loaders. The Lee that made the shotgun loader was the father's company. Lee Custom Engineering inc. Which technically NO LONGER EXISTS.

Lee Precision (which is the current company owned and operated by the son) does not, has not, and will not make the shotgun loaders. This was pointed out to me YEARS ago in a rather abrupt email from Lee Precision when I inquired about a single replacement component for a kit.

Anyway Happy reloading, God Bless, and One Love.

GoodOlBoy

This video shows the 410 reloader explained well.
I didn't know it had a taper for crimp starting in one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=829n_fwcM6w

Hope it helps

http://beforeitsnews.com/self-suffic...t-2463934.html

It may be of interest for some of you, gentlemen!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by W.R.Buchanan

Yeah Lee stopped making those kits because the crimps always are challenging to get looking right, and they had too many returns on the product.. I have one and have played with it extensively and it just doesn't work very well at closing the crimp.

You can get a roll crimping tool from BPI that works great and they come in every gauge.

Randy

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I started loading 12 ga. Paper hulls with the Lee, had great crimps. They looked as good as factory. When I switched to Winchester AA the crimps got a little sketchy. Plastic takes more force to get a good crimp. At one point I was using an arbor press to complete the crimp. Bought a MEC, with the additional leverage you get the crimp you can't get with the Lee.

The Lane's site appears to be gone.

I would like to reload 16 gauge by hand, either with a Lee loader type tool or maybe make one from wood. I rarely shoot it, but would like the option. Maybe get that breachplug to convert to muzzle loader might be fun. Not much of a gauge man, as I grew up with a .22 instead. Never was taught how to use the shotgun.


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There was a wooden shotgun reloader that was self built in "Backwoodsman Magazine." This was about 10 years ago. I built 2 of them. It works for 12 ga, 16 ga, and 20 ga. I don't use it much anymore, but I will take measurements and send em to ya iffin ya want. It works well if you shoot the shells in the same gun as there is no provision to resize the hulls. Bobby

I remember reading it but it was for a 20 gauge if I remember and didn’t remember anything about measurements. Only have great grandmas old 16 single. That would be great.
My favorite magazine!


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JoseBob, please e-mail me the measurements and info. on the BACKWOODSMAN MAGAZINE wooden self built shot gun re-loader, thanking you.

e-mailed info. Sorry it took so long... Bobby

I was eleven and had a spanish SxS 12 ga.
I got a LEE 12 ga Handloader set as a Christmas present along with a can of alcan powder no5.and a box of wads for over powder, a box with wad column and primers and a 3 bags of no. 4s, no. 6s, and no.9s.each 25 lbs.
I had a big bag of paper shells I'd been saving up.
I got right to work loading and going to town with those shells.The 4s for ducks, kept separate, the 6s for squirrel and rabbit and the 9s for quail.
i took a box 6s to go hunt rabbits.
i had to walk quite a ways to get there and it was pretty cold.
When i got there and opened the barrels, the shell went in and stopped at the metal part. it wouldn't fit. I tried a couple more and one went in.Aha! then the same trouble with the other barrel.
I had to keep trying to find a shell to fit.But then, if I turned the shell a certain way.it would slip in.
That old gun had egg shaped chambers and you had to turn the shell till it matched the egg shape. Also, one barrel was bigger than the other.
That's when you dont resize the shells.
I had to go home and try all the shells and mark some left and some right.
It was frustrating to say the least.
When I used new shells I marked them beforehand and only shot the left hand coat pocket in the left barrel and so on.
Same on right pocket shells.
Good if you have a single bbl shotgun.
With a pump or an auto the bbl better be perfect or you get jam city for sure.
My new Browning lite 12 some years later was a perfect chamber but I was using a Pacific 366 reloader that resized the new plastic shells.
It's funny, but I still have a half bucket of those old paper shells marked left and right.
i always mean to open them up and salvage the shot.
or I'm looking for a MEC supersizer to resize those metal rims.
The LEE always made good crimps with the paper shells but ugly crimps with plastic till I got the 366.
that's my story.


Sorry about hi jacking thread.
I just wanted to tell about trouble caused by not being able to resize the shells.
..

I just watched the guy loading three inch 410s with the Lee Loader. I have a 2 1/2” set I picked up at one of our club’s fund raiser auctions several years ago but have never gotten around to trying out. After seeing the video I think I’ll put the Lee Loader back on the knick knack shelf and renew my search for a MEC 600 Jr in 410. I really do appreciate seeing the video however... it served as a cautionary tale! ;)

Froggie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Green Frog

I just watched the guy loading three inch 410s with the Lee Loader. I have a 2 1/2” set I picked up at one of our club’s fund raiser auctions several years ago but have never gotten around to trying out. After seeing the video I think I’ll put the Lee Loader back on the knick knack shelf and renew my search for a MEC 600 Jr in 410. I really do appreciate seeing the video however... it served as a cautionary tale! ;)

Froggie

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If a person is going to reload many .410, the MEC is the way to go. While a Lee Loader handles my current needs, my brother got a MEC for it. What I don't understand is what people will pay for used .410 Lee Loaders on Ebay. Recently set went for the price of brand new MEC.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by perotter

If a person is going to reload many .410, the MEC is the way to go. While a Lee Loader handles my current needs, my brother got a MEC for it. What I don't understand is what people will pay for used .410 Lee Loaders on Ebay. Recently set went for the price of brand new MEC.

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I think some of the strange prices are being paid because so much of this stuff is back ordered/out of stock at the dealers, distributors, and even the manufacturers... they’re all showing up slammed! People have money they see losing value by the day and are driven by fear of “what will be” so I feel like what we see is panic buying at work. Having read this, I just decided I would hold off on buying that MEC 410 loader... I don’t shoot the little gun much anyway, and I have a few hundred rounds of factory stuff. Besides, I can load with the Lee Loader if I really feel like I have to have more (unlikely.)

Good thread guys; it made me think!
;-)
Froggie

PS We wouldn’t be seeing articles in “Backwoodsman” or “Mother Earth” if there were a feeling of concern for where we will get our ammo in the future. I’m too old and worn out to run, so I guess I’ll have to stay right here where my reloading stuff is already located... YMMV ;)

Froggie: I went into detail on how to get the Lee Loader to make good crimps on another thread by 3B in the Casting for Shotguns Forum. If you are only going to load 25 rounds or so at a time you would be wasting money on a MEC Loader dedicated to .410's. when you've already got a Lee Loader that will do the job just fine once you learn the little ideocracies of the crimping function.

I have a Pacific DL266 in .410 for my .410's and it gets used infrequently when I need more .410's for Skeet at the Club.

Since I have that, I don't need a Lee Loader. I had a Paco Kelly .410 Loader (similar to Lee tool) but the crimp closing function was bad on that tool so I sold it. You should be able to load 25 rounds in 30-40 minutes with the Lee Loader once you get it figured out.

If I can do it with a 12 ga one, you can do it with a .410 kit.

Randy

dbosman, try the 10Ring.com site. They have .410, 20, 16, and 12 or at least they did have. I haven't checked lately. To get a good 410 crimp I would advise getting a roll crimp tool similar to the BPI or the Reloaders Network version. They will make quite a difference in you shotgun reloads but especially the 410. Its about the only way to get a really good crimp on the 410. james