Minor grief with Lee Auto Breech Lock Pro

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I have a Lee Auto Breech Lock Pro for reloading my 9mm and .357. I'm not sure whether it is a step up from the Lee Turret press or not. With four cases on the plate all at once it creates some issues.

• A fully charged .357 case wobbles a tad when the plate swings around from the powder-charging station to the bullet seating station. This causes some spillage when using slow-burning powders at near full density.

• The next item is the sizing die seems to cause a fair bit of jostling when pulling the ram down and the die releases the case. This too can cause spillage.

• Then the primers don't seem to seat consistently.
  I tried depriming then wet tumbling with SS pins and armorall. This smooths out the release of the case in the sizing die and seems to help with the primer seating.

But. . . If using the progressive press creates the need to size and deprime in a separate step, how much time am I really saving? And if I have to slow down the press stroke so the .357 brass doesn't swing too fast and spill powder, how much time am I saving?

Worst of all. . . when I take the cases out of the wet tumbler they look marvelous! But then I reload them. It seems the resizing die and the FCD still rub the already sized cases which just makes them look less-than-awesome. I know, I know, I'm kidding about it being worst of all, but I would be lying if I said it didn't irritate me.

I know one option is to go back to the turret press. But maybe someone else has run into these problems and comes up with a clever trick?

[kcofohio]

I have a Lee Auto Breech Lock Pro for reloading my 9mm and .357. I'm not sure whether it is a step up from the Lee Turret press or not. With four cases on the plate all at once it creates some issues.

• A fully charged .357 case wobbles a tad when the plate swings around from the powder-charging station to the bullet seating station. This causes some spillage when using slow-burning powders at near full density.

• The next item is the sizing die seems to cause a fair bit of jostling when pulling the ram down and the die releases the case. This too can cause spillage.

• Then the primers don't seem to seat consistently.
  I tried depriming then wet tumbling with SS pins and armorall. This smooths out the release of the case in the sizing die and seems to help with the primer seating.

But. . . If using the progressive press creates the need to size and deprime in a separate step, how much time am I really saving? And if I have to slow down the press stroke so the .357 brass doesn't swing too fast and spill powder, how much time am I saving?

Worst of all. . . when I take the cases out of the wet tumbler they look marvelous! But then I reload them. It seems the resizing die and the FCD still rub the already sized cases which just makes them look less-than-awesome. I know, I know, I'm kidding about it being worst of all, but I would be lying if I said it didn't irritate me.

I know one option is to go back to the turret press. But maybe someone else has run into these problems and comes up with a clever trick?

I have no experience with loading 357 mag. on the Auto Breech Lock Pro. I have only loaded 9mm and 380s. Even with the 9s, I learned not to be too quick when lowering the ram. Even with the shorter 9mm, if indexing is jerky, powder will spill out. I keep a steady rhythm during any session.

Also, maybe your shell plate was made with too much slop. You could try contacting Lee and see if they'll switch it out.

If all else fails, I'd remove the indexing bar and manually index it. You would have better control of it.

I use a Franklin Arsenal vibrating bowl with crushed walnut shells. So mine don't start off looking marvelous. But if I noticed marring on the cases, I'd look to see if grime had built up in the dies. Easy to scrub out, as I assume both your sizer and FCD are carbide.

With the press, I had some teething to do with it. So much more going on at once, that I wasn't use to. Once I got use to the press, I don't mind using it now. I will probably keep using my LCT press for all other cartridges. And if I had to make a choice between the Auto Breech Lock Pro and the Lee Classic Turret, the turret would win. It's too versatile too give up.

[jetinteriorguy]

I’d try cleaning without the SS pins, and just slowing down a bit while running the press. I’ve found just using a squirt of Dawn and a small bit of lemishine cleans brass more than sufficiently, then a half hour in the tumbler with some Nufinish yields brass that works smoother in the sizing die. I am curious what powder your using and how much? Off the top of my head I can’t think of any powder in any amount I’ve ever used in .357 that would fill a case so full it would spill out by running it on a progressive press. I also hand prime everything while sitting watching TV, it just eliminates headaches and is easy to do while just sitting around. But, I am retired so I have enough sitting around time for this.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm using IMR4227 and Alliant 300MP. So something like 15 - 20 grains in the case depending on bullet weight.

I will have to try manual indexing. That might provide some balance between speed of use and powder spillage. The 9s don't seem to be as problematic as my .357s. It seems that the taller cases have more wobble. Well. . . the amount of wobble angle might be the same but the arc is longer because of the taller case.

[414gates]

The jerkiness can largely be eliminated by lubing the cases. Hornady one-shot, or the Dillon spray work well.

Powder spillage also usually happens when the operator is in a hurry.

Slow and smooth, with lubed brass, should eliminate powder spills.

As for the priming, I don't think there is any fix in the world. Lee is famous for making progressive presses that can't prime reliably.

They failed so spectacularly at it that they created a press specifically for priming, the ACP. Which given Lee's inability to produce a press that primes properly, begs the question - can the press they made to prime actually prime properly ?

Someone in marketing at Lee figured out that nobody relies on their Lee presses for priming, so they made a press to prime [ knowing full well nobody uses Lee presses to prime - catch 22 ? ], instead of figuring out why the presses don't prime properly and fixing the design. It could not have been less costly to design and produce new product items compared to fixing a broken design.

[onelight]

If you can prime on your Lee turret to your satisfaction , you should be able to do the same on the ABLP same system , you may be going to fast to feel the primer seat correctly.