Why Knock Lee Equipment??

[Greenhorn44]

So I hear from a little chrome bird that Lee was the first in the industry, is this true?

Than why does so many people knock Lee and thier products?

Just Curious?

[anachronism]

Space does not permit a detailed response. I started out with LEE & thought they were the greatest. Then things started breaking...

[jlchucker]

I for one started with an RCBS kit that had a scale, a JR press, a powder measure, and a couple of other things. I bought a set of 30-30 dies, also RCBS. I still use the scale and powder measure, and have several other die sets--RCBS, and Lee, mostly. Both are good. I've never had a Rockchucker, but I know others who did and it's a great press. As time passed, I thought I needed something more than the RCBS Jr. I got a Lyman Crusher II, which wasn't so good. I got a Lee Classic cast, am still using it, and it's every bit as good as any Rockchucker. Brands are brands. They are all competing to put out good products. Customer satisfaction keeps any business in business.

[Fat-beeman]

hello
why would any one knock lee's stuff been using it for over 2o yrs it holds up good and for there bullet molds you can buy 3 of them for the price of one RCBS or Lyman.
when your looking to cut cost of shooting its a great buy. very good equipment and saves you money in the long run.
Don

[Greenhorn44]

Space does not permit a detailed response. I started out with LEE & thought they were the greatest. Then things started breaking...

That stinks!! Do you still use Lee?

I value everyones knowledge, some things you cant learn from books.
Experience is everything in this world. Makes me Question Lee.

[bruce drake]

Been reloading and casting for a decade now and I use all brands (RCBS, Hornady, Lyman, Herters (defunct), and LEE) I started on a LEE and I still enjoy using their products. They are a good product for the money you put into buying them. They focus on a select line of popular mold styles and produce them with good enough consistency that people become repeat buyers.

Me, well I'm a repeat buyer

Bruce

[BruceB]

"first in the industry"???????

First in what?

Seniority? Ideal (later Lyman) dates back to the 1800s.....

First in volume of sales? Maybe, but I sorta doubt it.

First in quality? Don't make me laugh.

I think that the controversy arises from those who are defending their choice of the low-priced product, against all those who have either started with higher-end equipment or moved to it from Lee products.

Some Lee products are rather good. Others , maybe not so great. I started loading well before Lee came along, and their early efforts were REALLY borderline. However, I still have and use quite a few of their moulds as well as a few bits of their tooling. No dies, no presses, no scales etc....just accessory stuff. There's certainly a niche for the low-cost gear, but to say Lee is "first" in anything is stretching things quite a bit.

Your chrome birdie needs a better search engine.

[mooman76]

I have Lee and for the most part been very happy with it. I also have some RCBS, Lyman and Redding dies also. I perfer Lee but they are good dies too. Some knock Lees warantee but when it costs a third less they can't afford a lifetime garantee and with that price I can afford to spend a little on a small part that might brake occationally. I have also had Lee replace some items no questions asked for free.

[tackstrp]

i use lee molds exclusive. have the cheapest lee c press for the lee tumble lube sizing die, and some lee and Dillon dies. Oh and the lee sizing die kit in each caliber I load. My main press is a Hornady LNL fully progressive. Sold my lymand molds, handles.

SO I vote for Lee moulds and dies. Neighbor has a Lee classic four hole auto indexing, made from cast Iron. Not familar with any other Lee products.

Lee products, for me has been a good choice.

[RobS]

Well it goes as easily as this..............Lee's quality control is not as good as other manufacturers and that is simply the reason why the company has so many complaints. I own Lee equipment and I have owned Hornady (dies), Dillon (dies and a 550 press), RCBS (lubricator, molds), Lyman (lubricator, molds) etc. etc. and they have all had "issues" but Lee more so than the others.

Lee on the other hand is much less expensive and some people rightly so expect a product to come to them working properly. This is something that Lee can't always come through on where as the other companies do better jobs at and their products show it with a higher price tag. That being said though I have not had any problems with Lee customer service as I always ask to talk to a technician and I am courteous and friendly in explaining the problems I am having.

Lee dies are the constant for me in that they do make a good product and I have yet to have one that needed to go back or fixed. Their classic cast single and classic turret press are also nice as well. Their progressive aluminum presses are in need of better quality control and although the presses can definitely be made to work, they do require some tweaking and modifications.........definitely not a straight from the box ready to load scenario. I have two LoadMasters and they work as good as my Dillon 550 ever did, but at the expense of my time setting them up and making some modification. This................for many people is not an option for a new machine and irritates the living heII out of them. I can see that, but I also see the price tag...............I am also a person who has the mechanical aptitude and tinkering nature to work on things.

I'm a cheap skate and a man whose pockets are not silver lined.

[RP]

To me its all a matter of what your wanting to get out of your tools. If you making persion long range rifle rounds thats harder to get over and over using cheaper products. If you making pistol rounds for plinking and dont need to mass produce lee may be your answer. I have 4 brands of presses most are lees. I use the hand press and the little table press and the o press for seating primmers thats all they got to do they work fine and were cheap. I use the turret presses for my pistols not looking for much out of them most are shot by my kids and we know how most kids shoot. For my hunting rounds rifle I use a RCBS single. Now as far as cost I got most of my press used and in trades all 12 of them cost me less than a dillon press. Maybe that will help you out on your thoughts. Kind of like you need a 6 sided boxed in wrench or hey these channel locks will work too.

[wallenba]

Lee has innovative products that work, and usually very well....but sometimes they let a unit or item out the door that should have been recycled or fixed. When we get them and have to deal with the problem, that is what we remember, not the thousands of rounds cranked out with Lee equipment. I still buy Lee products (just ordered their bulge buster die yesterday), but I do so knowing that I may have to 'tweak' something. But for $15 for that die, it's a bargain.

[paul45120]

If you don't have the "knack" to tinker and tweek things then you probably should not buy anything more than dies from Lee.
If you are a habitual tinker like me their products can be made to work just fine. Heck for me that's half of the enjoyment. It doesn't matter one bit what it is or how much it cost, I'm going to tear it apart and put it back together as soon as I get.

[DLCTEX]

The Classic cast presses are better than most of the competition, including RCBS, and at a much better price.

[1hole]

"Some Lee products are rather good. Others , maybe not so great. "

Bruce, as a very long time reloader with tools from a lot of makers, I agree. But, how is that any different from every other maker?

Most of those I know who slime things Lee either bent or broke something by being ham-fisted and/or failed to read the instructions - you know, those guys who don't need no steenkin' instructions but have much less feel for all things mechanical than they believe so they really NEED massive, cast iron reloading tools!

In my rather large inventory of loading tools I do have some Lee stuff, three of their very little presses and several sets of dies, case trimmers, etc, and they all work quite well, as well as any others so long as I use them correctly. If we use them incorrectly no tool works very well, right?

In 45 years of reloading I've only had to get small parts seven times; four from RCBS, two from Lyman and one from Forster. None from Lee tho, not yet. But maybe the "poor" quality will eventually catch up with me. ??

[454PB]

I have enough Lee equipment to fill the trunk of a 56 Buick, along with an equal amount of RCBS, Lyman, Pacific, Hornady, Herter, etc.

The most serious problem I've ever had was a pin falling out of one of the mould handles, a leaking bottom pour pot, and mould misalignment. The loose pin was re-peened, leaky pot is fixed by cleaning the spout with a dental pick, and block misalignment cured by ignoring Lee's mould lubing instructions and instead using my sprue knocker to align the blocks.

I'm sure nobody would claim their equipment is the highest quality available, but they have certainly pulled more shooters into handloading and casting than any other manufacturer.

[anachronism]

That stinks!! Do you still use Lee?

I value everyones knowledge, some things you cant learn from books.
Experience is everything in this world. Makes me Question Lee.

I have a Lee Magnum Melter, and one of those little 5 lb pots that I use for pure lead. These get very little use. There are 2 Auto Primes still around here somewhere. One lasted over a year, the other one wore out the link in a couple of months. I think the cost of replacement links is something like $8.00 ea, which is half the value of new Auto Primes, once you add shipping in. These were replaced with a single RCBS hand priming tool that's about 10 years old now, it was one of the first ones made. I think I have a couple of factory crimp dies around here too.

This is a far cry from my early days, when everything on my bench was LEE red.

[Cowboy T]

I've got two Pro 1000's, a Classic Turret, and a single-stage Lee Reloader press. All of them work great.

Those Pro 1000's let me turn out boatloads of very good ammo. The priming system works just fine as long as you keep it clean. Check out this page for a video series that shows you how to make that press run like a top.

http://www.sanfranciscoliberalwithagun.com/pro1000.html

As for the Classic Turret, man, what a fine piece of gear. I did have to figure out the "right" way to use the Safety Prime that comes with it. But once I did, no problems.

Now, as to moulds. Most of my moulds are Lee six-cavity models. Once I figured out to run the pot a little hotter (about 750 deg F), they work great. In the six months since I started casting, I've made 15,000 boolits with these moulds. Check this video out--120 boolits in 8 min, 30 seconds--with a Lee six-cavity, 200gr .45 caliber model.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blk6dKNinlo

- Cowboy T

[smokemjoe]

I started out in the late 50s with a kit from Lyman, a 310 tool in 30-06 with a 311299 mold with it, I think it was about $20.00, Heck a 03-A4 was $14.00 from the DCM . I dont remember if Lee was started then, But We had Herters and they used cast iron.., I have alot of Lee tools and alot of the others, But Lee has helped use out alot, Look, They came out with odd ball dies that we could afford to buy, Really has helped me with the 41 Swiss. Joe

[HeavyMetal]

MY two cents:
A lot of Lee product performs as advertised and, for the money, performs very well!

Specific stuff that has not worked well for me, Lee load all in 20 gauge, Lee load Fast in 12 gauge The Zip Trim! Had a buddy buy a Lee Pro 1000. It worked OK but I found it to be overly complicated for a progressive press. It worked but after my guy used my 550 the P1000 went on the block and he bought a 550 as well!

Now lets talk about my pet peeve: Warranty! I've had two or three case's where a mold wasn't right. The classic issue was a 44 single cav HP mold that would not cast any larger than .4285.

It was returned to Lee and sent back to me a week or so later. Still casting .4285!

Called and asked what happened. Got told I must not know what I'm doing because there "tech" poured lead in it cold and got .430 bullets out of it!

Never got "samples" of said bullets and never got an offer to replace the mold either. Sold it a few years ago to some guy with a 44-40.

I still buy Lee but with the understanding that if it breaks it's my problem not there's.

Having said all that I will admit that these things did happen more than a few years ago.

So to be fair I will call them in the morning with my lastest problem: a Priming tool I bought just last month, new, that had the thumb lever snap in half after priming 300 rounds of Winchester 40 S&W case's.

I was only using one thumb and I really suspect it was a flaw in the casting but snap loudly it did and we'll see what Lee says and I'll post the response after I call.