Priming With Lee Loader - Any Accidental Discharges?

[Texantothecore]

1. The perfect perfect powder scale is a simple balance scale which is accurate and cheap.
2. The single stage anniversary kit is a phenominal deal and was responsible for my entry into the hobby.
3. Current price of #2 at Midway is 130
00. Competitors are way above that price.
4. The cost to start up is below the significant other's hurdle amount. Meaning that it is a fairly small expenditure which will not create a budget issue.
5. The equipment works easily and well. Good machinery all the way around.
6. The use of the O and C form of press which are old designs is because the physics and function of reloading have not magically changed. My 12 ton hydraulic press, although square, is an O type press. Works fine.

Lee Classic Loader:
1. My day to day reloader is an LCL. I enjoy using it as it just seems more satisfying than other methods. Apparently you see this as a character flaw. I see it as fun.
2. The LCL produces accurate ammo.
3. I frequently reload in the field. One can use a hammer, rock, tire iron, jawbone of an *** etc to reload. Valuable functionality.
4. Therefore, I use the same fifty cases over and over. I have very few empty cases, primarily ones which I over bought when I first started to reload.
5. The use of an LCL at the range always draws interest and I never shoot alone. If someone shows an interest in what I'm doing I hand him the LCL, have him reload a few rounds and hand him a gun and have him shoot the rounds. Most start asking a lot of questions and I answer them as best I can.
6. After #5 most will state "It can't be this easy." My answer is "yes it is exactly this easy."
7. When someone asks you how expensive it is to start reloading your answer will be "400 to 700 bucks".
My answer to the same question is "30 bucks plus shipping". At that point they get excited about reloading.
8. The form of the tool is different but the technique goes back to Civil War days. It is still around because it really works well.
9. LE Wilson makes similar tools which operate similarly. Very pricey.
10. Lanes reloading makes a shotgun version that works well. It is especially cool if you use Magtech brass shotgun shells, even cooler with black powder in brass. This equipment is on my Christmas list along with a shotgun so I can shoot my ammo. Lol.

I spent 35 years in mfg and Lee is a very fine mfg company, one of the best. Very impressive product which is accurate and shipped on time, every time.
The engineers at Lee are extremely good, the best in the business. Period.

Ps. I keep my face away from the opening of the LCL. Beginners usually make this mistake.

[victorfox]

Texantothecore, for the shotgun kit, you might want to take a look on this probably a lot less than $30 + shipping.

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

I live in Brazil where reloading is very restricted (you can only reload shotshells freely and most of it with hand tools since we can't freely import tools from America and there are very few and expensive makers of such tools here).

I managed to put together some sort of kit which I generally keep inside an old camp stove case. It contains a steel disk for repriming, a brass drawer knob (L shape) for wad pushing, a discarded kitchen mixer rod for depriming (and a sharp point knife for berdan brass), a wooden wedge for a mallet, a wooden cube for punching wads, some wad punches (got a nice kit), a 380acp case with handle for powder measure (throws 6gr of the powder I have), digital scale, Ideal/Lyman style whacking resize die and two small bottles of shot/balls and some odds and ends, like white glue, brown paper, card stock and plastic wads.

Only thing I miss is a crimp starter which I'll try to import someday.

[Texantothecore]

Vfox,
I'll try that. Looks fun

[merlin101]

Apparently you have never seen an X ray of one driven into someone's hand.
It is it just a cap put one on an anvil with your face about 4 inches away and hit it with a hammer.
I guarantee that you will never say it is just a cap again.

You first!

[mdi]

Just today I got out my old .44 Magnum Lee Loader. I was bored and tried "batch loading" with my kit. Went well. I have 4 Lee Loaders and the .44 is the only kit that I popped primers with. As I figgered out several years ago, I chamfered the primer pocket mouth just like I do mil. spec. brass w/crimped primers. Since I was "batch loading", I just placed a primer in the priming base, place a case over it and tapped the primer home, with the included shaft. Piece of cake, no reason to change my skivvies either...

[EDG]

I have already done that. Now it is your turn.

You first!

[EDG]

The tool you are trying to defend is not selling that many varieties any more.
The fact is Lee has copied the other companies products to make his own 7/8 -14 dies.
He has spent a lot of time to differentiate his product by adding worthless features that detract from his product or just make it cheap.
Lee may still be in business but Studebaker was in business a long time too.

As a Machinist/Toolmaker I see the Lee Company as having some of the Best Toolmakers in the business. You as a Machinist/ Toolmaker should recognize that the fact that they make Reloading Tools that are as good or better than lots of other brands,,, at a price nobody can compete with,,, in volumes that nobody can compete with,,, as somewhat more than Dim Bulbs.

That is a very successful outfit that has been running strong for over 50 years, and they didn't get that way by being stupid.

I think he felt ( and probably the Lawyers as well) that any damage caused by a Popped Primer was so negligible that it was not a significant risk. Also far offset by the cost of the tool in the market place which allowed so many people to get started. I have never heard of anyone actually getting hurt? and they have been making the tool for 50+ years?

No need to defend here. This outfit, and this product in particular, has stood the test of time, and their products have introduced more people to reloading than all others combined.

My .02

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

I guess you really don't like Lee,,, do ya?

This is ''Merica" you can do that.

Randy

[EDG]

Obviously you are not much of a shopper because almost anyone can buy a used set of Lee dies for $15 and used Reddings for $25 to $40. And used RCBS for $20 to $30.
But you let me know when you can buy 6.5X53R, .35 Win, 6.5X250 Savage, 6X47 Rem, 6.5X257 Roberts, 6.5X58 Portuguese Lee dies at any price. I could go on and on but RCBS was making a wide variety of excellent dies and presses when Lee was only making whack a moles.

If you like his tools so much why don't you buy a Lee Load All Junior (if you know what this is and can find one) and test it for us. You can write up an article discussing the excellence of this tool and report on it here.

MT Chambers: we have had this discussion several times. But one thing that comes to the surface everytime... A Set of Lee Rifle Dies $28,,, a set of Redding Dies $165. There ain't $140 worth of difference. Both do the same job and will do it for as long as anyone could want.

WE obviously have a difference of opinion here.

MDI: 50% ain't bad,,, is it?

Randy

[MT Chambers]

Maybe someone could include a write up on doing some heavy duty case trimming with my favorite...the Lee Zip Trim.

[EDG]

I think Lee had the opportunity to be an manufacturer of excellent tools and he got too caught up in being a manufacturer of cheap tools.

I paid about a $1.75 for the first model Lee priming tool with the screw in shell holders. I have 6 or 7 of them now and I have used them continually since they were first put on the market.
I consider them an excellent tool for the money. But I do not have the same opinion of all Lee tools. I do give his stuff a fair chance since I own a lot of it and at least try it before commenting about it.

I guess you really don't like Lee,,, do ya?

This is ''Merica" you can do that.

Randy

[Bmi48219]

Getting back to the subject of this thread, last Saturday I loaded 450 rounds (.45 & .30) using Lee kits without a single primer going off. It does happen, but not often. I always wear safety glasses while priming and I wrap a layer of blue masking tape around the tip of my left thumb & fore finger. The noise of a primer going off isn't all that exciting but for a fraction of a second the flash can get pretty warm. Not to say this would work with magnum primers but I don't use them.
Lee products have good & bad points like any other brand of reloading equipment. I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would own a 25 acp pistol but I'm sure there are a few deceased bad guys out there who aren't around anymore because somebody owned one.

[mdi]

The tool you are trying to defend is not selling that many varieties any more.
The fact is Lee has copied the other companies products to make his own 7/8 -14 dies.
He has spent a lot of time to differentiate his product by adding worthless features that detract from his product or just make it cheap.
Lee may still be in business but Studebaker was in business a long time too.

I couldn't disagree more. Selling varieries of what? With a good economy, folks are able to waste more money buying advanced tools for simple jobs. Nope I don't think the Lee Loader is a totally unique Lee invention, but none other has put reloading into the lives of millions via an inexpensive, reliable tool; Lee Loader. (Slow? Nope, Lee has a youtube video of a complete reload of a bottle neck cartridge in less then 50 seconds. Inaccurate? Nope, the smallest group record for 1,000 yard shooting was held by a shooter that used a Lee Loader).

So, someone standardized 7/8-14 for die bodies way back and everyone since has "stolen" the idea? New ideas for tools? I seem to remember a new design, innovative and inexpensive case trimming tool. Or a usable unique hand press? Who put case trimming into the hands of every reloader without breaking his budget? Anybody design an auto-indexing turret press in the last 50 years? Has any other reloading tool manufacturer used modern materials for their tools? How many reloading tool companies have come up with any truly different designs/tools inn the last decade? Perhaps Lee tools don't have all the flash of some other tool (and not the $$$$ either), but inexpensive does not mean cheap.

[jhalcott]

Hey EDG did you KNOW RCBS imports their press from China? I used to work in an American steel mill. It's all but gone! there are a few structures left , but won't be there much longer. Lee , like all business's, works on a profit. Those older cartridges are no longer used, so why make dies for them. Sounds like you would be a fine CEO of a company, for a while

[Bent Ramrod]

I don't recall anyone making a collet "Factory Crimp" die before Lee produced theirs. Sure removed the grief from reloading .44-40 and other such finicky rounds. Afterwards, I saw a profusion of "Taper Crimps" and other "Crimps" by other manufacturers, but the roll crimp at the top of the seating die was reckoned plenty good enough for us reloaders before Lee got into the act.

Lee also knocked the bottom out of Carbide Die prices. Before Lee, a carbide die set cost a ridiculous amount of money. Everybody's prices became a lot more reasonable after Lee started making and selling them.

Lee's round ball bullet moulds are still the best in the business, regardless of price. Their lead melting furnaces can withstand decades of abuse and still keep going. They are a Best Buy as far as I'm concerned.

There is a "wall of steel" around the priming setup on the Lee Loader that keeps pieces from flying around. There is no similarity between a primer pop in a Lee Loader and hitting a primer on a rock with a hammer. (Don't ask me how I know this.)

I like fancy equipment as well as anybody but I started with Lee and they make good stuff.

[RogerDat]

It is not a matter of IF but WHEN you will set off a primer. It happens, wear your safety glasses. Still the kits are a fun way to make a few rounds. Only reason I don't buy more is they cost as much as a set of dies. So I guess once I have all the dies I want I might work on getting loaders for the same calibers. But it is comforting to know that I can make ammo from a kit that fits in a lunch bag. Plus fun wacking away with a mallet.

[ironhead7544]

Dont use the hammer method. Get the hand priming tool. I still remember the tingling in my hand.

[Wayne Smith]

And yet... other than the unobtanium Tong Tool(s) has any other reloading tool company come up with products that can be used around a campfire in a TETOWAWKI scenario (or whilst sitting around a recently made expedient airstrip in BFE?

Huntington press, portable and usable where ever you are. Randy basically copied the design, tweaked it a little, and produce a sightly better press when Huntington stopped making his. I have both.

[Old Ironsights]

Huntington press, portable and usable where ever you are. Randy basically copied the design, tweaked it a little, and produce a sightly better press when Huntington stopped making his. I have both.

Yes... and Huntingtons are also essentially unobtanium.

Almost as unobtanium as a complete Classic Lee Loader in .410.

But for anything but really long straight-wall cases they really are your best BoB option. (I even have 7.62x54R...)

[W.R.Buchanan]

Huntington press, portable and usable where ever you are. Randy basically copied the design, tweaked it a little, and produce a sightly better press when Huntington stopped making his. I have both.

Correct: My inspiration for my tool was the Huntington Press, that and the fact that it is no longer available meant there was a market for a higher end tool than the Lee Hand Press.

However I fixed all the shortcomings of the previous design, and built something more in line with todays Manufacturing Processes. After actually handling an HDS tool I can say with complete certainty that mine is a major step up, in Quality, Ease of Operation, Fit and Finish.

It will full Length Size .45-70 cases with ease and in fact the largest cases I've done with it were some .375 Weatherby Magnum cases that Art sent me. NO problem going in, a little hard to get back out over the expander ball but still doable. As far as priming it will require a Ram Prime or similar priming die to accomplish. I have a Lyman priming die that I did use during testing and it works fine. However the simple old Lee Hand Priming Tool with the screw on shell holders works better and takes up very little room in your kit. I do need shell holders for both .303 and .45-70 cases for that tool so if anyone has one let me know.

Old Iron Sights: I have another run of these tools coming to fruition soon, if you are interested in a nice portable tool this is the one. You can PM me for Details.

Randy