Lee Progressive Reloader--Need opinions on this one

PaulS

Bushmaster, you are the smart one.
I carefully avoided the subject of Lee products........... but I am still tempted.

Bushmaster

Well... Step right in Paul. Your views are highly prized among the people on this sight...Most of my equipment is Lee (presses and dies). I just ordered a Lee single stage "O" press in cast iron to replace my other single stage (very old cast aluminum). I have a lot of RCBS ancillary tools too. I know that a lot of people don't like Lee, but for the price and the fact that I am loading for hunting and my pleasure the price can't be beat. I know that the so called "bench mark" is colored "blue". I also know that those that have "blue" tend to have squibs and other maladies with their loaded rounds. I use a 20 year old Lee turret for my main press and haven't had any maladies with my ammunition in the over 20 years I've been reloading. All of my rounds have gone BANG and traveled down range (sometimes wonder I where, but that's usually my fault) I do contribute this to an inspection routine that pretty much eliminates most common errors. Lee products have served me well.

Your turn Paul... Very Happy

chambered221

Quote::

I also know that those that have "blue" tend to have squibs and other maladies with their loaded rounds.

From talking to guys that have had ammo , reload troubles ,I find it happens with any press including single stage.

IMO, one should not blame the press, but thoose running it for lack of paying attention. Too many focus on how many rounds they can put out an hour instead of quality !!!!!!!

Bushmaster

True...Very true.

Pumpkinslinger

I would agree that lack of focus is the primary cause of my reloading problems. The most common problem I've had is failing to completely seat a primer. On an old Lee handheld I actually had the tool crack but didn't notice it right away. Lee replaced it for free and had changed the design to address that problem. On my progressive I've had a few primers not completely seated and I think its a combination of my inexperience with the press and the lack of "feel" compared to the handheld. I've also had a squib load when I failed to notice that the powder charge had hung in the UP position while loading. I thought I'd checked all the rounds but managed to take one to the range.

vint2

Inexperience, lack of knowledge, and operator error have been the cause of my reload problems whether using Lee or RCBS. I find that when I pay close attention to detail and consistancy and forget the clock I have my best results! I have also found that it is good to know someone who knows a lot more than I do!!:)

PaulS

Bushmaster wrote:

Well... Step right in Paul. Your views are highly prized among the people on this sight...Most of my equipment is Lee (presses and dies). I just ordered a Lee single stage "O" press in cast iron to replace my other single stage (very old cast aluminum). I have a lot of RCBS ancillary tools too. I know that a lot of people don't like Lee, but for the price and the fact that I am loading for hunting and my pleasure the price can't be beat. I know that the so called "bench mark" is colored "blue". I also know that those that have "blue" tend to have squibs and other maladies with their loaded rounds. I use a 20 year old Lee turret for my main press and haven't had any maladies with my ammunition in the over 20 years I've been reloading. All of my rounds have gone BANG and traveled down range (sometimes wonder I where, but that's usually my fault) I do contribute this to an inspection routine that pretty much eliminates most common errors. Lee products have served me well.

Your turn Paul... Very Happy

The magic BLUE Machine did not work so well in my application - it may be a very well built and functional reloading system for some but I am just dis-functional enough to have not trusted it to do the things it was more or less capable of.
I began reloading with the old Lee Load-All kits and got good ammo from them. After that I bought RCBS and Redding and have never looked back.
I do have some Lee products that were given to me - a scale that is worthless and a powder measure that simply put cannot throw a decent charge because the rubber and lastic parts are disintegrating from use by the person I got them from. The "O" presses are good enough to load reliable hunting and even reliably accurate ammo. I know this because my brother has one and it works well for his rifle ammo that groups at less than MOA. He also invested in a Lee turret press when he was shooting 6mm TCU. We quickly found that the press was not up to the job when it was bending case necks. I measured the movement of the turret while he was loading and it flexed a total of .128" from full pressure to full extraction. (as measured on the top of the outer diameter of the turret)
He got the auto advance kit with the press and quickly threw that away because it would not work all the time. He stopped using the turret press for rifle cartridges and set it up to load 357 mag and maximum. I helped him mount a rear stabilizer and a front stop bar to limit the tilt of the turret to less than .003". He uses the "O" press for all the rifle cases and the straight wall pistol ammo is assembled on the modified turret press.

For me, some of the Lee products are great - I use the hand primer and I have two of them. One for small primers and the other for large. I still have all the Lee Load-Alls that I started with and have added some to the mix. There is a lot of the Lee products that I believe the company is being criminal in misrepresenting. Having said that - I also know that there are others that use those same products and have great luck with them. I don't know if it is poor quality control, I am real hard on equipment, or just a difference in processes. It is a lot like auto racing or women...

If what you are doing is working for you - Keep on doing it. I know that I will.

SingleShotLover

PaulS,

Your comments on the Lee turret press are all valid. I tried them quite a few years ago and could never convince myself that the vertical slop in the die plates would do anything for creating accurate loads. I am told that the newer models are considerably tighter, but I continue to stick to single-stage presses when I want the best precision. ( I could never keep the auto-advance feature working either!)

On the other hand, I have had very good luck with their "Perfect" powder measures...so much so in fact that I have several permanently set up with particular loads for my most commonly used cartridges. No, they aren't perfect, since spherical powders have a tendency to leak around the edges, but I find them very accurate with extruded powders and avoid the cutting of powder found with drum-type measures. At the price, I don't expect them to last as long as my old cast-iron Ohaus...but I consider them to be cheap enough to be disposable.

PaulS

I have two powder measures. one for extruded powder and one for ball powder. The Lyman55 is for extruded but works well for other powders too. My other measure is an RCBS uniflow with both cylinders. I have made new plungers that are shaped better for dispensing the powder accurately. I can hold the accuracy to .01 grain. with H110 and H414.