Posted: 11/19/2001 1:45:48 PM EDT
| I'm looking at buying some Lee reloading gear. Does anyone here have any experience with Lee reloading equipment. |
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i use lee dies with Zero Problems. I started with a lee anniversary kit single stage press and it works very well. I have not heard much about their progressive stuff as everyone i know including myself use dillon. Lee has a rep for being cheap but i have been happy with everything i got from them. If you buy lee don't buy direct from them. You can save lot of money buying from a distributer such as midway. |
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Their dies are great... I've used the 3 die rifle and pistol sets, and the rifle collet die set, and have had great luck with them. Don't know much about their other stuff, but they're a good company, so it seems. I hope you know about Midway USA... a reloaders' heaven [url]www.midwayusa.com[/url] |
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You haven't had the traditional "New Reloader" experience till you have made some ammo on the Lee Loader, and hammered too hard during the primer seating operation. I prefer RCBS dies, all the way around. My .30/06 Lee dies use friction(for Pete's sake) to secure the decapping rod. Everything LEE makes works, but RCBS is worth the xtra $, to me. LEE bullet moulds? "Mikey Likes It." |
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Ok, before the "Lee is crap" people start weighing in... I have Challenger press and several Lee dies along with Hornady and RCBS. I also have a Lee Autoprime. I bought the press in an "Anniversary" kit back about 1987 or so. I managed to finally break it about 1999. The cheap pot-metal casting used to connect the steel lever to the press ram failed during full-length resizing of .303 British brass. Apparently a common failure, that part has been redesigned. And apparently it still occasionally fails. My opinion of the Challenger press? For about $35.00 it can't be beat, but if you've got about $100, get something better. Mine still works, and I still use it. For priming, I haven't seen anything I like better than the Autoprime. For neck-sizing, I'll take Lee's collet dies hands-down over anything else. For standard sizing & seating dies I haven't found Hornady or RCBS to be significantly better than Lee. Others might. Especially if those others are precision benchrest shooters (which I am not) and in which case they would stay away from Lee anything anyway. If you're a first-time reloader, or on a tight budget (or both) a Lee Anniversary kit is a helluva deal. Oh, and I have no personal experience, but I've been told the "Perfect Powder Measure" ain't. |