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Posted: 7/21/2011 1:22:46 PM EDT
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I currently have an old Lee single press and everything works fine. I have reloaded about 1500 rounds of .223 with it. I am thinking about buying a progressive press to speed things up. Lee makes some and so do others. I am looking for decent price but not cheap junk either. I know everyone has their own brands they like. I have never used anything but the lee press I have so dont know about the others. Are progressive presses easy to use after initial set up, or is it a constant pain keep it working. Also is thier certain parts that wear out on the progressive presses that are common on certain brands? I don't know so I am asking before I get one.
I will only be loading .223 and .38 SPL with it for now. Thanks. |
| I have the Loadmaster Lee press. I had issues with the priming station after a short while. The turret couldn't hold the brass in the priming station after a bit. Kept trying to tighten it and it eventualy stripped out. I am hand priming now and that seems much easier. The rest of the press is great. The kit to get for you would be the .223 loadmaster kit as ith has the powder measure not the disc kit style powder drop. I got it inexpencively at Wideners. The FCD is great. Videos online. Care for it as they say(oil and such) and it functions well. 4000 rounds through mine so far. 210 invested now is $.05 a round and dropping. |
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Are progressive presses easy to use after initial set up, or is it a constant pain keep it working?
Not generally. I will say that the Lee Loadmaster seems to require a 'tinkerer's eye' to keep running. While I am somewhat mechanically minded, I found it annoying how much fiddling and tweaking I had to to with my Loadmaster. I sold it of and bought a RCBS turret. I now have a Dillon 550, and it runs like a finely tuned watch. Also is thier certain parts that wear out on the progressive presses that are common on certain brands? Not really. Some require a bit of lube here and there, and you need to keep certain areas clean. A friend had to overhaul his Loadmaster after about 25K rounds processed on it. Dillon will rebuild presses, and I believe Hornady and RCBS will as well. As far as my recommendation: Dillon. Hornady gets a lot of good reviews as well. People with the RCBS Pro2K love them too. You really can't go wrong with one of those three. |
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The two most popular presses are the 550 and the Hornady (for the price). I chose the Hornady for a few reasons. The biggest being the indexing and ability to quick swap dies. There are pros and cons of both. There is the less popular RCBS, but as I understand still a high-quality press. As mentioned the Lee progressives are cheaper, but can require more setup time and maintenance.
I think folks around here tend to respect opinions and discussions like this usually don't turn into a shitstorm. Other forums, the blue vs. red thing gets out of hand fast. |
From what I've seen they all work , some have their little idiosyncracies and others are more idiot proof ," Are progressive presses easy to use after initial set up" Yes and for " me" I think less room for screw-ups with auto indexing  the lower end presses need the user to be more in tune and on top of things with the press.
Got a buddy that his first reloading experience was with the Toad Master, he got it in a open box at Grafs. incomplete, no paper work and he loves it If you can afford the blue kool-aid you really can't go wrong with it. If you don't need something idiot proof and " Want " to save a few $$ there are other choices They all make ammo that goes bang 
Me I've owned more Dillon presses then other brands but at this time I've got 2 Lees and 4 Stars on my bench but tried to pick up a RL1050 this week but the gentleman wanted a week to sell it local before shipping it so I lost out 
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I use Lee products. I have a single, a turret, and the LoadMaster.
Go here and read some, look at the videos, also the product manuals, and videos are on the Lee Precision website. I suggest you do the same for other products. LoadMaster and Lee Community |
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And here's a video of the Lee Pro-1000:
PRO 1000 VIDEO Personally I"ve found the Pro-1000 to be easier to use than the Loadmaster. |
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Quoted:
I currently have an old Lee single press and everything works fine. I have reloaded about 1500 rounds of .223 with it. I am thinking about buying a progressive press to speed things up. Lee makes some and so do others. I am looking for decent price but not cheap junk either. I know everyone has their own brands they like. I have never used anything but the lee press I have so dont know about the others. Are progressive presses easy to use after initial set up, or is it a constant pain keep it working. Also is thier certain parts that wear out on the progressive presses that are common on certain brands? I don't know so I am asking before I get one. I will only be loading .223 and .38 SPL with it for now. Thanks. Sir, since you're asking for opinions you have certainly received a few! One thing to keep in mind when considering a progressive press to reload rifle cartridges such as the .223 Rem. is that when you resize a bottleneck rifle case the case length grows a bit and when it exceed the max length ( 1.760" for .223 Rem.) it needs to be trimmed. This means that after you have resized, deprimed, and perhaps reprimed on the first station of a progressive press you will need to remove the brass case from the press and at least measure it. There are many ways to resolve this requirement, many use a single stage press to do all case prep. I'm a Dillon user, I have an XL650 and an RL550B in addition to an RCBS Rockchucker. Obviously I believe the Dillon progressives to be the best choice considering other options but as you have seen there are others that are quite satisfied with Hornady, RCBS, and even Lee. My brother has used a Lee press for quite a few years and while he considers it OK he still mentions whenever he visits my house and sees my Dillon presses that he wishes he had bought a Dillon instead. My recommendation all things considered is to buy a Dillon XL650 with a case feeder and a seperate tool head to mount a universal decapping die and a Dillon Rapid trim 1200B case trimmer. With that set up you can resize, deprime, and trim with one tool head fed directly from the case feeder and with a seperate tool head reprime, charge, and seat again fed directly from the case feeder. This will minumize the amount of times you will have to handle individual cases and make the most of the time you spend reloading. If the cost of the XL650 seems a bit daunting take a close look at the RL550B. You can still mount the Dillon case trimmer on a seperate tool head similar to the way it can be mounted on a 650 but currently Dillon does not offer a case feeder for the 550 capable of handling rifle cartridges. HTH, 7zero1. |
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My wife gave me a LM .38 / .357 kit for Fathers Day . So , I have had it for not quite a month .
I loaded up all my .38 & .357 Mag brass & then ordered the .45 ACP conversion parts . Had more problems with it running .38 & .357 Mag . Part of that was the learning curve setting it up and adjusting it . Part was the kit was shipped with the wrong case slider for the bullet feed attachment , ( when used for .38 / .357 Mag ) . After some confusion , Lee shipped the correct case slider and things went pretty well . I converted it to .45 ACP and things went smoother from the start . IF you do a good job of sorting the brass . Non standard ( with small primers ) or brass with military crimped primer pockets ) MUST be culled for " special " processing , at a latter date . You need to have several primer sliders , in both large and small primer sizes . You MUST NOT let the primer supply get too low . I find it in my best interest to tighten the shell plate knurl nut and the screw that secures the 5 hole turret , pretty often . You MUST keep an eye on the de-priming rod . Id it pushed up , it means something is wrong and a brass has not been de-primed . Left un-taken care of , It snowballs into lots of problem . That is what happened to me , about 2 days ago . The press had been running fine , as long as I kept track of what I was suspose to be doing . But I failed to notice the de-priming rod had been pushed up . This meant the priming system tried to stuff a primer into a primer pocket that still held an old , spent primer . Not good . :-( Ended up wiping out the primer slider . I have parts on order . Most of what I have described on the .45 ACP loading is either brass problems , operator problems or press problems . So far , the LM has been worth it . All total , I have loaded in excess of 2,500 rounds of ammo . There is no way we would have spent the $$$ for a Dillon . I would have continued to use the Lee cast iron turret press . But if you are low on mechanical ability or patience , the Lee is probably not for you . Also , there are a LOT of things going on at the same time , a lot of things to watch over . A glitch that is not caught immediatly rolls down hill and the problems both multiply in number and severity . I would think it would be that way with other progressives , but I have no personal experence with them ? God bless wyr |
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Everyone, or almost every one knows I'm a Lee fan.
In use. Lee breechlock single stage Lee 4 hole turret Lee Pro 1000 Lee Loadmaster I hand prime everything before loading, using Lee press. WHY ??
This posted by Wyr,
You MUST keep an eye on the de-priming rod . Id it pushed up , it means something is wrong and a brass has not been de-primed . Left un-taken care of , It snowballs into lots of problem . This is how double charges and squibbs are made. Both eyes should be focused on powder. Priming mechanism on Lee presses sucks all that attention away. If you will hand prime your brass Lee is an excellent value, especially Pro1000 and no, I'll never part from my Loadmaster. |
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Quoted:
Everyone, or almost every one knows I'm a Lee fan. In use. Lee breechlock single stage Lee 4 hole turret Lee Pro 1000 Lee Loadmaster I hand prime everything before loading, using Lee press. WHY ??
This posted by Wyr,
You MUST keep an eye on the de-priming rod . Id it pushed up , it means something is wrong and a brass has not been de-primed . Left un-taken care of , It snowballs into lots of problem . This is how double charges and squibbs are made. Both eyes should be focused on powder. Priming mechanism on Lee presses sucks all that attention away. If you will hand prime your brass Lee is an excellent value, especially Pro1000 and no, I'll never part from my Loadmaster. If you are cheap and are a range / free brass addict , like me , what you are proposing is not a huge loss of functionality on the LM . Bottle neck rifle brass as indicated , requires some work in the form of brass prep . But for straight wall commercial / civilian handgun brass , I should be able to run the brass from start to finished cartridge . IF and this is a big IF , the brass is sorted properly . This is especially true for the .45 ACP I have been loading . Not so much for the .38 special , I did not have that much military brass . Not at all for the .357 Mag brass . I do not think I have ever seen military .357 Mag brass ? ( With crimped primer pockets . ) As I said , I have loaded 2,000 - 2,500 rounds on the LM and busted maybe $ 5 worth of parts . Which Lee might replace if I paid to send them back ? I just have to make a point to keep some of these parts on hand . One of the real value with the LM ( and maybe the P1000 too ? ) is the case feeder . After getting the initial issues ironed out , it has performed well in .38 / .357 Mag and .45 ACP . Best I can tell , they come in 3 or 4 variations ? $ 25 each retail . Check out the price on case feeders for the other brands . And you do not have to hand load the tubes . With the red plastic collator , you pour the brass in the top , shake it around and in a quick , the 4 clear plastic case tubes are populated . That is slick ! :-) I do not know if I will buy a bullet feeder ? I already have a lot of things to watch , with adding the bullet feeder to the list ? God bless Wyr |
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