Noah my boy Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Been seriously thinking about getting the Lee Pro 1000 at my local Cabeals store because of a 100 dollar gift card i have to help me get started. I have been reading night and day on the forums and seen all the problems with the Lee Pro 1000(and think people have noticed and fixed the problems) need your thoughts want to get started loading .40S&W for Uspsa shooting and maybe some steel challenge Ive been on the fence big time about this press. My next step would be to get the Horendy lock and load that is a sweet press for a tag price of 400 with not sure what else you would need to buy. Although last press you would ever need. But rather doing the 400 for the lock and load might at well get a Dillon instead. Need some help buy the LEE PRO or wait and save to get a better press? Not looking to reload more than 500 a week if that for now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscott Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 You already know you need a better press, so buy the Hornady or Dillon and use your gift card on components. 500 rounds a week will kill the LEE quickly. Yes, I owned one and it made it about 10k rounds before it died. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EEH Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 buy BLUE--give the $100-to the wife,you both will be happy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 (edited) For the price, the Lee Pro is a usable press and many people use them for years without any problems. Please Note - I said for the money. Now, I know that many people here are of the opinion that it has to be a Dillon or nothing. But I'm one of those people who are willing to accept a glass half full (or even quarter full) rather than nothing at all. So my feeling is, it all depends on what you are looking for and what you have to spend. If you are going to be loading small quantities of 9mm then you might just find that the Lee Pro is all you need to get started with. I think that you will find that there is enough information on the InterWeb about the care and feeding of a Lee Pro to give you a good idea of whether or not it will meet your needs. Just be aware that you must fiddle with it some off and on and need to have a few spare parts around and need to spend a lot of time tweaking it when you first get it before it will start to behave. Also, since it is only a three position head, you will not be able to use a separate crimp die unless you do it as a separate step. Edited May 2, 2011 by Graham Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hi-Power Jack Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 If you're going to load only .40, I'd suggest a Dillon Square Deal, with calipers/basic scale, primer flipper and tubes just came to $500. You can load 500 rounds in 2 - 2.5 hours - and it's easy to learn how to use. I have two of them:) Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah my boy Posted May 2, 2011 Author Share Posted May 2, 2011 I think Dillon is the way to go.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikaelR Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 My take on the LEE, I've got two of them one for 9mm and the other for .38. I have always stood up for LEE, I think they make a darn good press for the money and I've been fairly happy with mine. Don't know how much I've loaded with them, the 9mm being the most used, but guessing just above 5000. The only problem I've had with mine is when I took a long break from shooting and was about to load up some more rounds. Well, them 15years of collecting dust didnt really do it good, but after a thorough cleaning it has run great. All that being said... I plan on visiting a friend any evening now and take a look at his 650, so I guess the little red wont be with me that much longer. There are alot of money to be saved if you don't mind the occasional hiccups(primer feed being the biggest, but if kept clean and indexed no problem), money that can be set aside for bullets, primers and powder. BUT, if you after a year or two is going to "upgrade" to a blue, well then it's wasted money on the LEE. If you don't have a friend that can show it to you, look around there are Loads of reviews of it. And remember, we all have beliefs we swear by, some more then others Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whistlepig Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Lee makes some good products, but for a progressive press, go Dillon. You will never regret the descision. Even if you have to put off the purchase, go blue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 500 rounds a week is a lot imho. If you had said 100-200, I might have suggested starting with a cheap lee single-stage or turret press, learning more about reloading, and saving your pennies for a dillon, but at 500 rds a week, you are looking at several hours of extra work. You'll save enough in ammo costs to pay for a dillon or other top-quality press in a fairly short time consuming that quantity of ammo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limited 10 Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 500 rounds a week is a lot imho. If you had said 100-200, I might have suggested starting with a cheap lee single-stage or turret press, learning more about reloading, and saving your pennies for a dillon, but at 500 rds a week, you are looking at several hours of extra work. You'll save enough in ammo costs to pay for a dillon or other top-quality press in a fairly short time consuming that quantity of ammo. +1... Wish I could afford to shoot 25,000+ a year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirveyr Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Live for the now! If you want to start loading immediately, buy the LEE. I have a few LEE presses. They are all great pieces of machinery. There is no need to "go big" with your first press. The LEE will be with you for years. I still use mine even after I've upgraded to a 650. You can never have too many presses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snake32 Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 i have a hornady ap and still use my rcbs single stage. i say buy what you want/can afford and upgrade later. by the way you will learn more by starting with a single stage and it is less likely to mess up by being in a hurry. just my 2cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g56 Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Its a lot cheaper to buy a quality product the first time, when you buy a cheap product you will invariably replace it later with a better one, and spend a lot more money in the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cellguy030 Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 I bought the lee pro1000 and i would recommend going to check out www.sanfranciscoliberalwithagun.com he has some great videos on the pro 1000 as the instructions that come with the unit suck rocks. his stuff made using the pro 1000 easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOOLIHAN Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 I have a Pro 1000 and have loaded 9mm, .40 , .45 and .38 super. Now days only .40 and super. I have reloaded around 50,000 rounds on it and I have no intentions on "upgrading" They do have some quirks, but so do all the other presses. I easily average 500-600 rnds/hr. The way I look at it is the timer only runs during a stage, not while I'm reloading. The way I have things set up now it takes me less than 1 minute to change between .40 and .38 super. Don't let all the haters get to you, there is nothing wrong with the Lee products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfwobbly Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 A. The Pro-1000 was Lee's first foray into the area of progressive reloading. At one time I had 3 of them and 6 rotary heads and about 15 die holders. I swapped parts for weeks trying to get just one press to run consistently. Every 15 rounds that press would require an adjustment. Before anyone says "you simply have to tinker with them" understand that 1) I'm a design engineer and I tinker all day on precision machinery, and 2) when I sit down to reload, the last thing I want is to tinker. I want a press that operates like a toaster. Bread in, lever down, toast out. Period! There are many good progressive presses out there covering a broad price range. The ONLY one I will actively steer you away from is the Pro-1000. It is simply NOT ready for prime time. If you are set on a Lee, then look at the LoadMaster. B. You can see numerous progressive presses in action on: http://ultimatereloader.com/ He has the best videos. C. If you can use a reloading press to its optimum output, then ANY reloading press will pay for itself in about 7 months. If reloading supplies are not an issue, and you have the time to both reload and shoot that much, then even a $2000 press is completely paid for in short order. Therefore, unless you have a cash or time issue, it is simply foolish to shop by price. Go for quality, reliability and warranty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 There are many good progressive presses out there covering a broad price range. The ONLY one I will actively steer you away from is the Pro-1000. It is simply NOT ready for prime time. If you are set on a Lee, then look at the LoadMaster. I had a Lee Pro setup for 9mm, with a bullet feeder, and during one rather hectic week, loaded about 1100 rounds just working evenings. I only had one problem and that was of my own making when I got cocky and started working too fast and sloppy and it jammed and I tried to force it and it jammed worse - took an hour to take apart and fix. I liked the LoadMaster better than the Pro in some ways but not the case feeder, which I found to be nearly impossible to get to feed reliably. I still use my Lee Pro for batch resizing .40 with a EGW U die and still say that the case feeder on it is a great design and I'd love to have it on my 550B YMMV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik S. Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Dillon 550B. I love mine and have 10k rounds on it easy. Not even a sign of WEAR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hondo 60 Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 (edited) I've had the Lee presses. Pro 1000, Turret press & Challenger Breech Lock. I still have the Challenger single stage & can't see where any other single stage would be better. But I sold the other two & bought a Dillon RL 550B. Like rfwobbly said, I wanted a press I don't have to tinker with. Just put the primers in & I can run the press til the primers are gone, with no stopping to adjust anything. I got really lucky in that I got my Dillon from someone who never used it. He had it for 8 years & never took it outta the box. So I felt sorry for him & paid him $150 included a set of dies & caliber conversion. They were 45-70 gov - RCBS dies. so I sold the dies & caliber conv. for enough to get 2 caliber conversions 38spl & 45 Colt. Edited May 6, 2011 by Hondo 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D roc Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I just got my lee pro 1000 set up tonight and was already nervous from all the people sayi g it's a bunch of junk. Well after a painful set up I was pumping out 40s. Powder thrower was dead on accurate which was surprising. About 70 rounds into it I had a jam. The primer didn't seat just right and had to force the bullet free on the last stage. After that it all went to hell. The primer pin was not going down far enough to load a primer. I only noticed it because I had powder on my table and realize I had 3 rounds with out a primer in it. Next the auto indexing kept getting off. Spent 40 minutes trying to get everything going smoothly again and managed to get 5 more rounds out. Finally I unmounted the reloader tootk it all apart and put it in the box where it will remaining until I find something different. I have only had a lot of experience loading rifle rounds on a single stage rcbs and was very efficient with it. Maybe I will go back to it. To bad I have a steel match this weekend and only have 90 rounds of my wonderful 130 pf loads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfwobbly Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 (edited) D roc - Sorry to hear of your disappointing end to what started out as a time of excitement and promise. It's not the end though. And they'll be other matches. Hang in there. Edited May 14, 2011 by rfwobbly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D roc Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Rfwoobly- When I got off work today and in a better mood than last night I decided to give it another shot. I converted on if my work benches in the garage to my reloading bench. Let me tell you it made a big difference. I busted out 200 rounds in no time. The solid workbench kept the lee running smoothly. The bench is my old kitchen cabnets and countertops that I lined a walk with. I am now a believer in the lee pro 1000. Think I may go load another 200 so I can do a steel match and idpa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D roc Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Oh yea and out of that 200 I had 4 bad rounds from me not seating the primer well. How can any other loader be that much better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cellguy030 Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 i had the same problem when i got mine, with the same resolution. a good solid mount and now i have no issues with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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