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Lee Press Experience's


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I have a lee loadmaster, once I followed the videos online to set it up and tune it, It ran great. I even use the bullet feeder. I can't imagine spending twice as much for a dillon.

Frank

You hit the nail on the head Frank; I guarantee that if you HADN'T had the internet videos to reference you would STILL be cussing that press. It's Lee's fault, the included directions are poorly written and scarce. If Lee took the time to properly document the setup procedure and had decent clear pictures I might have kept my 2 Loadmaster presses. As it is, I have 3 Lee presses and a Dillon 650 for my loading station, and not a one of the Lee's are progressive.

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I have a lee loadmaster, once I followed the videos online to set it up and tune it, It ran great. I even use the bullet feeder. I can't imagine spending twice as much for a dillon.

Frank

You hit the nail on the head Frank; I guarantee that if you HADN'T had the internet videos to reference you would STILL be cussing that press. It's Lee's fault, the included directions are poorly written and scarce. If Lee took the time to properly document the setup procedure and had decent clear pictures I might have kept my 2 Loadmaster presses. As it is, I have 3 Lee presses and a Dillon 650 for my loading station, and not a one of the Lee's are progressive.

You are absolutely right about that. I had a Pro 1000 before there was YouTube. It took me some time to get it to run and I always had to mess with it. Still cranked out ammo, just not very fast. Eventually I started shooting rifle and switched to a single stage harrell for precision ammo.

Went back to pistol recently and got a loadmaster. Watched the videos first. I can't believe the difference it makes. The little adjustments I didn't know about that make the press run smooth.

Frank

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  • 1 month later...

Over the years, I've go through pretty much all the Lee line of presses. Still have a Loadmaster, a Pro 1000 and a Classic Turret. I have loaded somewhere in the 80k-100k rounds on the Loadmaster. As mentioned in an earlier post, if you're not a problem solver, with a good mechanical appitude, they are not for you. I'm selling the Loadmaster and the Pro 1000. I do the majority of my reloading on my 650, I'll keep the Classic Turret for my low volume pistol rounds, it's a real jewel. Although I got years of decent service out of my Lee progressives, I'm careful who I recommend them to. They are for sure not for everyone! By the way, the Dillon really is worth the money.

RR

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I had a cast LCT 4-hole for a few years and loaded ~20K rounds with it. I later bought a 550 and sold the Lee to a buddy, and that press is STILL cranking out good quality .45 ammo.

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  • 5 weeks later...

set up my lee pro 1000 in 9mm.

got everything to work just fine...i must say that it does take a bit more tweaking then my dillon 550b to run right. but for that cost its probably the best bang per buck press out there.

loaded 200 rounds in about 20min and that was taking my time.

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Lee Value 4-hole turret is good stuff.

The Lee turret I have just works, not as fast as a progressive press but I'm in no rush. Pretty relaxing to create the round and place the finished round in the ammo tray. All the rounds I made on it went bang and that is good enough for me as a hobbyist.

Even though I just ordered a 650, I will still use the Lee. I might make it a dedicated .45ACP loader or use it to develop test loads that I can transfer over to the 650. The price for a dedicated .45ACP toolhead/conversion kit is more than a turret press. I should use the saved money towards .45 reloading components. And I don't even have a .45ACP gun yet. :roflol:

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I have owned pretty much all of the Lee presses with the exception of the "C" press. The LCT is the best of the lot, and I still own mine. The larger "O" frame single stage press is worth having as well. I load my low volume rounds on the turret. I'll keep that one! I use the 650 for my volume loading. Never regretted buying it.

Gandof

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a lee loadmaster, once I followed the videos online to set it up and tune it, It ran great. I even use the bullet feeder. I can't imagine spending twice as much for a dillon.

Frank

What he said. Once you get them setup, adjusted, and locked down, they run just fine. (It's more like 3x -4x as much $.)

Edited by Whiteeye
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I had a loadmaster. I watched all the videos and searched all the forums for help. I just got sick and tired of all the constant tinkering. Yes Dillon cost more but I dont tinker and it works like it should.

I had one, for a week. Biggest POS I've ever had, and was my first progressive. A well engineered piece of equipment shouldn't need "tinkering".

I sent the thing back and bought a Hornady Lock-N-Load, which I had for near two years. Recently sold it and bought a Dillon 650 and am kicking myself in the arse for not having bought the Dillon in the first place.

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I got into reloading on a VERY tight budget and the Lee Loadmaster made that possible. Over the course of a year I made ~5000 rounds of .45 and every single round went bang and was passably accurate (I'll go out on a limb and say I was far more of a problem than any ammo I loaded.)

That said it took constant tinkering to keep it running. I spent more time in those 5K rounds working on the press than I did making ammo. The priming system was by far the biggest problem, removing the primer from the press and using an ergo-prime was a good solution but added an extra step to the process I didn't like.

So after 5K rounds and tons of frustration I took the plunge and bought a 650 with case feed and Mr. Bulletfeeder. (Sold my loadmaster on e-bay for a profit as well.) Setup was quick and easy for all parts, and once everything was set how I wanted it ran and ran and ran. I've now made 7K .45 and 1K .40 on the Dillon and the only adjustment I had to make took me less than 30 seconds.

Nothing is inherently wrong with Lee's products, but you do get what you pay for. For me the extra money on the front end to ensure I spend my time making ammo (rather than fixing press issues) was well worth it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The Pro 1000 is not a good press. At all. Mine was wildly inaccurate in terms of powder drops . To the point where i was getting squib loads A LOT.

That being said i love my lee classic cast , single stage press. I've been reloading precision rifle on that for years and until i can afford a nicer press like a redding or a forster it's staying .

I don't have experience with the turret press, but as long as its the same quality as the classic cast , you're good to go. I would get rid of the Pro 1000 as fast as you can. You'e be better off with pretty much any other progressive press

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Hi all. It's my second post in this forum after having introduced myself. I am the happy owner of a LCT. I got the kit and all I needed to add to start cranking out good ammo was a kinetic hammer. I added the adjustable charge bar, by advice of my reloading mentor and couldn't be happier with how it performs. I've had my ammo "supervised" by my mentor and some other experienced reloaders and found it flawless. Priming was anything but a problem. Primers get in their pockets consistently and at the proper depth. I feel very comfortable being able to check my reloads step by step, having the chance to choose between auto indexing or manually indexing (I use both, depending what for) and even the so much bashed Lee scale is totally accurate. Might not be the easiest or quickest one, but it is accurate.

If a new reloader, as I am, has had no problems at all using this equipment, I wouldn't at all call it "bad". No way. It's given me the chance to produce quality ammo on a budget, and in very short time it will have paid for itself thanks to the money I will have saved compared to what factory ammo costs.

Whenever I buy anything, I always evaluate what my needs are. I have no doubt that Dillon presses are better, but, do I need to load 500 rounds per week?. Answer, no. I have enough with 200. Can I afford a couple of hours per week reloading ammo?. Answer is yes. Will the LCT serve me well whenever I get the rifle I plan on purchasing in the future?. Answer is, again, yes.

Lee Precision is a successful company for a good reason. Lots of happy customers. I'm sure their progressives are somehow "temperamental" but I don't own one of them. I do own the one that many people will mention when the question "which press would you have if you could own just one press?" arises. Even my reloading mentor, who owns a 650, is thinking of a LCT for those calibers he doesn't need a high volume of ammo.

Edited by Nordeste
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  • 1 year later...

I started reloading back in the early 80's with a RockChucker, still have it, and probably loaded a few thousand .357 mag on it. Bought Kahr 9mm, and needed more production, bought a Lee Classic Turret, and loved it! I never set the Lee priming part up, tossed it in my junk box, and deprime/resize on RockChucker, and hand prime (I have both Lee hand prime and the RCBS one.) RCBS Uniflo powder flask sits alongside my Turret, so I only bell, seat bullet and crimp on the Turret. It's a moderately speedy process.

I got my 550B last summer, set it up for .40 S&W, .45 ACP, .38/.357 and still load .380/9mm and .223 on the turret. I love the Dillon, it does everything I ask, but I will not part with either my old RockChucker or the Lee Turret..

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