Has anyone used a lee loader?

[speedyquad]

about a year ago i started a thread on inheriting a press from my dad. mom and i have not had a lot of time to look for it in the basement, or the many other places that dad may have tucked it. we have both caught each other saying that we didn't realize how much of a hoarder he was...lol...anyway...

I want to start reloading...I don't want to go buying a press until i know for sure that he sold his press. with that being said, on the advice of a guy i work with, i looked up lee loaders. this guy has one, has used it very little, but says it's a good buy.

i am talking about one of these... Lee Loader Pistol - Lee Precision

i was wondering if anyone of our very experienced loaders here could give me some direction...i am thinking about purchasing one of these until i either find dad's press or have confirmation that he sold it and buy a new press. should i go ahead and buy it. Amazon has them for $28 dollars...i'd pay that, but if it's not going to be a waste of money, i will shop around a little...
by the way, i will be getting the 9mm luger version...with a real press in the future...

i'll be using it to reload for my shield 9 which has about 350 rounds through it...is shoot outside on my mothers property so i may have 100-150 empty casings to use, so no heavy duty loading yet.

what's everyone's thoughts on this as a temporary loader? go ahead and get one or just wait? if i do buy on, what else should i get with it? i know they say complete except for the primer pocket cleaner, so i would also get one of those, but is there anything else that is a must?

thanks in advance!!!

 

[Rpg]

I loaded a lot of 20ga shot shells with one: first loader I ever had.

I got it when I was 12 when I got my first shotgun, a Stevens 311.

They are slow but you will learn the basics of reloading.

All you need beside the Lee is primers, powder, cases and projectiles.

You don't need a primer pocket cleaner.

Get it!

 

[Erich]

I started out loading with a Lee Loader. I'd not recommend it to start for semiauto cartridges, just because you'll want to make enough of them right away (because you go through them like jellybeans) that you will want something that moves a little quicker. Great for revolver cartridges, though. And great for emergencies.

 

[Ben_hutcherson]

I do not have a Lee loader, although looked at them when I was trying to get started reloading on a budget.

If you can invest about twice that much money, I'd suggest getting a Lee hand press kit($45-50) along with a set of Lee 9mm dies($30-35).

The dies you buy for for the hand press will work in any other press, so you will not necessarily have to re-buy those when you find or buy another press.

Even once you find/buy another press, you can still find a use for the Lee hand press, whether it's as a dedicated decapping or resizing station, or as a priming station, or whatever other step in the reloading press you may want to use it for.

 

[speedyquad]

like i said, it is only a temporary kinda thing until i either find dad's press or buy one...i don't have a lit of brass to load, nor do i have a lot of unfired to empty as of yet. the shield is my first 9mm and i have only had it a month...i do however have lots of 40s&w to reload when i get a press...

it seems as though this may be a good interim purchase though...

 

[blujax01]

...

All you need beside the Lee is primers, powder, cases and projectiles.

You don't need a primer pocket cleaner.

Get it!

And a hammer - you forgot the hammer - for seating primers - I'm chicken.

 

[speedyquad]

most of what dad hoarded was tools...i have rubber mallets and hammers out the ying yang...lol...there's some small enough for a mose to use and some big enough for an elephant...

maybe the hand loader is a better fit...get both the 9 and 40 dies since i will need both eventually...

i may try to make it to my mothers this week to do some looking for dad's press before i buy...

 

[MyDads38]

I started out on a Lee Loader; loaded a lot of 38 Specials on that one!
I now have a Lee Loader for each caliber I shoot-38 Spec, 9mm, 45acp and 223 Rifle.
In addition to the Lee Loader you will need the plastic mallet. The 9mm kit does not have a flaring tool, so you will want a chamfer/deburing tool as this will make starting/seating bullets easier. (lightly chamfering the inside of the case mouth)

The Lee Loader only neck sizes, so you will need to use brass that was fired in your gun; otherwise they may not work-that's one of the down sides to the Lee Loader. Eventually you will want a hand priming unit to make priming easier. If you're careful you won't set off a primer; but I think almost everyone sets one off at some point. Loud and burns your fingers!

A good way to get started, but if you shoot more than 50 rounds a session/week, you'll be spending a LOT of time at reloading! A single stage press would get you farther quicker. Good luck & enjoy

 

[SMSgt]

It's so much easier to pass on that and get a single-stage press.

 

[Harley Fan]

I started out on a Lee Loader; loaded a lot of 38 Specials on that one!
I now have a Lee Loader for each caliber I shoot-38 Spec, 9mm, 45acp and 223 Rifle.
In addition to the Lee Loader you will need the plastic mallet. The 9mm kit does not have a flaring tool, so you will want a chamfer/deburing tool as this will make starting/seating bullets easier. (lightly chamfering the inside of the case mouth)

The Lee Loader only neck sizes, so you will need to use brass that was fired in your gun; otherwise they may not work-that's one of the down sides to the Lee Loader. Eventually you will want a hand priming unit to make priming easier. If you're careful you won't set off a primer; but I think almost everyone sets one off at some point. Loud and burns your fingers!

A good way to get started, but if you shoot more than 50 rounds a session/week, you'll be spending a LOT of time at reloading! A single stage press would get you farther quicker. Good luck & enjoy

As MD38 says, "Good luck, and enjoy"

I did. The Lee Loader works. I started reloading .38 Sp last December/January or so, and I faithfully pecked away at it with my Lee loader for 400 rounds or so. It's fascinating... the pace and the steps involved will help you learn.

I'm loading revolver ammo. I visit the range many times with my son, a Glock 19 owner. He goes through 9mm ammo like popcorn... I would not want to try to keep him in ordinance using a Lee Loader.

I'll mention this- during a loading session, as I was seating a primer, it went off! Some that have experience with a Lee loader might be smiling... it happens. When it does, the construction of the loader tooling absorbs all the energy. But I did experience some warm fingers... and my ears rang for a couple of hours.



Good folks on this forum warned me that the rewards to re-loading were great... and said the hobby is a slippery slope. They were right! I now use a Lee Auto-prime XR hand-held tool to insert my primers, I now reload with a MCRS Partner single stage press, I have a powder thrower, have upgraded my electronic grain scale, and (as of two days ago!) I now use a vibratory brass cleaner.

Good luck!

 

[Bat Guano]

9mm is finicky enough to reload for without trying to do it with a Lee Loader that neck sizes only. (Brass varies a lot among makers and guns can be fussy about the ammo you try to feed them.) Not really a beginner's cartridge. I'm not saying that it can't be done, but it borders on masochism. Experience is the key and consistency matters a lot. If you can find factory FMJ ammo at a reasonable price, I'd shoot that--sparingly--until you get squared away. My source is going to be selling it at $11 a box over the Memorial Day weekend.

That said, Lee's stuff is basic, economical, and will get the job done. The Hand Press will take good 7/8 x 14 standard dies (get tungsten carbide!) and do FL sizing ok. Those dies will work in any decent press. Lee also has small bench presses that get the job done. You will also need a decent powder scale and measure. I don't recommend Lee for that...

There's no free lunch, and cutting corners can be a bad idea.

RCBS is the gold standard, at least for me. Good luck.

 

[lebomm]

IMHO, the Lee hand press is a lot better choice for your stopgap system, because it uses the regular 7/8-14 dies that your dad's (or other) press will use. The Lee Loader is a one-caliber rig, and is a pretty minimal system. It will produce usable ammo, but as stated above, it's slow and
your pistol may not like them if they're not full-length resized.

Larry

 

[shawn mccarver]

i am talking about one of these... Lee Loader Pistol - Lee Precision

i am thinking about purchasing one of these until i either find dad's press or have confirmation that he sold it and buy a new press. should i go ahead and buy it.

Back in the late 1960s or early 1970s, I learned reloading on one of those. I bet many others have also. You can make good ammo with one.

I seriously question Lee's claim that you can reload a round "in 30 seconds."

I remember occasionally causing a primer to go "pop" when seating it with the plastic mallet. You have to really get a feel for seating it deep enough to work, but not overdoing it. So, I would invest in a hand-held priming tool, if it were me.

The little device is very slow to use. A bench mounted press of any kind, even single stage is so far advanced that you will never want to use the little Lee Loader again. I would save up for some sort of bench mounted arrangement. I realize you might find the other one, but having two never hurt anyone.

 

[rwsmith]

A guy on youtube

A guy on Youtube demonstrated doing one in about 45 seconds. The key is simply have everything organized in front of you. I used Lee Loaders for years for .38 and 30-06.

They work fine, but they are not quite the same as using a press. They don't address need for trimming, It's hard to get real consistent crimp, they only mouth size the case and the worst part is tapping the primer into place. But again, knowing these limitations, they work just fine. I fired well over 1000 rounds made on Lee Loaders.

 

[speedyquad]

i'm kinda leaning more towards the lee hand press now...as i would be able to do both 40 and 9. money is not the issue...except i am prertty frugal...i don't want to spend money on a press if i have a perfectly good one already...it's kinda like getting a second wife when there is nothing wrong with the first wife...lol...

i'll check the two gun stores that i pass on my way to work tomorrow...see what they have in stock...

thanks again

 

[rwsmith]

I haven't tried the hand press......

i'm kinda leaning more towards the lee hand press now...as i would be able to do both 40 and 9. money is not the issue...except i am prertty frugal...i don't want to spend money on a press if i have a perfectly good one already...it's kinda like getting a second wife when there is nothing wrong with the first wife...lol...

i'll check the two gun stores that i pass on my way to work tomorrow...see what they have in stock...

thanks again

I haven't tried the hand press, but because of the limitations I mentioned before, I think you could transition better from the hand press to a bench press better than from the hand loaders.

 

[Ben_hutcherson]

I haven't tried the hand press, but because of the limitations I mentioned before, I think you could transition better from the hand press to a bench press better than from the hand loaders.

Not too terribly long ago, I did just this. I loaded about 3000 rounds on my Lee hand press, but finally broke down and bought a lower end RCBS bench mounted press when I found a kit on sale.

The Lee hand press fundamentally is the same thing as a bench mounted press...it just doesn't get mounted on the bench. When I moved to a bench mounted press, I already had a good fundamental understanding of how to adjust the dies since they work on the hand press the same as they do on a hand press.

In fact, moving to a bench press, at least initially, didn't make any change at all to my reloading workflow-it just made everything a lot faster since the bench press gave more leverage and also-when necessary-only tied up one hand(as well as the fact that my bench press has a better system for collecting primers than just letting them pile up in the ram).

 

[Engineer1911]

NO is the simple answer. To load semi-auto ammo you need a carbide die set and a real reloading press. Anything else is wasting money and will be very frustrating to use.

Wear ear protection when using a Lee Loader. The question is not IF you detonate a primer but WHEN because you will do it. The ear ringing maybe a permanent condition, but you will have a slight hearing loss for the rest of your life. I found that out the hard way back in the late 1970's with a 3 to 4 dB loss.

 

[JimC]

I began reloading back in the mid '60's with the Lee loader.
I think they were $9.95 at the time.
I started with one in .30-06 for my semi sporterized '03-A3.
I later added one in .30-30 for a pre '64 Win. 94.
I also had the assorted powder scoops to make things more interesting with more options.
I learned a lot for a new, starting out reloaded using the Lee setup.

The question is not IF you detonate a primer but WHEN because you will do it.

I never had this happen in hundreds of rounds.

 

[brucev]

Hide and seek! Hum... lots of fun! After my father passed away, we had to find where he'd put various items, etc. It was interesting. Keep looking. Sooner or later it will turn up.

Back when the world was young, I bought and used a Lee Loader to load for my M-70 in .243 Winchester. The Loader cost $9.99. The trip to the gun smith was $25. The small parts replaced were about $8. My brother swapped me a Ruger M-77 in .30-06 for the M-70. I bought a RCBS Reloader Special and started loading for the Ruger as well as my S&W 19-2. Never had any more problems.

For very limited temporary use, the Lee Loader might be an option. But given it's current cost, it does not offer good economy. For that money you can buy very good quality dies. A Lee Challenger press or even a kit can be bought for not that much more money. With such equipment you would be able to do just about any loading you desired short of supplying ammunition for heavy match shooting.