First off... Thanks in advance.

1.> I've decided that Reloading is something I would like to do.
2.> I can't afford dillion.. it's nice, but Lee is where I'm sticking my cash with unless you can show me the same functionality for the appx same price.
3.> I don't shoot rifle that much. So we're lookin at reloading 9mm, .40sw and later 45ACP
4.> I am actually gonna RTFM.
5.> I'll be loading copper not lead bullets. Starline brass, my own recovered brass, Hornady bullets look like where I'm going.


That being said, I'm currently looking at 2 presses

Lee Loadmaster $210.99
Lee Pro 1000 $129.99

Daddy always said buy the best tools one can afford. Daddy also said be on the watch for over priced and useless tools, Why buy the $10 wrench when the $7 one does just as good of a job?

That being said, Is the Loadmaster worth the extra $80?

Besides the apporpriate kit, what other tools will I need so I can order it all at once.

Welcome to the reloading club. First, don't scrimp on proper tools. If you buy right the first time, it's money well spent down the road. I would buy the Dillon, they are just a better made press. You'll also need a powder scale, I like the elec. dig. ones, but balance beams are fine. Carbide dies are the only way to go. That & a good manual or two will get you started. Read, ask alot of questions & away you go. BTW, plated bullets like Ranier or Berry's are quite a bit cheaper than Hornady for punching paper.

"Daddy always said buy the best tools one can afford. Daddy also said be on the watch for over priced and useless tools"
Your daddy would be the first to advise you to avoid LEE. To continue the wrench analogy, Dillon is the $10 forged steel Snap-on, LEE is the $5 Taiwan cast pot metal wrench. Which one do you think is the better deal?

Don't listen to all the crap about Lee products. They're fine tools, and if they make what you like to use, they'll load as good or better ammo than most. Reloading, especially for pistols, doesn't put much stress on a press, so you don't need a 40# behemouth. I've reloaded for more years than I care to count, 25+, and I can easliy afford whatever I want, and over those years, I've used almost everything available. What do I use now, what do I keep? A Lee Classic Cast press, a Belding & Mull measure, an older Dillon electronic scale, and mostly Lee Collet dies, and Lee carbide dies, and an RCBS APS hand priming tool. All of the tools out there will work, it's just how much you want to spend. There's nothing wrong with RCBS, Forster, Hornady, or Redding tools, but they work no better than Lee. Unless you plan on shooting a lot, and I mean a lot, then the Dillon is more machine than you'll probably need. If you do shoot a lot, I like the Dillon progressives better than the Lees. Since you mentioned Lees progressives, I'd go for the Dillon Square Deal, it's a hell of a press and darn reliable. You might check Ebay for a used one.
Everybody has an opinion about what they like, but anyone who says Lee doesn't load good ammo, and works well, doesn't know beans.

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Why buy the $10 wrench when the $7 one does just as good of a job?

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That might be good advice if you was buying a wrench.....what size reloading tool was you thinking about?....7/16"???

I always advise that you buy the cheapest one you can get.....and that's the one you will have in the end.....in your case it's painted blue and labeled Dillon.

I have a buddy who likes his Lee.

If you like your long stories short, skip to the last paragraph.

My buddy's an odd bird. If you asked him (or anyone who knows and loves him), they would not disagree with that assesment. He is the sort of fellow who, if something breaks, he can fix it. And if he can fix it with a strip of rawhide or a scrap of baling wire, he's happy to leave that fix in place as a sort of conversation piece. He's kind of proud of how he got the auto-indexing to work again. One thing he hasn't managed to fix yet (I didn't say "can't") is the priming system on his Lee. He runs the brass through his Lee to de-prime and size. Then he manually primes with a hand priming tool. Then he feeds cases back through to charge powder and seat bullets.

Please save yourself the headaches.

If you want to go cheap, get a single stage that accepts Hornady Lock-N-Load bushings. Die changes take you 3 seconds, and you will match my buddy's productivity on his Lee.

If you want to go really cheap, get a Lee Loader kit. As long as all the ammo is used in the same gun the cases were fired in, you're okay, and you cannot beat the price. About $13 per caliber. By the way, the Lee Loader is not slow. Much faster than changing threaded dies out of a single stage press head.

If you want to go progressive, get the Dillon. Go over to eBay. There are five Dillon Square Deal B presses there with current bids in the $125 to $185 range. How much did you say those Lees cost? And if I'm not mistaken, Dillon will fix any problems whether or not you are the original purchaser.

H. C.

Consider a Dillon Square Deal if they still make it. It is a really good press particularly for pistol rounds. I wore one out, they rebuillt it, and I still use it when I want to load up a bunch. Last time I looked they were only a little more than what you want to spend. Kudude

I have a buddy with the Lee Loadmaster and he loves it. Then again, he loves tinkering and getting things to work properly more than he likes to load ammo.

I have the Dillon 550 and would not even consider the Lee progressive presses. If you insist on Lee, then just buy a single stage or turret. I loaded several thousand rounds on the Challenger press before moving on, and I have no complaints with it at all. Decent press for what they cost.

Rick

Wiz, after you've decided on the various pieces of equipment you're gonna need, I suggest you try eBay and other auction sites for some of it. last year I bought a RockChucker press off of eBay for atound $50.00. In addition, they have dies, etc., of various makes on there all the time for peanuts!

I have some Lee tools, as well as RCBS, Forster, Lyman and Redding. The Lee stuff is serviceable, usually, but most of it is not designed for reloading vast quantities of ammo over a long period of time. However, some of the things they sell are plenty good enough, such as their bullet moulds and lead melting furnaces.

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Originally posted by El Deguello:
Wiz, after you've decided on the various pieces of equipment you're gonna need, I suggest you try eBay and other auction sites for some of it. last year I bought a RockChucker press off of eBay for atound $50.00. In addition, they have dies, etc., of various makes on there all the time for peanuts!

I have some Lee tools, as well as RCBS, Forster, Lyman and Redding. The Lee stuff is serviceable, usually, but most of it is not designed for reloading vast quantities of ammo over a long period of time. However, some of the things they sell are plenty good enough, such as their bullet moulds and lead melting furnaces.

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A man after my own heart! I buy a lot of my reloading stuff from Ebay dealers and always check there before buying new items.

Rick

Not going to join in on the Lee vs. Dillon vs. RCBS,etc.

To my mind the most important thing for a new handloader is to get two or more manuals with good tutorials in them. Read them...re-read them before touching any hardware. Perhaps read them before buying any equipment. The Lyman and Speer manuals are two of the best offerings.

Even the best reloading hardware will produce poor ammunition if proper procedures aren't used.

Borealis just gave you very good advice.

I will join the press fray, to just this extent: For a single stage press, the Lee Classic Cast is as good as it gets, and they are $60, new. I think the eBay idea is excellent. I have no experience with the Lee progressive type presses, but have heard from more than one source that they have problems.

Good luck, and, above all, enjoy reloading.

Well, I might as well get my .04 cents in here! Been handloading for 40 years, so I've used a lot of different loaders. It all started with a lee hand tool in 8mm mauser. It loaded the ammo that took the first whitetail I ever shot. After a stint in the AF, I bought a used rock chucker. It did great service until I bought a used bonanza co-ax,(1980), which is still my main loader for hunting ammo.

I recently got envolved in IPSC and IDPA, the co-ax was just too slow for the volume of shells I needed for practice and matches. I decided to go with the lee 4 hole turret, as a step up in production rate. It is a good little loader for the price, it has a lot of features that allow quite a high rate of production. The turrets are so cheap, you can get one for every caliber, which eliminates the need to re-set each set of dies each time you load. The main drawback is the priming system requires you pick up each primer and set it on the priming arm, no automatic priming system----YET.

That said, I have now progressed up to the 650 dillon. IMHO it's the cadilac of loaders. Nothing else compares to it. BUT it would be very hard for an inexperienced loader to master without a lot of help from someone that has one and is up to speed on it.

The Lee presses work jsut fine. They may not be the last press you use, but if you can find a used one for cheap, jump on it. You aren't a benchrest shooter running thru 500+rnd of 223/mo, you're just loading some pistol ammo. The Lee will get you into loading, and save you money on the front in. You might have it for years and years, and then pass it to your son or a friend getting into reloading.

Wiz, you buy what you can afford, but I found out you do get what you pay for w/ most things in life. The Lee stuff is "servicable", but if you load alot of ammo, the Dillon stuff will outlast the cheaper Lee. E-bay is a great place to look. I would go for a used 550B over a Lee or the Dillon SquareDeal. The SD needs special dies, the 550B can use any brand w/ 7/8" thrd. (industry std.).

Well everyone is throwing in their opinions so I may as well too.

I have a bunch of presses, and I'd suggest you get whatever single stage press you would like and load with that for a while. Each stage of reloading has its share of little PITA problems, and you are much better off learing to deal with them one at a time rather than getting a progressive and having them all gang up on you at once. Regarding which one to get, it doesn't matter. I have a rockchucker that I use for the big squeezing jobs but it really doesn't matter. You can even get by with those cheap little lee cast aluminum C style presses, especially for pistol.

I also use a Lyman turret press, right now I have it mostly filled with tactical 20 dies but it is a good way to load fast and still have control over individual steps.

Like some others, I also have a Dillon 550B which turns out great quality ammo ate a pretty good clip. However, if you develop a problem it can be a head scratcher if you didn't have much experience with a single stage, which brings me back to that one again. Personally, I'd cruise for a bargain on ebay,gunbroker, auctionarms, or gunsamerica. If I bought a new one today it would probably be a Lee Classic, based on the reviews they have gotten in this forum.

Good luck and have fun!

Mark

I don't use a Lee press of any sort, never have. But if you have your heart set on one of them go right ahead especially if you already have the 7\8-14 dies. Personally I use a Dillon Square Deal B for all my pistol calibers except the 357 SIG which is bottle-necked. The Dillon powder measure is a dream to use. I would buy a used SDB from e-bay before I bought a new Lee. And I use plenty other Lee products. You just need to pick and choose which ones are worthwhile. Besides, if handloading doesn't hold your attention after all, the Dillon equipment will hold its value better than Lee. Because quality is priceless. At least that's what my Snap-on tool dealer has been telling me for 20 years.

There is nothing wrong with LEE reloading stuff. For a person who wants to start out handloading and doesn't have a lot of extra cash it's a great way to get going. I started in the early 80's with the LEE set and have since upgraded all that equipment. This also gave me the opportunity to pass on the LEE stuff to a newby handloader for a fraction of what it would have cost him new. I also threw him an old nosler load manual.


life is good.

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Originally posted by Mann: I started in the early 80's with the LEE set and have since upgraded all that equipment. This also gave me the opportunity to pass on the LEE stuff to a newby handloader for a fraction of what it would have cost him new.

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I think that a lot of us got started into reloading exactly the way you did. A fellow I shoot with says that the Lee Co. helps keep all the others honest. I think he may have a very valid point! I still use several sets of Lee dies, but I will never again use their powder measure nor their scale. Both pieces are pure junk IMHO.

Rick

So why buy "junk" now & upgrade later? If you think handloading is what you want to do, get equip. you never have to upgrade.
I agree w/ the idea of starting out w/ a single stage press, but for any sort of volumn handgun, it's a major PITA, been there, done that. Nothing wrong w/ starting w/ the progressive, but you may need some personal attention w/ setup & initial operation. Get a friend who reloads to come & mentor you.

I can't say a thing good or bad for Lee presses. I simply haven't used one. The only experience I have with Lee is a set of .223 Rem dies. Comparing the to my RCBS dies, my RCBS Casemaster says they stink. I also have the Lee trimmer set up for one caliber (drill mounted) I love it! It is much easier than my RCBS hand cranked trimmer! I am working on powering my RCBS case trimmer though...without buying the expensive RCBS motor. I don't have anything Dillon, Lyman, Hornady, or Redding.

However, my daddy always told me where there is a lot of smoke, there is usually a little fire. I suggest that you go and see a friends set-up, join a gun club if possible and see a lot of equipment before you begin purchasing equipment.

Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, Lexus... Buy what you want, based on your needs. Do you want a long-lasting car that has good resale value (read: last long time, looks good, safe, etc.), or do you want a "beater" to get you back and forth to work as cheaply as possible?

All brands will work, and as with any tool, they will perform well for years if taken care of.

But are some better than others? Absolutely. I have a Lee and a Dillon, and just touching them and actuating the rams, I can see the level of quality is higher on the Dillon.

Would you buy a car without a test drive? Ever shut the door, and notice how different the Hondas sound from the Kias? Go find someone locally who has some different presses, and take a closer look at them. Touch them, ask questions.

Opinions on here are great, a lot of good experience to be had... but the bottom line is, it's YOUR money you're gonna spend, so get what will make you happy.

Something else I am sure your dad mentioned once or twice... sometimes spending a few dollars more today will save you many dollars down the road...

Good luck!

P.S. All that being said, I really like my Dillon RL550!!

I just wish there was some way to have some of Lee's ideas manufactured by Redding or Forster.
I think the Perfect Powder Measure is great,but I get tired of wearing them out and throwing them away every several years.

Covey16