Reddit Reddit reviews LEE PRECISION 90685 Cast Iron Reloading Hand Press Only (Red)

We found 10 Reddit comments about LEE PRECISION 90685 Cast Iron Reloading Hand Press Only (Red). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Sports & Outdoors
Hunting Equipment
Hunting & Fishing
Sports & Fitness
LEE PRECISION 90685 Cast Iron Reloading Hand Press Only (Red)
Frame material: aluminumPress type: single stageHandle location: bottom center
Check price on Amazon

10 Reddit comments about LEE PRECISION 90685 Cast Iron Reloading Hand Press Only (Red):

u/Oberoni · 5 pointsr/reloading

Cleaning Supplies/General Maintenance

I'm not going to put links to these, but it is useful to have some cleaning supplies for your press. Rubbing alcohol, paper towels, q-tips, dental picks, etc are nice to have around.

Grease is good to have for your press and some oil is good to put on your dies if you'll be storing them for a long period.



Press



Honestly, I’m a little hesitant to write this part. Presses are the single most costly part of a beginner reloading set up and can change the what else you buy. There is a lot to take into account when buying a press and if you’re a new reloader you can’t fully grasp all of those things yet. You don’t know how you prefer to reload or what might fit you best and choosing the wrong press can make you hate reloading while another press might make you a reloading fiend. Remember, you can generally sell your press for a good chunk of what you paid as long as it is in good shape. Don’t let it rust and you’re fairly safe.


>Single Stage Presses:


Single stage presses are the most basic type of press there is, it holds one die and one shell at a time. This means you’ll end up ‘batch processing’ or doing the same step to say 50 cases at a time before switching dies and running those cases through the next step. For example: Deprime/Resize all 50 cases, switch dies and prime all 50, switch dies and bell all 50, etc. Single stage presses are the slowest way to reload, requiring you to handle the cases multiple times and potentially dial in your die setting every batch. They are also the most stable presses, in that there is very little mechanical variation. This makes them wonderful for precision rifle loading.
Many people recommend you start on a single stage press. Handling your brass many times and getting to see the difference in 50 or 100 cases all at once is a great way to learn what works or not and gives you many chances to spot defects.
Most often I hear people worry about “out growing” their single stage press. Remember, you can sell it or use it as a dedicated depriming station. Many reloaders keep their single stage presses just for rifle loads. Keep in mind that presses that connect on both sides of the case will be stronger than C shaped presses. Compare the Lee and Hornady presses below.


Lee Hand Press $29.09


Lee Press $37.84


Hornady LnL Classic $134.89


>Turret Press:


The turret part of the press is above the brass and holds multiple dies in stations. You place a piece of brass and run it through the first station, then rotate the turret and run it through the next station. You continue this until you have a completed round, then start over with the next piece of brass. This is much faster than a single stage and allows you to do multiple reloading sessions without having to reset all your dies. Because there are more moving parts there is the potential for more variation from round to round. You can still make very accurate ammo on a turret press though, you’re average shooter will never be able to tell the difference between ammo made on a turret or a single stage.
You can still batch process with a turret press and I recommend it for new loaders. Again, getting a feel for reloading and what is/isn’t right is very important.



Turret presses usually have 3-5 stations, keep this in mind when buying as it will change your reloading process.


Lyman T-Mag $186.49


>Progressive Presses:


Progressive presses are cool. They hold 3-5 dies and just as many cases all in the various stages of being reloaded. More importantly, that guy over on arfcom said he can make 600 9mm rounds an hour with his progressive. Even their price tags are impressive. Since you don’t want to outgrow your press you might as well jump in with both feet and get a 5 stage progressive right away. Right?


Well, I’d say that depends. Remember way back up at the top when I asked you those questions? Here is where they really come into play. Progressive presses have a lot of things going on all at once. For instance this is my reloading procedure on my Hornady LnL AP press when loading 9mm. On every raise of the ram I listen for the primer popping out, check a case for a powder charge, watch the case activated powder charge moved into the full upright position, place a bullet, and feel for that bullet seating. When I lower the ram I watch the primer tray to make sure a new primer moves into place facing the right way, feel that it seated properly into the next case, make sure the completed round makes it into the collection bin, and place a new case into the shell plate. All of that happens in a second or two. That is a ton of stuff to watch for without a lot of time to do it. You need to be familiar with what all those things feel/sound like before you can do it quickly. If you can trust yourself to go slowly at first and really really try hard to learn those things while running one case at a time through the press, you can start on a progressive. Even when you feel like you’ve done it enough, I’d hold off a while longer to make sure you really have it down before moving to full on progressive loading. You’ll also need to move your case inspection to before you start the loading process as doing it during progressive loading defeats the speed increase you get from the press.
Remember, reloading is dangerous. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. No one will make fun of you for going with a single stage or turret when starting off. You can always sell and upgrade later and by then you’ll have more knowledge about what you want in a press. If you go spend several hundred dollars on a progressive and then don’t like it’s workflow you’re going to have a lot more invested you’ll need to change to move to a different press. If you are in the market for a progressive you need to determine what features you want. How many stations, auto indexing or manual, how expensive add-ons are, etc. While I don’t claim to be an expert on all presses, everything I’ve heard says you’ll want a Dillon, Hornady, or RCBS progressive. Lee is more of a bargain brand and I’ve never heard good things about their progressive presses. Progressive presses are already finicky creatures to set up, no need to add to that frustration.


Hornady LnL AP $449.99



RCBS Pro2000 569.99

I don’t have a link for a Dillon 650, but they usually run about $560-570 from what I’ve seen. If someone has a link I’ll add it in.
Edit: Dillon 650 $566.95


Review


Reloading is a wonderful hobby that you can spend hours and hours on working up a custom load for the best accuracy or making general plinking ammo. It is a serious hobby however and deserves attention and respect.


At minimum you’ll need the following equipment:



Manuals
Scale
Calipers
Press
Sizing/Decap die
Expanding die(for pistol)
Seating die
Shell plate
Chamfer Tool(needed for rifle)

u/sewiv · 4 pointsr/reloading

$35 (nope, $31) for a hand press. $30 (nope, $42) for a die set. $15 (nope, $29) for a scale. $10 (nope, $15) for some Harbor Freight calipers. $15 (nope, $34) for a hand priming tool. $20 (nope, $26) for a reloading book. There you go, you can load pistol with that.

(Wow, stuff got expensive since I bought it.)

edit: It's been a while.

http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-Cast-Reloading-Press/dp/B000NOQIFO/

http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-Carbide-4-Die-Grey/dp/B000N8OLCM

http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-Safety-Scale-Red/dp/B000NTKCJW/

http://www.amazon.com/Hornady-Edition-Handbook-Cartridge-Reloading/dp/B015ZLSCCQ

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0075LKW78/

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-digital-caliper-47256.html

u/jafakin · 3 pointsr/reloading

I'm not too sure exactly, what you mean by too high. Most bench mounted presses are going to have some vertical dimension, like the Lee Classic Turret press. If you really wanted to save space and height was a non-starter, you could also get this:

[https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-Cast-Reloading-Press/dp/B000NOQIFO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484546418&sr=8-1&keywords=lee+hand+press]
(https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-Cast-Reloading-Press/dp/B000NOQIFO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484546418&sr=8-1&keywords=lee+hand+press)

Basically, it acts as a single stage press, but it is very portable, and can do anything you have die for.


Personally, I use the hand press to deprime and resize. I like really clean primer pockets. Then I'll use my Turret press to load power, seat the projectile and the add a crimp.

u/brzcory · 2 pointsr/reloading

Man, I could fix that so easy.

But they are only $30.

u/Long_rifle · 2 pointsr/reloading

You can get a LEE hand press for pretty cheap. Uses the same dies, and I always have a use for it. (Like resizing brass on the job while I wait for things to break). No bench, and you can learn the fundamentals.

https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-Cast-Reloading-Press/dp/B000NOQIFO

u/32ACP · 1 pointr/guns

I started with this. Cost next to nothing.
http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-Cast-Reloading-Press/dp/B000NOQIFO

It was fantastic for ironing out the differences between what I thought-I-knew and what I actually-did-knew. I started with .38spl in a .357 for to be for-sure for-sure.

I'm no expert, but I've heard repeatedly that going straight to progressive is a poor choice.

Now if you want to go inexpensive, look up lee loader, like so:
http://leeprecision.com/reloading-kits/lee-loader-pistol/

The 'press' part is a hammer. You'll really learn what you're doing.

u/HeWhoMakesBadComment · 1 pointr/reloading

I think it depends on why you are reloading. There are a few benefits to loading your own ammo, and I think everybody that does it will agree that the biggest draw is just the hobby of it. It's fun to do and your results are palpable. First off, not all ammo is cheaper reloaded. It really depends on how much you shoot, what you shoot at, and what kind of components are you using. I personally reload for the accuracy advantage. This is mostly gained in a bolt gun, but semi-auto's can benefit too. That 30-30 too heavy for your girlfriend? You can load extra light loads for it, or extra hot ones it doesn't matter. However, unless you are hunting thick brush with that gun I would just buy factory ammo, shoot what? 40 rounds year? You can't get very good accuracy with a lever gun anyways so unless you are currently blasting through a ton of ammo it won't be a good caliber to start with.

Most AK's or SKS's suffer from week accuracy as well. These guns are best used with open sights. This caliber is what spam cans are all about. Buy a bunch of surplus and chop down a tree. But again, if you are hunting with it then by all means load your own. The small gains in accuracy translate to better payoff when the target goes from paper to fur. Also, military surplus ammo is unsuitable for hunting, you could buy hunting ammo, but loading your own will be better.


which leads us to the .300 BLK, or the 5.56. The 5.56 will be better at longer ranges, the .300's advantage is at close range against flesh. So if you hunt big game the choice is obvious. But if it's target shooting you want to up your game on the 5.56 will be the way to go.

And if you didn't already, go get the LEE reloading manual and keep it in the bathroom. Read the whole thing before buying anything else. Keep in mind that the book is a sales pitch for LEE reloading products, but it does a great job of explaining the processes. Once you have a press, you can get dies for all your calibers. I had a really good experience at my local gun shop on my first reloading investment. It was cool to have an actual human who has years of experience to talk to and pick his brain.

OK lastly, don't worry about your long term setup. Get the ball rolling and if you can score a sweet deal on something that can just get you going go for it. You may get laughed at at the range but using a lee hand press is cheap, and effective and is a fun way to slow down your shooting and focus on accuracy.

u/hdmibunny · 1 pointr/guns

Nope. Here's a handheld press that I use. You can buy all the dies from Amazon too!

LEE PRECISION 90685 Cast Iron Reloading Hand Press Only (Red) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NOQIFO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_HhhCDbCQJAH2R

Feel free to pm me if you have questions whenever. Best of luck!

u/jag0007 · 1 pointr/reloading

why not this route?

u/cosmos7 · 1 pointr/reloading

That's cool and all, but for the same money you could buy a Lee Hand Press and a universal decapping die, and have a more useful tool.