Reddit reviews Lee Reloading Press Md: 90045
We found 16 Reddit comments about Lee Reloading Press Md: 90045. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Reloading PressN/A
Reddit reviews Lee Reloading Press Md: 90045We found 16 Reddit comments about Lee Reloading Press Md: 90045. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Reloading-Press-Md-90045/dp/B002SF4X5I/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=lee+precision+reloader+press&qid=1573669096&sr=8-3
You could get a base lee press for less than $50, a set of dies for around $35, powder, bullets, primers, and calipers and be less than $200.
The Lee Classic Loader that you chose, says not for semi-autos since it doesn't full length resize. It just sizes the neck. I would get something like this instead:
http://www.amazon.com/Lee-30-06-Pacesetter-Dies/dp/B00162NUS0/
http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Reloading-Press-Md-90045/dp/B002SF4X5I
You would need to swap out the dies between operations but this way you could control variables. I'll check back later today with more suggestions.
BTW, my Garand is a CMP Field Grade H&R circa 1953. Stock is a little beat up but metal is great and she's a great shooter.
Yep. But if you build the kit yourself:
This press
https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Reloading-Press-Md-90045/dp/B002SF4X5I/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1497553125&sr=1-1&keywords=lee+press
Dies
https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-30-RGB-Die/dp/B000N8LHQK/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_4?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1497553143&sr=1-4-fkmr0&keywords=lee+press+RGB
Scale
https://www.amazon.com/American-Weigh-Digital-Scale-sensitivity/dp/B0012LOQUQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1497553166&sr=8-3&keywords=digital+scale
Calipers
https://www.amazon.com/Neiko-01407A-Electronic-Digital-Caliper/dp/B000GSLKIW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1497553204&sr=8-3&keywords=calipers
Priming Tool
https://www.amazon.com/LEE-LP90106-Lee-Precision-Prime/dp/B00162UGQE/ref=sr_1_7?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1497553314&sr=1-7&keywords=priming+tool
... and a few other small things, you should be under $100 dies included.
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)
i got me a lee equivalent to use for decapping. it's perfectly fine for that purpose, but i'd go nuts if i had to load ammo in this thing.
if i was you, i'd wait till i can save a bit more and get the rockchucker instead - decision is not even close in my view.
What kind of ammo are you looking to reload? Straight-wall ammo, like most pistol calibers, is slightly easier to reload.
You can get into reloading for about $300-$500.
Here is what you will need:
Before you get started, I highly recommend you read the book, "The ABC's of Reloading":
http://www.amazon.com/The-ABCs-Of-Reloading-Definitive/dp/0896896099/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1381839707&sr=8-2&keywords=abc%27s+of+reloading
You can check it out at a library if you want to save money. This book covers all kinds of reloading from pistol to rifle to shotgun cartridges.
If you are going to reload any kind of necked cartridge, like most rifle cartridges and some pistol cartridges, these cases stretch in length when firing due to the force being applied to the neck along the axis of the cartridge. As such they have to be trimmed back to proper length prior to reloading. This requires a case trimmer. You will generally not need a case trimmer for straight-walled cartridges.
Reloading basically follows these steps:
There is a lot of debate as to whether single-stage, multi-stage, or progressive presses are best for new people.
A single-stage press has, as you would expect, a single stage. You have to swap out your dies as you move from each operation of reloading. The advantage here is cost and the fact that you can focus exclusively on each step of the process. Disadvantage is speed.
A multi-stage press has, as you would expect, multiple stages. This press holds all of your dies in one die plate, but you must manually change over from one die to the next. You still focus on each step of the process. Speed is a little faster as you do not have to re-set your dies every time you want to switch to a different die in the process.
A progressive press holds all your dies but automatically moves the cartridge from one station to the next with each stroke of the handle. The progressive press' advantage is speed. The disadvantage is that the user must keep an eye on multiple things happening simultaneously, most importantly the powder charging step.
I started off with a Lee Pro 1000, and it is still all I use. It is a bit twitchy in that you have to keep thumping the primer container to make sure the primer feed ramp stays full of primers or else it will start to mis-feed them. Also when the brass feed tubes start to run dry cartridges have a tendency to bounce off of the deck and scoot forward a bit getting caught under the die plate on the up-stroke, jamming the press. You have to push them back out of the way.
You will probably want to clean your brass before reloading it. It is not absolutely essential that you do so, but it requires a lot more force to ram dirty brass through your dies than clean brass. Also dirty brass can scratch up your dies, which then in turn pass those scratches on to your ammo. To clean your brass, you will want a tumbler and seperator.
If you are not using carbide dies you will need case lubricant and you will have to lubricate your brass before you run it through your dies. If you do not do this you will get brass stuck in your dies and you may have to send it to the factory to have it removed.
Note that I used Amazon links for the above but obviously shop around. Also I referenced mostly Lee items but likewise shop around. Lee is usually the cheapest but can be "twitchy" compared to more expensive models.
Do not randomly buy reloading components (powder, bullets, primer) and then try and find a recipe. It's much easier to find out what kind of powder is available to you locally and then find a recipe that uses that powder and buy bullets to match it. If you randomly buy whatever powder and bullets you can find you may have difficulty finding an existing recipe for that combination and will have to find something "close", which as a newbie I don't recommend. It's much easier to work with a known recipe for a specific powder and bullet and primer.
Always start with the lowest recommended charge and work up from there if you find it necessary. If you are building precision ammunition for optimal accuracy you will "work up a load" to find exactly how much powder for any given bullet gives the best accuracy for any given firearm. If you are just building plinking ammunition then use the lowest listed charge that reliably cycles the action of your firearm.
The most critical part of reloading is the powder charging step. If you build ammunition with too much powder in it it can explode and destroy the firearm and injure or even kill you. If you put too little or no powder in it you can make a "squib" where the primer will push the bullet out of the cartridge into the barrel, creating an obstruction, and if you fire the gun again it can explode, again with the risk of destroying the gun and injuring the shooter. It is important to eyeball every cartridge to make sure it is charged properly. And do spot-checks every 10th round or so with your scale to confirm the load.
The Cheapest Lee press is a worthwhile addition to your setup.
It's the bastard stepchild on my bench, and is relegated to depriming every piece of brass before they get tumbled as not to get dirt and primer residue on my progressive or larger single stage presses. It's often on sale for $20, and it's worth it to save the abuse on your nicer equipment.
I am gonna elaborate a bit on the lee press thing.
If I count my presses by brand I have 3 by Lee, 1 by RCBS and 1 Dillon.
If I could only have one press, it would be the RCBS.
But, I load the fewest rounds on that press, and use it the least, so why would the RCBS be the one press I would keep.
The answer is simple. It does pretty much anything I need done, just slower than any of the others. And it does a few things that would reduce the others to scrap.
If you are looking for a budget option to learn reloading, and only reloading, then get the Lee Reloader Press. This is a "C" style press and is my most used press. In fact, I have two of them.
Generally can be purchased for under $40. In fact, amazon has a prime eligible returned press right now for $29.91. Add a Lee Ram Prime and a set of Lee dies with a dipper and you could be reloading basic pistol or rifle for about $71 in equipment. This is probably your best route as you can offset the cost of the equipment in short time.
Go this route and by the time you have recouped the cost of the press, you will know enough to make a good informed decision on your next press. Or you may be happy.
But, one time I had a wild hair and wondered if I could swage a spent 40 S&W case down to serve as a jacket blank for a 200 grain 10mm bullet. You can, but not on a Lee Reloader C press. I used my RCBS press, and had to make some of my own tooling.
Links:
Press: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B002SF4X5I
Ram Prime: http://a.co/baJkSSY
Dies: http://a.co/6znVpPR
Full Disclosure: I have never used the Ram Prime. I started with an RCBS kit that included their hand priming tool. I included the ram prime as it is the cheapest option.
My reloading setup was based on budget. I spent about $147 total for my Lee Single Stage Press + extras. The only complaint I have is I wish the press was a little more accurate for speedier results.
Id like if anyone commented on high speed pressing components with high accuracy results. It would be nice to have but really just curious whats out there and what works.
Edit: incase you were curious ive listed my parts below
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BDOHNA/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GSLKIW/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002SF4X5I/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-Deluxe-3-Die-Rifle/dp/B00162TEOE
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NOQIOU/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NOSGOU/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014136PA/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00162UGQE/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I feel your budget pain! I was lucky enough to get into reloading during a rare time in which I could go further in debt up to my eyeballs, but even I need to cut corners as much as I can while I concentrate on preparing for post-election shortages. At your budget level I'm going to disagree with the other commentor who recommends dial calipers; $10 digital calipers from Harbor Freight or eBay are decent and will serve you well for a few years.
Your plan fails at primer installation. Neither the hand press nor the Ultimate Rifle Die Set (good choice, IMHO) is provisioned for priming. You'd need to get a Ram Prime die or some sort of separate primer such as a hand primer (avoid the Lee hand primer because it uses proprietary shell holders).
I recently added the hand press to my collection. The hand press is nowhere near as large or heavy as its photos make it look. It's a light-duty, dinky little thing. I'm glad I have it but I wouldn't want to use it as my main press, just as an accessory. It's ok for decapping when primers aren't in too tightly, but some cases have been more difficult and I have to lay it down and repeatedly slam it (putting my fingers at risk, there's not a lot of finger clearance). I was thinking of finding appropriate pipes to use as cheaters.
IMO its best uses are light-duty decapping (using a universal decapping die or a larger caliber's sizer/decapper; NOT the sizer/decapper from your caliber's die set) and Ram Prime usage while sitting on the couch, and mobile bullet seating at the range when you have already sized/prepped the cases at home. I would not want to use it to size .308win cases, that's for sure! Some can be tough even with my Rockchucker Supreme.
For almost the same price you can get the 90045 Lee Reloader (not to be confused with the Lee Loader), a disposably-priced but (reportedly) well-built simple single stage C-press. Bolt it to a block of wood, then clamp that to the kitchen table or your desk (or the bench at the range) when you want to use it. (You'll still need either a Ram Prime or a hand prime tool.)
(Edit: I missed where you commented on your furniture clamping worry. You can clamp it without leaving a mark. Harbor Freight's cheap bar clamps have nice rubbery plastic covers, and you could place another block of wood, even plywood, on the underside to spread it out even more, and you could even sandwich in some rubber or plastic.)
Yes, always choose carbide dies if they are available. They aren't that much more from Lee and they save time/effort, which you'll appreciate especially since it sounds like you'll be tediously hand-cleaning all your cases. Does Lee offer carbide .223 dies (or does anyone else offer them at a similar price)?
Immediately get at least a cheap $15 digital jeweller's scale that measures in grains. The dipper is convenient but you shouldn't do without a scale of some sort.
Once you get into the swing of it, 1000 cases won't seem like as big of a time investment as you thought...though a tumbler would help. Do you have a treadmill? If so, you can use a $1 barrel from Dollar Tree, $4 Hartz corn cob bird litter (though finer media might be more pleasant with .223), and a glob of car polish or whatever similar stuff is handy. Place barrel on treadmill, block the end with something heavy (or turn treadmill around so open end is against a wall) so the barrel can't roll off, and run treadmill at 1.5mph for 90 minutes...cases come out sparkling clean.
Also, I'm not sure if you'll save much/any on the .223. As someone else mentioned, steel-cased (with allowed bullets) can be pretty cheap -- cheap enough to pay for the extra barrel wear twice over.
Of all the reloading components, bullets are most expensive (you already own the brass) and disappear fast. If you get into casting and can source scrap lead then you can definitely save money on .223, but casting is even more equipment investment (financially, and your limited space, plus you ought to do it outdoors).
As a new reloader myself, I'm going to make the suggestion that you drop $35 on a single-stage press and learn on that. There's enough to concentrate on when you're only doing one thing at a time, let alone five different things.
You can use the same dies as the other press, and I assume your dad has a scale, calipers, and all the other stuff you would need. (Heck, he may even have a single-stage already. Check around.)
Heck you can get a cheaper benchmount press for decapping.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002SF4X5I/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1451426548&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=reloading+press&dpPl=1&dpID=41XdIt26QOL&ref=plSrch
The dies itself will cost about 25 used, to 40 new. Id reccomend saving up for a turret press, ie, or if your strapped for cash, a single stage press. The kits are nice because you dont have to piece meal out every thing else, like powder dump, primer, scale etc. Just avoid the lee single load beam design ie, which I referred to as "lee classic" in a previous post.
I have no idea what the mallet design is, nore can I find it on lee's website. Sounds like a good way to get a stuck case in a die.
Also check out the reloading page on armlist for used equip. I think its under "firearm accessories".
edit: unless you mean this crazy thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeEl9wZyabc
Your best bet is getting him a brand new [lee] (https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Reloading-Press-Md-90045/dp/B002SF4X5I). You're not gonna beat that price, and they do work, quite well.
I've never used it, so I don't know how hard it is to re-size, but Lee swears it works, and it is big enough.
Here's the other "cheap" press.
2-die .308 set
2-die .223
The 2-die sets will work with either press.
why not this route?
total: $79
or:
total: $87
whats the problem with a single stage press?