The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Lee Pro 1000- Opinions

geronimo13 · May 25, 2006, 02:06 AM

I bought a 1000 and load .223 on it which by most people is more difficult than pistol ammo. The instructions completely suck but you will learn how to use it. A good site is http://www.geocities.com/leereloading/ . The system works well for me so far (300+ rounds). The tricks I learned are: when using the case collater (great add) the tubes can be rotated to feed the next tube of shells. The priming system is the worst feature but can be used well if you keep it clean ( I use my air compressor blower for powder spills), treat the shute with amour-all to make the primers flow easy, and lastly I fashioned a piece of sheet metal along the plastic primer advance piece because it wasn't strong enough to consistantly trigger the primer advance. The primer system won't load another primer unless the shell is present (great) but if it doesn't load one at all you get a powder spill. The next thing I noticed is IF the primer doesn't feel like it seated well you can remove the shell when its on the upstroke and examine the primer seating- if its good, replace the shell and continue on the upstroke to put in the powder, if not-redo the primer seating. You can tighten and adjust the shell plate (allen screw-mine was too loose and a sticky case wouldn't come down) and die adjustments are easy. The powder measure works great- I use a double disk kit that varies about .1 grain increments). And for pistol loads (light) the micro disk or adjustable disk work well with ball powders (if you search this forum you will find support for this). They really should give a video with it as it would help a lot. I'm sure there is no way I could load as fast on a single stage. Once the powder disks are set, I've run 3 cases thru (dumping the powder back into the hopper to get consistantcy) I'm good to go and prolly do about 100/hr. with examing primers, etc., when I get better I think 200/hr will be easy. At this point I'm loading 20+ of one load, then .3 grains more, etc. so that the last run was 8 baggies with 240 rounds. Oh yeah, I'm a mechanic, but this is my first press also.

May 25, 2006, 02:06 AM	#7
geronimo13 Member Join Date: April 7, 2006 Posts: 41	I bought a 1000 and load .223 on it which by most people is more difficult than pistol ammo. The instructions completely suck but you will learn how to use it. A good site is http://www.geocities.com/leereloading/ . The system works well for me so far (300+ rounds). The tricks I learned are: when using the case collater (great add) the tubes can be rotated to feed the next tube of shells. The priming system is the worst feature but can be used well if you keep it clean ( I use my air compressor blower for powder spills), treat the shute with amour-all to make the primers flow easy, and lastly I fashioned a piece of sheet metal along the plastic primer advance piece because it wasn't strong enough to consistantly trigger the primer advance. The primer system won't load another primer unless the shell is present (great) but if it doesn't load one at all you get a powder spill. The next thing I noticed is IF the primer doesn't feel like it seated well you can remove the shell when its on the upstroke and examine the primer seating- if its good, replace the shell and continue on the upstroke to put in the powder, if not-redo the primer seating. You can tighten and adjust the shell plate (allen screw-mine was too loose and a sticky case wouldn't come down) and die adjustments are easy. The powder measure works great- I use a double disk kit that varies about .1 grain increments). And for pistol loads (light) the micro disk or adjustable disk work well with ball powders (if you search this forum you will find support for this). They really should give a video with it as it would help a lot. I'm sure there is no way I could load as fast on a single stage. Once the powder disks are set, I've run 3 cases thru (dumping the powder back into the hopper to get consistantcy) I'm good to go and prolly do about 100/hr. with examing primers, etc., when I get better I think 200/hr will be easy. At this point I'm loading 20+ of one load, then .3 grains more, etc. so that the last run was 8 baggies with 240 rounds. Oh yeah, I'm a mechanic, but this is my first press also.