Lee hand loader

Servant · January 1, 2012, 07:16 PM

Well, I have done much study on reloading and figured it was time to put my hands to work. Many suggest a single station press, but I knew I would outgrow it quickly, so got a turret press (way cheaper than a progressive). yesterday I started with my .45acp's with the hand press. I can tell you, after just decapping and resizing 800 brass, my hands are telling me that the bench press is gona be worth the money!!LOL I mean, my shoulder are even sore (I did it yesterday). I started to decap some .223 military brass with the crimp, and after 2 rounds, there is no way that I'll be able to do this by hand. I have the RCBS swager coming, and a die just for decapping (Lee die). I hope this works well in my press, supposed to be unbreakable.LOL Just wanted to share where I am at. The hand press is very smooth. I followed your suggestions, even though I have a carbide die I still lubed them, and they were for the most part very smooth. I found that if I ran some of the brass through a few times that they seemed to get smoother and smoother, is it good to do this or not? My thinking was that it formed them better by going through a few times, I am pretty sure this was overkill. I adjusted the die by having the ram all the way up and screwed the die down until it touched the case holder. Is that correct?

3006mv · January 2, 2012, 11:11 AM

Just follow the instructions for the Lee dies. If you keep running them through dies (unnecessary) you may be case hardening them by working them too much.

Servant · January 2, 2012, 01:09 PM

Makes sense, I tell ya, I get allot of good info here.

Newton24b · January 2, 2012, 07:28 PM

yes the handloader works.

yes its tiring.

no it wasnt inteded to let you become a full production company and make enough ammuntion to outsell remington or winchester olin.

it still comes down to

are you reloading for economy? for quantity? quantity and economy? or are you trying toget a very specific bullet/powder combination that no one loads on a commercial level anymore?

Lee McNelly · January 2, 2012, 08:28 PM

Too beat the cost of manufactured ammo, plus to get a load that is more accurate

usually you experiment and find a combination that is lower in cost and more accurate by creating groups of 5 10 and seing where that load will put you by working powders up and down the scale and using different primers and bullets

redleg1013 · January 8, 2012, 12:58 PM

So I got a Classic Lee Loader for Christmas for my 30/06. I read through Modern Reloading and the Lee instructions for the one-hitter. I used a factory round to set the depth (since I'm using the same components anyway). I wound up with two that sat a little long OAL (still well within limits), and the bullet will turn freely in the neck but not move in/out.
I, being paranoid, pulled them and tried again, to no avail. I remeasured the factory round, and double checked the depth and had all the others turn out just fine with a standard deviation of .0115". I'm thinking about removing the two odd-balls and just writing them off as a loss. Anyone have any experience with this set up or just some advice; the guy I normally harass at the range is off snowbirding and won't be back until February or so.

darkgael · January 8, 2012, 06:23 PM

Red:

Quote:

the bullet will turn freely in the neck but not move in/out.

How old is the brass? What you describe is frequently connected to brass that is too hard and needs to be annealed.
If it is new brass, then all bets are off; however, the Lee Loader, lacking an expander ball, usually sizes even hard brass enough so that the bullet won't move.

Pete

Marco Califo · January 8, 2012, 06:28 PM

When I see that, I neck size, or full length size. It probably means I forgot to.

Servant · January 8, 2012, 06:36 PM

marco, are you saying that you don't re-size every time? I only ask because as i was thinking early this morning, I was pondering that if a case is fire shaped to my weapon, why would I need to resize it everytime, seeing that the mouth is flared and then closed over the bullet and that the case is small enough to be ejected from the chamber, so I would think that it would go back in. Is that insane?

Marco Califo · January 8, 2012, 08:03 PM

or grabbed the wrong box of brass.

I fire-form and then neck-size. Just recently, I had primed some brass, but the bullets were too loose. I concluded that I must have not resized them first

, deprimed and sized, and threw out 50 wasted primers. Then reprimed and loaded. The bullets were no longer loose.

hk33ka1 · January 8, 2012, 08:06 PM

I had some newer .308 Win. Winchester cases that would not neck size small enough to hold a .308 bullet in my .308 Win Lee Loader. Other brass I tried worked fine.

redleg1013 · January 8, 2012, 09:48 PM

Sorry I forgot to say that this is once fired Hornady brass from a Custom 180gr SST. I have a mean OAL of 3.198, with the tall spinners at 3.220 and 3.227the rest are within .002 of 3.195

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

hk33ka1 · January 9, 2012, 12:00 AM

If you chamber those loose ones at the range carefully and the bullet is not pushed back into the case you can fire them one at a time. I would not carry them around hunting or leave them loaded in the gun incase they did get set back. If you shoot them see how they size the next time in your loader.

If you choose not to shoot them take them apart and just put them in a ziploc and label what the problem was and later you will be able to use the components when you figure it out. You can always throw them out later too. Just make sure to label them.

redleg1013 · January 10, 2012, 01:56 AM

Thanks HK, I'll do just that. Here's hoping...

January 1, 2012, 07:16 PM	#1
Servant Senior Member Join Date: December 13, 2011 Location: Louisiana Posts: 116	Lee hand loader Well, I have done much study on reloading and figured it was time to put my hands to work. Many suggest a single station press, but I knew I would outgrow it quickly, so got a turret press (way cheaper than a progressive). yesterday I started with my .45acp's with the hand press. I can tell you, after just decapping and resizing 800 brass, my hands are telling me that the bench press is gona be worth the money!!LOL I mean, my shoulder are even sore (I did it yesterday). I started to decap some .223 military brass with the crimp, and after 2 rounds, there is no way that I'll be able to do this by hand. I have the RCBS swager coming, and a die just for decapping (Lee die). I hope this works well in my press, supposed to be unbreakable.LOL Just wanted to share where I am at. The hand press is very smooth. I followed your suggestions, even though I have a carbide die I still lubed them, and they were for the most part very smooth. I found that if I ran some of the brass through a few times that they seemed to get smoother and smoother, is it good to do this or not? My thinking was that it formed them better by going through a few times, I am pretty sure this was overkill. I adjusted the die by having the ram all the way up and screwed the die down until it touched the case holder. Is that correct?

January 2, 2012, 08:28 PM	#5
Lee McNelly Junior member Join Date: June 9, 2011 Posts: 325	RELOADING Too beat the cost of manufactured ammo, plus to get a load that is more accurate usually you experiment and find a combination that is lower in cost and more accurate by creating groups of 5 10 and seing where that load will put you by working powders up and down the scale and using different primers and bullets

January 8, 2012, 12:58 PM	#6
redleg1013 Member Join Date: December 15, 2011 Location: Nebraska Posts: 15	paranoid noob So I got a Classic Lee Loader for Christmas for my 30/06. I read through Modern Reloading and the Lee instructions for the one-hitter. I used a factory round to set the depth (since I'm using the same components anyway). I wound up with two that sat a little long OAL (still well within limits), and the bullet will turn freely in the neck but not move in/out. I, being paranoid, pulled them and tried again, to no avail. I remeasured the factory round, and double checked the depth and had all the others turn out just fine with a standard deviation of .0115". I'm thinking about removing the two odd-balls and just writing them off as a loss. Anyone have any experience with this set up or just some advice; the guy I normally harass at the range is off snowbirding and won't be back until February or so.

January 8, 2012, 06:28 PM	#8
Marco Califo Senior Member Join Date: April 4, 2011 Location: LA (Greater Los Angeles Area) Posts: 2,602	When I see that When I see that, I neck size, or full length size. It probably means I forgot to. __________________ ............

January 8, 2012, 06:36 PM	#9
Servant Senior Member Join Date: December 13, 2011 Location: Louisiana Posts: 116	marco, are you saying that you don't re-size every time? I only ask because as i was thinking early this morning, I was pondering that if a case is fire shaped to my weapon, why would I need to resize it everytime, seeing that the mouth is flared and then closed over the bullet and that the case is small enough to be ejected from the chamber, so I would think that it would go back in. Is that insane? __________________ "If you want to lead, you must first learn to serve, for the 1st shall be last and the last shall be first." If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch. Lead, follow, or get out of the way!

January 2, 2012, 11:11 AM	#2
3006mv Member Join Date: January 5, 2006 Posts: 60	Just follow the instructions for the Lee dies. If you keep running them through dies (unnecessary) you may be case hardening them by working them too much.

January 2, 2012, 01:09 PM	#3
Servant Senior Member Join Date: December 13, 2011 Location: Louisiana Posts: 116	Makes sense, I tell ya, I get allot of good info here.

January 2, 2012, 07:28 PM	#4
Newton24b Junior member Join Date: February 10, 2009 Posts: 974	yes the handloader works. yes its tiring. no it wasnt inteded to let you become a full production company and make enough ammuntion to outsell remington or winchester olin. it still comes down to are you reloading for economy? for quantity? quantity and economy? or are you trying toget a very specific bullet/powder combination that no one loads on a commercial level anymore?

January 8, 2012, 08:03 PM	#10
Marco Califo Senior Member Join Date: April 4, 2011 Location: LA (Greater Los Angeles Area) Posts: 2,602	No, I think I just forgot or grabbed the wrong box of brass. I fire-form and then neck-size. Just recently, I had primed some brass, but the bullets were too loose. I concluded that I must have not resized them first, deprimed and sized, and threw out 50 wasted primers. Then reprimed and loaded. The bullets were no longer loose. __________________ ............

January 8, 2012, 08:06 PM	#11
hk33ka1 Senior Member Join Date: April 20, 2010 Posts: 275	I had some newer .308 Win. Winchester cases that would not neck size small enough to hold a .308 bullet in my .308 Win Lee Loader. Other brass I tried worked fine.

January 8, 2012, 09:48 PM	#12
redleg1013 Member Join Date: December 15, 2011 Location: Nebraska Posts: 15	Sorry I forgot to say that this is once fired Hornady brass from a Custom 180gr SST. I have a mean OAL of 3.198, with the tall spinners at 3.220 and 3.227the rest are within .002 of 3.195 Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

January 9, 2012, 12:00 AM	#13
hk33ka1 Senior Member Join Date: April 20, 2010 Posts: 275	If you chamber those loose ones at the range carefully and the bullet is not pushed back into the case you can fire them one at a time. I would not carry them around hunting or leave them loaded in the gun incase they did get set back. If you shoot them see how they size the next time in your loader. If you choose not to shoot them take them apart and just put them in a ziploc and label what the problem was and later you will be able to use the components when you figure it out. You can always throw them out later too. Just make sure to label them.

January 10, 2012, 01:56 AM	#14
redleg1013 Member Join Date: December 15, 2011 Location: Nebraska Posts: 15	Thanks HK, I'll do just that. Here's hoping...