Lee Load Master - Quick first impressions

[dromia]

You'll enjoy the Hornady LnL, its in a different league from the Lee and works flawlessly. As with all progressives there is a learning curve but once you've mastered it then keep feeding it components, keep it maintained and it will churn out accurate ammunition. I don't go for speed, take my time and I hand feed cases and boolits/bullets and I'm easy cranking out 300 an hour. Its great for standard loads that I shoot a lot of like .303 and 6.5 x 55. I've found the powder drop system on progressives to be very accurate, I think the mechanical linkage gives a consistency of operation that is hard get hand throwing so the charges are very consistent, get the micrometer adjust insert. I'd also buy some spare case retaining springs because if you do you'll never need to replace one.

[dromia]

I'm a great fan of Lee. My recent thread showed exactly what could be done with the minimal of Lee kit, in producing top quality ammo.

That said, there are two pieces of Lee kit that aren't worth a cup of warm tinkers p1ss..... The auto disk and their Load Master!

My Dillon 550 is some 22 years old. It' loaded thousands of rounds. I actually used to have two, but saddler got's got the other. I don't think I'll e er have to buy another progressive press..... And, it's still guaranteed!!!!

Whilst at best being ambivalent about Lee products regarding them as kits that need to be fettled before they will work as advertised and frustrated at their innovation being let down by poor material choices. I have to say that their pro auto disk measure is one of their better mousetraps, I'm a bit of a fan of fixed rotor measures having half a dozen Little Dandy's and three or four Lyman Accumeasures, the Lee pro disk has worked well from day one, its fiddly to change disks but it works very well the rifle charging die.

Interesting to see how Lee are changing their tack since John took over from Dick. John seems to be going very mainstream and moving away from Dicks more radical approach to hand loading which seriously challenged the big boys in his time. 20 years ago the classic cast would have been an anathema to Dick with his strong enough approach, remember his advertising with the supporting rods on one of his turret presses being machined down to a sliver. The Lee hand auto prime has been changed for safety reasons (!) and a new ergo prime has been brought out to directly compete with RCBS and Hornady. Their world record claims with their dies has been relegated to a small box at bottom of the page and the wording has been changed, its also interesting that the feat hasn't been repeated in any discipline since 1993. The lee handloading book is a jolly read but I never recommend it as serious data or handloading how to source, it is just too contradictory, the load data is just copied from else where so adds nothing to existing knowledge and the cast boolit theory is at best an interesting take on things.

Lee have got more people into handloading that any thing/one else by producing affordable kit, they are a truly innovative company that shook up the handloading market, I just wish that their stuff would work from the box as advertised without fettling. I'd happily pay Lee a little bit more for that for some of their products.

[EagerNoSkill]

Concur
Great idea dodgy setup

The loadmasters I had was the most finnicky piece of kit with ps i have ever used
sign01 sign01 sign01

Had 3 Lee pro 1000, 3 different turret single stages, a dilon
All of them together give me less aggro than the load master did in 3 months trying to set it up

Once working operations were always a edge away from disaster

[phaedra1106]

Thanks Everyone :)

Dromia, what else will I need apart from what's supplied with the kit?, I intend to use it for .44mag and 9mm.

So far I've worked out the following,

No.8 & 30 Shell Plates
Powder Cop Die
Powder Metering Insert
Set of Dies for 9mm
Spare Retainer Springs :)

I was intending to use my existing .44 Lee Carbide dies,

P1 - Lee Full length size ( I de-prime then clean before loading) - I assume the Auto Prime is between 1&2
P2 - Hornady Powder System
P3 - Powder Cop
P4 - Lee Bullet Seat
P5 - Lee Factory Crimp

[phaedra1106]

Update - Tried it again this morning and not good :(

I'm sure the press is fine if set up by someone who knows all the little foibles but it's at the point where I know I'll not be happy using it.

Now up for sale and trying to find a Hornady LNL AP at a sensible price, £200 cheaper in the US but no idea what shipping would be!.

[dromia]

Thanks Everyone :)

Dromia, what else will I need apart from what's supplied with the kit?, I intend to use it for .44mag and 9mm.

So far I've worked out the following,

No.8 & 30 Shell Plates
Powder Cop Die
Powder Metering Insert
Set of Dies for 9mm
Spare Retainer Springs :)

I was intending to use my existing .44 Lee Carbide dies,

P1 - Lee Full length size ( I de-prime then clean before loading) - I assume the Auto Prime is between 1&2
P2 - Hornady Powder System
P3 - Powder Cop
P4 - Lee Bullet Seat
P5 - Lee Factory Crimp

Nothing extra that I can see just perhaps some extra lnL bushings. I'll give my set the once over today just in case.

It has gone up in price, I've just checked. :shock:

The best I could do it for would be £525 plus postage. Midway UK have it advertised at £459 which is a good price but out of stock, that could be worth a punt though so long as the new stock price stays the same. You could probably still get it cheaper from the states including postage and if you were captured by customs.

[phaedra1106]

Cheers :)

Yes, it's about £250-£265 in the US but Sinclair site won't give me a shipping price without placing an order, will email them tomorrow and see what they say. Cabellas won't supply any of the stuff as they reckon it's prohibited for export!.

[dromia]

Shipping would be in the region of $75-125 for its size and weight depending on how it is sent then add 25% for vat and duty and £8 for parcel force not to deliver it to you if it comes in that way. Fed Ex will send you a bill for any customs charges.

[Cj10]

Cheers :)

Yes, it's about £250-£265 in the US but Sinclair site won't give me a shipping price without placing an order, will email them tomorrow and see what they say. Cabellas won't supply any of the stuff as they reckon it's prohibited for export!.

I was lucky enough to buy a number of presses in 2008 when the £ was worth 2.05 $. This added to a very help dealer in Idaho ended up with me paying less than £300 for a lnl with an electric case feeder, less than £850 for a Dillon Super 1050 with lots fo extras, and a Forster Co-ax for around £100. These were shipped prices to my door, after being cleared by customs.

I use the Lnl for 45acp, .303, and 9mm. The Dillon solely for 223, and the Forster for 308, 300 winmag and 338 Lapua.

I do have a Loadmaster, which is used for .357. I agree it has a number of foilables, but if set up exclusively for one calibre it will produce reasonably consistent loads. (Wouldn't buy another though).

Ceri