Anybody ever used a Lee hand press?

Lee Handpress and Lee Ram Prime experience

Lee Handpress and Lee Ram Prime experience

I just got my Lee Handpress.
The Lee Ram prime I had from before (2 of them).

With this press I am going to load 380 acp (Hornady) only since my Lyman T mag 2 turret press has it's turrets full of 9mm Luger (Hornady) and 357 mag (RCBS taper crimp) dies (3 of each).

I never could get to work reliably the Lee Ram Prime on the Lyman turret press. The primers tended to flip and something was catching allway activating the spring in the Ram Prime making jump the primers.

But with the Lee Handheld press the Lee Ram prime works flawless.

I just recommend the Lee handpress and ram prime as an good alternative for pistol/Revolver reloading. Looks like if you buy each item from the same brand they will work meanwhile with other brands they will not work.
 
2006 is just yesterday.

The info stays in the web benefitting from it many many People.

Instead starting a new thread why not continuing on an existing one. If the existing thread would have been from the 1950's we could call it outdated. But info from past 1990 is still very relevant.

I actually bought this Lee Handpress as an back up press should the Lyman Turret press fail (whenever that may be in the next century!!).

As well my defensive 380 acp get's it's reloads with the Lee Handpress. I anyways will not use that many 380 acp rounds since I do not expect an frecuent Extended gun fight in self defense (maybe never in my life) so no Need to buy a expensive additional press. On a row I may make 12 rounds (2 magazines full for the Beretta Pico).

By the way:
PHP: 
Those "Zombie" web links from midwayusa still work. 
But I have to correct myself in that regards that those presses shown there are 
the old model without breech System. 
Just a bit outdated
And the Price has risen about 20$ as well from then
:D
My press is actually the breech Lock design (modern Version of those older models shown in this thread).
Nice press though.
 
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glockopop said:
I just keep thinking of questions. What size primers should I be using for .45ACP, .40 S&W, and 9x19? And what about powder? I'll want to make loads that are just barely inside of IPSC Major Power Factor.
Click to expand...
**Most** .45 ACP uses llarge pistol primers. However, there are a couple of commercial brands that now offer a "non-toxic" line, and Winchester's NT ammo in .45 ACP uses small pistol primers.

.40 S&W and 9mm both use small pistol.

glockopop said:
Also, which Lee dies should I get? I was looking at the carbide speed die because it says you don't have to change dies between operations on a single stage press. It's also the cheapest. It says you don't need case lube with it.
Click to expand...
I don't understand your question. I use almost exclusively Lee equipment, and I've never heard of a "speed" die, or any die that can perform multiple functions.

For pistol, Lee's dies come in a 4-die set. The first die decaps and resizes. I don't use the decapper -- I decap and prime on a separate bench. The second die flares the case mouth, and can be set up on a turret or progressive press to charge the case at the same time. This is also when the primer is seated if priming "on the press." The third die seats the bullet and removes the flare. The fourth die is what Lee calls the "factory crimp die." This applies the final crimp and does a partial resize to ensure the rounds aren't too fat to chamber.

There's no way one die can be set up to perform more than one of these operations.
 
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I use 3 Lee hand presses for all my reloading. Liked them so much, never felt the need to change or go progressive. I load 223, 308, 30/06, 44 mag, 10mm and even 340 Weatherby on mine with very little effort.
 
That's what my original plan was as well.
Buy 4 Lee Handpresses and then leave on them mounted the dies for one caliber. Like 1rst Handpress with 380 auto decap and size die, 2nd Lee Handpress with the expander die and 3rd Lee Handpress has the seating and crimping die on it. 4th Handpress has the Lee Ram Prime unit mounted. All presses stay with their respective 380 auto dies installed.

But my Lyman T mag 2 turret press arrived sooner and so I bought one Lee Handpress just recently as I expanded to 380 auto (Beretta Pico) caliber and the Lyman press is full of 357 mag/9mm Luger dies.
Since the dies stay in place in order to not alter anything (and believe me any screw in/unscrew changes a bit the die setup).

Then I realised those 4 Lee Handpresses price together 38$ x 4 presses= 152$ plus shipping, customs (goes ouside of the US) and other fees. That equals again roughly the price of the Lyman T Mag 2 turret press which has room for 2 caliber sets.
So those 4 Lee Handpresses are more costly and have room for just 1 caliber die set than the Lyman turret press which has room for 2 caliber die sets. And the table mounted press is a bit more handy but not mobile.
That is why I went with just 1 Lee Handpress for the 380 acp.

But yes having 4 of them gives you more compactness and mobility and you need less infrastructure to set up.
 
The reasons zombie threads are discouraged is that:

  1. Many of the original participants are no longer active members, so they can't respond.
  2. Frequently there are product changes or additions that justify old answers being revised with more current details. At that point, it becomes better to restate the information in new posts rather than ask people to read old ones.
  3. Some people will look at the first post date and decide you must be adding a late response to questions already answered, and that you just didn't notice how old it was. As a result, they don't read the rest, even though there is actually new information posted.
In other words, you are likely to draw more participation and more current interest if you start a new thread on the subject. You can always include a link to the old thread as a reference, directing people to it as background information if you think it is valuable for them to read. Discouraging zombie threads is less about the old information's validity and more about human participation behavior on a forum where we would like to maximize that participation.
 
Wanted a Huntington but they were discontinued. Settled for a Lee. Been pleased so far with the Lee's use. The press is primarily used for Range reloading. No longer need to pull bullets I didn't shoot. Just make what I need right there at the Club Range. Shoot pick-up my brass go home and relax.
 
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