Comments before I buy a lee bullet feeder?

Alleykat doesn't say anything about loading primers into tubes for the dillon one at a time. Ya don't need to do that with a Lee. Well I guess you could shell out a bunch of bucks and get that vibrator thingy for loading primer tubes.
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The reason Alleykat doesn't say anything about loading primers into tubes for his Dillon one-at-a-time is because that's not how Alleykat loads primers into tubes for his Dillon. Ever hear of the Vibra-Prime?? ;) Takes me 10 seconds to load a tube. Also don't have to worry about cheapass plastic pieces breaking on the Dillon's primer feeding mechanism.

Just for the experience, buy the flimsyass, crappy, el-cheapo Lee bullet feeder and give it a try. It'll be a pretty cheap lesson, if you don't just figure out, from eyeballing the p.o.s. when you take it out of the box, that it's not worth installing.
 
newbie to board

Hello all. nice forum and well set up. sorry that my first thread contains my two cents but wow. i have been loading and shooting for a era or two and havent found much that works right out of the box the way I feel it should and have to end up tweaking it some how or another. But to me that is part of the hobby side of it as I am a teaching pro and shooting is more like a job. and I like lee stuff personally and dont care who does or doesnt and think it is pretty immature to be arguing over a brand name. maybe you ought to gold plate it ... anyway

My bullet feed kit was a fluff buy and i wish I had gotten the micro adj charge bar instead as it is of more use, but since i own one, and spent a better part of a sunday morning cussing the instruction makers at Lee; and wanting them fired! ( and still do!) i found that even though I made the mistake of getting the larger length set than my bullet I glued some pennies together until I shimmed up the gap. then installed a magnet and cut a shim of iron stock and polished one side. It gives me the whole range of custom lengtht as I like to mess with casting and swaging wieght and lengths. AND if you can build up a nipple in the center of your shim ( which can be made of plastic the magnet iron combo was a mounting choice but there are many) you can feed the conical base bullets like pmc loads with. You have to steady the fingers a bit and you cannot be heavy handed at all with this rig attached!! the bullet will jerk out every time if you yank the the lever to start the press.


As for your fingers not holding the bullet (yes I agree that a taper design on the fingers or soft alum would have been a better choice but they didnt do that so and the fingers do align the bullet better than your hands ever will once it is set up.)
have you tried wrapping a rubber band around the fingers a couple of times ( experiement with tension by different sizes and wraps of the r/b ) I did that anyway to better steady the bullet during press cycling. I thnk that our disposable society has left us to ready to be at the mercy of the manufacturer and just throwing it away? have you even seen Idiocracy? no wonder our kids think we suck! anyway hopes for the dismall future.
oh and btw.. if anyone has any crappy lee stuff they want to throw away i'll play garbage man and pay the shipping... throw it this way!! :) HA!



GIMME TH' NANNERZ!


-----------------you never think i will happen
----------------------------------------------then it happens
-----------------be prepared!! Join IDPA
 
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Welcome to the forum Glock Monkey! :)

My opinion (without trying it) is that the bullet feeder cannot save time. That's why I don't use one. I like my Loadmaster, and once dialed in it's fast, and was within my budget. Also it was cost effective enough for me to justify it with my shooting needs (wants! :)). Not that I'm wearing a red bandanna and posing on a street corner, but I've had good luck with my red machine. Choose your koolaid, I guess!:rolleyes:

The way I see it, is the time you spend loading the tubes is basically the time you would be placing the bullet on the case mouth, so It seemed difficult to me to save any time. Plus it would be in the way of your work. Especially since it closes off the left side of the press where you sneak your hand in to fool with things.

But that's the beauty of a forum, there's always another viewpoint. And you can make your own choice once it's all said and done.
 
time.

Thanks! Ha! no doubt ....koo-aide. Yeah i didnt really get it to save time and thats a good thing. i dont use the tubes that much. but give lee time and they may come up with a collator. who knows. what they lack in printing material they make up for in innovation, imho. and they free up the bucks for the components!! I have a pro 1000 but use it like a single stage, sort of. I like the way the feedr seats the bullet. loading is about consistancy and accuracy for me. I can buy paper punchers. I build match ammo. and like i said it was a fluff buy so I felt I had to justify the purchase and make it work for me. the adj charge bar would have been a much better way to spend the 25 bucks as the disks dont allow for any work up. heck the 9mm start charge is only .2 g off the ne load in my data sheets 4 my powder; so I dont use the powder drop and still charge them 1 @ a time. But the trade off is that it seems I am constantly at the press and more so when I get a new load of brass or something is always changing. it is wierd. I charge the cases by hand and check end weights and headspace and there are still varients. I think it is my scale is not sensitive enough. I am going to upgrade (upgrayedd... ha) to a .001 gradient. oops babbleing.



GIMME TH' NANNERZ!


-----------------you never think i will happen
----------------------------------------------then it happens
-----------------be prepared!! Join IDPA
 
Just reading thru the posts for bullet feeder information. This is an older thread. It's a shame AlleyKat didn't have anything positive to add to the discussion. There's nothing wrong with Lee, makes good dependable ammo. To each his/her own. At least be civil.
 
If we are going to kick the dead...Lee makes some good products but the bullet feeder is one of them that you should save your money on. I had one many moons ago and it worked, sort of, sometimes. If you want one that will do what you think it should the GSI or KISS are far better options. Here are some of my bullet feeders all of them use homemade collators to feed the bullets to the feeders.

650feeders.jpg


1050feeder.jpg


feeder4.jpg


 
My 2 cents on this,
(Inserts 1st penny) - The Lee pro 1000 admittedly takes a little futzing to fine tune and the bullet feeder is no different, but once its set correctly it runs like a top. Not everyone here is all about setting a stopwatch, pulling the handle and trying to set a new ammo count record every time we sit at the press. Every press requires setup prior to use , primers/cases/bullets/powder dont magically appear in there respective tubes and they dont magically refill themselves either. Putting 25 bullets in the tube (even one at a time) before you start as opposed to reaching into the box, grabbing a bullet with your size XXXXL fingers , reaching around the support stantion and holding it as the plate goes up until you can barely pull your fingers out in time with every pull of the handle ... DOES save time and aggravation!!
(Inserts second penny) -- The fingers on the bullet feeder do indeed grab and hold the bullet sufficiently for reliable feeding (except for 230gr and above) , some of your shorter bullets have a short flat side before the ogive starts and may require a shim (washer , penny, etc) so the fingers dont grab too close to the ogive allowing the bullet to slip out .
An adjustable foot on the die would solve this problem .. but its easily corrected with a little ingenuity.

If you like holding each bullet.. awesome!!
If you dont , use the bullet feeder . It works great!! And if you encounter glitches with it ask here, someone has figured out how to correct it.
Out of pennies...
 
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