Curious about Lee Handloader...from a complete noob

You have received a lot of useful information in this thread, but PLEASE do not consider moving forward on any of it without learning much more about reloading in general -there is so much more that you do not have a clue yet that you do not know, and much of it can be very dangerous to not know.

Buy the book Modern Reloading by Richard Lee and start reading it. Not only will it explain exactly what you do NEED and what else might be nice to have, but it will tell you exactly WHY. He only talks about Lee equipment, which is a bit of a drawback, but it is still the best place to start in my opinion. Besides, it sounds like you are considering trying out the hobby as cheaply as possible, and the Lee options are both very good and usually much lower cost than other options.
 
Besides, it sounds like you are considering trying out the hobby as cheaply as possible,
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He was four years ago. He probably has a reloading room with a whole row of progressive presses by now.
 
Suckered Again!

Oooh, good catch! I normally try hard to catch and not respond to zombie posts that someone digs up, but I totally blew this one. Seems that the "January" dates in the old posts led me to be complacent and assume that it was all THIS January, without actually checking the full dates. Thanx for pointing this out.
 
The "January" dates being tomorrow and next week? snicker. Worse when you read the month, but not the year. I'm missing days and usually have no idea what day it is myself. HAHAHAHA.
 
I loaded all through college with a Lyman 310 Tong Tool: 9mm and .38 Special. My total equipment beyond the 310 tool was a Redding balance beam scale, and a powder trickler. All of the loading operations were done with the tool, and to be honest, it produced sub 2" groups with good bullets. I used a small screw driver to clean primer pockets, and a pocket knife to chamfer the case mouths. A local guy cast bullets for me a penny a piece. Things were cheaper, eh, in 1964!! Primers cost $0.50 a 100 and Bullesye was about $3.00 a lb, again IIRC.

Later on I added .243 and .222 dies for it which also produced really accurate loads. Only neck sizing could be done with it however. This is also the case with both 9mm and .38/357 cases as well, giving them a slightly .44-40ish look if you get my drift?

I still use the Tong Tool for some primer seating, although I load for hand guns on a pair of Dillon 550B's set up for large and small primers. The tong tool allows the best "feel" for seating a primer that I've ever tried, and is handy where you want to try a different primer and don't care to empty the tube on the big presses. The tool is also handy for neck sizing on cases where I don't have the Lyman "M" die for my bench press. Cast bullets especially.

The Lee loader, using the hammer in and out approach will produce as good ammunition and in fact was used by Wimbleton Cup competitor to produce MOA quality ammunition for his .30-06 IIRC.

I'll add that eventually if you load rifle bottle neck cases, you'll need a trimmer for each caliber (depending on caliber that means every 3-4 loadings). Again, Lee's answer to that operation is really good, and fast if you chuck it up in a drill press or hand drill. I use it exclusively for my .223 loads in my AR.

For a new guy, just starting out, the Lee would be a good choice, but do get a trickler and a scale. I'm not a fan of the dipper's included, finding that they vary the charge too much especially with the faster hand gun powders: bullseye, 231, HP38, WST etc.

If you've got the bucks, the Lyman 310 is more expensive but strikes me as a more useful tool over the long run based on my experience. You'll not regret its purchase if that's the route you go.

HTH's Rod
 
In about 1968 I went to my local gun store and decided to get into hand loading. I bought the classic Lee loader, bullets, primers, and powder. I then asked the guy behind the counter, "is there anything else I need?" I'll always remember his answer, "yes, a bible" My first reloads scared the hell out of me using a hammer. I was a nervous wreak firing my first shot. Immediately I was disappointed since the loads were very light.
The next week I was back buying Rock Chucker press, scale and loading manual.
 
I started out on a Lee Challenger press. I'm not knocking the Lee Handloader by no means but for just a little more money you can have a little more versatility and maybe a little more precision. That's just me. Iv e had my Lee press for 20+yrs and still use it for certain operations along with my RCBS Rockchucker and my Dillon 550. Be careful, reloading is addictive.
 
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