Is Lee compatible with all other manufacturers?

T

tobnpr

New member
My son that left the next last year decided that he wanted to do his own reloading (precision centerfire) from now on and bought some gear....
With some suggestions from me he put together a list, and he decided (over light objection from me) on a Lee turret press.

The dies for his .260 are Redding FL sizing (I have Hornady, RCBS as well- no Lee), and they were used with the shell plate on my Hornady AP.

Apparently (watched/discussed via Skype lol) he cannot get any shoulder bump with the Lee turret shellholder- oddly enough, the comparator is showing longer datum length than the fire-formed cases after sizing. Guess brass flows up before the shoulder is set back at the end of the stroke?

In any case, the sizing die is proven good. That leaves the shellholder, and I'm surmising it's too thick and holding the die "up". Are Lee shellholders supposed to be used only with their dies? I've never had issues with cross-compatibility with anything before...
 
I had a set of Lee shell holders... still do have them. They would not allow a primer to fully seat in RCBS priming devices. Had high primers in .308 and .223.

Bought a set of RCBS shell holders and problem went away. Now i only use those Lee shell holders to decap (without sizing)
 
Yes. They are compatible, generally. Not proprietary. However, their shell holders are not the best. They try to have fewer sizes to be passable for multiple caliber dies. The fact is the wobble tolerances are excessive, and can cause problems.
Redding, RCBS, Lyman make better shell holders. I like the Lee powder measure and hand press very much. Their shell holders are better suited for no lead fishing weights.
 
When he set up the die, did he not just touch the die to the shell holder with the ram raised but also turn the die in far enough to take the slack out of the turret head?
 
I kind'a think all the press manufactures prefer their {press} equipment be fitted with their accessory parts only.

May times the substitution of a simple part such as a shell-holder can bring about head scratching annoying problems.

Lee holders never worked in my RCBS R/C press. But Pacific Brand does.
 
When he set up the die, did he not just touch the die to the shell holder with the ram raised but also turn the die in far enough to take the slack out of the turret head?
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Good point- and yes. We did this over Skype so I could see exactly what he was doing. My Hornady has a positive "cam over", and I have a couple of dies that need to be screwed in 1/2 turn or so past contact to make the press cam over really hard in order to get the needed shoulder bump. The Lee doesn't work like that, but had him do the typical set up, then screw the die in one full turn and put some azz behind it to be sure any slack was taken out.

Yes. They are compatible, generally. Not proprietary. However, their shell holders are not the best. They try to have fewer sizes to be passable for multiple caliber dies. The fact is the wobble tolerances are excessive, and can cause problems.
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Thanks for that info. I hadn't thought of it as QC issue- but makes sense. As someone that works in half-thousandths every day, I'm trying to explain to him how precise these tolerances are- that one thou is like splitting a human hair into four pieces- doesn't take much for "go" to "no go", so to speak. I've used most all the other colors with no issues on cross-compatibility but have always stayed away from Lee on presses/dies.

I had thought I might mill down the top of his shellholder to get the die to seat lower, but given your comment that's not going to solve it. Besides, shellholders are cheap- I'll tell him to order one from Redding so that it'll match the dies I gave him.

Thanks again for the feedback. He was a bit shocked when we went through the list of what's needed and what it costs- and the Lee was what he could afford with everything else. I'm not knocking them because I haven't used them- but I've always been "buy once, cry once" when it comes to reloading equipment. Heck, he just bought a concentricity gauge and I don't have that yet, lol.

So to the question of the day- will the Lee press deliver the consistency of sizing, and bullet seating that's required for precision handloading, or will he be chasing his tail trying to get the needed results with it? I just have no idea what kind of "slop", or tolerances, to which they're made.
 
The very best part about reloading is the equipment we get to use. Nowhere is it written that one has to use a certain brand or type of equipment to produce safe, reliable, accurate ammunition. And anyone that says you do is a fool or a snob.

Also, yes there are different grades of tools and anyone with a computer should be able to quickly figure that out before they make purchase. So when they do make a purchase they should also be informed enough to know the quality of the tools they purchased. No excuse for I didn't know or I didn't realize. The information is out there and it's easy to find.

I have never had a problem with any of the equipment I have purchased including the Lee stuff. I do have a couple Lee presses and I purchased them by desire, not because I had to or didn't know about their quality I purchased them because I wanted them.

If you don't like Lee stuff then please don't buy it no body is making you buy it. Also please quite whining about it, it's getting very old.
 
If you don't like Lee stuff then please don't buy it no body is making you buy it. Also please quite whining about it, it's getting very old.
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Time to get out the popcorn, I guess.

Heere we gooooo... It's Friday, not in a great mood anyway so I'll BITE:

So to the question of the day- will the Lee press deliver the consistency of sizing, and bullet seating that's required for precision handloading, or will he be chasing his tail trying to get the needed results with it? I just have no idea what kind of "slop", or tolerances, to which they're made.
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So, you're calling asking a viable question, "whining"???
And others that express a bit of negative feedback gets under your skin?
 
I have never had a problem with any of the equipment I have purchased including the Lee stuff. I do have a couple Lee presses and I purchased them by desire, not because I had to or didn't know about their quality I purchased them because I wanted them.

If you don't like Lee stuff then please don't buy it no body is making you buy it. Also please quite whining about it, it's getting very old.
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If you don't like people discussing Lee Equipment, or any equipment, then stop reading internet reloading forums that discuss equipment and reloading techniques.
No one is making you read it. The information is out there on what topics these forums cover. So stop whining about it, because it's getting old.
 
So to the question of the day- will the Lee press deliver the consistency of sizing, and bullet seating that's required for precision handloading, or will he be chasing his tail trying to get the needed results with it? I just have no idea what kind of "slop", or tolerances, to which they're made.

So, you're calling asking a viable question, "whining"??? And others that express a bit of negative feedback gets under your skin?

Your own question. You apparently already have an opinion on the equipment so why ask the question again? It's been asked and answered many times before.

The Lee shell holders are junk for the most part and it's well known. They are manufactured to fit many sizes. Not just one particular case so tell me where you are going to establish any form of consistency with that?

Not a problem with honest negative feedback new products need honest reviews from people that are using them. This stuff in this question has been around for years, it's not new. It's been reviewed and discussed for years with always the same results.
 
after a couple years of trying to group me 308. ,came across a ribs die set accuracy improved immediately, and remembering checking lee shell holders ,compared 2 # 3 holders difference was more than .020
 
I use and like some lee products, i have tried other lee products and don't use them.

The pistol dies,universal decapper, rifle charge dies, powder funnel,and classic cast turret I like and use.
For rifle shell holders, die locking rings, rifle dies,scales,case prep tools,progressive presses,trimmers,I prefer other brands.

(I haven't tried the collet neck size die yet but have some to try, so I am reserving comment either positive, neutral or negative on it)

I recall seeing a thread awhile ago about the repeatability of the takeup or slop in the turret when under compression.
It seemed to be repeatable if i remember. The front of the turret would bottom first, then the rear.


I use the classic cast turret for 7 rifle calibers.
I used to use it for 3 pistol calibers as well with the index rod.
I do those on a square deal now.
I mainly changed due to an economy of motion, not necessarily a speed of loading issue.
 
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I only load two rifle calibers on my turret for both my AR's. They are in .223 and 7.62x39. The .223 shoots just under MOA when I'm up to it, and the 7.62x39 is at 1.5 MOA on a good day. That's at a hundred yards, I don't have anywhere to shoot at longer distances. I haven't experienced a single failure in these loads for well over a thousand rounds and they shoot extremely consistently. For dropping the powder I keep my Lyman 55 permanently set for the 7.62x39, and have an adapter to use it with the powder through die on my turret. For the .223 I have a pre set drum for the Auto Drum which works great with H335.
 
Lee stuff is generally fine if you use it as intended and don't try to make it do something it wasn't designed to do. Finish is left rough on purpose because Lee figures you don't want to pay them to polish things. However, some things, like the collet dies, benefit from some attention to smoothing the sliding surfaces. That particular product takes a little getting used to, but works great once you get there.


kmw1954 said:
The Lee shell holders are…manufactured to fit many sizes. Not just one particular case so tell me where you are going to establish any form of consistency with that?
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I'm afraid that multiple caliber thing is standard practice industry-wide. Look down the cartridges list in this table of shell holder numbers from six different makers and there are very few numbers from each maker that don't show up multiple times. Now, if you ask me why they didn't all just standardize on one numbering system, I don't know. Sometimes the numbers match and sometimes they don't. Sometimes one maker decides observed product variation merits a special number (Hornady, Redding and C-H all use their Number 1 shell holders for the same rounds, except C-H has a 1A for .45 ACP when the other two just use their number 1, or C-H uses a number 4 for 257 Roberts when Lee, Hornady and Redding all use their number 1's with it). Looking the table over, you are forced to conclude some shell holder makes will be a better fit to certain cartridges than others, but which one makes the best fit for any particular cartridge will jump around.


kmw1954 said:
Not a problem with honest negative feedback new products need honest reviews from people that are using them. This stuff in this question has been around for years, it's not new. It's been reviewed and discussed for years with always the same results.
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…And history has been around and repeated for even more years, yet look how many youngsters seem unfamiliar with much of it. This hobby has turnover. Those of us who've stuck with it for decades have heard almost all of it before, but that doesn't mean everyone else who might ever reload has heard it. So, this isn't likely to stop anytime soon. If you have a complaint about a question someone asks, then report it to the moderators, but please do not take it upon yourself to characterize (as whining or whatever) or correct the attitudes and behavior of other members, as that seldom ends well. Please report the post and let the mods decide if it merits action or correction.

Incidentally, I encourage everyone who thinks they have an original question to try it in the search function at the top right of the main forum window in order to check for existing answers and to save themselves time getting an answer, if nothing else.
 
Thanks for the feedback.
I certainly hope my son made a good choice, right? However, never owned a Lee press.
Precision, repeatable sizing requires rigidity same as machining requires rigidity IMO.

Being unfamiliar with their turret press I was looking for some feedback as to whether it's going to serve the purpose. If he's going to end up with datum dimensions that vary by several thousandths without changing anything, that's a problem. I suspect you may be alluding to that with the comment at the start of your reply. Search turned up nothing on this specific problem.

I'll suggest to him to change out the shellholder, and we'll see what happens. Hopefully I'll report back that the press can deliver satisfactory results at half the cost.
 
If you are looking for precision a heavy single station would serve you better.
Turrets have moving parts and thus some "slop" but that's normal in most turrets. You can load rifle ammo with it but how precise you needs are will determine if it will be precise enough .

I have a turret for handgun loading and a big Pacific Super Deluxe "C" for rifle. And it wouldn't hurt to get a more precise shell holder for precision rifle Redding makes a competition set. Most Lee products are good but the shell holders can be squirrely in their tolerances...one was giving me fits , I realized what was going on , swapped the Lee for a CH4D holder and solved that problem.
I think Lee tries to make them fit too many calibers and you wind up with more "slop".
Gary
 
My question would be, if you are looking to make precision ammo, WHY are you looking at a turret press, at all???

The NEEDED clearance (aka slop) in a turret press doesn't matter when loading pistol rounds, and usually doesn't matter when loading ammo for deer season. However, if you are looking at loading precision ammo for match use, the design of the press works against you.

I'd do your sizing on a single stage press, O-frame preferred, and not something made of aluminum. Of course, that's my personal preference.

I've been reloading since the early 70s, and my experience is that saving a few bucks isn't worth it, if I don't get all the features I want. And for me, finish is one of the features I like. I'm only buying these things once, so having to deal with things I don't really care for isn't worth the cost difference, to me.

My Ford Focus is a good little economy car, but its not what I would choose as a base to start a racing career with...;)
 
The word "precision" is subjective, I shouldn't have used it. Let's go with "target" :D
Fair point about the press type; I will humbly admit I hadn't thought about the advantage of a single stage over turret in having more perfect alignment of centerline for case and dies because of no rotating/moving parts.

To anyone's knowledge, has this ever been tested/quantified in comparisons of the major presses?

Sometimes we accept compromise, years ago when I started reloading for the three of us, I went directly to a progressive for the 300-400 rounds needed per range trip so that it could be accomplished in one day instead of several. Even with that, there's never an issue with dimensional consistency of the sized cases it spits out.

I do agree that in my son's case, given that he wants to produce the most consistent ammo possible he should not have compromised (for speed and ease) and gone with single stage. We'll see what happens with the shellholder change, hopefully it'll solve the sizing issue and I do see a single stage in his future either way.

Thanks again for the input.
 
From a past thread about turret movement.
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=456207&highlight=movement+in+lee+turret+head


It takes me being a better shooter than I am to want to replace my press when I can get a 195-13x on a 1 moa target at 300 yards, it points to a indian issue, not a arrow issue to me.

(77 smk,cci 450,varget , loaded on a lee cast turret)

But I'll admit everything is a compromise between speed and cost,
Maybe in the future I'll load on a co ax, or a rock chucker,
For the time being I'll accept that it takes 20 seconds to decap separately, size, then trim,chamfer,debur,brush case neck,remove primer crimp or brush primer pocket, and handle brass twice.
Loading is handling cases twice and priming,charging and seating.
 
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