Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Lee Target Model Loader - 22/250

A elderly neighbor decided to sell off his hunting and reloading equipment and gave me the first opportunity to look at his collection.

One of the items I purchased was a Lee Target Model Loader in 22-250 caliber...manufactured by Lee Custom Engineering. He said he purchased it in 1971 after reading a Rifle Magazine staff test by Neal Knox. The only item in the reloader kit he used was the hand priming tool preferring to reload with conventional tools. I am particularily intrigued by the in-line sizing/seating die and the neck reamer.

I researched the Neal Knox article in my Rifle Magazine copies and found it in a May/June 1971 issue. Does anyone have practical experience with the reloading kit.

This is a visual of the loader

Good find - I have always wished they were still available. The reamer seems like a particularly good item, but it seems that I have heard those of high sophistication claim it had some kind of shortcoming.

I used to have one for my .222 but sold it after I sold off all my .222's. The loader worked very well. I'd recommend using a small arbor press instead of a hammer. I did learn that if I used good quality dies (Bonanza BR) and a good press (Bonanza Co-Ax) I could load just as good and get equal results. Of course I employed all the procedures the BR guys use. Some of the fancy tricks for loading do not show the real benefit for all the effort like having a multiple 1000's of $ BR rifle. I was using a factory stock Rem 700 BDL VS at the time. The tool set was very handy on a trip I took to South Dakota for a PD hunt. Shoot all day, load all evening long. Great fun! Use it you'll like it.

Try to buy one on Ebay and you'll find they are still well thought of.

I used my friend's target model to ream the necks of
.22/250 Winchester brass in 1974.

That brass lasted forever! I still have two boxes loaded.

It worked great for loading and case prep.


The Lee TM was great for loading away from home.

I second the vote for an arbor press.

Thanks for all the feedback. Out of curosity I fully intend to follow the instructions and work up some loads and compare with loads I prepare currently.

One question that remains with me, is if the loader kit was successful why did Lee discontinue production?

I also have noted the suggestion to use an arbor press. I don't have one but, a couple of amigos do.

I would guess it was market driven. Not enough demand.

"...it seems that I have heard those of high sophistication claim it had some kind of shortcoming."

Yeah. Same sophisticated "shortcoming" found in Lee's tools today, they weren't expensive enough to be any good.

roundoak, This may not be 100% accurate as I am working from memory which is a little vague on Lee products in that time period. Sometime during that era the Lee company split into two companies one retaining the original name and one becoming the Lee Precision we know today. I believe the original named company continued to mfg. the hand tools the company was known for while Lee Precision started making more inovative tools, presses etc. that they are known for today. Unfortunatly the older named company went out of business probably due to poor sales and the hand tools went with them. Even then folks wanted faster production tools and were highly suspect of budget priced tools. To bad as I still have a couple of the hand priming tools, and loading kits and they work to perfection but they do it slowly.

quarterboredave,

You were on to something there. The tag on the box reads:
LEE CUSTOM ENGINEERING, therefore I did a google search. A member of Shooters Forum called Lee Precision about another product and was informed Lee Custom Engineering was never a part of Lee Precision . Lee Custom Engineering changed their name to Mequon Reloading and eventually went of business in 1988. Another source suggested that Richard Lee owned Lee Custom Engineering, sold off the shotshell business to MEC, reorganized the company to Lee Precision under Richard's son as principle owner. Well the true story is somewhere there.

+1 to what Boomtube said. TV has done that for us: "it cost more so's it must be better...." You see that so often in the shooting/reloading rooms. I'm sure we're not the only ones tho.

Processed 20 once fired cases according to Lee instructions...reamed inside necks, etc. Did a visual runout check (do not have a tool indicator)on a piece of glass. Looked respectable. As soon as it quits snowing and warms a bit will send the loads down the range.
Least you say why bother? I just retired so got plenty of time on my hands.
Roundoak

Yep knew I was a little fuzzy on the exact details. Welcome to the retired world. What your doing with the vintage Lee tools should be a fun investigation, but I suspect you will go back to higher production rate tools pretty soon. Reaming or turning necks, and some of the other case prep procedures soon become a lot like work, something I tend to avoid. Have fun and good luck.

I am always curious about reloading equipment and in this case it is no exception.

Hope you don't mind my jumping in here. It's nice to see my dad still getting cited on gun lore.

Dad was a fan of the Lee hand tools because they were cheap -- appealing to his Scottish heritage -- and easy to use. And yes, they're far easier to use with an arbor press. But by no means are the Lee tools "training wheels." Dad used a Lee seating die with several of his benchrest guns. Walk the line at a major bench match today and you'll still see lots of hand tools, including Lee tools, as competitors typically have no more than 30 or so carefully selected, trimmed, cleaned, reamed, and otherwise coddled hulls which they load between relays.

One note about the .22-250: Check the dimensions of your sized cases, particularly the length of the body from head to the shoulder, and the angle of the shoulder.

I once loaded up a mess of .22-250 ammo using a die set that Dad had lying around. At the range I was getting terrible accuracy -- more than 3 or 4 inches at 100 yards off a bench and using a target scope. Something was wrong with the gun or the ammo. Examining the cases Dad pointed out a bright stretch mark just above where the web of the case would be, indicating an incipient head separation. Examination of a freshly-sized case showed that the sizing die, clearly marked ".22-250", yielded a sharper shoulder angle and a shorter case body. The dies were correctly marked .22-250 but the rifle was a .22-250 Remington. The ammo I was producing was not headspacing correctly. In effect it was rattling around in the chamber. Lesson learned: Beware vintage dies in wildcat calibers. It is not unusual for there to be some evolutionary offshoots before the final commercial product.

Hello Chris,

It is great to hear from you. The name Neal Knox always conjures up nostalgic memories for me. I was handloading before the startup of Handloader and Rifle magazines and I subscribed to both right from the start. The information I gleaned from the various articles accelerated my interest and knowledge of handloading and rifles.

As a young family man there were times I did not have two nickels to rub together. I justified the purchase of simple reloading tools by putting a lot of meat in the freezer. Before Christmas each year my wife and children would ask me for a Xmas list...the answer was always the same...subscription to H and R. From time to time Neal would tell us subscribers it is ok to be frugal and make do with what tools you had. Keep it simple...the use of the cheap Lee rifle loaders was one example. There are a few members on this website that look down their noses at the Lee tools. In some cases a Lee tool might not make the grade, but it is not fair to paint the company with a wide brush of failure.

All the back issues of magazines and indexes are squirreled away on some shelves in a corner of my rec room. It was fun to research the Lee Target Loader article by Neal and found myself spending more time reading other articles from back in the 1970s.

Neal very graciously corresponded with me on a few topics and I believe I have the typed letters somewhere. That reminds me, where are they?

Sadly, I cancelled my subscription to the magazines when John Barsness left Wolfe Publishing, but I just had to make a statement. It was an easy chair kind of comfort knowing the latest issues would have some words of common sense from John. Sorta like the feeling one had with Neal. Well all good things must come to end. Now I have to chase all over the publishing world to read Barsness. Some day, I do not know what timeline, I will be able to pull out the magazine articles by Barsness and call them nostaglic too.

Chris, thanks for starting a trip down memory lane. The best to you and yours.

Round Oak

I have a Rem Classic .300 Savage with a Weaver vintage K3 on it and just for old time sake, I've shot nothing thru it except ammo loaded with a Lee Loader. I can get 1.5" 5 shot groups off the bench with it and I've killed several deer.

I had a couple of these sets in .222 and 6mm Remington. If you follow the directions they will produce very good ammunition. They are slow certainly and I never really liked the the inside neck reaming. Compared to the Wilson and Dewey knockout dies and bullet seaters I also used they were a little crude --- but the ammo shot quite well out of a 40X Remington and a couple of different .222's. That said, they are perfect for loading at the range, especially when you are working up loads for a new rifle.

You can load 5 cartridges, shoot them and change your seating depth or your powder charge for the next five. I never used the powder dippers. I used to use an old Belding and Mull measure and it was easy to work out the settings for various powders at home and then merely to adjust the measure setting at the range when working up loads. No scale required at the range if you did that.

In one afternoon, I could try several different bullets, seating depths powder charges and primers to see what shot best. After that, I went home and loaded up what the rifle liked best in quantity on the usual RCBS press. As I think about it, I can't undestand any reason for not reloading at the range when working up loads. Simple, easy and efficient. Beats the hell out of loading up a bunch of trial loads at home and ending up with boxes of leftover mediocre ammo.

Think I will check over on Ebay and see if I can find a couple of these sets in .223 and 7mm-08. Thanks for your post. You have inspired me........

In a nostaglic moment I purchased a M99 G, 300 Savage last October. My Dad used one on whitetails in the "big" woods of northern Wisconsin. My younger brother owns it now and hunts whitetails and bear in northern Wisconsin and Michigan. He loads it to about 2600 fps with 165 gr Hornady SP over 41 grs IMR 4064. I looked up Dad's load... 2450 fps with 165 gr. Speer RNSP over 38 grs IMR 3031. No complaints in the accuracy department. Will be loading for the 300 in a few days and will work up to the aforementioned loads and more...Send them down the range soon if we can get a January thaw.