Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles The Awesome Lee Loader

Very nice! Keep life simple for the caveman!

I enjoyed watching - must have 10 different sets of those. Bought one when I bought a new cartridge. Haven’t used them in years since I picked up a Huntington Compac press.

Thanks for sharing!



Nostalgia is awesome

I also started on the Lee Loader back in the 1970's. First set was for my first rifle, a 243.

Still have sets for 223, 243, 30-30, and 44 Mag.

Funny how we found a way these days to complicate something that is pretty simple

How true.

First, I have to say that I do not blame gunwriters for this. At least, not totally. Before everyone became an expert via the magic of the Internets, we got virtually all our information from magazines.

We had basic die sets. Ones that full length sized for the most part. A few who had neck dies like the Lee Loader. There were no collet dies, bump dies or X dies. Very few had micrometer seaters, bushing dies or body dies.

Most guys were happy to brag about how much better RCBS dies were than Lee. No one knew what runout was. And it didn’t matter in the field anyway.

Somewhere along the way, people tried BR reloading techniques with their levers or “off the rack” bolt guns. The idea for that usually came from reading one of the monthly magazines. Often, it didn’t work, but it always took longer and was expensive.

Now, deer hunters have power powder dispensers, neck turning tools, case prep tools like flash hole uniformers and primer pocket reamers collecting dust on their benches.

We spent more money on components too. Winchester and Remington cases and bullets became second rate. Almost everyone bought into the idea that match primers were better, helping to produce super accurate loads.

Leupolds became garbage. Wool sweaters and dungarees became tactical camouflage patterns. Redding and Forster dies are the only ones worth owning these days. Whitetails can only be killed with Partitions.

What happened?

Nice video and write up Guy.

I’ve never owned a Lee Loader, but for some reason I always conjure visions of an old trapper having one of these in the cabin just tucked away on a shelf below the sporterized Springfield.

I got my first Lee Loader with my first 30.06 in 1976, still have it. I've loaded several different cartridges with them, freaked me out the first time I set off a primer.

Way cool loading with this thing.

Ne ver used the Lee, but loaded 222 for years with a Lyman 310 tool.

Sorry Steve, my father and I were using Lee collet dies a long while before they were much talked about on the internet, and I have a Sinclair fixture for checking runout that is probably older than a lot of the posters on this site.

As JB is fond of saying, you are a sample of one. Most people had little.