Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Lee Classic Loader

Any of you guys use the Lee Classic Loader? How do they stack up against a press?

I wouldn't compare them as they aren't really comparable except for the fact that both do make ammo. The Lee Loader is a decent way to try reloading though for a small investment if you're not sure you really want to dive in with both feet. (Warning: many an addictive hobby has been begun with a Lee Loader. )

The Classic Cast? Very nice piece of equipment. Doubt that you could do much better in a single stage press, at any price.

I have a lee loader in .270 win and ive benn loading with it to reasonable results and now im wanting to go into other calibers but im not sure if i want to use lee loaders or buy into a newer system.

You can only neck size your cases and is slower than utilizing a 7/8x14 press.

I use the Lee Loader mainly to seat bullets when working up loads at the range for several calibers. In addition, the loader goes with me on prairie dog hunts...just in case I run out of loaded cases.

Im told neck sizing is more accurate in rifle cartridges, is this true?

There are two opposite camps regarding your question. Do a search on neck size vs full length sizing and you will get a wheelbarrow load of information...pro and con.

Ha! About like everything else, ill save the hard drive and just try em both out and see which works better for me.

Use a press first and then decide if you want to make life harder on yourself. As mentioned, you can't FL size with them, and you probably don't want to seat primers with a hammer under any conditions. They are workable for handgun (but not an attractive option for me), but their sole virtue is low cost (and at what price?).

That's the best thing to do. While it's nice to get opinions, it usually boils down to your unique situation. Many users have modified their reloading technique over the years by incorporating different equipment and methods - including Lee Loaders, other dies and gear.

For example, most reloaders buy a handheld priming tool to use with their LL. Not because of what you read on the boards about the primers going off (that doesn't happen as often as posters say ), but because it speeds things up. Others buy an inexpensive press and mount a seating die on it. They neck size with the loader, prime with a tool like a Lee Priming tool, add their powder and seat the bullet with the press.

LL are always handy to use at the range or around the bench.

http://www.303british.com/id31.html

And there really isn't anything dangerous about the odd primer that does occasionally go off with the Lee Loader; they are surrounded by so much steel that they make Remington's "three rings of steel" seem puny by comparision. (That takes nothing away from the real power a primer has. They should be treated with great respect - which the LL is well designed to do.)

having a primer pop while you're using a Lee Loader just keeps you in focus. A Lee Auto Prime takes that excitement away.

I had a Lee Loader about 40 years ago as my first venture into reloading centerfire rounds. When the first primer went off as I was pounding it in, was about the time I stopped using it. It just didn't sit well that the same pounding process is used for seating bullets with powder in the case with a live primer.

They have been selling them for years and as far as I know, no one had had an issue with them though.

fish head

Not buying a LL because a primer may go off is silly. There's no danger, just a bang that reminds you to pay more attention. Primers going off is a good teacher.

For less than $20, you can buy a priming tool anyway. Regardless of whether you use a press, Lee Loader or something fancy like a Wilson in line, a priming tool is going to be on your reloading bench.

It's a simple tool that works just fine.

If you want to ease into reloading the Lee hand Pres is THE way to go. Love that sucker. I can deprime anything at the range with a universal depriming die. It works well with the .308-sized rounds and smaller.

I use one for crimping cartridges that need it. A Lee Hand Press is good addition to the bench.

There are other companies that make useful, well made products. Lee has their crimping and collet dies, of course, as well as a priming tool. I like Redding dies, but RCBS are okay as well. Any of the universal decapping dies installed in an inexpensive press is a great idea too.

Despite all the extra tools that accumulate on your bench, in the end, it can all be done with a $20 Lee Loader and a hammer. That's it; reduced to its simplest form.

When I went to college...I was po! I bought one of those lee loaders in 3006 and drove my neighbor crazy banging on that thing, but it does work and it works very well. That little devise for as simple and no more then it is, can produce some really accurate rounds. You'll definately spent sometime working up a box of shells, but it will do it and last a lifetime.
Yet, OldChurch makes a good point about the hand press, it's portible too, works just fine and you can get dies to either full length or neck size, just cost alittle bit more. And as for primers popping, if one ever did it to me I don't remember it, and if it did it sure didn't leave any PTSD.
I blew the dust off mine last weekend and put together 6 shells to try a load out because I didn't want to horse around changing out the dies on my press (that's called being lazy and not wanting to get off the couch)

I havent had any problem seating primers, it seems relatively easy to me ( though ive never used a priming tool) that may revolutionize my reloading world.

I've used Lee Loaders off an on for 42 years now, which is kind of surprising to me. Along with rifle rounds, I used to load both 20- and 12-gauge shotshells with them, whuich work fine in break-action guns.

I did a test a few years ago, comparing .22 Hornet loads made in a Lee Loader with those made on my big press. The Lee Loader rounds won easily, even those loaded with a dipper (one of the Lee dippers dispenses precisely 13.0 grains of Li'l Gun). I traced the reason to really straightly-sized brass. One of the groups I fired put four shots touching and the 5th a little out at 100 yards, for a total group of a little over 4/10ths of an inch.

They will do the job if you do yours.

Lee Loaders started their decline when more and different equipment was made. I'd tag it around the late 70s or maybe the early 80s. The ad companies pushed an expanding line of reloading equipment. This included neck sizing dies, RCBS X dies, case prep tools and other stuff that up until then was used mostly by benchrest shooters.

If you think about manufacturing back then, it was harder to screw up a piece of round stock with a hole drilled through the middle. At least, when you compare it to the manufacture of a std resizing die. There will be less runout. I expect that holds true today.