Lee Loadmaster

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lesterg3

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After several months of waiting for all the back ordered reloading equipment to arrive, I have enough to get started. Just missing the shell plate for the 40 and the 9 MM.

As for presses I bought two a Lee Loadmaster, and a Lee Breech Lock Challenger.

I would love to get all this stuff set up this week and start some reloading next week.

However, I am paranoid, and want to do it right the first time. I have read through the Lee instructions a couple of times, it seems very complicated.:uhoh:

Since I value your guys opinions, and suggestions, and other input, what advice can you offer in setting these units up.

Thanks for your help in advance.
 
well, I am a newbie also. I have the challenger press and it has worked very well as I learned very carefully how to reload .223. I went and took a look at the "loadmaster" and that thing looks very very complicated.....I would suggest you fiddle with the simple one-stage system for a while and get accurate rounds out of THAT.

I am now thinking about getting the Hornady concentricity gauge (which no one has in stock) to improve my concentricity....and maybe get a competition seating die from either Wilson or RCBS....and measure the depth to my lands....and adjust seating based on that....plenty for me to learn for the moment and the challenger press has provided all the possibilities needed for learning.

Choose a light load tht is impossible to put TWO of in the case you are reloading if at all possible. Visually check after loading that you have put just about the same amount in every case.

Make up a checklist of what you are going to do in what order and print mulitple copies, keep copy with each batch.

Read all the instructions THOROUGHLY. There seem to be different ways to do everything. I elected to break it down into many small steps:

inspect
deprime with a lee deprimer die
check all cases for length; resize any that are long (turning out to be less than 10%...and I need to work on it because I am doing a sloppy job of it)
lube neck (this may be optional for what I do, and I may switch to graphite or motor mica)
neck size
load with powder (chose load after doing 2 batches to test system and then careful ladder test) (check every 10th load on scale)
visually CHECK every load
seat bullet
check every length

store in original factory plastic holders with slip indicated how prepared
fill in log book
 
check out this website. http://loadmastervideos.com/
Start with the Challenger press , don't worry about the Loadmaster for now, and work on each step of reloading a cartridge and before you know it you will be shooting your own pistol rounds. The Lee dies come with fairly good instructions on how to set them up. It wouldn't hurt to work up a few dummies with spent primers and no powder to get the adjustments correct and learn how to use each die.
 
Regardless of which press you buy, get two or more of the following:

Lyman 49th Reloading Handbook
ABC's of Reloading 8th Edition
Lee Modern Reloading, Second Ed.
Hornady Handbook 7th Edition
Lyman Pistol and Revolver 3rd Ed.
Speer Reloading Manual #14
Sierra 5th Edition Manual
Nosler Reloading Guide #6

The instructions that came with the presses and 2 or more of these books will tell you everything you need to know for your first couple of years (or longer!). And these books are far more reliable than any internet forum. Learn from these books and follow the instructions; learn to play it safe. You will never feel apprehensive again.
 
Look at the videos that TexasBird posted about .
Make sure you check out the one about setting the primer depth !
Look at them all but that one is real important .
Order a couple extra primer sliders .
At first I smashed some .
Once you watch the videos and get it set right you will be good to go .

Bill
 
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