Lee Load Master

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trapper500

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i am thinking of buying a Loadmaster fot My 44 magnum & my sons 9mm .Ive been reading alot of good & bad about he Loadmaster now iam a little confused . I cant affored to buy the Hornady or The Dillon presses no way iam disabled & on a fixed income looks loke to me if i save up 7 do buy the Loadmaster & learn everything i can & watch the vids on Loadmaster Zone we would be able to use this press without some of the troubles ive read about & NO DOUBT THAT QUITE A FEW OF THE NEGS I VE READ ARE USER
RELOATED & THEY JUST WONT ADMIT IT . of these are any reloaders who use this press & dont have one problem after another let me know it would help me alot
 
As long as you take the time to set it up and adjust everything correctly it works every time the lever is pulled. There are no priming, index, or case feed issues at all if it is set up correctly and every thing is properly adjusted and even if something is or gets out of adjustment it only takes a few seconds to make adjustments.
 
First I will say Read, Read, and Read from many different reloading manuals and forums. Understand what you are getting into so that you save money on components. Buy in bulk where you can and store powders and primers right.

OK pay attention to my mistakes, I have the Lee Loadmaster and I am new to reloading. I followed all the steps and set it up correctly and it worked great…however if your table that it is secured to flexes in any way or wobbles you will get variations in powder and bullet seating depth. I have now reinforced and the bench and the stroke of the handle is even smoother now. I reloaded 100 total rounds and the last 25 or so rounds vary in bullet seating depth and have caused chambering issues with my Springfield 1911-A1. I have taken time to analyses the rounds and bullet seating depth changes the overall length and just fractions causes by the flex of my bench caused the issues. I love the press and will get better with time. Going to give another 100 a try this coming weekend and see how it goes.
 
I've had a loadmanster for 12 years, and have loaded maybe 40,000 rounds on it. Some of the engineering is pure genius, and some is kinda cheesy. The primer system is where I've had the most trouble. Out of 40,000 (+/) primers, I've only had 15-20 boxes that all loaded properly. All the rest have had inverted or tipped primers, jams that destroy some of the cheesy plastic parts, and just failure to feed a primer. The failure rate with .45 ACP has been about 4%, with .223 about 2%, but with 9mm 0% failures! I don't even own a 9, but I loaded about 4K for a friend.

Read the manual carefully, watch the videos, pay attention to keeping the powder and primers full, and lube it every 500 rds. or so. If you can come up with an extra sizing die, remove the deprime rod and expander ball and install the die over the priming station. This helps prevent tipped primers greatly.

The Loadmaster, in my opinion, requires a lot of attention to function properly. When it runs, it will keep up with a dillon 650, but when it's being finicky, it's a total PITA. If I knew what I know now back when I bought it, I would have saved my money and bought a Dillon...YMMV...
 
Lee Loadmaster

hey i really thank all of you fellas for all of the important info this helps me so much its going to be a couple of months maybe 3 before i can buy us one ill use this time like iam taking a Lee Loadmaster course i hope to be prepaired & ready to start using the Loadmaster
 
Biggest issues I've had with the Lee progressives are the priming system (which needs to have a mostly full tray to feed reliably) and the "powder through expanding die" which tends to be sticky and induce a nasty bump in the press causing primers to flip or variation in powder charges.

I still use a pair of Pros, have them bolted solidly to a HEAVY bench, and support the press with my left hand when pulling the case off the expander. I do not use the case feeders as they are more problem than they are worth.

I got spoiled with my dad's Star progressives and my brother's 550. If I was still shooting handgun competition, I'd have a Dillon. Now most of my stuff is loaded on a Rockchucker or an ancient Lyman AA turret.
 
I load on a loadmaster and love it. Saying that, I do all my loading in stages. First i run them through and deprime & resize then tumble. I hand prime at my leisure and store the brass till I load them. I normally do it in batches on 3-5k at a time. I was not very mechanically inclined at the time and the priming system caused me problems at first. I was recovering from carpal tunnel surgery and was told it would be good therapy, so I hand primed from then on. I'm a little better mechanically now then 6 years ago and could get it to work now if I tried, but I enjoy hand priming.

Once properly adjusted it runs like a top for me with 0 problems unless you short stroke it. Don't do that & you will be fine. Make your bench top thick & sturdy(no mater the press) and you will be fine. Don't be scared of the loadmaster, just understand that it may have a few quirks and once you understand them you will have a press that equals the others for a fraction of the price. I have run close to 100,000 rounds through mine with 2 failures. One was my fault, one was not. I'll keep it. :)
 
I've had the LoadMaster for almost a year and a half. So far I've loaded .40S&W, .38 SPL, and .45 Colt. I'm also set up to load 9mm, .380, .223, and .30 carbine for less than a LNL-AP would cost for one caliber. Assuming you get both sizes of primer feeds, a shell plate and another turret is all you need to switch calibers and that's about $35. (I am also set up for .357 and .454 with a die adjustment, but I load those batch style for now.)

The only time I've ever crunched a primer is when I let the tray run low. I've had a flipped primer to, but that was my fault, it got flipped when I was attaching the tray to the chute.

The only time I've crunched the primer feeder is when I left the press unsecured and one of my kids started pulling the lever.

You have to use a powder the Pro AutoDisk likes (it does NOT like Unique, but that's OK, I don't like it either). Other powders have been fine.
 
Lee Loadmaster

Iam gonnaget one & give it a try fellas thanks for all of the info
 
Foxmeadow's suggestion of an extra sizing die is a good one... but I use Universal Decapping Dies instead. The UDD goes in station 1. Then I take the decapper out of the sizing die and put the sizing die in station 2. The sizing die holds the case in better alignment to the press while the primer is going in, which really helps eliminate many of the priming problems.

With revolvers I use all five stations. Station 3 holds the powder through expander die and station 4 gets the seating die. Station 5 then holds the Factory Crimp Die. If you want to use a powder COP die then it goes in station 4, but then you must then seat and crimp in one operation in station five.

That would work for me in high volume pistol loading... I haven't had the need to use a FCD on my .40S&W. But for now I just check EVERY case to make sure it has the correct charge.
 
I am also a disabled reloader, and it makes me shoot for the most economy in my reloads. I use missouri bullets almost exclusively. I buy cheap primers and powder from Powder Valley once a year. I also use almost exclusively, Lee equipment.

If it were me I would skip the loadmaster and get a Lee Turret press. They are pretty fast, very reliable, and well priced. I looked at the exact same thing you are a few years back and went with the Lee Turret. I am still happy with the decision years later and multiple 10s of thousands of rounds later. Just my 2 cents for you friend.
 
I considered buying a Loadmaster back years ago when I was upgrading (speed) from my Lee Turret press. I finally bought a Projector, but the Loadmaster is a well thought out machine IMHO. There are plenty of users that have worked out the kinks and have tweaks for making it run smoothly.

The machine still intrigues me. :)
 
I upgraded from a Lee Classic to the Loadmaster. After setting up, trying, resetting up and watching the videos, works great. Can really pump out the rounds. Biggest help for this loaded is to get a second sizing/decapping die, remove the decapper and put it in the second hole (primer press station #2). This way the die lines up the shell and the primer station never has issues again. I was getting pretty good at getting primers in sideways until I did this.
 
If your that desperate, I'll give you some bullets, just as long as you promise not to drop your pants. :neener:
 
There is a web forum for Lee loaders and the LoadMaster in particular.
They have an unofficial manual that covers everything.
Priming is a problem on every progressive, at some time or another.
Compared to my 1050s, my old Hornady L-N-L was a dream.
 
Trapper I don't own a loadmaster but remember something Uncle Don ( the master of the loadmaster ) once said. When you change dies from one caliber to another you have to re-adjust the primer seater. He said if you do that you will eliminate most of your problems. Good luck and welcome to reloading.
 
Unless you're shooting hundreds of rounds per week you will be better off with a standard, non progressive press, a couple of loading blocks, a good measure and powder scale and a flashlight.
Batch process...a couple hundred sized and primed, then expanded and put in the blocks. Charge powder. Check with a flashlight. Start bullets. Seat and crimp.

You'll be surprised how many you turn out and more so as to how they perform.

People get too much into quantity and produce a whole pile of junk or dangerous ammo.
 
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