Lee Reloading Equipment Support Top Notch

[Bush Pilot]

I love some of your responses. All a person has to do is mention (or imply) Dillon and some of you immediately assume Lee is being bashed, far from the truth. I own several sets of Lee dies and use them on a regular basis. Lee makes some products that are top notch and a good value, they also make products which are junk. BTW, the name "Dillon" only has one "I", not two.

 

[Roccobro]

Who is Dillin?

Justin

 

[MMCSRET]

The "2" I's lead me to read Dillion, rhyming with Billion. Oh well, as was once said " a million here and a million there and pretty quick you're talking serious money".
Tangent; anyone?

 

[rivraton]

Who is Dillin?

Justin

Used to be the marshal in Dodge City, I think?

I’ve had a Lee Pro 1000 for a while. I load .45 ACP; .45 Colt & .38 Spl. It produces quality ammo, the only problems I’ve had with it were entirely my fault. It’s good to know that they have good customer service, incase I ever need them.

 

[Lee Roder]

Been using Lee's case length gage and trimmer. In principle, it's a very good design for its function. However, the packaging claims that the "hardened steel stop pin will retain its accuracy forever" is untrue.

How do I know? Trimming a new bag of brass, the cases kept getting shorter and shorter. Through several rounds of "trimming" I wore the pin down, apparently because I was "applying too much pressure" during trimming and mushrooming the tip. Lee sent me a new gage but apparently Lee no longer "hardens" the stop. At least I learned what the SAAMI *minimum* case length was. Most manuals only give max length.

So check overall length of your gages occcassionally. NEW for 38 SPL measured 1.520" (for posterity). If recent they WILL shorten / wear with use!

 

[aerod1]

Were it not for the Lee low price a great quality, I would not be relaoding today. My Lee equipment has never failed.

 

[husker]

i just got into reloading. $75.00 for the LEE ANNIVERSARY kit. came with every thing but the dies. $25 for dies = $100 total to start. Not a bad price to learn how on a single stage.

 

[mrcooper]

Been reloading fer over 50 years, I use Lee hand primer and have for over 20 years, its great I also use their case trimmers the one you put in a drill I love it by the time I get my Fosters adj I have my cases done with the Lee. I also have a few sets of their dies and their is nothing wrong with them, just as good as my RCBS and others.

 

[357SigFan]

I have a set of Lee pistol (.357Sig) and Rifle (7mm Mag) dies, and hate them. Yes, they work for their purpose, BUT, you can't lock in the seating die once you've got your depth set, and it doesn't take much to bump it out of adjustment. Basically, if you have Lee dies, plan on verifying seating depth every time you sit down to make loads. As for Dillon, there's nothing "Upstart" about them. They've been around for at least 15 years, and make an EXCELENT machine (pricey, maybe, but top notch IMO). My grandfather has two "Square Deal B" machines and I'm going to be getting a 550B.

 

[RustyFN]

I have a set of Lee pistol (.357Sig) and Rifle (7mm Mag) dies, and hate them. Yes, they work for their purpose, BUT, you can't lock in the seating die once you've got your depth set, and it doesn't take much to bump it out of adjustment.

I don't know how much variance you are talking about. I have four sets of Lee dies and every set seats within .003. That is close enough for me. Three sets are pistol and one rifle.

 

[357SigFan]

My point was there is no way to lock the adjustment knob, so it would't be too hard to bump it and throw your setting off. Lee is the only mfg I've seen that doesn't put some way to lock them in. Not to mention their "Lock rings" are absolutely useless (but that part is easy to fix, just go buy a set of RCBS lock rings).

 

[MMCSRET]

I liked the Lee lock rings so well I bought a batch off them and put them on all my other die sets. All told, I had to buy over a hundred of the Lee lock rings, I've got over 140 sets of dies and I like the Lee dies as well as any others. "AND THE PRICE IS RIGHT"

 

[RustyFN]

My point was there is no way to lock the adjustment knob, so it would't be too hard to bump it and throw your setting off. Lee is the only mfg I've seen that doesn't put some way to lock them in. Not to mention their "Lock rings" are absolutely useless (but that part is easy to fix, just go buy a set of RCBS lock rings).

I see. I only own Lee dies and wasn't aware that you could lock the adjustment knob on other brand dies. I could see where the Lee lock rings could be a pain on a single stage press. I load on a classic turret and have never had a problem with the lock rings or dies going out of adjustment.

 

[benzuncle]

The Lee dies and turrets are cheap enough that it is not too costly to set up a turret for each variance of each caliber, so once they are set up there is no need to make any changes. In a matter of seconds, a 185gr setup with a certain OAL can be swapped for a turret that seats 230gr at a different OAL along with a different disk for charging with powder. That has been my experience with my Lee Classic Turret press and the dies/turrets. I am very content with my Lee products and way, way content with the money saved over other brands. The paper targets don't appear to be able to tell the difference either. But alas, there is a brand of loader out there for every taste, every pocketbook and even every favorite type of kool-aid!

 

[UltimateReloader]

There's one metric that I can share here for customer service- the ammount of time you have to spend on hold to talk with someone: (some of this data is a year or two old mind you).

1. Dillon- They answer within a minute usually
2. Hornady- Usually a minute or two (some times right away)
3. Lee- I've had a lot of trouble getting through to anyone some times

Anyone else had this trouble with Lee's operators?

-Gavin

 

[Eyesac]

Another happy Lee customer here. I also wouldn't be reloading if if weren't for Lee's initial costs being as low as they are. I think I spend $280 for everything I needed to reload two pistol calibers. You couldn't tell the difference between my ammo and ammo made from ______ brand machines if you mic'ed em.

 

[ranger335v]

"With more broken equipment out there, I'm sure they (Lee Co.) man a phone bank!"

I can't help but chuckle when I read sour-grapes posts like this. I've been reloading for nearing 5 decades, have a LOT of equipment, presses, dies, scales, etc., from about every maker, current and past. ALL if it works fine IF I do my part. I've never broken a Lee tool nor seen anything broken except by ham-fisted operation.

Hard to take serious anyone whining about breaking a "pot metal" (actually a very high grade alum alloy, you know the stuff they make military airplanes and rifle scope tubes and many firearms actions from) when the user leaned on it like it was 3" of cast iron!

So, I guess for them the best answer IS cast iron and thick steel but for those of us who have some sense of mechanical things it seems Lee's alloy tools and excellant dies do fine work at a better than reasonalble price.