My Review of the lee loadmaster

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BigBore45

BigBore45

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So i received a load master yesterday. got it set up and running. really not hard to set up. got a lee bullet feeder for 45 cal as well along with all my caliber shell plates and extra turrets.

Setup was pretty easy for me, i am mechanically inclined.

It does a good job but the bullet feeder is no good, at-least with my bullets i'm using.

the primer feed is something you have to keep an eye on, not a big deal though

everything else seems fine ran about 800 45 acp threw it tonight, no major problems

had some case feeding issues, only with the case tubes full, the weight was slowing the case feeding ram down just enough to cause problems but i was running the ram slow, i speed the ram up and it worked fine.

the powder dumper was great with titegroup no complaints on it

it is a bit rough when operating the ram but smoothed out quite a bit after 500ish rounds

for the money can not be beat....

it is no dillion 650 though.

for anyone that is considering one, i would say go for it if money is an issue at all.

i know it loads more per hour than my dillion 550b and my lee classic turret for sure.

total cost less dies to load .223 rem/308 win/45acp/45colt/38:357/243 win was $398 dollars. that is super cheap, as a dillion is about $600 just for the press. and caliber conversions cost double/triple the lee costs
 
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My Loadmaster works fine for me. Is it a super awesome engineering masterpiece? No.
But I loaded 800 .38 Specials in the last two days with very few problems.

If I could have afforded a more expensive press I would have gotten a Lock N Load, but the Loadmaster was in my price range. It's a good piece of equipment for the price.
 
I have been running a LM for ~ 3 years now....

I only load .45 acp and 9x19 on it.... The rest I load on LCT press.

I agree that it is a very capable press. Lee revised the primer feeder assembly tooling a few years back and eliminated the mold flash problems that caused the primer feeding issues that people always squawked about. But even then, the Loadmaster videos website has easy fixes for the old primer feeders. My large primer feeder functions 100%, but the small primer feeder misses a beat every couple hundred rounds.

Just recently my brother asked me to store his 550B and I set it up to load .223 Rem. This has been very interesting, as there are things about the 550 I like better than the LM, but there are things about the LM that I like better than the 550 as well. I like the Dillon priming system, but I've had it fail to pick up a primer just as often as my small primer feeder on the LM does (if not more often).

But the LM cost less than half, and it auto advances and comes with a case feeder.

As noted, the caliber conversion on the LM are very inexpensive.

The LM is a whole lot of press for the money and if you're handy, you can make them hum.
 
One of the best features of the LM that is often overlooked is how easy the caliber conversions are. It is one of the easiest machines to change over.
 
yeah it has been bashed already from a few friends that stopped by to check it out. i dont care i have a dillon and it works, probably a better press, but when you figure in the cost the lee wins for sure.
 
I had a Loadmaster also. It got sold quickly. Congrats on yours and I hope it continues to meet your needs.

That's the best I can say. :)
 
I hope you have a better experience with yours than I did with mine. I had a thread about this some time back:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=768696

I am far from a Lee basher. The majority of my stuff is Lee. I just had horrible luck with the loadmaster after an initial month or so of being impressed. I am pretty mechanically inclined as well but just had problems with that indexing system regardless of adjustment.

There seem to be plenty of folks that don't have those problems though. If you are one of them, I am jealous. It really was a great press and for the money, it is a fantastic press if it is working correctly.
 
Schwing said:
I hope you have a better experience with yours than I did with mine. I had a thread about this some time back:



http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=768696



I am far from a Lee basher. The majority of my stuff is Lee. I just had horrible luck with the loadmaster after an initial month or so of being impressed. I am pretty mechanically inclined as well but just had problems with that indexing system regardless of adjustment.



There seem to be plenty of folks that don't have those problems though. If you are one of them, I am jealous. It really was a great press and for the money, it is a fantastic press if it is working correctly.
Click to expand...


That seems to be a common issue. I've never owned a loadmaster do I can't say why or how it happens.

When I bought my pro1000 I came here and started a thread to provide an objective experience of the press from unboxing to loaded ammo. My experience has been nothing short of fantastic.

I am considering doing the same thing again, unboxing to production with pictures on a loadmaster.
 
Oh no not a lee load master that only produces as good ammo ad dillion or the lock n load what a piece of junk for producing good ammo oh no you have to tweek it like my dilloion or hornaday needs oh you can only produce a few hundred rounds an hour just like my dillion or lock n load....paradoy post its every bit as good as any other press might need a little more adjustment buts I=its as good I have owned all 3 and lee by far ir the money saver
 
And bashed. Lol, I'm holding my self in reserve for this week. Have about 4500 total rounds to reload the next week. I'll repost again.
 
I bought the LM last year on impulse. It was on sale and it had the powder measure I was already planning to buy. Buyers remorse set in before it was even delivered. Because, everyone on the net says these things are crap. I didn't unbox it for two months. The Dillon 650 was in my future and this thing was just for kicks. Finally made time to set this thing up. Watched youtube videos, read LM forum post, gritted my teeth and unboxed it. Close to 10k 9mm rounds later and guess what? You can't believe everything you read on the web. Bought a bullet feeder and that works great, too.

The LM is not for everyone. That's the take away in reading the LM bashing post. I interpret it this way. If you're the type of person that changes your own transmission fluid, replaces your own alternator, swapes out u-joints, can tell the difference between a lifter tap and an exhaust leak then the LM is for you. If you're the type of person who has to call a 'guy' then you should choose something else.

Reading a lot of complaints on the Pro 1000 and for some reason I have the urge to get one of those. :evil:
 
When I look at You Tube for videos of presses the Loadmaster has a good share of the search returns that are related to tweaking and fixing. The other brands not so much. That sort of mix of videos along with my dismal results on a Classic 1000 put me right off the Load Master.

As for the Classic 1000 I admit that it was a hand me down from another old time shooter. So it could have been a bit worn here and there. But there were some real basics that where there from day one.

The auto index got in my way when I was learning. Problems that occured were shuttled on to the next station so removing and recovering my place was difficult. So I removed the auto index and never put it back. This started off being MY issue I know. But I found that I actually liked using it as a manual indexed machine for the extra control I had over the steps and any issues that would occur.

The die plate ring wasn't correctly centered. I had to drill out the holes that hold it to the posts by 1/16 larger a hole and even file one into an oval so the ring could float into place and the dies line up correctly with the shell plate centers. This is rather basic a flaw.

The "ski jump" primer feed kept floating around in the ram head until I drilled and tapped for a little pointed set screw to reach in and hold it in place. This produced numerous primer misfeed issues until I fixed it.

The drag of the ram and linkages prevented the primer ram spring from being sufficient to lift the ram and head unit up high enough to allow me to rotate the shell plate. I had to make up a little bracket with a plunger and stronger spring to fix that issue so the operation could be properley reliable.

Ejected primers would not fall through frequently and about one time in 300 the spent primer would be trapped between the ram head and the frame and prevent me from being able to set a primer correctly. There was no fix possible for this and I had to live with it.

I also found that the leverage ratio on the 1000 with the die cast arms was poorly set and excessive handle pressure was needed to run the press. A bit later one of the die cast pieces snapped at one of the pins. I took that opportunity to make up a different linkage with a better ratio and that fixed that.

I made it work and I made a lot of ammo on my 1000. But I was more than happy to give it to my shooting buddy who is using it for his reloading. It's actually pretty darn good now with all the issues fixed.

Would I buy another? Not on a dare........Not bashing. Just my experience. I do know that if I did not have the shop facilities to be able to fix all the things I did that I'd have happily tossed it into the trash years before and moved onwards and upwards then instead of later.
 
My LM had indexing problems out of the box. I performed the very minor tweaks show in the LM videos... grinding a slight bevel on the end of the bar and polishing the impact point on the cast aluminum lever arm and it was fixed.

I still have an indexing jam every now and again and it is always due to a WCC head stamped .45 acp case. These cases have a thicker base and often won't load in the shell plate. The ones that do load ride the shell plate very tight and hang up after station 5 where they hit the ejection arm.

Though I also have problems loading these cases in my hand primer shell plate.
 
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BCRider said:
When I look at You Tube for videos of presses the Loadmaster has a good share of the search returns that are related to tweaking and fixing. The other brands not so much. That sort of mix of videos along with my dismal results on a Classic 1000 put me right off the Load Master.

As for the Classic 1000 I admit that it was a hand me down from another old time shooter. So it could have been a bit worn here and there. But there were some real basics that where there from day one.

The auto index got in my way when I was learning. Problems that occured were shuttled on to the next station so removing and recovering my place was difficult. So I removed the auto index and never put it back. This started off being MY issue I know. But I found that I actually liked using it as a manual indexed machine for the extra control I had over the steps and any issues that would occur.

The die plate ring wasn't correctly centered. I had to drill out the holes that hold it to the posts by 1/16 larger a hole and even file one into an oval so the ring could float into place and the dies line up correctly with the shell plate centers. This is rather basic a flaw.

The "ski jump" primer feed kept floating around in the ram head until I drilled and tapped for a little pointed set screw to reach in and hold it in place. This produced numerous primer misfeed issues until I fixed it.

The drag of the ram and linkages prevented the primer ram spring from being sufficient to lift the ram and head unit up high enough to allow me to rotate the shell plate. I had to make up a little bracket with a plunger and stronger spring to fix that issue so the operation could be properley reliable.

Ejected primers would not fall through frequently and about one time in 300 the spent primer would be trapped between the ram head and the frame and prevent me from being able to set a primer correctly. There was no fix possible for this and I had to live with it.

I also found that the leverage ratio on the 1000 with the die cast arms was poorly set and excessive handle pressure was needed to run the press. A bit later one of the die cast pieces snapped at one of the pins. I took that opportunity to make up a different linkage with a better ratio and that fixed that.

I made it work and I made a lot of ammo on my 1000. But I was more than happy to give it to my shooting buddy who is using it for his reloading. It's actually pretty darn good now with all the issues fixed.

Would I buy another? Not on a dare........Not bashing. Just my experience. I do know that if I did not have the shop facilities to be able to fix all the things I did that I'd have happily tossed it into the trash years before and moved onwards and upwards then instead of later.
Click to expand...


I'm not understanding your die plate issue. Why not just call Lee and tell them?

In your other post you mentioned oil in the primer feed assembly. There should never be oil there, ever. Simply keeping that dry and clean would have made it function 100%.

If yours has issues with ejected primers getting under the carrier there most definitely is a fix. It involves a coke can and a pair of scissors. It's pretty much free and takes about two minutes.


This:

The drag of the ram and linkages prevented the primer ram spring from being sufficient to lift the ram and head unit up high enough to allow me to rotate the shell plate. I had to make up a little bracket with a plunger and stronger spring to fix that issue so the operation could be properley reliable.

Makes no sense to me. Could you explain it a little better? If you mean that the priming pin wasn't dropping to allow the carrier to index, then you have a bad spring and/or a dirty channel in the carrier. The spring is probably free if you would have called Lee.
 
Since I'm in Canada just calling Lee isn't an option due to the whole border and Canadian distributor issue. It was also a very old press and I've got a shop at my finger tips. It was simply a lot less time and effort to just do it and fix it so I could start reloading vs the emails and other fuss that would have resulted in a month or more before I could use the press.

I don't doubt that I'd have gotten a resolution to the issue. Reports are that the Canadian Lee outfit, while not as prompt and easy to work with as Lee USA, is pretty decent. But there's that whole long wait while stuff is shipped there and back.

Yes, the primer setting plunger spring was likely old and tired. Hell, the PRESS was old and tired as I mentioned. So the weight of the handle kept it from lifting the ram back up after setting a primer and the plate could not be indexed unless I held the lever up a bit. As you say a new spring or some sort of firmer replacement would have done the trick. I didn't have one but I had what I needed to make an outboard fix in about 5 minutes that worked. So I went with it on the spot and got back to reloading.

I did do the deflector trick for the primers. Just used some stiffer aluminium roof flashing instead of a pop can. But it isn't good enough to stop them all from flying around and the odd one from getting in the right spot to block the ram from dropping down fully and primers from being set fully.

A new ring to hold the die plates would likely have had the same issue since it's the same part. The support rods were not bent (I checked) and they all seated squarely on the base. The only other thing I didn't check was to see if the notch for the ball detent was in the right spot or not. Which would be hard since I would have no way of knowing if it was out of spec or not

Either way the holes for the three hold down bolts were already a fairly generous size in the ring which I would presume is to allow the ring to float a little and line up correctly with the cases in the shell plate. But SOMETHING was out of kilter in terms of the original machining and it would not all float far enough to allow the cases to come up and fit into the dies until until I oversized the bolt holes. Until I did that the upper die mount assembly had side pressure that was trying to skew the mounting rods off to one side. And since the press must have come from the factory like this someone else may find that they are able to notice the same issue. if the cases kick to one side by more than a hair then it's possible that this condition is present. There's SOME float of the cases in the shell plate but they should line up such that they are not pressed against the plate or that the dies are not trying to spring the rods out of their rest position.

Not sure if this is clear or not. I've tried to explain it in a couple of ways in case I'm not being clear enough.

Basically until I set this up the dies were not lined up with the cases on the shell plate. SO the whole top head that sits on the three posts was trying to bend the posts sideways. And that ain't right. And it came that way from new. It's not something anyone could "damage" with anything shy of a sledge hammer. And I did check the rods for being vertical and parallel and they were fine.

As for oil on the primer ski run I obviously didn't oil it on purpose. But when one does gun maintenance on the same work surface where the press is mounted and is using a variety of squirt and spray solvents and lubricants some splashing around is unavoidable. On top of that another likely way the oil got there was from my fingers when I picked up the primers that got misfed and put them back into the tray via the handy hole someone had drilled before I got it. So to some extent I was possibly the author of my own problem. I recognize that. But I also recognize that there are likely lots of folks that are stuck for room so their reloading bench is also their gun work and gun cleaning bench. And if they are handling primers that spill on the bench some might pick up a trace of oil or their hands might be oily. So oil in that ski run isn't as unlikely as you might think.

Obviously once we realize how it can get there steps can be taken to avoid it. But I figured it was worth mentioning in case someone ends up with the same situation as I had with the primers not running down all neat and tidy like they do with a squeaky clean ski run.

And in fact anyone that does gun work and cleaning on the same bench where they reload would be well advised to cover up the press just to keep that from happening.

Please note that while I would never buy another 1000 and I don't recommend them I fully appreciate that not everyone wants or can dump big money into a better press. So part of my post is to point out what the issues were that I found. And the other purpose is what I did to fix those issues so if anyone finds the same things that perhaps they can deal with it.
 
BCRider said:
Since I'm in Canada just calling Lee isn't an option due to the whole border and Canadian distributor issue. It was also a very old press and I've got a shop at my finger tips. It was simply a lot less time and effort to just do it and fix it so I could start reloading vs the emails and other fuss that would have resulted in a month or more before I could use the press.

I don't doubt that I'd have gotten a resolution to the issue. Reports are that the Canadian Lee outfit, while not as prompt and easy to work with as Lee USA, is pretty decent. But there's that whole long wait while stuff is shipped there and back.

Yes, the primer setting plunger spring was likely old and tired. Hell, the PRESS was old and tired as I mentioned. So the weight of the handle kept it from lifting the ram back up after setting a primer and the plate could not be indexed unless I held the lever up a bit. As you say a new spring or some sort of firmer replacement would have done the trick. I didn't have one but I had what I needed to make an outboard fix in about 5 minutes that worked. So I went with it on the spot and got back to reloading.

I did do the deflector trick for the primers. Just used some stiffer aluminium roof flashing instead of a pop can. But it isn't good enough to stop them all from flying around and the odd one from getting in the right spot to block the ram from dropping down fully and primers from being set fully.

A new ring to hold the die plates would likely have had the same issue since it's the same part. The support rods were not bent (I checked) and they all seated squarely on the base. The only other thing I didn't check was to see if the notch for the ball detent was in the right spot or not. Which would be hard since I would have no way of knowing if it was out of spec or not

Either way the holes for the three hold down bolts were already a fairly generous size in the ring which I would presume is to allow the ring to float a little and line up correctly with the cases in the shell plate. But SOMETHING was out of kilter in terms of the original machining and it would not all float far enough to allow the cases to come up and fit into the dies until until I oversized the bolt holes. Until I did that the upper die mount assembly had side pressure that was trying to skew the mounting rods off to one side. And since the press must have come from the factory like this someone else may find that they are able to notice the same issue. if the cases kick to one side by more than a hair then it's possible that this condition is present. There's SOME float of the cases in the shell plate but they should line up such that they are not pressed against the plate or that the dies are not trying to spring the rods out of their rest position.

Not sure if this is clear or not. I've tried to explain it in a couple of ways in case I'm not being clear enough.

Basically until I set this up the dies were not lined up with the cases on the shell plate. SO the whole top head that sits on the three posts was trying to bend the posts sideways. And that ain't right. And it came that way from new. It's not something anyone could "damage" with anything shy of a sledge hammer. And I did check the rods for being vertical and parallel and they were fine.

As for oil on the primer ski run I obviously didn't oil it on purpose. But when one does gun maintenance on the same work surface where the press is mounted and is using a variety of squirt and spray solvents and lubricants some splashing around is unavoidable. On top of that another likely way the oil got there was from my fingers when I picked up the primers that got misfed and put them back into the tray via the handy hole someone had drilled before I got it. So to some extent I was possibly the author of my own problem. I recognize that. But I also recognize that there are likely lots of folks that are stuck for room so their reloading bench is also their gun work and gun cleaning bench. And if they are handling primers that spill on the bench some might pick up a trace of oil or their hands might be oily. So oil in that ski run isn't as unlikely as you might think.

Obviously once we realize how it can get there steps can be taken to avoid it. But I figured it was worth mentioning in case someone ends up with the same situation as I had with the primers not running down all neat and tidy like they do with a squeaky clean ski run.

And in fact anyone that does gun work and cleaning on the same bench where they reload would be well advised to cover up the press just to keep that from happening.

Please note that while I would never buy another 1000 and I don't recommend them I fully appreciate that not everyone wants or can dump big money into a better press. So part of my post is to point out what the issues were that I found. And the other purpose is what I did to fix those issues so if anyone finds the same things that perhaps they can deal with it.
Click to expand...


I can see being in canada changing things a bit. Lots of the issues people run into are user caused, it sounds like many of yours may have been from a previous user. Or it may just have been one of those bad ones that gets out. It happens.
 
I tried the Lee bullet feeder a little over 10 years ago and still think it would have been better to burn the $20.

That said a lot of their products are a good value and always good to see folks cranking out frustration free ammo.
 
All progressive presses have their good and bad features. As well as a learning curve. My 550b was a hugje learning curve for me, and i had loaded for years on a single stage and hand press

Congrats on your new press.
 
Congratulations, I too had great results, with LM mainly 9mm, few quirks, tho I do not have bullet seater , i like to check powder before bullet placement , use a Pro 1000 for 45's O problems still LM loads more per hour than lee 1000, yes if i was flush with money I'd own a Dillon1050, which is never going to happen, Thanks for your review.
 
well i loaded 1200+ rounds of 45acp large primer, a few minor tweaks, but in all fairness it is breaking in. still running just as well as a dillion 550b i load on if not better as far as jamming and tweaking things. gonna eat lunch and tool up for .223
 
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