Pro 1000
- Thread starter Rotaxpower
- Start date
easyrider604
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Greater Vancouver, BC
If you are patient, read instructions, willing to learn all its nuances, and willing to clean and maintain the Pro1000 meticulously, the answer is yes.
All depends on a couple questions.
How much ammunition do you shoot a month?
How much money do you have to spend (on a press)?
How much time do you have to reload?
I have had 3 Lee-1000's, (still have one left), and now have a Hornady LnL-AP because my needs changed and I shoot more now than 5 years ago.
Used to shoot a few K a Year and the 1000 functioned fine (~200 rounds per hour).
I'm hitting 5 digits now and my free time is less with two little boys causing havok...
How much ammunition do you shoot a month?
How much money do you have to spend (on a press)?
How much time do you have to reload?
I have had 3 Lee-1000's, (still have one left), and now have a Hornady LnL-AP because my needs changed and I shoot more now than 5 years ago.
Used to shoot a few K a Year and the 1000 functioned fine (~200 rounds per hour).
I'm hitting 5 digits now and my free time is less with two little boys causing havok...
I had 2 of them , HAD. I would rather Punch my self in the balls befor I would buy anouther. They work with feness but when primers start blowing up.............. Do your self a faver and spend the extra coin now and buy a hornady or a dillon period
I do at least 200 pistol rounds per hour on just a Lee Classic Turret, and that includes refilling the primer tray and topping up the powder, sipping coffee, check-weighing the power drop when I feel like it, measuring OAL once in awhile, picking up the occasional dropped primer off the floor, and throwing the damn cat off the reloading bench. All while wondering, how did the cat get in here anyway?
As others have said, I'd get a Dillon or Hornady progressive press and forget going the "middle of the road". Compromising might not make loads much faster than you would with just a turret press.
Everything BCboy said AND...after owning one, I can honestly say this. If someone GAVE me one, I wouldn't take the time to mount it to my bench. It would find itself in the EE with a HUGE warning to any potential buyers or it would be tossed in a corner to be thrown out on my big clean up day.
notsorichguy
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- The city that rhymes with fun
Ok......
Now you have heard from the other guys.......
I personally have owned a Dillon SDB, used to, not anymore......
I bought my first Lee 1000 because it was cheaper to buy one of them in 9mm than buy a conversion for my SDB.
I now have 4 1000s on the bench and one in the box waiting to be setup. I sold the SDB long ago....
I found that you always have to frick with your press; Lee, Dillon, Hornady, RCBS; they all have their little nuances and all need to be properly maintained and adjusted. The Lee is just the cheapest.
One of these days I'm gonna make a video on how to propperly set-up and maitain a lee 1000. Then all you dumb-azzs that tried them and tossed them will go "crap, I really am a dumb-azz who has too much $$ and no patience"
Personally I have 11K through a 1000 in 9mm and yes it's parts are all original. I have yet to break into the spare parts that came with the kit. I have 4K through one in .223 (with some serious tweaking). I have 5K through one in .45ACP, all original parts. 1200 through one in .40. I have one in 38 still in the box......
My personal best is 450 rnds/hr out of my 1000. My average is closer to 225-250/hr.
You can tell me they are crap all you want, I will not believe a word you say.......
My $.02
Now you have heard from the other guys.......
I personally have owned a Dillon SDB, used to, not anymore......
I bought my first Lee 1000 because it was cheaper to buy one of them in 9mm than buy a conversion for my SDB.
I now have 4 1000s on the bench and one in the box waiting to be setup. I sold the SDB long ago....
I found that you always have to frick with your press; Lee, Dillon, Hornady, RCBS; they all have their little nuances and all need to be properly maintained and adjusted. The Lee is just the cheapest.
One of these days I'm gonna make a video on how to propperly set-up and maitain a lee 1000. Then all you dumb-azzs that tried them and tossed them will go "crap, I really am a dumb-azz who has too much $$ and no patience"
Personally I have 11K through a 1000 in 9mm and yes it's parts are all original. I have yet to break into the spare parts that came with the kit. I have 4K through one in .223 (with some serious tweaking). I have 5K through one in .45ACP, all original parts. 1200 through one in .40. I have one in 38 still in the box......
My personal best is 450 rnds/hr out of my 1000. My average is closer to 225-250/hr.
You can tell me they are crap all you want, I will not believe a word you say.......
My $.02
I think my Lee 1000's are the BEST BANG for the BUCK. I get around 350 rounds per hours and its great, all my friends who have used them has bought one as well.
Yes, Keep it clean and well lubricated...last time i check THAT APPLIES to ANY mechanical device (heck check my AR....)
It works good or else LEE would not be selling them like nuts after SO.. I mean SO many years!
Heck i love my first I got another! and i can change a 3rd caliber in under 3 minutes!
Yes, Keep it clean and well lubricated...last time i check THAT APPLIES to ANY mechanical device (heck check my AR....)
It works good or else LEE would not be selling them like nuts after SO.. I mean SO many years!
Heck i love my first I got another! and i can change a 3rd caliber in under 3 minutes!
Rory McCanuck
CGN Regular
- Location
- Middle of Manitoba
There are some good videos here:
ht tp://loadmastervideos.com/
and a forum with all the little tricks laid out
ht tp://forums.loadmastervideos.com/forums/index.php
Wo ,wo hold up there , Dont start calling people "dumb ass" . The OP asked for an opinion and thats what people are doing giving there opinion . I am glad the lee works for you , It blew primers up for me ,If they fixed the primer problem they would somewhat fine . I wanted a press I dont have to play with, I wanted one that will just load bullets and that is what my hornady dose. With the fee bullet offer when you buy a hornady ,it is dam near the same price as it would be to buy a LEE
Been loading for 30 years. Bought a Pro 1000 simply because of the price. The first 500 or so rounds went okay. Then the wheels fell off....sorry but these machines are junk. They require constant maintenace and tuning, it got to a point that the timing system needed adjusting every round, the priming system is garbage and whoever though it would be a good idea to dump the powder out right over top the priming feed was the "dumb ass". I take offense to to notsorichguy's comments, after hours of set up, cleaning and tuning that crap just didn't work. It works for him great, for me the thing is just junk. I feel that it should work right out of the box and keep working out of the box, not require tuning every round and cleaning every 100 or so rounds. Save your money and buy a Dillon RL550B, RL650 or the Hornady Progressive. I chose the Dillon because the factory support is far superior than that of Hornady.
And unlike notsorichguy here's my video of the Pro 1000 in action:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Glockster42?feature=mhum#p/u/23/G8xZwnqK3Hs
And unlike notsorichguy here's my video of the Pro 1000 in action:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Glockster42?feature=mhum#p/u/23/G8xZwnqK3Hs
Thanks for posting that Glockster. That video is an instant replay of my experiences with the thing. Fail to prime...breaking the powder disk retractor chain god only knows how many times.....powder all over the place....eventually, the slider block on mine would jam and it wouldn't feed the cases into the shell plate. I had that thing apart more than I ever loaded ammo with it. I tried all the modifications...o rings on the primer tray arm to shake the hell out of it trying to get the primers to come down. When I buy something, I need it to work...I expect it to work.
If these presses were humans, the amount of care required to keep them running would be equivelant to a person in a state of constant, full blown, cardiac arrest. If you stop trying to keep it going with anything less than heroic measures for even a second, you know everything is going to crash.
The only good thing I have to say is that mine came with a decent set of dies. Once I put them in a real press, life was much better.
notsorichguy
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- The city that rhymes with fun
Sure I guess $129 is too much too spend on a cal conversion.... You can legally export them from the US.....
I guess I really am a dummy.
Yes I do have a rather large gun room...... My loading bench has 16' of frontage. I have 3 single stage presses and 4 lees (soon a 5th) mounted to it. If you are at all mechanically inclined and actually UNDERSTAND what the differant stages are in a lee you never have too much trouble. Its the guys who don't really understand what is going on that seem to have a problem. I reloaded for 20yrs before I used my first progressive loader. I believe that is the differeance, experiance......
Here are my 'secrets' to makeing a Lee 1000 work;
1) NO FEDERAL PRIMERS!!!!! They blow up Dillons and RCBS presses as well. There is a well documented history of this....... Only a dumbazz would expect his experiance would be differant.
2) Get rid of the powder chain, hang a weight on it instead, 1000gr minimum. After 1.5-2K rnds the powder system breaks in and will no longer need the weight.
3) Lube the centre cam rod everytime you add primers (every 100 rnds). Lube the main carrier ram every 3 to 500 rnds. Dry lube works best.
4) Use powder that has kernals LARGER than the flashhole in your brass. This way if you drop a primer or have a primer missfeed you don't gum up the works..... And you will drop the odd primer, so its best to prepare for it.
5)Smooth fluid movements, with a bit of extra pressure at the bottom to seat primers.
6)Take the damn thing apart every couple of thousand rnds to clean every nook and cranny.
Those 'hints' apply to every single progeressive loader I have ever used.......
I' d have to agree...but add this... never let the primer feed tube get even 3/4 empty. as soon as the primer tray is emtpy...refill it... if not, thats when primer problems happen, its gravity fed after all. I've only ever used a lee progressive and if i ever get a RCBS or Hornady and have one problem with these so called perfect press's...i'm hunting people down!!! lol
Maybe lee's have the potential for things to break more often due to operator error. ie...that chain only breaks when you screw up. Cases don't feed right if you don't set them up right......ect. I'd be willing to guess they're not a lazy mans press. Not saying they're the best press on the market..... but for the money, they are! IMO
My experience with the Lee 1000 was about the same as the video with the guy ranting how bad the priming system was. Very unreliable and if you miss a primer then you have a 20 minute clean up ahead of you.
I finally would prep the cases by doing the following. I would put the deprimer die in the tool head and that was it. I would deprime and size all my cases only. Then when I got a chance I would hand prime with an RCBS hand primer. Then I would take out the depriming/sizing die from the tool head and load as normal without priming the case. The machine ran good without having to worry about the priming headaches.
Then I got rid of it and bought a Dillon 550 and I don't have to do any special case prep and watch the primers or more like hope the primers will go in.
So bottom line is if you feel like getting a Lee 1000 then if you hand prime it will actually save you time then trying to make the machine work as it is advertised to do.
I finally would prep the cases by doing the following. I would put the deprimer die in the tool head and that was it. I would deprime and size all my cases only. Then when I got a chance I would hand prime with an RCBS hand primer. Then I would take out the depriming/sizing die from the tool head and load as normal without priming the case. The machine ran good without having to worry about the priming headaches.
Then I got rid of it and bought a Dillon 550 and I don't have to do any special case prep and watch the primers or more like hope the primers will go in.
So bottom line is if you feel like getting a Lee 1000 then if you hand prime it will actually save you time then trying to make the machine work as it is advertised to do.
Here are my epxeriences; take them for what they are worth.
I bougth two old 1000's for $20/piece. The previous owenr had loaded many rounds and had never down a thing to them. I set them up without reading anything and had problems. I sent Lee a few emails and they helpy me out with manuals and advise; they were not as fast as Dillon is from waht I have been told.
Lee puts a plastic cog in the middle that needs to be replaced; it is there to avoid major damage if someone forces the press. This should be replaced every 500 rounds as per Lee. In my anger I bent two carriers; I reefed on the retention screw and bent the center out of round.
Once you learn what to look for, you will still wish for a Dillon, but you do not NEED a Dillon. I would have a 650 with all the fixings, but I just cannot afford it and I only shoot about 500 rounds/year or less.
This being said; one of my shooting compatriots scragged a barrel on a Sig with a undercharged load when the screws on his Dillon powder measure backed out. I say this as none of them are perfect, but you usually get waht you pay for.
I bougth two old 1000's for $20/piece. The previous owenr had loaded many rounds and had never down a thing to them. I set them up without reading anything and had problems. I sent Lee a few emails and they helpy me out with manuals and advise; they were not as fast as Dillon is from waht I have been told.
Lee puts a plastic cog in the middle that needs to be replaced; it is there to avoid major damage if someone forces the press. This should be replaced every 500 rounds as per Lee. In my anger I bent two carriers; I reefed on the retention screw and bent the center out of round.
Once you learn what to look for, you will still wish for a Dillon, but you do not NEED a Dillon. I would have a 650 with all the fixings, but I just cannot afford it and I only shoot about 500 rounds/year or less.
This being said; one of my shooting compatriots scragged a barrel on a Sig with a undercharged load when the screws on his Dillon powder measure backed out. I say this as none of them are perfect, but you usually get waht you pay for.
