I Joined the Progressives

PrairieMedic

PrairieMedic

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Well after almost 10k of 40s&w on a single stage press, I decided to move on to a progressive. The Lee Loadmaster was priced so low, it's silly. I've never been a fan of Lee, and thought in general, that they were substandard. Yuck Lee. I'm an RCBS man.

I called Wholesale in Wpg, and gave them my order. They had one coming in by truck that day, and I stopped in right after work. They even had a can of unique and a thou of Win small pistol primers. I'm all set.

I get home, drag it all out of the box, and start putting it all together. The directions were straight forward, and I proceed to install it on my computer desk with 2 C clamps. I sadly place my RCBS Partner on the floor, and give it a rest for a bit. Everything went together great, and the dies were very close to being pre-set. Just a few thou back and forth, and done. The case feed tubes work awesome, once you get the height set perfect, and locked in. The powder measure is really cool, only varies a bit. I'll continue to check the throw every 20 just for peice of mind. Thankfully the 40S&W fills to the top with unique on a double charge, so it's very apparent if you try to chew gum whilst working with this. I can now safely say that Lee dies rock. It took almost no time to get them setup, unlike my RCBS finikymasters.

All in all it's a hell of a deal, for someone that's looking for the price tag. I'm happy with all the features, and couldn't ask for more. For a new reloader, it would be advised to find an experienced mentor to get working with. Or encourage a reloaders club at your range. This would help greatly. Since i'm an old hand at this now, I made out well, and only had issues with the bullet tube heights, and trying to get 5.8 out of the lee disk. I've since drilled 3 holes in my desk, and have been loading 40s&w faster then I could deprime them on the single.

If you loved the game mousetrap, these progressives are for you. There's no walking away on it, and it does require your full attention. Once you get going though, you'll be sitting on a pile of ammo. Unfortunatly this leaves time for sitting on the couch and watching tv. Time to get a conversion to 45ACP I guess. :popCorn:

--PM
 
I've got a Lee Anniversary Kit which has been great for small batches of 38S&W and 455 Webley but not so much fun for large runs of 9mm. I'd also like to get into 45ACP and rifle calibres and I'm groaning at the thought of it. Sounds like I need to upgrade!

The website shows $339.95 for the Loadmaster...is this accurate? What's the major difference bewteen the Loadmaster and the Pro 1000? And is $214.95 (dies included) a good price for the Pro 1000?
 
You made the right move.:D

I as well like Lee dies, especially the FCD which is worth it's weight in Gold.

I recently went Progressive as well but it only took me 2000 rounds of 10mm to figure out single-staging was too darn slow.;)

I sold my Partner Press and kept my RockChucker(for rifle), and got a Hornady Lock n Load.

I am still waiting for some powder through expanders from Hornady but otherwise I am chomping at the bit to get spitting out some ammo...:D
 
Hint, you will want to keep primers in feeder all the time. When they run out below the tray, refill, otherwise they tend not to always feed well and you will chew up the little plastic pieces inside the feeder, along with seating primers sideways etc....

There are also a couple of places where a little polishing does wonders for smooth operation. One place is to polish is the handle where it contacts (pushes) the rod that advances the shell plate. This contributes to much smoother operation.
 
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Well i had 2 lee pro 1000 when they worked it was great but like Sandroad said about the primers keep it full that the only reason i got rid of them and went with a dillon :D
 
a couple of things with the loadmaster- get yourself some extra primer sliders( they're a buck a piece- get a few) as these get ruined very easily, and some of the indexer flipper- either order direct from lee or higgenson- my first primer assy was goofed direct from the factory and i went through sliders like crazy until i replaced most of it- check to see if you can move your carrier to the right - if you can, you need to do the re-alignment thing as covered in the videos- if you can't,you're good- i got the display model from the store and everyone must have fiddled with mine as mine was very easy to move- and use a SOCKET on the draw bolt as a wrench will round the edges when you get it tight- and buy, beg or borrow a torque wrench to re-set that alignment to 11 pounds- i think i've gone through almost every problem there is with the loadmaster, but now that i have, i'm very happy with it-
 
t-star said:
a couple of things with the loadmaster- get yourself some extra primer sliders[...]
Click to expand...

Before you start buying spares, live with it a while. I never used any, and my loadmaster lived with me for a good long time.

Maladjustment, running out of primers, and other forms of abuse or bad luck can cause problems. Otherwise, you're good to go.
 
acrashb said:
Before you start buying spares, live with it a while. I never used any, and my Loadmaster lived with me for a good long time.

Maladjustment, running out of primers, and other forms of abuse or bad luck can cause problems. Otherwise, you're good to go.
Click to expand...

I didn't go through a slider until a little bit of grease got into the end of the primer feed mechanism. The primers then stuck to the mechanism and caused problems. The grease came from the bottom of the shell plate. :redface: Now I just make sure that there is no excess grease on the bottom of the shell plate and no grease or oil in the primer feed mechanism.

Other than those couple of quirks, my Loadmaster runs very smoothly.
 
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