Lee Loader 45-70 opinions

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I've been considering one of the mallet operated Lee Loader kits to make up a few rounds of 45-70. I am a low volume shooter of this calibre but fire enough to not want to spend $50 a box of 20.

Do these work reasonably well if I am using brass fired in my own gun? I am not opposed to weighing powder instead of using their dipper.

I could buy a press but then there is dies, trimming etc. Have a feeling that ultimately the press is probably the way to go but these small, inexpensive hand loading kits are intriguing.
 
Pistol calibers do a full resize, which deformed the case (stretching on one side) in my case (.44 Mag) with some efforts. A shooter who had one in 9mm told me that his was a breeze to use. There is no expanding die but only a flare tool, which doesn't work too well with soft cast bullets.
Most of my brass bulged on one side (crooked bullet seating).

Rifle calibers reportedly only neck size, which cannot be done forever. I'm curious to know which option they choose for the '70.
 
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I bought one and sold it for a lee hand press and dies. Because I wanted to be able to do a heavy crimp as I shoot out of a tubular magazine. https://leeprecision.com/breech-lock-hand-press.html

I would say it depends what your load pressures are. If you are doing singleshot / trapdoor loads, full length sizing and crimping may not be necessary. If you're shooting a ruger no.1, you're gonna want the hand press.
 
I have one and also a full press set up. I had no issues with it and frankly it's kind of fun to use. They're not overly expensive so I say go for it. See for yourself if you like it or not.

cheers,
 
Just remember, if you buy the Lee Loader there is a very high likelihood you'll end up buying a press and dies later. And a hand priming tool. And... Well, you get the idea.

If you've got the funds and the space to set up a press, it might be worth just looking into what a cheap setup will cost (~$100-200 depending what exactly you want and how many little bits and pieces you get) and go for it. As long as you don't over pay initially reloading gear sells used for pretty high prices so you won't be out a lot if you buy a press and dies and then decide its not for you.
 
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