Lee loadmaster tips and tricks

[ted_dent]

H

right

It's been working awesomely well and it's such a pleasure to use that I bite myself for wasting money on a loadmaster when I should have spent a little more up front and I should have bought a dillon 650 right away.

I'm telling you, in a few years, you will buy a 650 anyway.

I've had my two Loadmasters for nearly 20 years. Total parts invested were one carrier assembly, one indexing Rod and 2 or 3 priming assemblies. Total cost about $75. 650 is a fine machine but for what I paid for my 2 Loadmasters vs. what I would pay for 2 650s bought me a nice Kimber Stainless Target II and a bunch of ammo. Sorry, no 650 in my future.

 

[britguy]

Lightly lube a few cases every so often, smooths out the press nicely and doesn't gum things up.

 

[Kryogen]

for pistol, I put a few hundred cases in a large plastic container with a lid, and VERY slightly mist a very diluted mix of lanolin (like 1:20) on top, then close the box and shake.

You almost can't tell that the brass is lubed, but the press operates MUCH MUCH smoother. (expecially if you feed it squeaky clean SS tumbles cases).
After the rounds are loaded, I simply place a few hundred on a towel, mist with alcohol, rub around the towel, and it's done, lube removed.

takes 5 seconds to lube and less than one minute to remove lube. Makes the whole process a ton smoother. Why not.

223 gets a thicker coat of lube, outside and inside the necks, and takes a bath in the US cleaner after to remove lube, with hot water, lemishine and simple green hd.

 

[Jems]

For me I found that the 9mm cases would stick during the resizing. Now I spray a little WD40 into a cloth, pick up a handful of brass and rub them around in the cloth. Then drop them in my tubes and begin, no more sticking cases. And the WD40 evaporates pretty much and general handling after making the rounds removes anything left behind. You don't have to use alot of it.

 

[dakotamar]

The only one mod I've done to mine is install a single led light under the powder charging station. Saw the vid on YouTube. If for some reason, there's no primer present, I can clearly see a blue light shining through the flash hole before I fill with powder. I still get the odd flipped primer, but if everything is clean and tuned, it's only one out of 200 or so. Depending on brass and primers. Mine likes federal spp. Not as reliable with the cheap dominion primers. The rest of the press is trouble free and has been for 20-30k rounds.

i'll have to look for that video, i get empty primer holes when there is only a couple primers left in the chute.

 

[silverfoxdj]

for pistol, I put a few hundred cases in a large plastic container with a lid, and VERY slightly mist a very diluted mix of lanolin (like 1:20) on top, then close the box and shake.

You almost can't tell that the brass is lubed, but the press operates MUCH MUCH smoother. (expecially if you feed it squeaky clean SS tumbles cases).
After the rounds are loaded, I simply place a few hundred on a towel, mist with alcohol, rub around the towel, and it's done, lube removed.

takes 5 seconds to lube and less than one minute to remove lube. Makes the whole process a ton smoother. Why not.

223 gets a thicker coat of lube, outside and inside the necks, and takes a bath in the US cleaner after to remove lube, with hot water, lemishine and simple green hd.

I do the same @ 1 to 12 ratio and only wipe down the rifle cases

 

[LeadMonkey]

If I wanted to know how people sold their loadmasters and bought a Dillon I would have made a thread titled, "selling my loadmaster and buying a Dillon"

Could you please post the link to the other thread? I am also on that long list.

 

[Smcx]

I wet tumble with armor all carnuba car wash. Cases go through smooth. I also use carbide lee dies.

 

[Deathrawt]

I've had a few primer tipping issues with mine but nothing serious. Lately the issue that I am having is that is seems that a grain of powder is getting caught on the rim of a brass (30-06) and causing the rim to get dented downward when the brass goes up to get the powder loaded. It doesn't happen a lot but it is a bit frustrating when it does. When it happens you hear a crunching noise when the brass goes up to activate the powder measure.
I was looking on another forum (1919.com and beltfed shooters) and there was a few topics about the Dillon 650 having some major priming issues so those presses are not immune to malfunctions either. One of the guys sent his press back to Dillon 2 or 3 times for repair and it never worked right each time he got it back. I think the loadmaster was a good purchase and don't regret buying it at all. There's gonna be lemons with everything no matter the brand