Lee Pro 1000 for newb

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dingbat

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I'm just starting to get into shooting and I was thinking about reloading. I apologize if this kind of question gets asked alot but I couldn't find many threads talking about this press.

From what I can tell, this kit gives you everything you need, minus the consumable stuff. Looks like it's roughly $200ish.

Is the Lee Pro 1000 a good starter kit for a newb? It will be used for .45 ACP and possibly at a later time, 9mm Luger.

Thanks.
 
For the money, the Pro 1000 is hard to beat. I recommend it.

You do get what you pay for, however, and it cannot be compared to presses that cost six times as much.

Lee will tell you it does not work particularly well in .45 ACP. 9x19mm works very well.
 
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Funny , my experiences with the Pro 1000 in 45acp was excellent. I thought the loader was initially made for that caliber as it worked so well. I had to do a few tweaks to be happy with mine but it was far less work than the 40 S&W Pro 1000 I use now.
Overall I give it a "B" grade-great price, good product but requires user patience to get it to run smooth. The agrevating thing to me is the tweaks are dead simple and cheap to do-the factory should do them for you.
 
I started with the turret press, and 30,000+ rounds later still have it. For a novice it gives a decent mix of speed (you don't need to spend days at the bench to make a good quantity of ammo) and control. It can be tough to follow a full progressive through the cycle at each position while you're new at reloading, and an error on a full progressive tends to multiply through a large quantity of rounds. If you are by nature a careful person though there's no reason not to go with the progressive. I've never had any serious issues with Lee equipment, just some tweaking as mentioned by others.
 
I have had 2 Pro Lee 1000 one in 9mm other in 45 and both were pain the primer feed sucks id spend the money and buy a Dillon 550 or 650
 
I have two that I bought cheap from a board member. If you are starting out and do not have the money for a Dillon, there is nothing wrong with them.

The truly weak point I have found is the primer feed system. If you keep the trough full, there will be no issues; if you do not, Lord help you. The two i have are older and have had many rounds through them, but he almost gave them to me and i could not pass them up.

The 38 Special one I have worked well from the start once I learned to watch the primers, but the 9mm gave me major issues. Once I read the FAQ section of the manual, I realized it was out of time; once I adjusted that, it worked fine. It does have a nice feel when the primers seat, if you do not feel them seat, you can adjust things before things get messy.

I am slow since I am new to it, but I can load about 200 rounds/hour with it.
 
Just to add my two sense, Being new to reloading, you would probally be better served in buying a good used single staged press like a RCBS rockchucker (about $100) and become famaliar with the whole reloading process. Way less chance to make mistakes.
 
I have a Lee 1000 pro in 40 S&W. I also load 38 special / 357 Mag in that machine (Calibre change over takes about 10 to 15 minutes including tweaking).

The machine takes some getting used to and is a little finicky but once you get the hang of it I find it works quite well. I can do about 400 rounds / hour as long as I watch my primers.

I tried the bullet feeder kit for it but I won't reccomend it. I could never get it to work smothly and found that I can feed bullets just as fast if not faster by hand.

For the money the Lee 1000 Pro is a good choice and beginners should be able to use it provided they follow directions and are willing to take the time to learn how to use it and tweak the machine properly.
 
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