please remove
- Thread starter bullzeye
- Start date
- Location
- Halifax - NS
You'll spend more time tuning and screwing with it than you should for something you paid any money for.
Don't waste your money and more importantly, your time. Get something decent.
I have a Dillon- a 550- and I use the loadmaster more-I don't care for the hand- crank star wheel on the Dillon- too much chance of forgetting to advance the wheel or forgetting to charge the case- granted, those are both operator errors, but why tempt fate-the loadmaster is in 44 mag, and i use lee 1000s to load 9mm, 45 , and 223- the trick with the 1000 is to RAISE THE BACK of the press so that there's more of a TILT to the primer feed trough and to ALWAYS KEEP THE TROUGH FULL- OR "ENCOURGE THE LAST FEW PRIMERS WITH A PENCIL OR SMALL ROD- ALWAYS MAkE SURE THAT PRIMER GOES ON TO THE PLATE PROPERLY- I also keep a lee hand primer handy jic I get a sideways or inverted primer- and a pair of needlenose pliers to pull the offending primer- you can feel it when it doesn't feed or goes sideways or inverted
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BALONEY- cure the problem at once or pull the offending round from sequence, fix the problem, and resume- if it's a major problem,like something broke, drain the powder , and empty the primer feed-and for gods sake STOP
it's easy enough to LOOK onto the case to see if there's a charge or not- or use a charge stick-by LOOkING into a case it becomes OBVIOUS what a double charge looks like- or use a powder that won't double charge- ie 231 in a 45 acp case- full up,it won't take but 7 grains- ie 10 grains won't fit - it will spill over- a lot of guys rig a flashlight to see into the case and improve the primer feed with o- rings on the second support so the primer feed gets a better "bump" when the primers feed- I've been doing this since 71, got my first progressive about 86 or so, got the Dillon in 92, so maybe I know a thing or 2
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I learned that the hard way. Now if I have any glitch I remove the case that had issues, dump out the powder and throw the brass back into the hopper after a quick inspection.
It only took the destruction of a $1700 pistol to learn that one
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Quite a few respondents including myself seem to think they are decent and did not waste their money. YMMV.
I learned that the hard way. Now if I have any glitch I remove the case that had issues, dump out the powder and throw the brass back into the hopper after a quick inspection.
It only took the destruction of a $1700 pistol to learn that one
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ah a little epoxy will fix that.......
I ended up getting 4 presses, the LNL is setup for 9mm, the Loadmaster is for .40cal, the Pro 1000 is for 223 and the Lee turret press does about 5-6 calibres, plus a whole whack of odd jobs like depriming or fullsizing brass and de-crimping brass, etc Likely the most versatile press you can get and I have about 6 turrets plates for it. also have a $20 shotgun shell press from Lee I picked up at a sale that is used for loading slugs.
THIS!!! Save your money and buy something decent! I bought the loadmaster after using the Pro 1000. Got to say the Pro is one heck of a lot better than the load master. The best use for the load master is probably to use it as a boat anchor but then again, you don't want to be lifting the anchor ever day to fix it!
Loadmaster was crap, had it 3 weeks before being so frustrated I sold it and bought a Dillon. Never could get more than a handful of rounds through at a time before something went wrong. Several thousand through the Dillon now with great results.
now all we need is for evil lord pepper to show and the set of lee loadmaster haters will be complete- some of these only show when loadmaster is mentioned- all of 5-10 people out of millions sold- weigh the promotors against the dissenters, and make your own decisions- also look at the experience some of the posters have
I have my dads lee pro 1000. Im sure he loaded many many tens of thousand rounds with it. Ive loaded about 1000 with it. Seems like once you figure out all the little tricks they work pretty well. learned a few more just a few messages back. Lift the back of the press seems like a good idea. I wonder why they didnt just put way more incline on the primer feeder to begin with. That o ring idea seems like that would help too.
remember, these are post production "tweeks" that I and other handloaders have developed over the years- just like putting washers under the press so you can 1) clean the spent primers out from underneath- those holes they advise you to drill don't get all of them- you need a way to clean those out- also by adding a few extra washers on the middle mounting hole, you achieve that increased angle you want on the primer feed- however, and I cannot emphasize this enough you DO NOT DO THIS on the 223- it throws the case feeder off
so you get a malfunction, you open ALL the gates and pull EVERY round?- the loadmaster uses 4, maybe 5 gates- if you get a powder misfeed, you open 2, and 4 for no reason and what do you do with the loaded round- disassemble it?- remember 2 has a primed case, and 4 has a seated bullet, ready to drop into your completed bin- I also keep a small binder which lists completed rounds weight by manufacturer( hi and low) federal , Remington, Winchester, etc- and weigh every round- any that are outside of the spectrum are rejected and done again- then weighed again- doubles and squibs show up pretty quickly my way too
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Lol, was pretty tingly for a while and had some little pieces of polymer stuck in my hand for a day or two before I dug them out.
The pistol did a pretty good job directing the blast down through the magazine. Could have been a lot worse.
Was a good reminder of how dangerous reloading can be if you're not careful.
