Lee hand press

[Lever Jac]

Does anybody use a Lee Hand Press. I have a progressive loader but I hardly ever use it. My hand press gets used the most because it seems I am always trying to develop a new load for one or another of the guns I shoot. Several years ago when I was living out of my RV a hand press was all I had room for. I ran a couple a hundred rounds of 45acp on my progressive in no time, but if I want to run some ladder loads I always grab my hand press because of set up time, plus I have a better feel for whats going on.

[bgavin]

I have the Lee Breech Lock Hand Press with #1 universal shell holder for 38/357 and Lee decapping die.
I use it solely to decap spent cartridges.

It is very, very well made.
Operation is smooth and flawless, with very little effort required to pop the spent caps.

The cap falls down into the ram cylinder, and collects there.
When you are so inclined, hold it over the trash and dump 'em out.
No spent caps falling on the floor.

This is wonderfully mindless while watching TV.

[Land Cruiser]

EDIT: Sorry, I confused "hand press" with "single-stage bench press." My bad! I used a Lee single-stage bench press, not the Lee hand press.

Sorry to clutter-up your thread Lever Jac.

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Hi Lever Jac,

Yes, all I use is a 1990s era Lee single stage reloading press. Since it is important to "get things right the first time" when reloading I like to keep things simple.

I hand load a few calipers with this Lee press. The most volume is probably .45 ACP with .44 Mag coming in second. I do batches in these calibers: deprime a bunch of casings, then resize a bunch of casings, etc. until I have loaded xx .45 cartridges. Works for me!

Land Cruiser

Does anybody use a Lee Hand Press. I have a progressive loader but I hardly ever use it. My hand press gets used the most because it seems I am always trying to develop a new load for one or another of the guns I shoot. Several years ago when I was living out of my RV a hand press was all I had room for. I ran a couple a hundred rounds of 45acp on my progressive in no time, but if I want to run some ladder loads I always grab my hand press because of set up time, plus I have a better feel for whats going on.

[Grenadier]

I use a Lee Hand Press for 90% of my reloading. I have a regular bench press that gathers dust. I like the Hand Press because it is portable and easy to use. To make things easier I purchased several additional Quick Change Bushings. I set those up and leave them on the dies. Those really speed things up. I must offer the caveat that I only load 20-50 cartridges at a time and I do not reload pistol calibers. Loading hundreds of cartridges at a time with the Hand Press would be very tedious.

[noylj]

I am more than happy to load 10 rounds at different powder increments on my 1050s. I weigh out using an RCBS ChargeMaster and pour in the powder with the case in the Lee PTE die with the "funnel cap" on the die and a Lee powder funnel on the cap. No sweat, no strain. The CM does a great job of keeping up with my production flow.
We all do what works for us, and, as long as safe, that is all that matters.

[mr surveyor]

I've used nothing but a Lee Breech Lock Hand Press since early 2017 .... several thousands of rounds. I load 9mm and .45 auto for the bottom feeders, .38 spl, .357 mag and .44 mag revolver/levergun and 30-30 win. With a RCBS Rangemaster 750 electronic scale and assortment of other necessaries it makes for a nice, fairly compact set-up. I only go to the range 3-4 times per month, and many times only shoot 20-30 rounds through the long guns, or on rare occasions maybe 50 in the hand guns. My little re-loading set-up obviously keeps up with my range trips since I haven't bought a single metallic cased round since 2010.
The Lee Hand Press works for me.

jd

[Pig Ninja]

Buddy of mine had one and let me try it. After 50 rounds of 9mm I went back to my RCBS Partner press. Just not for me.

[mountainguy]

I use one - I'm not a high-volume reloader so it meets my needs. A few boxes of shells per year for hunting and practice are all I crank out these days and for that it's really great. I have an rcbs press too but the Lee is what I've gone to for the last 4-5 yrs and it's worked well.

[Unhippy]

How much force is required to use the 'factory crimp die' (30-30) in a hand press?......is it easy or does it take a pretty fair amount of force?

[ironhead7544]

Unhippy: The hand press will easily crimp with the factory crimp die. Very little force is needed for the collet crimper for bottle neck cases.

I have used the Lee Hand Press for a number of cartridges with out any problems. It is a bit slower than a mounted press.