Thread: Lee reloading

Over the weekend I bent the tip on my Lee 30-06 case gauge while trimming some brass. I immediately sent an e-mail to Lee, maybe they could repair it.
Just checked my messages, they are sending me a new case length gauge in todays mail. Just thought I would put out there what great service I've gotten with Lee.

I've been using Lee stuff for a while now too and found they have some great idea's. I love their case trimmer. It's simple and it works. Same with the factory crimp die. They put a carbide sizer in it and it works great.

I have some Lee gear and it's been good to me. I may not load a few K at a time but for what I reload for it works..

I read a post several years ago that pretty much sums it up for LEE. This person advised "Never buy anything from Lee made of Plastic. Their stuff that's made of real metal is great. Plastic, not so much."

I've had many Lee products over the years and found this to be pretty much on the mark. That's one of the biggest problems with their progressive presses. All those little plastic pieces they use seem to fail frequently. Of course Lee will tell you that this is a "design feature". They fail to keep other things from breaking.

I restrict my purchases of LEE Products to Case Trimmers, and their dies for my "common loading'. For match grade, they only make one useable die and that's the seating die. Also use their Factory Crimp die. All their plastic "stuff", I'm done.

I haven't had any problems with my plastic stuff, of course, I've probably been doing this a day or two less than deadshot

I like Lee because of their customer service. When they say they stand behind their "unbreakable" pieces, thats the truth. They replaced my '06 FL decapper with no questions asked. When I had a problem with my 7mm Rem Mag dies, they were going to send me pieces to fix it, but I'd already used a Dremel and some sand paper to fix it, so I told them not to bother. They even collected several calibers worth of decapping rods for both FL and NS dies that were broken and people had sent back, and sent them to me free of charge. I thought that was pretty cool of them

I think I've broken every lee press I've ever owned, lee reloader... snapped it in half, lee pro-1000 the base snapped where the front support screws in. Their stuff was ok when I had zero budget for reloading stuff, but I have moved on. I still remember the last time I was sizing with the "unbreakable" decapper... yea it didn't brake but the decapping pin got stuck in a flash-hole, and would never stay in the decapping rod ever again. Also, the expander section of the rod wore out after about 5k rounds. Lee is great when you're starting out, but to do any kind of quantity, you need better gear.

Originally Posted by AMProducts

Lee is great when you're starting out, but to do any kind of quantity, you need better gear.

Considering that MOST people that start reloading eventually replace that "just starting out quality" equipment, why not just get some "good stuff" to begin with. The "Good Stuff" can always be sold later and you can recover a greater percentage of your investment should you ever quit.

think in terms of "Will this meet my needs 2, 5, 10 years down the road" rather than the immediate moment. It's also amazing the number of people who will say they can't afford to do it right the first time but can justify doing it over and over again (spending money on cheap stuff). In the end who spends more?