Lee breech lock hand press kit

[dsltech]

After seeing the Lee breech lock hand press kit for sale in the reloading trade section of the forums I decided to really look into it. Did some web searching and got some information about it. Figured for $50 I'd buy it as it wasn't a big investment. I am pretty surprised on how well it works. Doesn't require much strength to use and it isn't really any different than a traditional single stage press. The only complaint is that it is lighter than I thought it would be. I guess I was used to the hunks of metal on most presses. Besides that, I feel it was worth the money spent and probably good for a first time reloader to get an idea about reloading before throwing down serious cash for a table mounted one. The only reason why I bought this is because my 7 year old daughter kept asking me "Daddy, why are you always downstairs crafting forever?". I figured I would show her how to reload upstairs as the "bullet making place" isn't the best design to show her how its done. So I got a spare 1.5'X2.5' plywood board I had and screw in an extra RCBS powder thrower and use this as a portable work bench. Set it up on the floor of the living room and have everything spread out. .38 starline shells, 158gr hordany XTP, Vihta Vuori 3N37, digital scale, calipers and primers. I had her do each step herself for 17 rounds. Except the bullet expander, she couldn't muscle that part. So after about 30 min we have 17 rounds of .38. Now she understands what I do all the time in the basement. She then loads up two moon clips and keeps the last bullet for herself to put on her night stand. Even though I have a single stage and progressive RCBS I believe the Lee breech lock hand press kit was a very good buy. I can always prime shells in the car while waiting for her during dance class or just make rounds upstairs while she watches My Little Pony or Monster High on Netflix.

[wpod]

Very cool.

[stilly]

Glad that you made it work. Now you can punish her by buying a Lee universal decapper and everytime she does something wrong you can have her go decap 500 shells as a punishment... And if she is really bad then you can have her resize 100 shells...

Careful going down that road though, it could develop into a bad habit on your part by always finding faults in what she does.

But no seriously, if you ever need to decap the universal decapper works great on the hand press and I think you can even resize up to about a .45 acp, but 9mm is really about all that you want, 38/357 about the same.

[Jeff213]

I use the hand press for crimping. Also use it for resizing .223 and 38 special while watching tv.

[kygen]

Would this be a wise choice for reloading x54r?

[Grunt81]

Stilly, you should know as well as me that the only thing FASTER than universally decapping (1,000/hr) is sizing cast lead bullets on a Lee sizing die That ain't much of a punishment. Chores outside or around the house, ought to be more effective.

Man that's cool. Cute little girl for keeping a round on her night stand. I had my son load his first rounds for 9mm, .223, and .308. He like the way Hornady Amax bullets look and I happened to have them on hand for both rifle calibers.

I started reloading 9mm on a Lee hand press. The hardest part I found in the process was resizing 9mm. Needed lube on the outside and a slight wipe over the case mouth every few cases. After resizing a couple hundred, the hands wanted a break. I've heard of some guys who a put some PVC pipe over the "ram handle" so it's easier on the hands. I didn't bother. After 6 months on the hand press, I was ready for the Lyman T-Mag II Turret press I bought used. I love that press.

Gotta love the hand press, though, for foot mobile operations. Some guys even do load development at the range, or on the tailgate of a truck. I've never brought myself to do that, even though I've thought about it.

[sghart]

The Lee hand press is great for the range. I have a tackle box with a complete set up so I can make a few of each load I am testing/playing around with. The tackle box also goes in my camper for road trips.

I have my grandkids do chores at my reloading table and it is always my granddaughter that wants to stay around the longest and try new things.

[stand125]

I always made pistol rounds on turret or progressive presses. Now I do mostly rifle and I just use my LEE Hand press for semi and a LEE Classic loader for my bolt gun. It's nice to take my time and relax at the couch and reload. My daughter likes to help and I actually will get both kits going and we get a pretty good pace going.

[stilly]

Would this be a wise choice for reloading x54r?

You should NOT FL resize any bottle neck or shouldered rounds in the hand press. Fire and brimstone will rain down on you.

Neck sizing might work though. I have never tried it.

[Capt.Dunsel]

You should NOT FL resize any bottle neck or shouldered rounds in the hand press.

Why , according to the All Knowing Stilly ? They going to explode ? Going to jam your gun ? You going to suffer the wrath of GOD ?

Never heard that you can't , never had any problems with any of my shouldered / bottle necked cases . And I have probably been loading with one longer than you have been into firearms .

[3006mv]

Just eat your Wheaties and use case lube, it can be done. I bet people resize bullets with it too with the red plastic tub while using their thighmaster

[stilly]

Why , according to the All Knowing Stilly ? They going to explode ? Going to jam your gun ? You going to suffer the wrath of GOD ?

Never heard that you can't , never had any problems with any of my shouldered / bottle necked cases . And I have probably been loading with one longer than you have been into firearms .

Thank you for recognizing that I am all knowing. I really appreciate it and flattery like that will get you into my shorts faster then FP licking his fingers at a wet t-shirt contest... However...

I never said that you can't. I said that you shouldn't. I said that because of several things.

1. Lee engineers their items to be 3 times as strong as you need them.
2. The hand press is small and light weight.
3. It is known to be problematic for many rifle calibers due to not having enough leverage.

1. If you think the material is strong to resize then go on ahead. They have a C press that works in almost the same fashion, but after resizing .223 cases my friend broke his. When they replaced it he used it only to decap and has had no issues with it. If Lee engineers that C-press of theirs to be three times stronger than you need and IT broke, I can imagine that breaking your hand press that is NOT mounted to anything but being held by you could result in an injury if it breaks under pressure. When blood is drawn I will say I told you so... Neck resizing though is a different story. I imagine that you can prolly get by with a Neck resizing but i would think that FL resizing needs more leverage/power.

2. Small and light weight is a second warning that it might not be able to handle much more than pistol calibers or straight walled cases. I only use mine to decap but I would not hesitate to use it to load 9mm at a range for portability. But resize anything larger than a .45 or a shouldered case then I will approach that with caution. Yes, I have not done it and I am only parroting what I have read and heard about from others.

3. Not having enough leverage to do many rifle rounds means that if you continue to use it and it IS strong enough to handle the rounds, then you are gonna be beating Arnold in the next body building contest or at least you will have arms like the Rock. So it might be uncomfortable to start loading a lot of rifle cases. When I think of rifle cases I think of 1000+ .223 at a time. If it takes a lot of strength to overcome that lack of leverage then damn I am gonna be worn out.

But then again, I am a weakling who only lifts books and firearms so maybe I am not in a position to be telling folks what works and not for them. By all means, if you have been FL resizing thousands of rifle rounds on yours then don't let anything that I say get in your way. Hell, you can prolly drive home drunk from your christmas party too.

Oh and I almost forgot.

4. Fire and Brimstone will rain down upon you for doing that...

[Capt.Dunsel]

Thank you for recognizing that I am all knowing. I really appreciate it and flattery like that will get you into my shorts faster then FP licking his fingers at a wet t-shirt contest... However...

I never said that you can't. I said that you shouldn't. I said that because of several things.

1. Lee engineers their items to be 3 times as strong as you need them.
2. The hand press is small and light weight.
3. It is known to be problematic for many rifle calibers due to not having enough leverage.

1. If you think the material is strong to resize then go on ahead. They have a C press that works in almost the same fashion, but after resizing .223 cases my friend broke his. When they replaced it he used it only to decap and has had no issues with it. If Lee engineers that C-press of theirs to be three times stronger than you need and IT broke, I can imagine that breaking your hand press that is NOT mounted to anything but being held by you could result in an injury if it breaks under pressure. When blood is drawn I will say I told you so... Neck resizing though is a different story. I imagine that you can prolly get by with a Neck resizing but i would think that FL resizing needs more leverage/power.

2. Small and light weight is a second warning that it might not be able to handle much more than pistol calibers or straight walled cases. I only use mine to decap but I would not hesitate to use it to load 9mm at a range for portability. But resize anything larger than a .45 or a shouldered case then I will approach that with caution. Yes, I have not done it and I am only parroting what I have read and heard about from others.

3. Not having enough leverage to do many rifle rounds means that if you continue to use it and it IS strong enough to handle the rounds, then you are gonna be beating Arnold in the next body building contest or at least you will have arms like the Rock. So it might be uncomfortable to start loading a lot of rifle cases. When I think of rifle cases I think of 1000+ .223 at a time. If it takes a lot of strength to overcome that lack of leverage then damn I am gonna be worn out.

But then again, I am a weakling who only lifts books and firearms so maybe I am not in a position to be telling folks what works and not for them. By all means, if you have been FL resizing thousands of rifle rounds on yours then don't let anything that I say get in your way. Hell, you can prolly drive home drunk from your christmas party too.

Oh and I almost forgot.

4. Fire and Brimstone will rain down upon you for doing that...

#1 ) Have been doing it for turning 25-20 cases into 218 bee , it is more than strong enough to FL resize bottle neck cases . And yes , years of doing it , which means thousands of cases from reforming to 218 bee to 30-30 cases to 7-30 waters . 458 Win Mag does well too !

#2) Read #1 , again . It does a fine job , as long as you follow proper procedures ( which you have shown NOT to do , resizing cast bullets without lube off the top of my head ) Which shows , again , you are not all knowing .

#3) Speaks for itself.

#4) Still waiting for Fire And Brimstone ( won't ever happen )

And I am not into "kinky" stuff like you are apparently , and I don't drink booze and drive home from Christmas parties , I retired over 10 years ago now , I made my retirement money so I could partake of my hobbies and the army of grandkids .

I used to enjoy you antics , and some of your stories but now that you have made a personal attack , welcome to the list of azzhats that suffer from cranial/rectal inversion .

[sghart]

I have been using Lee hand press off and on for many years for pistol cartridges all the way up to .243, 7X57, 30-30, 30.06 and 45-70. Never had a problem. Would I want to do 200 rounds of 30.06 for my 1903? No, that's what my turret press is for. Can I load 20 rounds of ammo at a campsite or the range when I want to experiment with powders, seating depth, etc.? Absolutely.

To the OP: you, and everybody else, would be wise to take everything posted here with a healthy does of skepticism. A lot of people with an abundance of time and a scarcity of experience. And I suppose that would apply to this post also.

[stilly]

#1 ) Have been doing it for turning 25-20 cases into 218 bee , it is more than strong enough to FL resize bottle neck cases . And yes , years of doing it , which means thousands of cases from reforming to 218 bee to 30-30 cases to 7-30 waters . 458 Win Mag does well too !

#2) Read #1 , again . It does a fine job , as long as you follow proper procedures ( which you have shown NOT to do , resizing cast bullets without lube off the top of my head ) Which shows , again , you are not all knowing .

#3) Speaks for itself.

#4) Still waiting for Fire And Brimstone ( won't ever happen )

And I am not into "kinky" stuff like you are apparently , and I don't drink booze and drive home from Christmas parties , I retired over 10 years ago now , I made my retirement money so I could partake of my hobbies and the army of grandkids .

I used to enjoy you antics , and some of your stories but now that you have made a personal attack , welcome to the list of azzhats that suffer from cranial/rectal inversion .

Uhh there was no personal attack Capt. but since you took something that way then I will leave the thread and not say anything else after this post...

And good for you and others for resizing cases on the handpress, as I stated, it is not a recommended practice. AND had I known that a poster such as yourself would have thought that I was personally attacking him then I would have only said:
IT IS NOT A RECOMMENDED PRACTICE...

I said I was parotting what I had read and had heard when I was looking into things it was good for. There are others out there that share the same opinion. If resizing a cartridge can break a C-press of theirs than I would not want to resize those same cartridges in my hand press. Period. If my press is broken and it is the end of the world then I will consider resizing on the handpress. MAYBE even sooner now that you and another have spoken of doing so. Maybe I will FL resize a .223 and see how hard it really is. MAYBE those that said to not FL resize were a bunch of candy asses and had no business being near a press in the first place. The world will never know because it was about 4 years ago when I looked it all up and talked with a couple of folks...

Notes taken. Since you put me on a list, I too shall put you on a list.

The list is going to be called "People that can not take joking around or that apparently are quick to call themselves victims or people that do not recognize my humor 100% of the time as of yet."

I know, the title of the list is long, but I will work on shortening it. I make no promises though since I have better things to do than to put people on lists...

Have one. (that is short for have a nice day, not have a list, but it is not meant with a sarcastic tone, but more of a very unsarcastic tone as if to say- enjoy the rest of your day because I am leaving and now I am in full explanation mode for all of the things I say...)

**Edit- BTW, I fail to see any personal attack that was made, and now I can not sleep knowing that there is some super secret personal attack that apparently came out of my post. Maybe I am just that good at coding and I did not notice it. Maybe it was subliminal. I will prolly never know now... Thanks for giving me many sleepless nights.