Lee Pro 1000 review

[Jon Neely]

[Cowboy T]

Agreed with you, having used both models of press you mentioned (Pro 1000 and RL550B). For banging out a lot of handgun ammo quickly, it's hard to beat the Pro 1000's value proposition.

One other thing you will eventually find is that primers will start feeding sideways. This typically happens after something around 5,000 to 6,000 rounds. That just means the priming system needs cleaning, like any other machine. Check out the vids on my Web site for a quicker way to do that. Takes under half an hour.

[pyromensch]

i have had the 1000 since the mid 90's, unfortunately it is in a cabinet for the last 12 yrs, but i am gearing up, to let it breathe again, bought new brass feeder tubes recently, and am practicing on a single stage, until i get my "ducks in a row". for the price, this thing is great! i have reloaded 1000's of rds of 45, 9, and 357/38.

[HKMadness]

I agree. I have two pro 1000's I use to do 9mm, .45 and Now .38/.357

I love the savings over when I used to buy factory ammo. Some day, I want dillons. Auto index is a must for me, so I wouldn't go with the 550.

[ns3v3n]

Love my 1000 as well, just got new dies for 38/357. Now I have the shellplate assembly to change to other calibers as well, just need to change out the shellplate. For the money, it cant be beat, unless you load rifle rounds. It's great for pistol rounds for sure.

[ucsdryder]

I am looking at getting the same Reloader. Where did you buy it? Cost? I was looking at the cabelas shooting magazine and they had the lee 1000 and had different caliber options. I would mainly be reloading 10mm. They had a 40sw option. Would the 10mm be interchangeable?

[Jon Neely]

I bought all of my stuff via midwayusa. Super fast shipping a decent price all around. I'm under the impression that you can use .40 dies to reload 10mm. You will just set them up as you would any shell but being that 10mm is a bit longer than .40 you cannot be loading .40 and 10mm without adjustment between calibers. Once you get the hang of the machine, die adjustment is a snap.

[rd2play]

Check out the vids on my Web site for a quicker way to do that. Takes under half an hour.

Great videos on your site! Very helpful.

[Cowboy T]

I bought all of my stuff via midwayusa. Super fast shipping a decent price all around. I'm under the impression that you can use .40 dies to reload 10mm. You will just set them up as you would any shell but being that 10mm is a bit longer than .40 you cannot be loading .40 and 10mm without adjustment between calibers. Once you get the hang of the machine, die adjustment is a snap.

That's true, just like how we also use .38 Special dies for .357M. Likewise, you can reload .45 Winchester Magnum (the semi-auto handgun round, not the .458 Win Mag rifle one) with .45 ACP dies.

Die adjustment is not hard at all. The trickiest one is the combination seating/crimping die, but there's a pretty foolproof procedure for that, too. My own procedure is a rather severe hack of what's in Lee's instructions, and I think it takes less time as well.

Rd2play: glad the vids helped!

[Unicorn food]

Thanks for this post... I have been rolling around the idea of getting one of these for my .45... Ive got around 5000 cases of brass, bullets, primers and 3lbs of powder! so I am almost ready to go!!! I used to use a hornady progressive but my buddy fled the state. I might just end up getting one of these guys

[Unicorn food]

along with buying the press, tumbler & scale. What else will I need to get this thing up and running if I get the lee 1000 .45 kit?

[IntoForever]

I use the Lee 1000 kit for .45 ACP and love it. I'm 50 rds. shy of 2000 loaded cartridges and only have minor issues on a rare occasion such as primer feeding wrong, usually when it gets low. Only addition I did was to add a LED light so I can see the powder level. As long as I keep things tight, I'm GTG!

Anyone use the pro 1000 in .223? I'm curious as to how the powder loads. I use stick powder and manually, the powder loads really slow.

[Jon Neely]

along with buying the press, tumbler & scale. What else will I need to get this thing up and running if I get the lee 1000 .45 kit?

I would say a digital caliper will get you running nice and a couple of plastic bins for shells, bullets and finished rounds (you can buy the one I have from home depot for like $7 for the set of 3) Plus the I recommend the upgrades I mentioned in the review.

[Unicorn food]

I would say a digital caliper will get you running nice and a couple of plastic bins for shells, bullets and finished rounds (you can buy the one I have from home depot for like $7 for the set of 3) Plus the I recommend the upgrades I mentioned in the review.

Got it!! and the primer tray is sold separately from what I am seeing? or they just dont have it listed and it comes with? I am ordering through cabelas

[jonzer77]

I have loaded about 7000 rounds through my lee pro 1000 in 45, 9mm, and 38 super and for the money it is a great press. Once you get the little quirks out it runs great and midway usually has them for $150 w/dies.