lee hand-press

sir-lamp-alot

Well-Known Member
i'm just wondering what people think of the lee hand press as i need to free up a bit of space at home so my reloading table has to be condenced a bit and i was thinking about using one of these presses so as i can pack all my kit away when its not in use.
 
due to lack of space and no room for a proper reloading bench, ive moved to an arbor press and a lee hand held. Seems to be working fine so far :D
 
thanks for your input chaps i think i will give it a crack as they are only £30 from sportsmans and i think they will post it to. it also makes a change to mention a lee product and not to get boo's and hissis :D
 
I have one and keep it in my shooting box or the back of the wagon if stalking. I reload but deliberately keep the rounds over-long. Immediately before shooting or before loading the stalking rifle i'll then pass them through the hand press, thereby finally sizing them.

I do this because a guy who's forgotten more about accurate shooting than i'll ever know explained that benchrest shooters do exactly this. The join between case and bullet oxidises and therefore it requires different amounts of force for the bullet to move and therefore velocities change.

It did sound anal, but i must admit that it does increase consistency because my groupings decreased noticably without doing anything else.
 
Due to it being too wet and windy to go out to my reloading shed I made some rounds whilst sat watching t.v using a Lee hand press and Lee powder dropper for my heavy (19lbs) target 6.5-284. 1/2 inch at 200m says there is nowt wrong with the Lee tackle. It kinda makes my Crusher redundant.
I'm actually tempted to 'reverse engineer' this loading malarkey and see just how cheap with regards presses, dies, powder measures etc it is possible to go before accuracy deteriorates.
 
My first loading dies were for a 45 Dutch Beaumont and made from a block of maple wood, drilled and sanded to shape. The case mouths were flared with a pair of needle nose pliers, and the bullet seated using my father's woodworking vise. These loads shot better than original military loads. People over think this reloading process. I have made sizer dies using molten linotype poured around the case in a juice can. They lasted about 50 uses before needing to be remade.

I use Lee "Classic" reloaders quite abit. These require the case to be tapped into a sizer, or an arbor press used. They will producr ammunition as good as any bench mounted equipment. I have tested this against .223 loaded in RCBS gear and found the Lee Classic loader to produce ammo as good or better than the RCBS bench mounted gear. I have a friend tho declines the use of bench gear for hit Lee Classic Loader in .222. He shoots 1/2 MOA and doesn't want to change a thing.~Muir
 
I have my Lee press mounted on a piece of oak kitchen worktop 10 inches by six inchs. This pack away with the rest of my relaoding gear, but can quickly clamp to the kitchen table for spot of reloading in comfort, or my small workbench if kitchen is in use.
 
Back
Top