Sandgroper wrote:
I guess you don't rate the Lee stuff very highly?
Well yes and no. I think that old Dick Lee is one of the most innovative reloading equipment designers bar none. However Lee products are aimed at people who don't want or can't afford to spend a lot of money on their kit, this is the vast majority of hand loaders. Also the majority of reloaders world wide, most of which will be in the USA happily produce their ammunition exclusively with Lee tools to their satisfaction.
However making a product to a price means that savings have to be made somewhere and that is usually in the quality of the materials that Lee uses.
I regard Lee equipment more as a kit that needs fettleing before it can be made to work. Personally I enjoy and take great pleasure out of using fine tools that work as described out of the box so Lee isn't dominant on my bench.
However I really rate their collet dies for example so I am prepared to take the time to polish and fit the collet and mandrel and be prepared to replace parts when they get chewed, I would be very happy to pay more for Lee collet dies that were properly finished and had higher speccy material where the metal meets but then that would put it out of the Lee price zone.
Their die sets are not half bad either and have made me match winning ammunition but their bullet seating die does leave something to be desired if you haven't prepped your brass to accept the boolit/bullet square in the case before seating.
I really rate their Prodisk powder measure, being a big fan of fixed cavity powder dispensers and this works well for me and has never needed tweaking, well I did have to ream out the screw holes on the plastic risers, but other than that its worked from the get go. I still need and use my Pact electronic powder dispenser for load development and have and use 8 adjustable powder throwers including the Lee Perfect which isn't half bad either if you understand its limitations.
Their moulds are dire really especially the two cavities. If Lee could keep their moulds to within their own specification that in itself would be a start. They claim boolit diameter spec should be up to 3 thou over which is good as most boolit casters are happy with a large mould and unhappy with a small mould. Over half of my Lee moulds are under spec with their recommended alloy. I could go on but if you look on the internet there are more posts and fixes on how to get Lee moulds working than any other single cast boolit topic, that speaks volumes in itself and yes they can be made to work. I own and use 50 odd Lee Moulds with 40 if them being custom jobs most of which had to be returned to Lee once or more for them to fix various QC issues. The market place has developed so much now that thankfully I don't need to use Lee any more for bespoke moulds. However the other manufacturers I use charge twice as much as Lee did but their moulds come to me on spec, made of better materials, better finish, top punches and much more usability and robustness than Lee. I'm fortunate to be able to afford to pay the extra at present. If things change then Lee might be the only game in town.
I could go on and on but had better stop as no doubt I have insulted the many Lee users who are very happy with their equipment.
Finally though the Lee ladle is useless, being an open design you cannot use it for a pressure pour and it is of such a small capacity that you can't really get a decent gravity pour either so its probably the most worthless piece of Lee equipment I've come across. There are no doubt successful casters out there who have used it to make hundreds of thousands of match winning boolits, so each to his own.
