5 rounds in 2.5 hours

greener · Post by **greener** » Tue May 17, 2011 11:18 pm

Frustration is putting the dedicated shell plate/carrier on my Lee Pro 1000 and then spending 2.5 hours trying to figure out why the primers won't feed full and you end up trying to push the case out of the shell plate instead of seating the primer.

What didn't work for me:
indexing the shell plate several times
disassembling the carrier and cleaning it.
cleaning the primer feed trough
putting the shell plate on another carrier
changing the primers

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Wed May 18, 2011 7:48 am

Ahhh yes tghe Achillies heal of all progressive presses, the primer feed.......

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Wed May 18, 2011 8:53 am

Thought he was talking about some new slow burning powder he was using?
{ will stick with my Lee single stage, old slow and simple, but it work, kind of like the owner, eh?

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Wed May 18, 2011 8:54 am

You should have moved up to a Hornady LNL or Dillon .......

The Lee has a reputation of needing constant tweaking. They do work once you have every thing set just perfect, for a short period of time. Till you tweek it back in place.

I tried their bullet feeder and it was terrible. I could get it to work for maybe a column of bullets then it would act up. I eventually gave up on it.

Medicine Hat · Post by **Medicine Hat** » Wed May 18, 2011 11:05 am

Right you are Blue. And BAOM too. I have a lee single stage I use for some operations and some loading. Mostly I use the Dillon RL550. I have tool heads set up for each calibre I load. Changeover takes about 10 min.
The only primer feed problems I have ever had in several years have been the results of brain flatulents on the operators part. Unfortunately, that can't be blamed on the machine.

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Wed May 18, 2011 2:20 pm

I've used a Dillon 450, I have a Lee loadmaster. the loadmaster is nice I bought it because that what the funds dictated at the time. I like it but the primer feed isn't the best thats the one thing thats given me fits (well other than the case feeder that quit using). its good heavy duty and has a smooth stroke.
The Loadmaster sometimes will flip a primer sideways or upside down or jsut not feed one. maybe 1 out of 200 rounds.
the dillon I used to use had a better primer feed but it still needed a little tweeking every now and then. and it was slow to reload the primer tube unless you had theme set up and ready to go in the tubes.

greener's pro1000 is a decent press but it like any other has its quirks

for the money i've been happy with the lee. I have a lee single stage i use for small batches or rifle rounds too.

Post by **Bullseye** » Wed May 18, 2011 4:34 pm

I've never had a problem with any of my Pro-1000s but I also don't swap shell plate carriers. If I want to change calibers I swap out the entire presses.

R,
Bullseye

greener · Post by **greener** » Wed May 18, 2011 5:27 pm

Bullseye wrote:I've never had a problem with any of my Pro-1000s but I also don't swap shell plate carriers. If I want to change calibers I swap out the entire presses.

R,
Bullseye

Probably a better idea.

Essentially every problem I've had with the Pro1000 has had something to do with primer feed. It will not do well at all with Winchester Primers. These were CCI's. Will be back at it tonight. Another good cleaning.

Mentioned it to my son-in-law, and he said something about "Dillon."

Georgezilla · Post by **Georgezilla** » Wed May 18, 2011 5:53 pm

I use a Dillon. I've never had an issue with the Dillon's primer feed system (knock on wood). I agree with bgreenea though, loading the primers is a bit slower than other re-loaders. However, I can easily get 100 primers loaded in <2 minutes.

I also have to say Dillon really stands behind their product, when they say "no BS warranty," they mean it

greener · Post by **greener** » Wed May 18, 2011 9:06 pm

Eureka! I suppose.

The Pro 1000 carrier has a limit switch on the priming/powder station and spring steel at the top of the station. The one on the .38 special carrier looked like it was bent out too far. I removed it, bent it so it would be in more. The purpose of the spring is to hold the case in the proper position in the shell plate. Zero priming problems after bending the spring.

Of course, this move was after disassembling and cleaning the carrier twice, plus a lot of looking at cases moving through that station.

Oh, well, what would be the fun if all you had to do is walk to the bench and knock out a couple hundred rounds?

greener · Post by **greener** » Wed May 18, 2011 9:10 pm

Georgezilla wrote:I use a Dillon. I've never had an issue with the Dillon's primer feed system (knock on wood). I agree with bgreenea though, loading the primers is a bit slower than other re-loaders. However, I can easily get 100 primers loaded in <2 minutes.

I also have to say Dillon really stands behind their product, when they say "no BS warranty," they mean it

Everything I've read or seen about Dillons seems to show they are excellent reloaders. The Lee Pro was a fairly inexpensive way to try reloading. I figured that if I didn't want to reload, I wouldn't have invested a lot. The Lee is good enough that I haven't felt the push to change, yet.

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Thu May 19, 2011 12:00 am

greener wrote:
Georgezilla wrote:I use a Dillon. I've never had an issue with the Dillon's primer feed system (knock on wood). I agree with bgreenea though, loading the primers is a bit slower than other re-loaders. However, I can easily get 100 primers loaded in <2 minutes.

I also have to say Dillon really stands behind their product, when they say "no BS warranty," they mean it
Everything I've read or seen about Dillons seems to show they are excellent reloaders. The Lee Pro was a fairly inexpensive way to try reloading. I figured that if I didn't want to reload, I wouldn't have invested a lot. The Lee is good enough that I haven't felt the push to change, yet.

me too

Post by **Bullseye** » Thu May 19, 2011 6:06 am

I know that finger spring! It makes sense because the spring positions the case directly over the new primer to facilitate seating. It doesn't take very much misalignment to cause primer seating problems. Most of the primer seating issues I've ever had were due to crimps in military brass case heads for the primer pockets. My Dillon Super Swage 600 takes care of those for me. No more hand chamfering!

R,
Bullseye

greener · Post by **greener** » Thu May 19, 2011 7:00 am

After looking at the Lee site Tuesday night, I emailed them with the problem and what I'd done to solve it. Lee responded yesterday afternoon with a general troubleshooting procedure. First on the list was the spring. I'd give them pretty good marks for customer service.

I didn't read the email until after I solved the problem, but I was impressed by the response time.

Ray384 · Post by **Ray384** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 12:59 pm

I use a Lee Load Master, but I do not attempt to prime on it. What I do is resize and deprime and then use a RCBS hand priming tool. I store the primed cases in a coffee can. When I load the cases, I can do 300 per hour. Added 10 years to my life.

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5 rounds in 2.5 hours

5 rounds in 2.5 hours

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