.png)
I've made it through about 200 rounds on my Lee progressive and have gotten comfortable with it and due to the mixed online reviews I thought I'd give my opinion of it as someone who has experience with a single stage and is new to progressive reloading.
I ordered it from cabelas for $150, the kit I bought came with dies and shell plate for 9mm, Lee pro auto disc powder measure, small shell feed tube and the lee auto prime feature.
I also ordered 2 extra quick change turrets and dies for .380 and .40 caliber.
It arrived mostly assembled but the instructions are pretty vague, but with not progressive experience i had it completly assembled and monted withing an hour with no frustration, just looked over the intructions and parts and took my time.
So far it has been a very good purchase from a value standpoint. It does what it is supposed to do. The stroke is fairly long from top to bottom but i have nothing to compare this to except my lee single stage. It opperates fairly smooth with a slight "catch" or shake on the upstroke as it rotates the shell plate but i have noticed this helps with the primer feed. It does have some slop in it, Bullet seating depth varies by about .003".
The powder measure wurks pretty good and thows a pretty consistent charge using tightgroup. It comes with 4 disks which can be set in .03 cc increments so if you want to really fine tune your charge you would need to get the micro bar accessary and the double stack kit, for realoading plinking and range ammo it works fine, charges are generally .1-.3 gr. under the listed charge with Tightgroup. You do lose alittle powder while changing discs but it can be minimized by shutting off the powder flow and cycling it a few times to empty any left over powder in an extra case or tray. The chain is pretty weak(the chains they use for ceiling fans), broke once but it was the first test after assembly and i did not have it set right.
The infamous priming system.....So far i have had no problems that were not user error, it works fine until it begins getting low in the trough(around 10 primers). I had a few flip when filling the trough but the were pretty easy to fix. It does seem to prefer cci primers to federal and reccomends CCI or Winchester in the manual. They both feed but the CCIs seat better. the federals flatten alittle when being set.
The case feed system is easy to set and was flawless during use, i will have to order the large version to use with .40 caliber but it works great with 9mm. With it removed it was still quick and easy to load a fresh case. just set it a case where it would have been dropped by the case feeder and raise the handle.
Place a bullet in place and lower the handle, repeat.
AND THEN IT JAMS UP!!! and its impossible to get going again without tearing the whole thing apart, atleast thats what the youtube videos and reviews said. Apparently these people had no common sense. The only jams i had were from not seating the primer completly and all in the first 50 or so rounds(also all caused by me not raising the the handle completly), and the fix, Lower the handle about 25%, rotate the shell plate back to the openings they left for this situation, put it in just passed the primeing station and rotate back over the priming piston where it will "fall" back in place and raise the ram completley. This was the only thing that cause it to lock up.
The quick change turrets work great, just twist and lift, the worst part of it is changing the powder measure to the new charging die and thats not hard either.
I have not changed the shell plate because the 9mm and .40 use the same one, i will probably just order another press in 5.56 since it takes the same shell plate as .380, all i would need to do is swap dies.
I think it's a great press for $150, if you are using or have used an RCBS other high end press you may not like it but I think its great for someone now to reloading, or just new to progressives. I am completly satisfied and plan to order another sometime this spring. If your looking to load to max charge or want extremly precise ammo this is not for you but for my use it is great.
I ordered it from cabelas for $150, the kit I bought came with dies and shell plate for 9mm, Lee pro auto disc powder measure, small shell feed tube and the lee auto prime feature.
I also ordered 2 extra quick change turrets and dies for .380 and .40 caliber.
It arrived mostly assembled but the instructions are pretty vague, but with not progressive experience i had it completly assembled and monted withing an hour with no frustration, just looked over the intructions and parts and took my time.
So far it has been a very good purchase from a value standpoint. It does what it is supposed to do. The stroke is fairly long from top to bottom but i have nothing to compare this to except my lee single stage. It opperates fairly smooth with a slight "catch" or shake on the upstroke as it rotates the shell plate but i have noticed this helps with the primer feed. It does have some slop in it, Bullet seating depth varies by about .003".
The powder measure wurks pretty good and thows a pretty consistent charge using tightgroup. It comes with 4 disks which can be set in .03 cc increments so if you want to really fine tune your charge you would need to get the micro bar accessary and the double stack kit, for realoading plinking and range ammo it works fine, charges are generally .1-.3 gr. under the listed charge with Tightgroup. You do lose alittle powder while changing discs but it can be minimized by shutting off the powder flow and cycling it a few times to empty any left over powder in an extra case or tray. The chain is pretty weak(the chains they use for ceiling fans), broke once but it was the first test after assembly and i did not have it set right.
The infamous priming system.....So far i have had no problems that were not user error, it works fine until it begins getting low in the trough(around 10 primers). I had a few flip when filling the trough but the were pretty easy to fix. It does seem to prefer cci primers to federal and reccomends CCI or Winchester in the manual. They both feed but the CCIs seat better. the federals flatten alittle when being set.
The case feed system is easy to set and was flawless during use, i will have to order the large version to use with .40 caliber but it works great with 9mm. With it removed it was still quick and easy to load a fresh case. just set it a case where it would have been dropped by the case feeder and raise the handle.
Place a bullet in place and lower the handle, repeat.
AND THEN IT JAMS UP!!! and its impossible to get going again without tearing the whole thing apart, atleast thats what the youtube videos and reviews said. Apparently these people had no common sense. The only jams i had were from not seating the primer completly and all in the first 50 or so rounds(also all caused by me not raising the the handle completly), and the fix, Lower the handle about 25%, rotate the shell plate back to the openings they left for this situation, put it in just passed the primeing station and rotate back over the priming piston where it will "fall" back in place and raise the ram completley. This was the only thing that cause it to lock up.
The quick change turrets work great, just twist and lift, the worst part of it is changing the powder measure to the new charging die and thats not hard either.
I have not changed the shell plate because the 9mm and .40 use the same one, i will probably just order another press in 5.56 since it takes the same shell plate as .380, all i would need to do is swap dies.
I think it's a great press for $150, if you are using or have used an RCBS other high end press you may not like it but I think its great for someone now to reloading, or just new to progressives. I am completly satisfied and plan to order another sometime this spring. If your looking to load to max charge or want extremly precise ammo this is not for you but for my use it is great.
