Hopefully the free market will respond as it would be nice to have a decent progressive for $200-ish.Originally Posted by Hambo
Hopefully the free market will respond as it would be nice to have a decent progressive for $200-ish.
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In fairness, the weakpoint of the Loadmaster is how the primers rest against each other with no real seperation from the one being seated. The one being seated happens when all other pieces of brass are being worked, making it neigh impossible to tell if there's a problem with the primer itself.
The Hornady LnL and Dillon 650 primer on the downstroke, so you feel only the primer being seated. The Dillon 1050 seats when all the other brass is getting worked, but has a solid steel slider that effectively seperates the primer stack from the one being seated.
That's the sole reason why I do not recommend the Loadmaster. Been there, done that.
In 30+ years of running a 1000 and now a Loadmaster, I have never had a primer detonate. The key to efficiently operating any progressive press is to understand how it works mechanically and keep an eye on it as it operates. If something isnt indexed properly, you stop, take a look at what the issue is, clear it and continue.
The above is true with any press.
The problem with the Pro 1000's priming system, in my experience, is where the Press indexes. The shell plate has very little time to rotate over the primer before the primer punch is lifting a primer to meet the case. If the timing is off just a little bit the primers get tipped.
I've found that keeping the slider portion full at all times is key as is watching for full primer stack movement as the press indexes. Also trying to make sure the index is set and checked periodically helps.
LEE appears to possibly have a fix for this timing issue with the new Pro 1000 update. I hope that's the case. I haven't seen a new P1000 in person but it appears now to use a pin that pops up through the shell plate rather than a big BB as an index stop. The new shell plates have three large holes drilled through for this new stop/index pin.
Regarding the Auto Breech; seeing that it has a primer system that's a complete afterthought I don't think one will find a place on my bench. At least not for loading. The press might have some usefulness for processing brass.
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Last edited by Tokarev; 04-16-2018 at 08:12 AM.
That’s one of the items I scan as the plate indexes. As soon as the primer tray is emptied and can be removed from the chute, it would get pulled and filled. Every system out there, no matter the color, has its issues. I think some folks (not saying here) forget that you’re basically dealing with an explosives dispenser, not a Keurig machine.
True - but sometimes you do not feel resistance or experience an improper index and a problem occurs.
I suspect the primer detonation I had on a Loadmaster was due to missing a small pistol primer .45acp, but it could have been a failed decaping/two primers stacked at once/crushed sideways primer. Either way there was nothing different in the feel of the press, largely because every other operation is happening simultaneously at once. This resulted in a daisy chain which turned the primer reservoir into a miniature explosive sending shrapnel at my friend's face. Thankfully pride and minor lacerations was all that was injured. I do believe that if a Loadmaster is used, it is imperative to install a blast shield around the primers as insurance if something occurs. At that point in my life I was shooting 200 rounds a day, and had been loading on the Loadmaster for almost two years.
After that I was adamant about sticking with presses that prime separate from everything else. I've gone away from that recently and have gotten a Dillon 1050, but due to a primer swager and the primer separation from the primer stack that is contained in a blast shield, the danger is mitigated.
I sent LEE Customer Service an email asking why they chose to use a manually-fed (or manually operated) primer system on this new press. Below is the response.
I kind of read this as almost, "Historically, our primer feed systems have not been the best so we just gave up. If you want to prime your brass in a hurry, buy one of our hand priming tools." LOL.
In LEE's defense, I often prime off press using either a Hornady or Lee hand priming tool. But that's usually only when I'm working with swaged military brass.
Thank you for your feed back. While we term the new press as a progressive, it's intended market is for all levels of reloaders, and can be modified to the user's preference. It can be used as a single stage, and later on down the road, should the user want to increase their production, they are able to using the same press in a more progressive manner, depending on what accessories they are comfortable with. Because so many people have an issue with primer feeding on the progressive presses, we decided to use the single stage press feeder.
Thank You,
Laine
Customer Service
Lee Precision, Inc.
4275 Highway U
Hartford, WI 53027
phone: 262-673-3075
fax: 262-673-9273
Last edited by Tokarev; 04-16-2018 at 05:22 PM.
I kinda figured that was the reason for the Safety Prime. The number one complaint about lee presses is the primer feed. Of course that is also the number one complaint about most of the progressive press from any manufacturer.
TANSTAAFL
Managing Partner, Custom Carry Concepts, LLC
What would be interesting, keeping in mind that I haven't actually seen one of these presses and don't know how sturdy it is, might be a primer swage plug that would replace the primer arm. This would allow for processing brass on the press progressively.
Along these lines, I wonder if it would be possible to mount up a motorized case trimmer. If either or both of these is possible I can see buying one of these presses to use as a dedicated processing machine.
The option to upgrade to a real priming system would have been nice. I wonder if this is really better than the Classic Turret (seriously, I don’t know).
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