Lee Reloader Single-Stage Reloading Press

Lee is well-known for making economical, yet reliable reloading equipment. I bought one of their "reloader" presses just to deprime military 5.56 brass, which has crimped primers. The normal price was, if I recall, $29.99, and I got it on sale for $24.99. For a reloading press, that is astoundingly low-priced. But what about quality?

The press itself is cast aluminum, with a steel ram, steel linkage, and a cast aluminum handle. Where it counts, such as on the ram, the finish is quite acceptable. Elsewhere, the finish is a tiny bit rough - but hey, it's still better than you would expect from a $29 press. The ram travels smoothly, and the press offers plenty of leverage.

The press is, quite obviously, a "C" press. Such a design is more compact, and offers more free access around the shellholder, but is not as stiff as a classic "O" press. In this design, that is mitigated by keeping the ram and die very close to the vertical beam, minimizing flex. As we'll see later on, the open design can also be a very large advantage!

The handle on the press is shorter than on some other presses - perhaps 2/3 the length of the handle on a Rockchucker Supreme. But as we'll see later on, that's not necessarily a bad thing, as the press still offers plenty of leverage.

Now, what about the actual use? As I said, the first thing I did with this press was to deprime between 600 and 800 pieces of crimped 5.56 brass, with a Lee Universal Depriming Die. That operation went quite smoothly, so I started to wonder when I'd find the downsides of this press.

After that, I sized and deprimed a few hundred .45ACP cases. Once again, all went well. Then I flared the cases, primed them (with an RCBS hand-primer), charged them, and seated bullets with this press. All went smoothly.

Then I started sizing the 5.56 brass, with Hornady One-Shot lube. While One-Shot does work... it doesn't work as well as other offerings, and means more force is needed, and more stress on the press. Nevertheless, all went well.

After that, I've gone on to process another 400 or so 5.56 cases, and about 1,500 .45ACP cases. For a while, I kept wondering where the "downside" to this press would be, but it never showed up... it just worked, and worked well. In fact... it worked ASTOUNDINGLY well. Because of the open design of the press, when you raise the handle after working a piece of brass, you can simply flick it into a waiting bin with your right index finger, and insert a new piece of brass with your left hand. After a little practice, I average less than one second to swap out cases on this press!

Another positive aspect is the mechanism to catch spent primers. When you deprime, the primer falls down the center of the ram, then is thrown into a hole in the body of the press. The underside of the press is hollow, so with a well-placed hole drilled into your reloading bench.... all of the primers fall into the receptacle of your choice. You don't have to fiddle around trying to remove an on-press catch tray without spilling it, and you don't have to empty a tray every 100 rounds. A quart mason jar will hold many thousands of spent primers before you need to empty it! The press is also quite reliable at catching the primers, VERY few are missed.

So, how does it rate overall? Well, between how quick it is to change cases, and how well it catches spent primers, I now do nearly all of my reloading on this press - my Rockchucker Supreme only gets used for a few specific tasks. The Lee Reloader press has more than enough leverage for all pistol calibers, and for full-length sizing small rifle rounds such as the .223. If you only require neck sizing, then you could probably do quite large calibers in it just fine.

Speaking with other reloaders who load with other presses, a good number of them use this same press as a dedicated depriming station, simply because of how fast and well it performs the task. Others have one as a "mobile reloading station" that they take with them when they travel. These presses are so handy, and so inexpensive, that most reloaders would probably find use for one.

Are there any downsides? Well, perhaps. After a couple of thousand rounds, it seems like there may be just a tiny bit more play between the ram and the press. Everything still works just fine, it doesn't cause any problems. But I'm going to keep an eye on it over the next few thousand rounds and see how things go.