Lee Pro 1000 Press

[thecoltsman2006]

I was thinking of buying one of these presses for .223 REM. DOES anyone have any experience with this progressive press?

 

[EvilElmo]

No experience with the 1000 but I've got it's bigger brother, the LoadMaster. The biggest difference is that the LoadMaster has extra positions (5 vs 3) so it's a little more flexible in terms of how you want to arrange your dies. Also, I'm not positive but I believe that 223 is the largest (tallest) caliber that the Pro1000 can accommodate, so if you plan to one day load something bigger like 308 I don't think the Pro1000 can do it.

The Lee progressives are a lot of press for the money, but they do require some tinkering to get them running smoothly. The included directions are junk - youtube is your friend. Make sure it's very securely mounted to your bench and it'll turn out ammo that's just as good as any other press can do.

 

[Sirshredalot]

I had one for a long time.
That said...I no longer have it....I got a Dillon 550(best money Ive ever spent on reloading).

When the Lee WORKED it worked great, but it was a nightmare to keep it running well once it started to wear out.
Issues:
-Got out of time easily
-Primers do not feed well and often seated upside down/sideways.
-Cannot manually index the press
-Case feeder binds easily

My personal opinion if you are on a budget would be to go with the lee classic CAST turret...can load almost as fast and it never breaks down.
Lee dies, single stage presses, and turrets are a great bang for the buck, but I personally would never recommend their progressives.

God bless
-Shred

 

[sloughfoot]

I have a 25 year old Pro 1000. I love it. I have loaded 10's of thousands of various pistol caliber rounds with it. I just finished loading 4,000 9mm and am now loading a couple thousand 45LC. It works perfectly. Changeover takes about 10 minutes.

Next up is about 500 357 magnums and I don't know how many thousands of 45 ACP.

All progressives have a speed and flow. The only time I tip a primer is when I try to go too fast.

I load my match .223 on single stage presses or a Lee Turret press. I could not get consistant shoulder setback with the Pro 1000 when I tried it 20 years ago.

It has been lots of years since I tried and the Pro1000 is now pretty well broken in.

I might try to load some 55 grain ball ammo and see how it goes. I will report if you are interested.

 

[Craig T]

my pro1000 has cranked out about 20k 9mm in the last 2.5 years and the only time I have issues with it as mentioned above is when I try to go to fast. It has its pace and when you find it and stick to it... nice quality bullets!

 

[Jmak]

Shed, you are right. I

had the same problems and will stick with the Lee Turret.

 

[rem788]

I had a Lee Pro 1000 and loaded 9mm with it. It worked ok for a while but then developed problems as others have mentioned. There are numerous videos on youtube etc on how to tweak the Pro 1000's. I finally got tired of tweaking constantly. I do feel that the Pro 1000 might be somewhat lacking strength to load .223 or other rifle calibers, better suited for pistol. It was less expensive than other progressive presses and when it works well is a good value. I ended up selling it and getting a Hornady LNL which has worked great. Good luck.

 

[ilcaveman]

had one and bought a used dillon 550b, the dillon is much better

 

[DustyDawg48]

I had one for a long time.
That said...I no longer have it....I got a Dillon 550(best money Ive ever spent on reloading).

When the Lee WORKED it worked great, but it was a nightmare to keep it running well once it started to wear out.
Issues:
-Got out of time easily
-Primers do not feed well and often seated upside down/sideways.
-Cannot manually index the press
-Case feeder binds easily

My personal opinion if you are on a budget would be to go with the lee classic CAST turret...can load almost as fast and it never breaks down.
Lee dies, single stage presses, and turrets are a great bang for the buck, but I personally would never recommend their progressives.

God bless
-Shred

This was about my experience right here. I didn't want to have to tinker with anything when I wanted to reload. I boxed mine up and sent it back..bought an RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme single-stage and had that for years until my volume of shooting forced me to look at progressive again. Went Hornady Lock N Load and am a very happy camper.

 

[thecoltsman2006]

Currently I havr the Lee classic single station press. I am planning to buy the Pro auto disc powder measure and the safety prime from lee. This will help reloading for now and then I have decided the LEE classic turret press is best as I load other larger calibres like 30-06, 7.62x54r, 8x56r. WHEN I buy the turret press all the other items I purchased are bolt on at that time. Thoughts?

 

[dyerwatcher]

I have the Lee 1000. It works well. I wish I would have bought the Dillon but I can live with the Lee