I bought the Lee Classic Loader kit in .45 Colt as part of my birthday giftcard splurge - I mentioned at my blog that I was getting into reloading. I had my first opportunity to use the Lee Classic Loader yesterday, and I have to say I was actually pretty impressed. To give you an idea, watch the video below.
When I was reading online reviews for the kit, I saw it referenced in more than a couple of places as the "whackamole" kit, which yesterday after smacking about 100 primers out and pounding shells into the sizing die, I totally get why they would call it that. That being said, I actually really enjoyed using this kit. One of the online reviews said that "unless you want to meticulously hand craft each one of your reloads, don't buy this kit" - to which I replied, "well, I do want to handcraft my reloads".
After using it for a while, the thing I realized is that you have to develop a rhythm and/or a system for it. Instead of loading one round at a time, I did it in groups of five - knock out five primers, size five cases, etc. That allowed me to keep a consistent rhythm going and "get in the groove". Seating bullets, resizing cases and all that was relatively easy - the nice thing about it is that once you get three or five done, you develop a feel for it, which makes things go even faster. Obviously it's not as fast as a progressive, or even a single stage press, but for some reason there is something intrinsically appealing to me about reloading my cowboy cartridge like a gunsmith would have done in the 1800s.
The only complaint I'd have about the Lee Classic Loader is the seating of the primers makes me really nervous, because you're essentially whacking the primer with a mallet, which, uh...yeah. I might buy the Lee Autoprime tool to allow me to prime cases a lot faster, and would also eliminate the need for me to whack primers.
The bottom line though is that if you're looking for a low cost reloading solution, the Lee Classic Loader isn't a bad idea - for $20 you can get into reloading, and maybe release a little stress playing with the Bullet Whackamole.
Friday, July 25, 2008
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6 comments:
Looks very interesting. Do they make it for rifle calibers as well?
The wife and I both shoot 9mm, so I doubt it'd be worth the effort for that, but for 5.56, it might be worthwhile until we can scratch together the money for a nicer setup.
Wow! and I thought my Lee Loadall was slow. When I start reloading pistol cartridges, I'm buying a press.
Hmmm...
I have been savin' a bunch o' .45 LC brass for a rainy day...
I load .30-06 and .30 Carbine. I only use the Lee Classic loader. It's a deal - I can load about 50 rounds an hour.
Highly reccomended!
Just make sure you use the correct powder, NO substitutions!
When I was in the Army, I had a minor Kaboom with a Mini-14 when I was using a Lee Loader. Ran out of powder, and went to the Rod and Gun club on base for more, they were out and I foolishly took a substitute powder that would work in .223s It was my fault for not telling the guy I was using this loader and didn't have a scale, loading manual, etc. I got lucky as hell, I took the magazine out after loading one round.. the blast went out the mag well. I had pieces of brass and the primer embedded in my forearm.
That said, I have one for 45-70 and I am planning on getting sets for .357 and .45acp Nice to have, fun to use and they take up a lot less space that a press.
Whacking the primer with a mallet hard enough to make it go bang...just goes bang. It happened to me a few times when I loaded with one.
I found it more convenient to run it "single stage", doing the same operation on a big batch of shells before moving to the next operation. Get or make a loading block. Mine was a chunk of wood with holes drilled almost through.
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