My Lee 1000 Progressive Press Review

[Samdweezel05]

In doing a little trading I came to be the owner of a brand new Lee 1000 Progressive press. I figured I would give a review of what I thought about it to any one that wanted to read it. The Lee 1000 is a pistol press and will also do .223. I will be using it for .45acp, 9mm and .223. As I got all the parts out of the box I realized that this is not a press for any beginner. If you have never reloaded before, get a single stage press and a scale and learn how it all works before you try and pay attantion to 3 dies, a powder dispenser, a primer dispenser a case dispenser and all the little workings of a progressive press. I would say that this would go for any progressive press and not just this one.

Set up of this press isn't too bad if you take your time. I would suggest that if you plan to do more then one caliber on this press that you not only buy the dies, but also buy a turret to go with each set of dies you have. This would mean you have to set up the dies one time and leave them alone. When you want to change calibers, twist the turret out with dies and all and put another one in it's place. It took about 10 minutes to put it all together and start running brass through it to set all the dies correctly. There are no primers or powder in the press at this time. After the dies are all set up I added primers and powder and ran a single case through to check to see if the primers were going to seat correctly and how close the powder charge was. They give you 4 or 5 disks with all different size holes in them for the powder charge. There is a chart with several powders on it and you just look up your powder and charge you want and pick the disk with a certain size hole in it. It was alot closer than I expected it to be. I wanted 5.5gr of unique and I ended up with 5.2gr. I can live with that. It was also extreamly consistant with the charge. I did 10 cases and then dumped them one at a time on my chargemaster scale and they were all 5.2gr.

After all the setup was done it was time to load some rounds. The first 50 took me about three and a half minutes. Not bad for the first rounds loaded. The OAL on every round is just as accurate as my single stage press.

There was only one thing I didn't really like about the entire press. There is no way to stop the flow of primers. It would have cost about 5 cents to add another small piece of plastic that would have blocked the primer tube. Other than that I think the press is just another Lee product that probabaly isn't the nicest ever made but just like all there other stuff, it will get the job done. I will also be investing in the case hopper to go on top of the 4 case tubes to make it a little easier.

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[laportecharlie]

The biggest mistake I have made in my twenty-five year reloading career was buying a Lee 1000 as my first ever press. I fought with that piece of junk for about six months, gave up and bought a Dillon 550. I have never looked back. Now I try to maintain a "Lee Free" reloading bench. Best of luck to you Phil.
Charlie

[bythebook]

I have 2 Lee pro 1000 presses on my bench now and another one set up for 223 to mount. The ones on bench are 38 357 and 45 ACP. These 2 I bought new and the 45 has always been very little trouble and I have loaded over 5000 rounds on it. The 357 is pretty finicky and can be nerve racking, the 223 I got used and wished I had not. All in All the most trouble I had was with the powder hopper screws and timing problems after some use.

If I buy another pistol press I don't think I will buy a Lee.

[nuclabuyer]

My dad had one of these he got on a trade and said that I could just have it, I looked at it for a couple days and then went out and bought a Hornady Lock'n'Load AP for 480 dollars. I couldnt get over how cheap it looked. I like alot of lee stuff but this press is not on that list.

[EFBell]

I have had a lot of use from a classic "Lee Loader" in 22-250, Lee dies and hand primers. Never invested in any other lee products. I have no complaints about the dies or the priming tools. In fact I prefer the lee priming tool to the RCBS. I have two on the bench. Did look at the presses a couple times and had the same thoughts as though they looked cheap and felt they would not last. However, many people have made a lot of ammo on them.

[Nefarioud]

I like the pro 1000.

I think it was like $112 with dies when I bought it. I was kinda bothersome to get running initially. once it was sorted (maybe 40 minutes) it cranked out several hundred rounds of 9mm over the next few hours. I've had maybe 10 sessions with it and it's always worked as long as I did my job and stayed on top of things.

I don't shoot much handgun so it's not used as much as my other presses (which are Lee)

For .223 rock busting stuff I use a Classic Turret four hole all set up to do it's thing and I just keep stuff full.

For Precision stuff I use a Lee Classic Cast, it never fails to go up and down like a press should, I have all Lee deluxe Rifle sets with a few additional this's and that's

In the trailer I have a basic cast aluminum Lee press that I use for setting seating depth, pulling bullets, and various other tasks at the range

Everything works as advertised and when I first started reloading I broke a couple things, called Lee to explain that I was an idiot, got helpful advice and free replacement stuff even though I admitted it was my fault.

I also have Redding die sets that cost more than my entire initial reloading set-up and still produce about the same results as far as run-out, consistent neck tension, bullet seating depth and so forth.

I started with Lee stuff, it works and I think I'd rather spend money on stuff to shoot. I'm sure other stuff is awesome but I have tried a lot of stuff and haven't found anything to convince me to change. Maybe a few more years of experience will change my mind?

I do think Mr Lee reads a bit like PT Barnum. In the end I think Lee and Savage go hand in hand in doing more for less

[ThorBird]

I have loved Lee products. Lots of red on my bench, and green and now Blue too. I just sold my Lee 4 hole turret, just about gave it away, to a new reloader because a Dillon 550 fell in my lap. I was very happy and impressed with the Lee 4 Hole Classic and would recommend it. Thanks for the review on the 1000.

[dfwbob]

It will work and work pretty well for what it is.

The best advice I can give is to make sure that you always keep it meticulously clean. The first time you drop powder and there is not a primer in the case you might as well stop right there and tear everything apart and perform a detailed cleaning. When powder gets under the shell plate carrier, you are screwed.

Ask me how I know. I no loger own a Lee 1000. It just frustrated the hell out of me.

[Rifleman51]

I also bought a lee 1000 many years ago. It was not my first press.

I threw it out of the door by the second day (I really did, broke into a buch of pieces) and bought a Dillon 550.

The Lee shook and rattled so much and add the primer troubles to it, it just was not worth the money.

Someone just gave me one of the 4 hole semi progressive Lee presses because they didn't like it and the turret lifts up a little bit every time a shell goes into it. Not good.

I threw it out also and went back to my RCBS single stage and the Dillon for pistol.

Not trying to give you a bad time, but for precision reloading, get a quality press. The only lee product that I use is their crimper die, I really like them because they give you the closest thing to a factory crimp on rifle rounds.

If you buy quality reloading equipment and take care of it, it will last a lifetime. My RCBS press is 30 years old, has loaded untold thousands of rounds and is good today as the day I bought it.

John K

[Samdweezel05]

I also bought a lee 1000 many years ago. It was not my first press.

I threw it out of the door by the second day (I really did, broke into a buch of pieces) and bought a Dillon 550.

The Lee shook and rattled so much and add the primer troubles to it, it just was not worth the money.

Someone just gave me one of the 4 hole semi progressive Lee presses because they didn't like it and the turret lifts up a little bit every time a shell goes into it. Not good.

I threw it out also and went back to my RCBS single stage and the Dillon for pistol.

Not trying to give you a bad time, but for precision reloading, get a quality press. The only lee product that I use is their crimper die, I really like them because they give you the closest thing to a factory crimp on rifle rounds.

If you buy quality reloading equipment and take care of it, it will last a lifetime. My RCBS press is 30 years old, has loaded untold thousands of rounds and is good today as the day I bought it.

John K



You wouldn't catch me using the words "precision reloading" with this lee press. I won't load target loads with my 3 hole lee turret press either (die holder does lift a little). They are used for mass producing my .45acp and .223 loads with out spending $1000 or more on a dillon press. When I want them perfect I use my RCBS single stage. When I want 500-600 rounds an hour to go blow $#!t up, I'll use the Lee.