- If you want to leap into handloading headlong, you can drop several hundred to a couple thousand dollars and set up a state of the art progressive loading station. You just put in a bunch of components, get everything set and adjusted, then every time you pull the lever, a ready-to-shoot cartridge pops out!

- Or you can buy a Classic Lee Loader for under $20.

- The Lee Loader is an ingenious kit about the size of a paperback novel that has all the specialized tools you need to handload one caliber cartridge. It includes illustrated instructions and even (limited) loading data for that round.



- To load "plinking" ammo with a Lee Loader, all you'll need (aside from components) is safety glasses, a small hammer, a good mallet (I use a 28 oz. rubber-clad dead blow hammer), and an anvil (piece of heavy plate steel, section of railroad track, bench vise, tinker's anvil, etc. will do). It's also handy to have a factory cartridge of a type that cycles well in your gun to use as a reference to set overall cartridge length.

- You use the mallet for everything but depriming and driving the case out of the resizing die, which I've found to be nearly impossible. For that, you use the light, steel hammer. Working on a hard, solid surface, like an anvil face, makes everything much easier.

- But the Lee Loader can make much better than plinking grade ammo. In fact, it can make the best, most accurate ammo you'll ever use. For that, you'll need powder measures, a loading scale, and good load data.

- The load data on the card that comes with the Lee Loader is for rather weak loads to begin with. Combine that with the fact that the dipper included in the kit tends to throw less powder than it's supposed to (especially with Alliant Unique), and you wind up with some pretty wimpy ammunition. So wimpy that it may be inaccurate, or unable to cycle the action in some automatics. Using load data from the major loading manuals or component manufacturer websites will allow you to experiment and develop the optimum loads for your guns and applications. Using a scale to measure your loads, or at least to figure out how much powder your volume measure is actually throwing, is safer and more effective than using volume measures alone.

- The Lee Loader's advantage (beyond low cost and compact size) is that it gives you total and direct control over every aspect of reloading every single cartridge. This allows for very precise fine-tuning and consistency.

- The Lee Loader's main disadvantage is that it is very slow to use. As in less than 1/10th the speed of any decent progressive loader. But it is so cheap and handy that even guys who own full-featured reloading workstations often have a few Lee Loaders on the shelf as well.

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- Okay, I swear I don't own stock in Lee. They just make a lot of stuff the miserly reloader can use...

- Case in point: the Lee Load-All shotshell press. A handy tool that reloads empty shotshell husks into good-as-new ammunition. It knocks out the burnt primer, reshapes the husk if needed, pops in a new primer, meters in a powder charge, seats a new wad, meters in a load of shot, and re-crimps the shell better than most any other tool out there.



- Costs around $40 and loads one gauge shell. You can buy a kit to convert it to another gauge, but at this price, it makes better sense just to get a separate Load-All for each gauge.

- The Load-All will turn out shells at a pretty good rate. About the same as other single-stage presses.

- The biggest drawback to the Load-All design is that it has the powder and shot supply bins built into the press, and there is no easy way to change powders or shot, or even to switch to a different combination of charge-bar bushings, without spilling powder and shot all over the place.

- The other problem is that, like every other Lee powder volume measure I've checked, it throws much lighter loads than listed on the charge chart. Especially with Unique. The shot bushings seem to throw pretty accurately. And the powder bushings throw consistent, if light, charges.

- It helps if you don't screw the Load-All to your workbench, but attach it to a piece of 2"x6" or 2"x8" as a base instead. Then, if you want to dump out the powder or shot, you can stuff a towel or something into the top of the bin you don't want to dump, then turn the press upside-down to pour out the other bin.

- To remove the charge bar, stuff something in both bins, then turn the whole press upside down. (Just putting the bin lid on won't do it. Shot will migrate into your powder under the lid.) Then slide the charge bar back and forth a few times to try and get the powder and shot in the bushings back into the bins.

- It's a good idea to check the powder bushings against a scale to see what they really throw before you set the press up for use. That way you can get your load right according to recipe the first time, and don't have to take the charge bar out to go up sizes.

- The Load-All is available in 20, 16, and 12 gauge.

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- The shotgun may be the single most useful firearm in your collection, and shotshells are currently widely available new and rather easy to reload. But shotshells are made of plastic, and can only survive a limited number of firings and re-crimpings before they wear out.

- With this in-mind, I decided to try the Magtech brass shotshell husks. Providing you don't step on them or something, these should stand up to countless reloads. They also use large pistol primers instead of special shotshell primers, so they can share a common stockpile with my handguns.

- These brass husks are really designed for the Cowboy Action Shooting crowd, who usually load them with black powder. So they're normally used with old-fashioned wadding instead of modern plastic shot-cup wads.

- There are some differences between brass and conventional plastic husks that you need to be aware of...

- Your shotshell press deprimer probably won't work on the brass husks. The deprimer rod from most Lee Loader rifle kits will. Set the husk on top of the shell holder, as it won't fit in.

- Your shotshell press primer probably won't work either. I found two ways to seat a primer, both of which required me to start the primer manually by tapping it in with a rubber mallet until it wouldn't fall out when the husk was turned over. (Safety glasses are a must when working with primers!)

- Placing the husk into the chamber of a pump shotgun, then slamming the action home a few times would seat the primer. But that can't be good for the gun.

- Taking the manual primer out of a Lee Load-All II shotshell press, dropping two pennies into its hole in the base, then reinstalling the primer on top of the pennies, will modify the function of the press enough to get it to seat the brass husk primers.

- Because the brass husk walls are thinner than plastic, the internal diameter of the hulls is larger than that of plastic husks of the same gauge. So you'll need to go one size up on your fiber or cork wads. 10 gauge wads are a good fit in the 12 gauge husks. 16 gauge wads fit 20 gauge husks even better.

- Brass husks don't get crimped shut like plastic. You keep the shot in by pressing an overshot card or wad in on top of it. Again, you'll need to go a size up on your overshot cards. It also helps to put in a bead of glue (like Elmer's Glue-All) around the edge of the card after it has been pressed into place.

- The brass husks also have no base wad, which, combined with the larger internal diameter, gives them a substantially larger volume than plastic husks.

- Black powder loads are simple enough. Traditionally, you just use the same volume of powder and shot... So you find a dipper that holds the amount of shot you want to load, and use that same dipper to meter your black powder. Even with a 1.5oz shot load and 1/2" fiber wad, the 12 gauge husk is far from full. But that doesn't matter since you're not making a crimp.

- Smokeless powder loads for the brass husks are trickier. The first several I loaded (using my tried-and-true plastic hull load) went "PffffffffTOOP!" and spit the shot out at a velocity that would've made a worn-out BB-gun ashamed. Unlike black, smokeless powders have to be tightly confined to build enough back-pressure to burn properly. The roomy brass husk with fiber wad, 1.25 oz of shot, and an overshot card simply didn't give the powder enough to push against.

- So, keeping my smokeless powder charge the same, I made a point of pressing the fiber wads in tighter with the next test batch. I then just filled the cases to the mouth with shot and packed it in with the overcard, which I glued and let dry overnight. These rounds worked nicely.

- I'm going to try using 3" and 3 1/2" Magnum shotshell load data with these cases.

- Looking at these shells, you'd expect them to work well only in break-open guns. But they feed pretty well in my Mossberg 12 and 20 gauge pump shotguns.

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Thank you Oldhorseman!

I read every word of what you posted, I have discussed with my wife about getting into reloading as a means of producing ammunition for our Remington 700 30-06. You gave me some great information, especially since I understand the methods behind reloading I have zero practical experience, but would like to get into it (and soon).

If I was going to get into 30-06 reloading and wanted to get more than the lee kit, what would you suggest?

As a brand new reloader, do you have an suggestions for books that would help me learn how to do it properly and safely?

I'm Canadian, so I would have to find a good supplier up here, just need to know what to go looking for.

righteous!!!

I will be reading this again tonight - then off to ebay...

Good post!

There's also the old, old, old school of saving cow & horse urine... grinding carefully burned willow... now, comming up with decent sulphur can be a challenge. It used to be every Simon Kenton or Daniel Boone wanna be had their own powder recipe.

I am on a very tight budget but i keep dreaming about a stainless barreled, flintlock shotgun just because it could keep hunting centuries from now. (I miss my CVA .45 flintlock rifle i had as a kid.)

Templar,
You should take a look at http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/index.php
It's a very comprehensive site covering everything except Airsoft for the enthusiast. it is a Canadian site, and I don't think I've found a US site as broad based as this one, although some US sites are much more detailed in particular catergories or guns.
There is a very large dealer base present from all over the country. They also have a very nice "used" section that might be helpful in getting some better equipment cheaper. Most of them seem a little nuts in their gun prices, but deals on accessories and the occasional gun can be found. It saves you the "import" and "FFL" hassles from the US.

I have a Classic Lee Loader for 30 carbine,
it is almost not possible to use,
there is no way to set the depth that the bullet is seated to,
so it will push them in to far....

has anyone used the Classic Lee Loader in 30 carbine ?

maybe that does not matter anymore,
I replaced it with regular dies,

does anyone want a Classic Lee Loader for 30 carbine that I can't figure out how to use ?
I will sell it cheep.

- I don't load for the .30 Carbine myself... All the Lee Loaders I have are fully adjustable for bullet seating depth. (You adjust the length of the overall tube on most calibers.) I usually use a factory round to calibrate the thing for starters.


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