Connecticut Preparedness Community Forums

If you buy Lee dies, they usually have the shellholder included.
Don't forget used gear, generally available from time to time at various gun shops. Nothing beats a press with a stout mounting base (the basic Lee presses tend to be wimpy in this area), such as an RCBS RockChucker or similar.
For straight-walled (ie non-bottlenecked) cases, the wimpy mounts will work, but for heavy sizing work (most rifle calibers) I just don't like the tiny woodscrew type mounting system.

newguy wrote:It worth it you also get a case trimmer and primer pocket cleaner basically everything you will need. Not sure if your 9mm die that came with that Lee thing came with a 9mm shellholder. You might wanna check. Because if it didn't your gonna have to grab one of them at Cabelas.

#19 if you don't have one

Accuattly looking at what ya bought ya may need to get a full 9mm die set with shellholder doesn't look like what ya already bought screws into a press Someone correct me if i am wrong

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Shooting ... t104516280

What I have, none of it will work with a press.

Sixshot right not sure if you can see it in my photo but i went thru the top of the table then thru a 2X4 with 6 inch bolts This may be alittle extreme but it solid

I'm not saying all Lee presses have light mounting platforms. I had the basic anniversary kit press and it had very narrow and small mounting points. It gave me good service, but like the Lyman handi-press before, I kept breaking the white metal handle pivot points and such.
None of these presses really owed me anything considering the use I gave them, but it just gets tiresome replacing the component parts all the time. (Same can be said for the Lee Auto Prime tool.)

Bear in mind, if you whale on any press hard enough, you'll be ripping rims off the cartidge and possibly breaking shell holders, too.

Tell ya i am pretty happy i have already made my initial investment back on the kit and extras i got. Just in price difference in savings between what i reloaded and what commercial ammo would have cost for what i am reloading.

They make the really heavy duty lag bolts at Home Depot. There is NO WAY those things are breaking. I can't remember the brand name though. I don't know what some people do with their presses. I have seen the heavy duty Lyman and RCBS presses but even the Lee press in my opinion is more than strong enough. I have re-sized a few hundred 30-06 cases to 8mm, stuck cases, screwing around, etc and have never even thought the press couldn't handle it.

Myglimk, go to Autumn gun works in Goshen; they have a metric crap ton of used dies for pretty decent prices. They're bound to have 9x19 dies floating around in there.

While you're there, pick up some boolits, powder, primers and cases (coffee-cans full of them... 500ct or so). Pretty reasonably priced, great guys to work with.

I've got the Lee set in 9x19mm. I don't really know what the deal is with the taper crimp die they provide...it just feels funny to me. I just use another brand of crimp die that I have hanging around my stash.
Generally, you get great value for the money with Lee die sets. Oftentimes, it comes down to personal preference as to solid decap pins vs. replaceble pins, hex locknuts vs round and knurled, etc. Some brands provide shims (eg. Lymans 38/357 and 44 Spec/Mag), so you can do both calibers by simply installing the shim requiring no adjustment to your dies.
Like GA posted, sometimes it's just what you find cheap in the used bin.

Went to Cabelas and all this stuff followed me home!

Oh goddammit.

Wow someone went crazy That same scale i have i like it alot.

I need to upgrade to the progressive myself but i am just gonna mount it next to my single press. So i can just do rifle on single and pistol on progressive

I'll eventually pick up a single stage. If a good deal on one pops up I'll scoop it up.

Wow, for someone who didnt want to spend a lot of money....

I would get John or someone to help you set that up, progressives can be a bit tricky to get workiing (just like in poliitics!). And run one round at a time through it for at least your first couple hundred rounds to get a feel for everything going on.

Mopar wrote:Wow, for someone who didnt want to spend a lot of money....

I would get John or someone to help you set that up, progressives can be a bit tricky to get workiing (just like in poliitics!). And run one round at a time through it for at least your first couple hundred rounds to get a feel for everything going on.

I was spoiled with using John's presses.
Plus I just sold the Mini-14 (preban) so I had some extra cash to spend.

He was on the phone with me half the time he was at Cabelas.

I'll be making a trip south once he gets it mounted to the bench.