90685 Cast Iron Reloading Hand Press Only (Red)

When I use this it reminds of the Buffalo Hunters and Deer hunters of old reloading 45-70 in the field. Much more viable than a Ideal/Lyman tool of the day, more versatile and useful. I have actually loaded rounds when camping and at the bench as well as at home. With good bullet casing lube it is an ease to use. I have the dies and use it thru the entire process. Universal decapping Then clean BP brass Resize if needed Flat Prime Seat Factory crimp Even the quick trim ez trim with die fits well and works with the breechlock press. Although slower than a turret press, my reloading is not factory style anyway. Each round gets personal attention.

I was reloading 38 specials and 10mm on this lovely hand press. Obviously, it's not as fast as a stationary press but it does allow you to have freedom. It does have a removal breech lock quick change bushing to allow quick removal of dies without having to unscrew and readjust. Hold the black button near where the dies goes in, twist, and pop out. However, the breech lock bushing is quite expensive at $10 per 2-pack on the lee website, so you would need one for each die. And knowing how us gun people are, we want to load em all! lol. Depending on cartridge, you may get a good workout on the sizing die when sizing hundreds of brass, so you'll get buff in no time. The hand press is pretty solid, but the way the metal clanks leads me to think the metal may break if I accidentally drop it hard on a solid floor. All in all, I really like it, and it's worth it if you want the portability. Oh, do yourself a favor and get a hand priming tool and save yourself the hassle of picking up one primer at a time (you would need to buy the ram prime at $15, but not buy the auto-prime XR for $25?) I like the RCBS universal priming tool, fast, easy, and it is a sturdy solid metal.

I have reloaded ammunition for about 20 years, and this is the only type of press that I have ever owned, because this hand press is compact, portable, and plenty strong. Using this press is like using a laptop computer instead of a desktop, which I also prefer. I don't need to maintain a reloading bench or go to a special room for reloading. This press makes it convenient to pull out a medium sized box from time to time and go to any location that I might choose and load up a few hundred rounds. There may be faster ways, but this method is not slow for hobby work, and the convenience is hard to beat. I bought my latest press as a spare; nothing is wrong with the first one that I bought. Incidentally, there is nothing "cast iron" about this item, if that description happens to come up; it is cast aluminum with several steel parts. It is light in weight but nice and strong for the job it has to do. In my personal experience, Lee manufactures excellent products, and their price is good.

I now own 3 of these, one older model and two of the latest model bought here. I would say the latest model is actually of better quality, built stronger, although the older one has never given me any trouble. I use the older one mostly for removing primers from the brass before I clean them in my tumbler using the stainless steel pins, soap, and water. I use the Lee Universal depriming and decapping die, works great. I also use the older and newer hand press for reloading my handgun loads without any problems. They use standard reloading dies and standard shell holders. I reload 10mm, 44 spec and 44 mag, 45ACP, 45 Colt, all without a problem. Others use them for rifle reloading but I have not. I would guess it would depend on the rifle caliber and how much the case had expanded. I have 3 complete Redding bench mounted presses for the rifle reloading or if I will be doing a lot of one caliber at a time. The hand press is great for travel, or at the range to work up a load.

picked this up like many others did to mainly do depriming without having to be confined to my reloading bench and this gave me more versatility for about the same price as a dedicated hand deprimer. Work great, nice and smooth for the first 3 casings then started to bind up, wiped it down and oiled it again and not joy. Placed a return on friday and got the replacement today. Ran around 100 9mm casings with no issues (with the press, the universal priming die was another matter). The product title says 'cast iron' but the details do say it is aluminium, which it is (someone should update the title). It is nice and light weight, fairly easy to handle - could have a bit better ergonomics to provide a better grip and leverage, but overall it works for what you need it to do. May be a bit of a challenge to reload some larger calibers but generally the construction seems sturdy. The breech lock seems like a good concept, my initial impressions are a bit mixed. I haven't had any real issues but i haven't used it enough to get a good sense about the reliability. I believe the older versions of the loader had a button/pin that would keep the bushing from rotating, this one does not and i did catch it loosing or backing out a bit during the little bit i have used it. It's possible i may not have tightened it down quite enough, but it is something i will need to pay attention to going forward. Overall i just think it may be a little putzy and not being a stationary unit there could be issues with it inadvertently coming loosing while handling and being bumped around. I also bought the Lee universal decapping die to used for this. That may have to be returned. In the small amount of use the deprimer pin had to be readjusted and re-tightened 3 times. Every 20-25 casings it the pin would be pushed far enough into the die that it wouldn't pop the primer out. I didn't notice anything like the pin being misaligned and catching on the bottom of the casing or other above normal amount of force needed to pop a primer, just seemed like it would start slipping after a bit and i would have to adjust it again. I cranked it down pretty well (too well probably) and it ran another 30 casings without issue but i am not very confident about it. Might be better to just use another decapping/sizing die that has a better locking system on the pin. Giving this 4 stars because it ultimately did what i wanted it to do - even though the first unit was a dud, Amazon got me a replacement extremely quickly. * Bottom line, if you're confident all you need is something to do decapping while away from your bench, i would look at a one of the dedicated hand deprimers (a friend uses the Frankford Arsenal one and has had no issues) . * If you want the option possibly tweak/reload rounds at the range this would do the job. * If you are looking at something to do a lot of reloading, get yourself a single stage press you will be much happier. There are good quality new/used single stage presses out there for about the same amount of money.

L'expédition a été rapide, la presse est très utile, elle fonctionne très bien

Rather than bring out my press on a portable bench, I bought this to use while vegging out in front of the tv. So far been using it for 300blk. Works like a charm. Surprised at how much leverage it has. Would recommend it. Only thing is depriming, the spent primers fall into the ram and stay there. If you are gonna do alot, you'll need to tip it over a can to empty it out before they jam it up. Not a big deal.

La spedizione è stata veloce, la pressa è molto utile ci si lavora molto bene e credo che sia indispensabile per chi ricarica perchè si possono fare tutte le operazioni anche in campo di tiro

excellent,very practical and simple to operate, saving time to change and reset turrets heads, portable , I am very happy and pleased to have one of this Lee Hand press. good luck to you all. rgds

Eine absolut hilfreiche Presse um mir beim Läden meiner Munition zu helfen