Lee Hand Press ?

[Lon371]

 Every now and then the house is quiet. Grandbabies all go home. I am going to buy some kind of portable press. One I can move to the kitchen without a lot of hassle.
 I have been thinking of making a clamp on mount for my single stage press. But the more I look at the Lee Hand Press and see nothing but good reviews, wondering if I should go this way instead?
 
It would be for handgun type calibers. What do you suggest?
 
Thanks for your input.
Lonny

[kynardsj]

I've had mine for almost three years now. I bought it because of the positive reviews I read on it and now It's the only press I would want. It's a bit slower than a bench press but it does it's job well and it's very portable. I work out of town occasionally and can pack it up and work on reloading from the hotel room. I load pistol and rifle cartridges on mine with no problems. I guess bottom line is, if this one ever breaks or wears out, I'll buy another one.   

[shot1]

It works but is slow. I would not want to do a bunch of FL sizing of 30-06 and larger cases with it because you have to put a lot of powder behind it. But on a side benefit you will build up your chest muscles and your arms.  It will do fine for lots of pistol cases at a time. I use mine mainly for when I am shooting my Sharps 45-70 at the range with black powder. When I shoot a few times and am resting I have a universal de-priming die in it and de-prime the cases and drop them into a jug of soapy water so I can start the case clean up process.

[goodconcretecolor]

The Lee hand press was my only press for 15 years of loading 30-06 and 308. Have a bench mounted single stage and a Lee Classic turret but still use the hand press to resize while watching TV with the family. It has lasted through 27 years and a few thousand rounds and still going strong.

[Lon371]

 Thanks guys. I guess I will be looking for one.
 
  One more question. Do you recommend the standard or breechlock?
 
Lonny

[jackruff]

It's the only press I have, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it does the job!

[kynardsj]

The standard red hand press is the one I'm talking about. Unless you have one of the hand priming tools be sure you get the priming tools that you need with this press. It's a rod with changeable primer cups that snaps where your shell holder goes and a screw in attachment that goes where your dies go that your shell holder will snap into.

[Lon371]

 I have the lee hand primer, So I am good in that department. Actually that is what got me to thinking about the hand press. I have primed more brass watching TV than in my loading room . Thought it would be handy to be able to finish the job there(when the 2 year olds are not here)
 
Lonny

[wncchester]

I got my hand press for doing seating/OAL tests at the range on pre-loaded cartridges.  For that, it's fine but given the difficulty of seating a charged case in an over-grown pair of pliers without losing part of the powder, I sure wouldn't want to load much handgun ammo with it.  If I wanted to do what you want to do I'd mount a little "Reloader" press to a short length of board so I could "C" clamp it to a table. 
 
Breech-lock? There's no valid reason to wrench dies into a press, especially Lee's dies, finger tight is plenty tight.  I can swap hand screwed in dies in less than a minute.  The few seconds of "time saved" with anyone's breech-lock system would be too little to matter so I see that gimmick as a great solution for which I have no problem.

[jackruff]

Spilling powder has never been a problem while using the Lee Hand Press.

[kynardsj]

Me either unless I knock over one of my brass with powder in it while reaching for it.

[mdi]

I've used my Lee Hand Press for everything I use my single stage press for. Besides regular reloading I've resized my handgun brass, 30-30 and .223 brass. I've also attached gas checks/sized .44 magnum bullets. It can get a little clumbsy at times, but I like mine...
 
I been reloading for a while and can adjust my dies with no problems so I don't need a breech lock bushing system.

[teamnelson]

I'm another Lee Hand Press only user, mostly .38/357, 45 acp, and 44. I like to sit in my lazy boy with a western on and deprime/size a batch. Then prime. Then I'll move to the kitchen table and load. Its slower, but I feel like I stay closer to the process that way.

[MZ5]

I've had a hand press since ...'92?  I'm not positive.  Anyway, it works great!  I size 30-06 brass with it sometimes, but FL takes some muscle.  I normally only neck size most brass anyway.

I don't honestly see much advantage in the breech-lock system.  I guess there's something to it, but I don't choose to pay for a savings of a couple seconds changing dies.

Whichever you like.

[SteveHawaii]

I use my Lee Hand Loader more than I use my  Lee Classic press.  It's just handier.  When I come home from the range I usually de-prime my brass and it goes into the ultrasonic cleaner.  That's done with the hand press in front of the TV.  I generally size the case when de-priming handgun brass, but the rifle brass I use a universal de-primer and then full length size with the Lee Classic press.  Case mouth expansion is done with the hand loader.  The brass then usually sits until I have time to load.  I use a powder measure to throw the powder, and seating and crimping is done with the hand loader.  It works for me, but then the most I've ever reloaded at a time have been about 200 rounds of .45 ammo.  I think if I were doing much more than that I'd graduate to a progressive loader.

[Lloyd Smale]

back years ago before i had progressive presses i did most of my loading with one. The only way i could keep up with my shooting was to load while sitting in the house at night in front of the tv. Id love to know how many 223 and 308s i sized with a lee handpress. Plus the countless pistol rounds. I would sit for hours sizing and decapping 223 ammo and my wife would sit with a lee primer and reprime it. I actually wore out 3 of them back then. Sure was good for the arm muscles too!!! thank God for dillon and hornady!!!!!!! Id sure never want to go back to that but if its all a guy can afford you can make just as good ammo on a hand press as you can a rock chucker. Only downside to it is some bigger cases like mag rifles are a bit tough to do and the press will sometimes actually stretch and not completely size them like you can on something like a rock chucker. there not good for use with small base dies either for the same reason.

[tobster]

Mount your press to a block of wood and with a big c-clamp you can attach it to your kitchen table or any other surface. The Lee hand press is really handy for universal de-priming and sizing smaller cases but I'm guessing you will find your full size press works better for full length sizing larger cases and seating bullets.

[bucco921]

I bought one a couple months ago and couldnt be happier. Yes using a bench mounted press makes things easier but I dont have a basement or spare room suitable for a reloading room. Sit in front of the tv and resize and then to the kitchen for the powder and bullet seating. So far ive used it on 223 and 30-30 and havent had a problem. You will definitely have to learn a "technique" that works for you. Theonly thing it rreally wasnt up to task on was necking up 30-06 brass to 35 whelen but that can be a pain on my friends rockchucker. Definitely worth every penny.