Lee 50th Anniversary Single Stage Kit

[ripnbst]

I am strongly considering picking this Lee Anniversary kit up from Amazon. Free shipping so $118 to my door for what looks to me like a complete setup minus my dies and consumables.

I am looking at this for loading relatively low volume, mainly for accuracy in my .308 bolt gun. I would probably also use it for .223 which would be higher volume but not high volume by competition shooter standards. Volumes for .308 would be maybe 100-250 rounds a year and .223 probably 2000-4000 rounds a year.

Would this be a good way to get my feet wet in reloading? Or is there something else that you all might recommend over this kit. RCBS was recommended to me but their "kit" was roughly triple the cost of the lee kit linked above.

What say OSA?

 

[Mitch Rapp]

Love mine, and have used it for years, reloading more than what you plan to.

 

[swampratt]

I have lee dies and the case length gauge and cutters to prep my brass
I also use the lee classic cast single stage press for all my rifle loading.
Accuracy is great...keep it all clean and it will last you many many years.
I have the lee scale also but also have the rcbs 505 which i like a tad better.
Both will make sub moa ammo easily.

I also have the lee progressive for 45acp..it has loaded many thousands of rounds.
No issues with lee products on my end.

 

[Hooligan]

I have a 50th anniversary kit and I have loaded 1000's of rounds on mine. It maybe slower than a progressive but I have had no complaints. I find it to be more relaxing than loading on a progressive also. I have plans to get another Lee single stage this time a cast iron model. I also have found the power scale and power measure to be spot on accurate, they take some getting used to but work well. I use Lee dies and the quick trim case trimmer as well. For the price you can't go wrong, even if you get a progressive in the future you will always use you single stage for something.

 

[GeneW]

Yanno, I'm no expert, but having a simple inexpensive single stage press that is only used for decapping can sure come in handy by not dirtying up and messing up the press you do all the other reloading steps on.

YMMV. Good luck to you.

 

[dlbleak]

great kits and as was said, you will always use it in some capacity. my only small complaint about the lee kits is their powder measure. i prefer the rcbs measure.

 

[Toney]

I started with one, the aluminum presses have too much flex for serious reloading.

 

[swampratt]

There was a guy somewhere on a forum that actually hooked up a dial caliper to some single stage presses and checked press flex ..Believe the aluminum lee actually had less flex than the rockchucker....
I will ask around again and see if i can find it..

I would bet dies in the threads will flex more than the actual press.

I started bare bones Lee classic loader (Wac and k-A-Mole)
That simple instrument gave me ammo in my 308 and 30-06 that would shoot under 1" at 100 yards.

and 30-30 would do 1 3/4 to 1 7/8" at 100.. not bad for a 30-30 and measuring powder by volume.
I used the cheap lee scale on the other rifles.

 

[swampratt]

here is some tough single stage reading for you.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/archive/index.php/t-13694.html

 

[Sanford]

Bought one of those a bit over a month ago when they were on sale. Reloaded some .308 last Saturday weekend, no problems whatsoever. Most time consuming part was getting the powder measure set up to drop 44 grains of 4064 consistently. Shot them today, half in an LR-308 and the other half in an M1A, and really enjoyed doing it.