A Poor Man's Progressive

fiver

Well-Known Member
I think what you have there is fine.

I personally would skip the square deal B and go to the 550-? [whatever postfix they are using now]
they are a lot more flexible, and as progressive as I really want to try to follow all the steps on.
they are like the bolt guns and revolvers of the reloading world.
just automatic enough to cut down a lot of work, while still person controlled so the speed is not above your ability to keep up with all the steps.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
I much prefer the 550 over the square deal because I really like the manual vs. auto indexing.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
-I have one of those too.
I ended up modifying the primer advance so I could operate it manually.
I kept making circles with my right hand looking for a case/hull to put in place since my ponsness warrens operate the same as the 550's do.
by making the primer advance with my right hand it made the machine more comfortable to operate.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
I have SQ Deal and 550s, slightly different action, but I adjust pretty well. And, yes, sometimes the auto
advance can be a bit inconvenient, but if things are running smoothly, it works great. I pulled the auto
advance stuff out of the Lee, just use it as a turret, had poor results with the indexing and esp the Mickey
Mouse swinging primer spiller.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
I recently purchased a Lyman all American 8 turret and am very happy with it so far. This is my first turret. I have four heads for it. I like having all the dies set and not needed to adjust them all the time. I need a couple more heads.
 

Rick H

Well-Known Member
I use a cast Lee, but took out the auto advance. Not as fast but I much prefer the manual turret action. I usually size and prime in a separate operation and finish on the Turret. I don't shoot and load thousands of rounds a week either.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
The Pez dispenser "priming system" is my biggest complaint. If only it worked as well as a Pez dispenser.:rolleyes:
But then, they cost like $2, so have a lot better quality and design.

I have generally been pleased with Lee's stuff, and can put up with some of the strangeness, but
this one just escapes me. The press itself and the turret action (manual) is great, and I think the auto
index would work with a bit of tweaking, but I really didn't want auto index, so cycled it maybe three
or four times just to see, and then removed the parts. So, it may work great for those who want the
auto index. I use mine for batch processing of "lesser used" cartridges.
 
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KHornet

Well-Known Member
Like a simple c press, it keeps ya honest. I Long ago
could have afforded a Dillon, but being a traditionalist
I have a couple of turrets, and the lee. Even with my
self imposed llimitations, I have way more loaded ammo
than I could shoot in a year. I enjoy reloading, and going
back to basics now and again.

Paul
 

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
Lee's track record for a priming system on the press isn't a good one.

Ben
Like a simple c press, it keeps ya honest. I Long ago
could have afforded a Dillon, but being a traditionalist
I have a couple of turrets, and the lee. Even with my
self imposed llimitations, I have way more loaded ammo
than I could shoot in a year. I enjoy reloading, and going
back to basics now and again.

Paul

I'm with you Paul.

Ben
 

Ian

Notorious member
I have the original Safety Prime, one from a few years ago when they first tried the triangular basket tray (it's PURE junk) and one I bought earlier this year. The original one is still going strong and the new one is excellent, even better than the first. If you get over your ideas of it looking like junk and feeling like junk and actually set it up correctly and USE it, you may find it to be an excellent little accessory as I have. I also use the auto index a great deal and though I have bought or otherwise accumulated quite a few extra plastic ratchet parts for the 3 and 4-hole turrets and Pro-1000, I have yet to ever wear one out or break one. I lightly oil my die plates and index rods, nary an issue.
 

Wasalmonslayer

Well-Known Member
I have the original Safety Prime, one from a few years ago when they first tried the triangular basket tray (it's PURE junk) and one I bought earlier this year. The original one is still going strong and the new one is excellent, even better than the first. If you get over your ideas of it looking like junk and feeling like junk and actually set it up correctly and USE it, you may find it to be an excellent little accessory as I have. I also use the auto index a great deal and though I have bought or otherwise accumulated quite a few extra plastic ratchet parts for the 3 and 4-hole turrets and Pro-1000, I have yet to ever wear one out or break one. I lightly oil my die plates and index rods, nary an issue.


My experience mirrors Ian’s.
My tic tac dispenser has been spot on with no issues.
I have several some early style round tray and some late style triangle and they all work.
My turret and loadmaster function very well once tuned and lubed.
It takes just a small tune up and a touch of oil and they run like a singer sewing machine....
 

Ian

Notorious member
The round Safety Prime trays were the bomb. The trays themselves are hands-down the best primer flipper tray ever devised, too bad Lee didn't use that design on the hand priming tool back then. The NEW triangular trays are decent at both flipping and dispensing, though still they require an occasional thump to get the primers to unclog and feed into the chute.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
My large primer feeder works reasonably well. The small primer feeder borders on hopeless. Jams, dumps primers
on the floor, and just misfires. I took it apart and inspected it recently, maybe a month ago, looking for flash and misfits
somewhere. Put it back together very carefully, and used it very carefully. Slightly better, but still 10% of primers on the
floor and had to stop twice to take it partially apart to clear jams. It appears that the dimensional difference between
right and sideways on a small primer is too small for the Lee tolerance stackup and the small ones can just flop around
in there. The large primers are hugely different right and sideways and work fine.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
My Lee Classic Turret has a very difficult time seating small primers even flush, let alone below flush. I have a Hornady hand primer, and small primers can get set sideways or flipped wrong side up. The only infallible priming tool I've tried is the RCBS ram prime.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
The Dillon 550 and Sq Deal both deal with the pesky small primers perfectly, IME. Clearly, the dimensions
make it more of a challenge to keep them oriented right.
 

Wasalmonslayer

Well-Known Member
My Lee Classic Turret has a very difficult time seating small primers even flush, let alone below flush. I have a Hornady hand primer, and small primers can get set sideways or flipped wrong side up. The only infallible priming tool I've tried is the RCBS ram prime.

Very weird my classic seats the primers to perfection.
I wonder if the little arm was mismade causing an issue.
Both large and small seat perfectly about 2 thou below flush.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
I have two small primer arms and both are problematic, and there is not any dimensional difference between them, nor between them and a large primer arm.