Vintage Lee Anniversary Loading press

jpx2rk

jpx2rk

New member
Does anyone use one of these or have you used one. I've got one from the late 90's, I bought a Lee Anniversary reloading kit then, but life got in the way, and just now getting back into the gun scene, and want to start reloading. I've done some google work but could not find anything except the newer models with a different spent primer arrangement than mine. The spent primers drop into a small bin on the right side of the press while the newer ones its' on the left side or the slide tube down to a trashcan.

I've got it mounted to Franklin Armory/Midway portable loading table, and I'm surprised at how stable this thing is. I've bumped it, shook it and leaned on it pretty good with my 210#, and it's pretty solid.

Any tips or things to watch out for would be helpful to this newb.





The entire kit survived some somewhat poor storage conditions except for a tube of case lube, everything else in the kit (powder measure, scale, dies, etc.) survived except for a bit of rust, but some steel wool got things cleaned up. TIA
 
I used one while I worked in the Oilfield. Mounted it on a 2X12 and would clamp it on a table. Worked great. The scale was hard for me to read but it was dead on accurate with my Lyman and RCBS scales. I used the Lyamn scale just because it was easier for me to read. I put a business card on the outside wall of the primer catcher as the primers kept bouncing out.
 
I have used one for 15+ years and loaded lots of 45/70, 40/65, 30/30. I only load 243 on it now and not too often, but the unit is a keeper.
Most of my loading is done on a 550 Dillon now.
 
Mine is coming up on 20yrs old. I still use it - it's my dedicated decapper.

The primer catching function sucks butt. I have a pop bottle cut as a "tray" with a small part cut and folded such it reaches over the top of the factory designed primer bin and guides the primers into the tray. I also used it for a long time by drilling a hole through the base plate and through my bench, then stuck a tube and a collection bottle under the bench. Works fine if your bench allows that, but you have to flick all of the primers out of the factory built in bin into the hole - I prefer to not have to touch them at all, just have the pop over into the pop bottle tray.

I loaded thousands upon thousands of rounds on mine, but I don't use it for loading any more - I have a handful of other presses I use to actually load ammo now - some faster and some more precise (and faster too, for that matter). But the old Lee single stage press does work fine. I got another press after a few years, have had several presses, still have a handful - and the Lee works great with a Lee Universal Decapping Die.
 
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