Lee Auto Breech Lock Pro Press Review

[bradaz11]

I received my new press today. In the past I have had a few of the lee offerings. I started off with a classic cast turret (which I love, especially when paired with an Inline Fabrication auto eject system) with this press I have the bonus of all my dies presetup in their own turrets, all I need to do is add appropriate primer arm, fit the correct shell holder (which I store in the top of the powder thru die) and then the shellplate. add the auto drum measure and I'm away. takes a few minutes to get the rhythm of - place brass, handle down, prime, up, squeeze to seat, check charge and place bullet, down, up, down, up and repeat. its not hard to get a few hundred cranked out, but there is a lot of handle movement for not a lot of bullet, especially when I started consuming a lot more 9mm. so I looked at alternatives, one of these was a lee 1000.
At around this time, one popped up for sale 2nd hand, at an attractive price, so I bought it. Now one main issue you hear a lot with 1000's is the priming is a pain, to put it lightly, so I never even tried their on board priming system and went straight for running my 9mm brass through a lee classic cast single stage I had bought for rifle cartridge reloading and over tasks that don't suit a turret (resizing and using a die mounted bullet puller for example. Anyway, I would run my 9mm through a sizing die and prime on this press (also equipped with an Inline Fabrications Auto Eject mech - but this one isn't as good as the turret). I would then take these cases over to the 1000, with a powder die in 1, bullet seat in 2 and factory crimp die in 3. and run the cases through. but I had lots of case feeding issues, the auto bullet feeder I also bought never fitted right, it was always just a pain. around this time, I decided I was better saving time and energy for other things and just paid for the 9mm instead. I then saw a 2nd hand loadmaster.
the loadmaster was bought, but then I moved house and it never even got set up, I has sat in a box ever since. It just looked way too much of a swiss clock to ever work right. so back to my trusty turret I went, and kept Churnin' out that boogaloo

then lee's new generation of presses started appearing, their new APP had me intrigued, but tbh, even with the 70% reliable eject system on my single stage press, it isn't worth the money of adding another VERY similar role press. but then I saw the Lee 4000 presses. Woah! they look simple, affordable and efficient. their setup which is between £270 and £350 atm is in a nice low end price range.It isn't mountains of money, but when looking at the kit, and what I already have, the whole setup probably wasn't the best plan for me atm. so instead I bought the press by itself, which is sold as the Lee Auto Breech Lock Pro Press. I bought mine for £128. wow that's a lot of writing to get to mentioning the point of the thread, but there you go, I thought it best people can see my experience when reading the review to get a feel for my comparisons.

So! the press. it uses Lee's breech lock system, which has been redesigned for this new set of releases with a spline around the top, and a plastic tool that snaps onto them. they have kept the recent addition of the locking collar too (so I'm not sure why you need the splines and tool but I guess time will tell), press comes with 4 of these, plus the tool. I would have loved it if they had somehow been able to keep the 4 hole turrets, but that's only because I'm invested in them, and would find it more convenient to keep that system, but the ergos of the top plate don't seem to allow for that, which is fine, as i'm only planning to run a few calibres on this setup for now due to the next limitation. because the top is fixed, and you need the base to rotate, you have to use shell plates. the basic press does not come with one. and at present, there are a few on offer covering most of the popular pistol cartridges, shell plates range from £20-30. so around double the price of a spare 4 hole turret. I have bought a no7 to cover 30m1 carbine, and 19 for 9mm and 11 for 44spl. although the 19 is on backorder, but the 7 arrived with the press so I could start getting a feel for it straight away. the 11 plate should arrive today.

I also took the opportunity to get a lee bench plate, as I've tried alternate mounting options for my presses so I can clear pack to a smooth bench, but I've never been happy with the outcome. So that was fitted quickly, and press bolted down to that.

shell holder was installed, this wasn't the most straight forward when first looking at the press, but is fairly simple once you've done it. basically the breech lock bushings go 1-4 clockwise, starting lower right. so in position 4, which is back right, there is a metal tab. if you remove the breech lock bushing from this hole, you can lift the tab up, and you find it's the top of the timing rod (square bar on the turret , hex on the 1000) this rod is just a flat bar with a few twists in it. lift it out. then looking at where the shellplate will go, there is a little plastic clip that hooks round the centre hub, and one end pokes in a hole on the press. this is the case ejector. bit fiddly but it pull off. then you drop the shell plate in, number so you can still read it. and using an included allen key, you tighten it up. and lower the carrier to the bottom, spin it to align with a peg, the allen key then has a home on the top side of the casting. you drop the timing bar back in and shove the bushing back in. cycle the handle, instructions then ask you to push in 3 little plastic fingers which keep the cartridges firmly in the shellplate. voila! done. press is ready to use at this point if you wanted to.

the universal feeder attached to the press as it comes, has a hole in the casting you can drop cartridges in, to feed the press. you can feed bullets manually. and you can pop primers by hand into the primer arm. basically it is now at the stage my turret press is, except that has the priming tool to use.

I have then started to add bits. I tried to add my case feeder, this isn't the newest design and apparently the bolt is too short for it to go to the correct height, and I need a case slider infill piece, to help support the case when the press pushes it in. this now comes with the universal case feeder, but I don't have that style, so I've had to order one and some 1/4 unc studding to make a new bolt out of.

I was planning on using my safety primer's that came with my turret for this press, as all the sales stuff, looks like the new version, also confusingly called safety prime. but the mount I have is for the o frame presses, and this is nowhere near fitting. it appears I would need to buy the new kit (according to lee themselves) but I'm probably going to just machine a spacer up to allow me to mount the wrong one, or try the turret mount on it and see if I can get another. So for other folk, you might want to consider the new style safety prime.

the one part that has fitted and looks to be good is the bullet feeder mech. I bought one to go with my 1000 for 9mm, but it was a long time ago, and Ive forgotten what the spec is. unfortunately Lee don't mark their bullet feeder arms or body parts at all, so I've no idea what I have, but I did buy a 2nd feed set for my 44spl bullets. interestingly, a bullet feeder isn't included in the 4000 press kit, so either way, you'd have to buy one. oh, and they don't make one suitable for 30m1 bullets

it was about the time that Dad duties called, and then work. so that is where I'm at for now. I have had everything mounted and it all looks to run ok. but is is a mismatch of bits atm, as the bullet feeder was 9mm of some type, the shell plate 30m1.
plan is to get my 44 spl dies installed. 44 spl shell plate installed, swap over the feed body and lips in my bullet feeder (marking up both sets somehow so I'll be able to tell them apart at some point) and install the large case feeder. I'll run it dry to see how it all looks, then drop the bullet feeder back off and see how it all works. then add the bullet feeder back in if it all looks good.

from casual playing about, I have noticed it is sensitive to short stroking. and due to the design, it doesn't seem to self correct. so if you start to raise the carrier, and it starts to turn the shell plate, and you then lower again, it won't let you fully lower as there is a pin which is supposed to pass through a hole on the plate to show its all correct, and negate any minor misalignment like you can sometimes get with the 4 hole turrets. If you then raise and lower, like you might with the turret to get all back straight, the shell plate will come back in exactly the same place as it has now been turned a further 90*, to realign you need to raise the carrier enough so it gets to where it should be, then lower, then raise again. not a major issue, but you would need to pull some cases after rectifying it. the one positive is, you can't fail to notice it's happened and you can't progress with the sequence until it's sorted, so it may even be intentional. it's also easy enough to try to avoid.

so far, I'm happy with my purchase, and even buying all the parts separately still works out cheaper if you don't need dies although when I looked, I didn't see kranks had it at £270 or I may have cracked, but at the time, I didn't think I would need the safety prime. and I had the case feeder and auto drum measure, so zero sense doubling up on that stuff, money better spent on shellplates and bushings.

press + shellplate + case feeder + safety prime + auto powder measure
£128+25+30+27+50 = £260 vs £270-350 bullet feeder on top + 43

my costs (but is a setup for 3 calibres) = press + shell plate + base slider + studding to lengthen case feeder bolt + 2 extra shell plates + bench block + 2 bench plates + 2 sets 4 of breech lock bushings + 1 set of feed fingers
128+20+7+5+24+(27+22)+24+40+12 =£309 for a full setup to run 3 calibres progressively. you just have to click primers out each time.

I will post again when I get some time to run some brass. atm it is certainly looking promising.

[Blackstuff]

Nice write up

[bradaz11]

Excuse the crude mount, I'm waiting on some 1/4 unc screws anyway to raise the cartridge feeder mounts.
The turret press primer feed mount works fine. It needs the spacer that is under it on the turret, but no issues. So that's done money saved at least. I just now need to find a spare mount.

Sent from my pink toy using "An application"

[Alpha1]

Good job thanks for posting an interesting read.
Not something that would fit with my handloading regime. But if it works for you great.

[bradaz11]

Well dies are all set up, powder feeder mounted, case feeder mounted, and primers. I've then run a few cases through it and all looks good. So added the bullet feeder too. I then have run 100 rounds out.
2 bullets tipped over in the feeder, other than that it's run fine (until it ran out and I didn't notice so fed 2 empty cases into the hopper throwing powder all over the loaded rounds).

It took me awhile it get used to priming each stroke. And the primer isn't as good as with the same unit on the turret. I may have to buy the new style and see if that's better. I also found the arm that holds the case in the shellholder, if you pull it open to remove the case, you HAVE to put it back or stops the primer feeder feeding.

Case feeder, only had one case upside down, other than that, very pleased, but again, had a few times I emptied the tube and didn't notice straight away, so then get empty stations. It also helps that the feeder actuates early on, so if something starts to go weird on another station and you stop mid stroke, the case on the slider stops you going straight back into the dies with the others as it contacts on the frame.

The biggest 2 issues I found is, there is no easy way to stand and hold the press handle and primer feed, but still be able to see if there is powder in the cases. This is because as the case clears the powder die it rotates away to the seating die in the back left corner. It would have been nicer of it turned when lifting instead of lowering.
The other issue is there isn't really anywhere to rest your left hand so you can keep it on the primer feeder. I just wound up putting my index finger on the top of the cap head that holds the top on. It would just be nicer of there was more material up there.

Oh, also not sure if I like the roller handle, just a ball would have been fine I think

But all in all, very pleased with my new press and don't regret the purchase

[Alpha1]

No that looks scary to me I wouldn't dare.

[Daryll]

Its funny you don't like the roller handle....I suffered for nearly 40 years with the ball handle on my Lee Pro1000 until last year when i bought the roller handle upgrade... I think its great..!

I'd love one on my Challenger press too....but that gets a bit more complicated..

[bradaz11]

No that looks scary to me I wouldn't dare.

Why scary?
I'm checking powder each handle pull. Primer seating is obvious if missed.
I've been trusting the bullet positioning, I've had 2 tip over but that stops anything else happening. And I just need to correct it then carry on. The only major issue I've had so far is one bullet seated way to far down as one arm of the seater moved, miss fed, and as I corrected it, just not correctly, and one arm of the feeder say over the bullet not around it, so the bullet was pushed fully into the case, obviously that is so very obvious even if it got in the ammo box it would be so much shorter. So that's been pulled and redone now.

Its funny you don't like the roller handle....I suffered for nearly 40 years with the ball handle on my Lee Pro1000 until last year when i bought the roller handle upgrade... I think its great..!

I'd love one on my Challenger press too....but that gets a bit more complicated..

I bought the upgrade after years of using the standard ball on the turret, it had started creaking, which didn't affect its use other than being really annoying.

Sent from my pink toy using "An application"