by Art Merrill | Contributing Editor
In the early days of “central fire” cartridges shooters commonly took a handheld press to the range and repeatedly reloaded a handful of cases during a full day of shooting. Here in the consumerist vastness of the future we instead buy hundreds or thousands of cases and conduct volume loading at home on a bench-mounted press. So why go retro with a handheld press?
If you’ve ever been an apartment dweller who dared clamp an O-frame press to your wife’s dining room table as I once did, you wouldn’t ask that question. The handheld also serves if cash, rather than space, is the limitation. It’s lightweight, eminently portable and needs no bench if you want to reload at a remote location. And, coming full circle, you can take it to the shooting range to fine-tune load development on the spot.
Modern made handheld presses are as rare as honest politicians. I don’t know who the single honest politician is, but the single maker of affordable handheld presses today appears to be Lee Precision. If there are others, they are so obscure that an online search failed to locate them. So, let’s try out the Lee Breech Lock Hand Press.
Light, strong, portable
Engineering-wise, Lee’s lightweight press gets its strength from its I-beam configuration, like the steel beams used in large buildings. Compound leverage permits full length resizing without the need to be a bodybuilder. Immediately apparent is the lack of ergonomically dedicated hand grips; while they would be a welcome improvement, they aren’t really necessary for short sessions.
Testing consisted of reloading 50 .38 Special cartridges using carbide dies, and resizing a variety of bottleneck rifle cases in standard steel dies. I included primer seating utilizing Lee’s Ram Prime add-on tool. I wanted to swage military brass primer pockets as an “oomph test” exceeding simple resizing, but the press lacks enough clearance between the ram and the frame for the RCBS swager’s collar. Keeping the spirit of the intention of the hand press, I reloaded at a kitchen countertop (while the wife wasn’t home) to evaluate it away-from-the-loading-bench convenience.
Same, but different
Die adjustments vary somewhat, depending upon die type and whether cam-over is present in our press. Instructions for the Lee handheld press tell us to raise the ram and screw the die in to contact the shellholder, then continue screwing it in, allowing the die to push the ram downward until there is a quarter-inch gap between the press lever and the press lever stop. The hand press has no eyeball-detectable cam-over, but there appears to be a slight amount of flex in the system of compound levers, accounting for the need for that extra quarter-inch.
To prevent damaging carbide sizing dies we don’t want shellholder-to-die contact during resizing, so the instructions say to not move the lever off the stop when adjusting carbide dies. However, be sure to firmly tighten the carbide die against the shellholder—or even leave about 1/16” gap between the lever and lever stop—or else the flex in the system prevents pushing the case completely into the die.
Resizing straight and bottleneck cases with the Lee handheld takes no more effort than with a bench-mounted press, but the technique is of course different. Lee suggests closing the lever against one thigh while sitting, which works, but you will find your own technique. Spent primers fall through the shellholder into a cavity in the ram, and need to be dumped out every 20 rounds or so. When resizing 50 cases the lack of comfortable handles starts to become noticeable when the edges of the press begin to dig into the hands. Fingerless gloves provide some comfort without sacrificing dexterity.
Seating primers is the same as with a bench-mounted press. Seating bullets takes a steady hand to avoid spilling powder or toppling bullets from cases, and is likely the reason the first guy decided to bolt his press to a bench.
Hello, Murphy
To be fair, I’m not a fan of any manufacturer’s “quick-change” die bushing setups. First, they don’t save any significant amount of time or effort unless you have a physical handicap or you are regularly churning out mass quantities of many different cartridges. They are an unnecessary added expense, raising the cost of every individual die by $5, $10 or more, depending upon the maker. And they are an additional, nonessential part in violation of the KISS principle, creating another opportunity for Murphy to get involved.
For example, the Lee bushing utilizes an interrupted thread, much like a cannon breechblock, to align with the press; a combination of a slight pitch to the threads and a spring-loaded pin on the press lock it in place. But the bushings did not seat snugly against the press when inserted to the point the lock pin engaged its bushing indent. This caused the bushing (and die) to raise about .014” when pushing a case into the resizing die, which means the die did not size completely to the case base, which in turn could cause the reloaded cartridge to not chamber fully in a firearm.
The solution (confirmed in an email exchange with a Lee technician) is to ignore the locking pin and simply tighten the bushing firmly against the press to remove that play. But that pretty much negates the purpose of the locking pin, which illustrates my point and proves I am not merely curmudgeonly.
All the foregoing said, you can leave the bushing snugged in place and just screw dies in and out as with any press. The press can take magnum cartridges up to 3.65” in length; for your reference, the maximum loaded cartridge overall length (COL) for the 8mm Remington Magnum is 3.60” and the 340 Weatherby Magnum is 3.68.”
Bottom line
The Lee Breech Lock Hand Press works for its intended purpose of providing portability or handloading in limited space or on a limited budget. It’s easy to use and is a useable substitute for a bench-mounted press, though not for hours-long loading sessions due to the lack of ergonomic handles. The bushing lock is annoying in being essentially useless, but is not a deal-killer. If you need those features and can live with the caveats, you’ll be happy.
MSRP for the press alone (with one bushing) is $49, and is $78 for the kit that includes Ram Prime, powder funnel, case lube and one Quick Lock bushing. MSRP for additional die bushings is $10.98. Visit online at: leeprecision.com.
The press easily handled long .300 Win Mag cartridges.
