Broken press

Friday night with 9 pieces of brass left to go, my Lee press broke. I feel lost without a functioning press on the bench. I called Lee and they said if it is newer than 2 years they will replace it and if it is older, they will sell a new one at 50% off. The press is 10-11 years old and has loaded all my ammo in that time period. Now the big question, fix/replace the Lee or buy a Rock Chucker???

What would you do?
 
Originally Posted By: wisconsinteacher Now the big question, fix/replace the Lee or buy a Rock Chucker???



Well, I have been using the same Rock Chucker that I bought over 40 years ago and never had anything break on it yet. Have loaded literally hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammo on it. I got lots of Lee stuff and use it every time that I reload but their presses are not anything that I would want.

Get the RCBS.
 
Originally Posted By: wisconsinteacherFriday night with 9 pieces of brass left to go, my Lee press broke. I feel lost without a functioning press on the bench. I called Lee and they said if it is newer than 2 years they will replace it and if it is older, they will sell a new one at 50% off. The press is 10-11 years old and has loaded all my ammo in that time period. Now the big question, fix/replace the Lee or buy a Rock Chucker???

What would you do?

That is the big problem with Lee... They have a thing that lists for $200, you buy it for $130 discounted from the mail order store. Lee sold it the the mail order store for $100.

It breaks, and it's more than two years old (or newer and you don't have the receipt, and most people can't prove when they got it)... you don't pay 50% of $130... you pay 50% of CURRENT LIST PRICE... which, after these years, will be more than you paid for the first one.

So Lee is not out a damm dime - they sell it to you for the same price that they sold it to Midway for. AND you pay shipping for both presses... so you are screwed coming and going!

That is NOT a guarantee in ANY language.

It is a sucker deal - toss it in the dumpster and get an RCBS - if it breaks in 30 years, they fix it or replace it FREE!!! No questions, no explanations, no fine print, no BS... just FREE. (And you don't have to be the original owner).

You can get a very good condition RockChucker on eBay for $80 to $100-ish bucks.

Lee is a suckers game!!

 
I have a Lee press that came free with the Lee reloading manual. I guess it's worth what it cost me.

I think both RCBS and Redding presses are lifetime warranty, might want to check to be sure.
 
Originally Posted By: Stu FarishI have a Lee press that came free with the Lee reloading manual. I guess it's worth what it cost me.



You paid too much!!
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Anyone who uses RCBS equipment will tell you, RCBS stands behind their stuff 100%. They have on my Rock Chucker and the JR2 and JR3 presses that I have as well as any other equipment that has their name on it. If it's broken, lost or you screwed it up they replace or repair it, no questions asked. Now how can you get any better customer service than that? Lee has some pretty good, well thought out stuff, but they will never beat RCBS at the CS game.

Go green and don't look back, unless you are buying a tractor, then it absolutely has to be red and have MF on the front.
 
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Cranked out many thousands of rounds on my RCBS Rockchucker that I bought back in my college years. I don't know anything about RCBS's customer service because I've never had to use it. I hear it's great though.
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I heartily recommend this press to anyone who is in the market for a single stage.
 
Originally Posted By: CatShooterOriginally Posted By: Stu FarishI have a Lee press that came free with the Lee reloading manual. I guess it's worth what it cost me.



You paid too much!!
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Well, it's lasted forever. Of course, I've also never actually used it other than to deprime a few cases when I first got it.
 
I run 2 RCBS presses on my bench for 223 but seat most of bullets with a lee hand press. Like to have 2 more presses for my 308 dies.
 
Quote:Anyone who uses RCBS equipment will tell you, RCBS stands behind their stuff 100%. They have on my Rock Chucker and the JR2 and JR3 presses that I have as well as any other equipment that has their name on it. If it's broken, lost or you screwed it up they replace or repair it, no questions asked. Now how can you get any better customer service than that?

+1
Back in the 80's they either didn't make or at least I had not heard of bushing type sizing dies and I had worn out an RCBS sizer which was scoring case necks pretty badly.

Had been trying to improve case neck concentricity and gave RCBS a call to see if they could ream the neck portion of the die to achieve proper neck tension w/o using the expander plug. Since I was neck turning all cases, they asked me to send the old die and three fired cases from my rifle.

I emphasized that the die did not owe me anything as I had loaded thousands of rounds through it so to let me know what I owed them for the service. A week or two after sending the die, it came back ppd w/no charges! You just can't beat customer service like that! (And yes, my long range scores did increase as a result.)

Regards,
hm
 
I have had to call RCBS a couple of times for minor stuff and always great CS free if I needed a part . Now on my charge master which died one day they did the same as Lee they sold me a new one for 50.00 IIRC as it only has 2 year warranty.
I was satisfied with that.
Been using tht one for about 3 years now no issues.
 
Originally Posted By: UncleDoc
Go green and don't look back, unless you are buying a tractor, then it absolutely has to be red and have MF on the front.

I agree with Green RCBS...Great stuff and great CS. Lee has
been a mixed bag for me, and I have sworn off of most of their
product offerings.

I also agree with the NOT Green tractors, but I prefer orange.
Kubota is the RCBS of small 4x4 tractors.
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Squeeze
 
Should I throw my Lee classic cast in the trash now or wait til it breaks???

I have the RCBS trim pro, auto prime, case prep center, and a few sets of dies, like all of it. If and when I buy another single stage, I'll very likely go with the RCBS, especially now hearing about their evidently outstanding CS.
 
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I had a really OLD RCBS hand priming tool that finally wore out because it was all alum. They did not have any new parts since it was SO OLD. They had me send it in and they have a big bin of used parts. So I sent mine back and they hand picked out a couple of parts and sent it back with out a charge. It is not like new but a lot better than what my old one was. I should break down and get a new one.

Maybe get a Lee primer seating tool.
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no way in [beeep] am I going to buy Lee products.
 
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