Here's a review I found for the Lee Load All II.
VII. Reloading Information
C. Manufacturer Information
5. Lee
a. Lee Load All II
by Royce Myers (
royce@edsug.com)
Executive Summary:The Lee Load All II is a single stage shot shell reloader available from Midway for $39.99. I bought the optional "Automatic Primer Feed" for another 10.95, a Lyman Pro 505 scale (32.99), and a 12 gauge load book (10.95). The loader is all you need to start loading shells. The Primer feed can save a lot of time, but calling it "automatic" exaggerates the case. The load book and scale are necessary in order to load more unusual loads (I wanted to load 7/8 ounce target loads).
This loader is almost entirely plastic, with a few parts made from pot metal, so if you're looking for something to pass on to your kids, pass on this. The instructions are terse and optimistic, and a secondary reference, like the Lyman Shot manual is strongly recommended.
On the plus side, it is functional and inexpensive. I feel as if I got good value for my money, considering that it costs about half of what a single stage MEC costs. I loaded my first 100 perfect rounds in six hours, with an additional twelve rounds that I didn't want to shoot. After a day at the range I loaded another eighty rounds in two hours. Six of my non-perfect rounds were salvalged with wax.
Installation: Lee recomends that you mount the loader on a piece of wood which can be "C" clamped to wherever you choose to do your loading. I recommend that you not use the screws that come with the kit, but spurge 50 cents at the hardware store for flush mount nuts and bolts. The Lee mounts are setup so that the excess mounting hardware sticks out of the bottom of the mounting wood, which makes it a tad difficult to balance on another table. I used a large enough mounting base so that the excess could hang off the end of the table; but this meant that the loader had less support than it should. After mounting the loader, I opened my "automatic" primer feeder. This requires you to dismount the loader to install it. OOPS! Read _all_ directions before you start.
Components: I got started with 300 once fired AA shells, 25lbs of #8 shot, 400 Winchester 209 primers, one pound of Red Dot and 250 Winchester Super Light Wads. I bought some of these from a friendly reloader who bought in bulk and passed the savings on, so I spent a total of $52 on components. My first case costs $147.
Setup: The first thing to do is install the powder and shot bushing. This is done by removing two screws which hold the face plate, pulling out the charge bar, and putting the bushings in place. The Load All II comes with a variety of bushings for shot and powder; all you really need. There are several load recommendations for target shooting which require no scale, and if you choose a specific load from a book, there is a table of bushing and throw weights for each powder. I found this table to be "conservative" to say the least. I chose to load 7/8 ounce of lead on top of 16.5 grains of Red Dot. The bushing that was supposed to throw 16.4 grains of Red Dot threw 15 - 16 grains, mostly under 15.5, so I changed to one bushing larger after loading the first box of shells.
Once you've installed the bushings and replaced the faceplate you can remove the lid and pour in the shot and the powder. The powder is easy to pour, but I had trouble opening the bag of shot. I used a measuring cup to move the shot from the bag to the loader, which worked OK, but I suspect there is a better way. NOTE: once loaded, shot and powder cannot easily be removed from the loader. That is, unless you want both shot and powder all over the floor, which is easily accomplished by removing the charge bar -- the only way to change a bushing. Be sure of your load before you put too much powder in. On the other hand, if you put too little shot and powder in, the measure will throw lighter loads, and you'll be tempted to use a larger bushing than necessary.
Loading: One shell is loaded at a time, and you move it through five stations. It's possible to prime a set of shells then load them later, but I don't see any advantage to this.
Stage 1 - resize and deprime: First you put a collet on the shell. The collet has a line on it which goes towards the top of the shell. Then you place the shell on the station, pull the handle until the collet pops on and the spent primer pops out. When you take the shell off, make sure there's a hole in the bottom of the shell.
Stage 2 - prime and remove collet: put a primer in station 2, put the shell on top, and pull the lever. If everything is aligned just right, the primer will be flush with the outside base of the shell. Don't force the primer in; if it won't go, just move it around a little and try to seat it again. Remove the collet from the shell.
About the "Automatic Primer Feed". Manual primer feeding is taking a primer out of its box and putting it in station 2. "Automatic" feeding is pushing the feeder up from the back of the loader so that the primer slides out of a chute and into the proper position. It is not in any way connected to the presence of a shell, nor to the pulling of the handle. Primers frequently got stuck on the chute, and I had to jiggle it vigorously to move the primers. The instructions say this is because the chute gets dirty, but I find it hard to believe that it was dirty when it came out of the box. Primers have some kind of ferrous holder, and I used a magnetic screwdriver to unjam them.
Stage 3 - Powder, wad and shot: Pull the handle down and drop the shot by moving the charge bar from the left to the right. At this point you might weigh the powder (see below). Let the handle go, put a wad in the hole above the shell (put the cup in face up) and press the wad in. If you put it in too deep, you increase your risk of a bad crimp, and if you put it in too loosely you also run this risk, so try to press it in until there is a slight resistance. Drop the shot by moving the charge bar from right to left and release the lever.
About the scale: It took me a while to figure out the obvious. I was weighing primed shells, then weighing them again after the powder dropped. Their size made them difficult to weigh, and the math delayed the weighing process. Finally I realized that I could set the scale for 16.5 and dump the powder from the shell into the pan, then back into the shell. There was no magic about how the powder was dropped from the loader, and as long as the scale was close to zero I was close to the right powder weight.
Stage 4 - Start the crimp: Slowly press the loader onto the end of the shell, allowing the shell to rotate freely. The instructions recommend holding the starter crimp for two seconds to hold the shape; I found this was unnecessary with once fired AA hulls. Most of the time this stage worked OK. Sometimes it didn't, and I have no idea why. The instructions have several helpful theories, apparently in order to remove blame from the loader.
Stage 5 - Complete the crimp. At this point you'll learn if your primer is seated incorrectly, now that it's too late to fix it.
The instructions are missing some very significant information:
Which way to you put the wad in?
What do I do if I forgot to prime a shell? If I left out the powder? If the crimp is terrible?
(I have been told that if the shoulder's OK, then you can use candle wax to seal the crimp to make sure the lead doesn't fall out.)
How do I clean the loader?
Is it dangerous to deprime a live primer?
I went to the range and shot eighty of my first 100 shells. Every one of them went bang, some of them hit targets, and I couldn't tell the first box from the other boxes, even though the later boxes had about one grain more powder per shell. I came home with seventy five twice fired shells. I expect to recover my investment in loading equipment by dove season.
