Schoolboy--Not putting you or anyone down buying Lee products. A lot of Lee products are good, a good value, esp if a buyer doesn't want to pay two/three times the price for a similar product from one of the other major reloading manufacturers. Was pointing out that the new 'improved' or third generation Lee hand primer according to reviews and reports by many isn't up to the standards of the former. I always assumed that the new square tray '2nd Generation' hand loaders were the same as the 1st with the exception of the round vs square tray. Pony express's post indicates maybe they were 'cheapened up' some then, haven't heard any other reports on them. If and when my old style (original) round tray Lee hand primer wears out, if Lee hasn't improved whatever they are offering at the time, I'll probably have to go with a more pricey RCBS or ?.
In my last post I was just pointing out that when compared to a lot of Lee's products when comparing say powder scales/measures, the Lee's don't have the all bells and whistles and higher grade of construction of say RCBS. BUT Lee products do work and will produce good quality ammo if the operator does things right to do so. I tend to buy as high of quality of reloading equipment and firearms as possible (or as my available $$$ says I can). Read an interesting review on another forum when checking out recent reviews of Lee's new handloader and bench loader. The reviewer said that Lee in their less than their competitions price on reloading equipment has allowed hundreds of shooters to reload that may have not because of their cheaper (dollar wise) equipment. He further stated that a lot of reloaders he knows that have started out with Lee, have over the years added different brands of various equipment to satisfy what ever reason, but many have stayed with Lee, still producing good quality ammo on their some 20 plus year old reloading equipment.
Lee's products are cheaper because of the fact Lee use's a lot of plastic and cheaper to produce metal than the higher priced items and in some cases not as sturdy and in some cases not 'all of the bells and whistles' of operation, but Lee stuff does work. Plain and simple, if RCBS and Redding did the same, they'd be cheaper too. I do have a couple of sets of Lee rifle dies I bought for some military WW2 bolt action rifles that I don't shoot a whole lot. Bought the Lee's because I didn't want to invest in the price that I'd have to pay for 'the others'. Both sets produce as good a quality of ammo as I can reload and just as good as far as I can tell from other rifle dies 'from the others'. Kinda like some of the rifles the firearms companies have offered over the years. They had their top of the line rifle, maybe a mid area one, and a lower end one. Most of the difference's was in type of wood, metal finish, checkering, etc, but if say you take the three all of the same basic model and caliber, but with different this and that and all different price, if say a .308 caliber, all three if the shooter does his part in aiming at the big 12 pt buck at 100 yards, all three would and could bring home the venison. I got windy and rambling I guess, just pointing out that no one, at least I, look down on anyone if they buy and use Lee products.