Reloading can be rewarding as well as being a chore, yet regardless whether you see it as a thankless task or therapeutic pleasure, having the right equipment certainly makes repetitive tasks a lot easier. I started reloading as a teenager on a Super Simplex neck-sizing press and, over time, have acquired and used everything from O-Frame to Turret to fully progressive presses. Each has its pros and cons dependant on task, though recently I came across a cheap and compact option which would make a great addition to any reloader’s bench.
I encountered the Lee APP (Automatic Processing Press) almost by accident while looking for options to swage the primer crimps from a pile of ex-military brass. The APP came up as an option and, the more I looked at it, the more interesting it appeared. Speaking with local Lee distributor Grycol International, we agreed it would be a worthy product for assessment.
It seems Lee predominately market the press as a case prep-come-bullet sizing station, while also doubling as a quite compact and capable single station reloading press. Patented in 2019, according to their website: “It’s the first of its kind with the ability to mount the die to the top or bottom of the press. This die-mounting flexibility allows previously unheard-of automation on a single station press. Now you can de-prime, primer pocket swage, bulge bust or size cast bullets as fast as you can operate the lever.”
In essence what you have is a compact press with two opposing die heads and a simple but effective case-feed system. Adaptable for many processes, it excels in single stage repetitive operations such as swaging, sizing, de-capping etc. Kind of like the ‘Thunder Bird Two’ of reloading, you simply buy different APP kits to perform the desired function and, to this end, the following five kits are available.
APP Breech Lock Bullet Sizing Kit: Specifically for sizing cast lead projectiles, this along with the correct calibre sizer and punch has you sizing lead projectiles as fast as you can operate the lever. You load the feed tube and, at each stroke, a projectile is presented and pushed through the sizer to fall free into the supplied catch bottle.
APP Primer Pocket Swager: This one’s for swaging primer pockets to remove primer crimps commonly found on (though not exclusive to) military brass. The kit comes with swages for both large and small primer pockets, with a swage push die which locates in the lower head and a spring-loaded guide and collet in the upper head. It’ll function with cases up to and including .30/06 length. There’s no shell holder required and again, once set up, the process happens as fast as you can cycle the lever.
APP Bulge Buster: Bulging can occur when cases are fired in chambers which don’t fully support the cartridge. This kit operates almost identically to the Bullet Sizing one, though in this instance you’re pushing cases through a case-sizing bush as opposed to pushing cast bullets through a sizer. It comes with three sized bushes and is stated to work with the following cases “only” – .380, 10mm, .40 S&W, .41 AE, .45 ACP, .45 GAP and .45 Win Mag. Why not 9mm (9×19)? Because as slight as it is, the 9mm case is tapered, so results wouldn’t be ideal in this bushing designed for straight-walled cases.
APP Breech Lock Ram Prime: This one incorporates two priming stems (large and small) which lock into the lower head and, on the downstroke, protrude through the shell holder. Place your primer in a small spring-loaded cup atop the stem, put a case in the shell holder and push down on the lever to seat the primer. It provides an effecting priming system said to have plenty of feel for consistent primer seating, if you wish to use the press for start-to-finish reloading (I prefer the much quicker Lee Auto Primer).
APP De-prime Kit: This one kind of looks and works similar to the Primer Pocket Swager, the top head having a guide and spring-loaded collet, though in this case the guide rod incorporates a de-capping pin. For the lower head a blank shell holder is provided. Load up the case feed with cases and, with each stroke, the case is located by the guide and collet and at the bottom of the stroke the de-capping pin pushes the old primer out. Fast and effective.
When used as a conventional single stage reloading press, the APP will accept any universal (⅞^ diameter) die sets that screw into Lee’s Spline Drive Breech Lock Bush (quick change) system. However, when combined with Lee’s optional X-Press shell holders, it allows you to use the supplied case feed which speeds things up considerably. This is because you don’t have to place individual cases in the shell holder, with each stroke of the lever producing a resized case as fast as you can go for however many cases there are in the feed tube.
I gave the Lee APP a solid workout by virtue of the fact that I’d acquired more than 700 once-fired Lake City .30/06 cases. For those in the know, this stuff is premium thick-walled military brass that’ll stand up to being reloaded many times before being junked. No matter how you put it, prepping 700 full-sized rifle cases is no small task. First up you want your cases clean, so they needed to be tumbled then de-primed, resized, trimmed and chamfered. And as these feature a military primer crimp, that must be removed to enable clean access for the new primer to be inserted.
After cleaning I started with the APP De-prime Kit. To be honest, results were a little mixed as .30/06 cases are close to the maximum length this kit can handle. So unless I was extremely careful, at full stroke the case neck guide could slightly impact and damage the necks. This was only with the 06 cases at full stroke and not apparent at all with shorter cases.
Thankfully I’d also grabbed a Lee Universal De-capping Die which handles cases up to 3.125^ and was a much better option in this instance. Better still, in the APP press I could use the case feed which allowed me to de-cap as fast as I could work the lever. Spent primers are collected in the bottle below for a no-mess operation.
In summary, both de-capping options worked fine, only the Universal unit was a better option with longer cases (.30/06 or greater). Of course de-capping as a separate operation is essential if you’re going to swage the primer pockets. Yet even with progressive presses there’s good reason to keep it separate, as debris from spent primers can clog up the works with some progressives and it’s a far cleaner operation when left separate.
Moving to the Primer Pocket Swager and, once set up and adjusted on the APP, it made the job a breeze with each stroke of the lever. The process swages a slight bevel at the primer pocket mouth and removes any crimp after the de-capping stage. Once done it gives the new primer a clean and clear run into the primer pocket when repriming the case. Again in progressive presses, unless this is done, primers failing to seat correctly can be a major cause of jamming.
I didn’t use the Bullet Sizing or Bulge Buster kits and, as mentioned, when manually priming I prefer a Lee Auto Primer which is much faster with no handling of primers. For those inclined there are plenty of online videos of all operations. Like the functions I tested, the rest appear to be fast and efficient processes.
I did use the press for straight-up resizing and, once again, the case feed combined with X-Press shell holders really speeds up the process. As a compact press it’s never going to give you the resizing force of a large O-frame unit, though not everyone needs that.
So who should buy a Lee Automatic Processing Press? First up, anyone who does a lot of reloading and is after a cheap and efficient way to carry out specific processes at speed. And pistol reloaders with Federal 9mm FC cases, you know the ones with factory crimps that jam up your Dillon when the primers won’t seat. Run all those through the de-cap and swage process and you’ll never have the issue again.
Who else? Small volume reloaders with one or two medium calibres could race through a couple of hundred .38 Specials or .223 Remingtons (for example), faster on one of these than you ever will on a traditional single stage press, especially with X-Press shell holders and case feed in play. I can’t see my reloading bench being without one now. Retailing at around $165 for the APP press and kits from about $60, it’s hard to question the value. Check out the full range of Lee Products at www.grycol.com.au