I'm sorry if this has been asked before but I am looking into the Lee Aniversery rifle reloader kits. I don't want to spend alot of money on something only to find out reloading is something I don't enjoy so I figured this would be a good starter kit to decide on. Some people have said they are junk and want me to spend 250-300 bucks for an RCBS kit. And others, one guy at the local gun shop that sells RCBS stuff said they are ok for starters but will wear out fast depending on use. Just curious on what you guys think of them?

Lee equipment gets trashed here regularly. You will get lots of advice telling you to buy nothing but RCBS, Redding, Lyman, and so on.

Ignore it.

Lee stuff will load good, shootable ammunition, and you won't need to spend in the $300 to $400 range to set up a loading bench. In your situatiuon where you are not sure if handloading is something you want to do long term, Lee equipment is fine.

Lee presses will not last like something from RCBS or Redding, it is true. An RCBS press will last the rest of your life, given minimal care, like keeping it rust free. The Lee will load thousands and thousands of rounds before it wears out. How much are you planning to load?

I use a lot of different equipment. Started with an old RCBS Jr press. Currently I have 2 Dillon 550s, but still find room on my bench for a Lee turret press.
You might pick up a copy of Richard Lee's book, Modern Reloading. well worth the money as a reference.

The Lee stuff will wear out after a few 100000 rounds or so.. I have a Lee loader kit bolted to my bench right beside my RCBS Rock Chucker. Their equipment is darn sure worth the money. I started out with the RCBS stuff and it, great stuff, but my Lee equipment does a very good job as well. You will get your monies worth from Lee.

Thanks guys for the response. I just bought a H&R in 204 so that is what I plan on reloading. I did some math last night and I figured That I could load a box or 204 for around $4.25 compared to the 16 bucks I will have to pay at a local gun shop and he is the only guy in the area that carries 204. So I figured I would only have to reload 11 boxes of 20 rounds and the reloader would pay for itself and the first batch of supplies. Now I don't plan on reloading 1000's of rounds every week or anything even close to that. But I would like to do my fair share of target pratice. But If I have to buy my 204's at 16 bucks a box I will do alot less target and only hunt. I have not shot yet and plan on doing so tuesday pending the weather. So far I have bought two boxes of Hornady's 32 grain Vmax. I will say I do plan on buying RCBS dies that way if I do like it and plan on upgrading I will already have the dies and only have to buy the press for 110 bucks. Thanks again!!

Saving money is a great plan. Too bad it won't work! You won't save a penny, but you WILL shoot more for the same amount of money.

All standard dies are 7/8x14. RCBS, Lee, Redding, Hornady, Lyman, etc. No worries about compatability. Buy what you want, at the best price.

The saving money is how I "suck" the wife in to leting me get stuff. But your right, things always get addictive and just snowball for me. But thanks for the advice Charley.

Reloading doesn't save money. That is a myth that has been spread around for a long time, but there is no truth to it.

For me, it started out simple. I would get set up to reload and then I would save money on every box of ammo I shot. I thought I'd load cartridges and shoot them for less. But nooooooo. I loaded some ammo and got some loads that did good, and then got to thinking, "I wonder what THIS bullet would do?" Then I buy that kind of bullet. I also started wondering, "Hmm. I wonder if THIS powder would be better." So I load the same bullets with different powders and take them to the range. And then I see more bullets and more powders. And then I start wondering what I cando with other calibers,and I get new gunssoI can loadfor them. And then I come on here and read about runout and the tools to measure that and chronograghs and......................[]

When you've got it really bad, you do things like this: I was sold 500 new and 200 once fired.22/250 cases for $25. I had no .22/250, so I built one! That one is really a tough sell on saving money.

Boy have I ever been in that Boat. If my wife sees me looking at die sets, she always asks me if I have that gun.

Shhhhh! some guys' wives might read on this forum.

Whenever I tell my wife that I got a good deal on a gun, she rolls her eyes and says "now you will spend another $150 on reloading equipment and bullets.