Lee Classic Turret

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I have been trying out my new Lee Classic Turret press. It differs from most other presses in that the turret rides in a separate assembly from the ram. While loading 9mm I had some instances where the case mouth hit the side of the flaring mandrel and was damaged. I had to loosen the three bolts that mount the turret to the ram base and realign it. Seems to have worked so far. I feed it hand primed cases so it is only flaring and charging the case, seating the boolit and then crimping. The Auto Disk powder measure works well with the press. I have three turrets, one each for 9mm, .38 and .44. I will load some .44 special today. I like that it can be used to seat and crimp in separate steps.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

They're a pretty good machine, especially for the price. I load about 80% of my pistol ammo on a Lee Turret, but use a Rockchucker for rifle ammo. I can't recall ever having any trouble with the Lee.

[dangitgriff]

I bought one and removed the auto index rod on the advice of my reloading mentor. I like having manual control of the turret.
R/Griff

[WebMonkey]

the auto index rod is 'indexable' so after i adjusted the indexing rod, the cases hit the die squarely.

[Misery-Whip]

The problem with the 9mm is the 19 shell holder will also except 40 s&w. The 9mm is sloppy in the shell holder and can wander enough to smack the edge of a die. Ive been researching which shell holder to modify to get a better fit so the 9mm cases dont have to be guided with a spare hand into the dies.

[gpidaho]

Misery-Whip: Use the #16 RCBS shell holder for a better fit. Gp

[tazman]

the auto index rod is 'indexable' so after i adjusted the indexing rod, the cases hit the die squarely.

This^^^^^^^
I have never had an issue with the cases missing the dies when the indexing rod was properly adjusted. There are videos on Lee's web site and on Youtube showing how to do it easily.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Thanks for the advice fellas. I shot 9mm and .44 special today that I loaded on it and they performed perfectly. I may just remove the indexing rod and rotate by hand since I am only using 3 stations.

[Poygan]

I have the four hole turret Lee. I dis enabled the auto turning feature immediately. I use the first station to remove the primer and size the case. The second station flairs the case. I then prime the cases by hand with another Lee. Next I charge the case and use the third station to put the bullet in the proper depth and then the fourth station to crimp. I know this is a slower process but I usually don't load more than 50 - 100 cases at one time. I have turrets for most of the calibers that I load.

[BigAlofPa.]

Good to hear your enjoying the new press Charlie. I like that the option is there to auto index or not. I use the on board priming. I put a primer in manually. I decap with a universal decapping die though. On a single stage press. For volume decapping i use my lee app press.

[rfd]

9mm, lee classic turret, harrells schuetzen pistol measure. video i made for a friend just getting into loading for his 9mm guns. i like the lee classic, and have had redding and hornady turret presses as well. the latest lee press primer is world's better than the other 3 previous versions.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

rfd - that powder measure looks nice.

[rfd]

rfd - that powder measure looks nice.

best measure i've ever had by far, and i've had a Lot. not cheap at $200 or so, but worth it for me.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

best measure i've ever had by far, and i've had a Lot. not cheap at $200 or so, but worth it for me.

When you're loading 4 grains of something a couple tenths makes a difference. The Auto Disk I have been using can vary that much with Unique which is one of the poorer metering powders. Shame because I like the way it performs in 9mm. But I had a pretty large spread in velocity, about 80 fps.

[rfd]

When you're loading 4 grains of something a couple tenths makes a difference. The Auto Disk I have been using can vary that much with Unique which is one of the poorer metering powders. Shame because I like the way it performs in 9mm. But I had a pretty large spread in velocity, about 80 fps.

in spot checking every 10 to 20 rounds built, the harrells has consistently thrown +/- .04 grains of w231 for me, weighed on a digital scale that's +/- .02 grains accurate, for well over one thousand rounds loaded so far. i call that incredibly Excellent.

[Gunslinger1911]

I have had a hole Lee for decades. Loaded 1000's of 9, 45 etc on it.
Got a Dillon 550 for the pistol stuff. Haha
Now the Lee is set up for the bigger / lower round count stuff I don't want to spend the $ for the Dillon conversion. 45/70, 500 S&W etc
For now I just use it as a single stage that I don't have to swap dies around.
50-100 at a time; size, prime off press, flair and powder add, seat and crimp.
Yea, you are manipulating the case a bunch, but you can get a pretty good cadence going.