Well, count me in too on the Lee Classic Turret press

[Recluse]

I finally ordered one a couple of days ago and am having it shipped to the Cabelas in Fort Worth, which just conveniently happens to be across the highway from Fort Worth Alliance Airport.

Will wonders never cease? [smilie=1:

Put in a separate order for the Safety Prime system, extra turrets and a riser.

I mainly plan on using this press for 44 Special, 45ACP with the 200SWC boolit and maybe some plinking loads for the SKS and the 30-30. The serious stuff will still be done on a single-stage.

I've just heard and read too many good things about this press to not go ahead and give it a try.

Will probably order its "mate," the Lee Classic Press (single stage) early next year. THAT is one heckuva fine press as I've actually pulled the handle on one and loaded ammo. I'll put it up against any single-stage press out there. It's BUILT.

Press (Classic Turret) should be in just after Christmas and I'll give a report on first impressions, ease of set-up, learning curve, etc. It'll be better than [smilie=6: to relax you and put you to sleep. :)

:coffee:

[warf73]

That was one of the main reasons in the Lee because of all the good press they guys on this forum gave it.

[wrench]

I think you will love it.
I have an RCBS Rockchucker, a Dillon 550, and a Lee classic cast turret.
I use all of them for different purposes, calibers.
I'm pretty sure that if I could only have one press, I'd keep the Lee.8-)

[Floydster]

You will really like it, I have a Hornady LNL and also the Lee Classic cast single stage along with my Lee Cassic cast turret, ( the new model), the turret is my favorite press.

[cajun shooter]

I have always loved the Dillon presses and after using my 450 for many years I bought the 550 B which in my mind is the perfect reloaders press in that you still have complete control. If something is wrong you may stop it before going to the next stage.
My wife and I came upon hard times in 2007 as the home construction business turned belly up. She is a Draftsman of over 30 years with art while in college.
I came to where I had to sell many things to help make ends meet.
I had a RCBS Rockchucker from the 70's, my Dillon 550B and a Lee Classic Turret. I kept my Lee and sold the others. The reason is because of the money that could be brought in and that the Lee Turret will handle the loading that I do at this time in my life. I miss all of my add ons that the Dillon had as it was loaded with everything made for it. But the Lee just keeps going on with me changing out the plastic square piece every year or so.

[lbaize3]

Recluse, you will really like the Classic Turret. I have the PW2000 turret press, several small Lee open presses, two Rockchuckers, two Dillon 550s (one for small and one for large primers). After reading all the posts about the Classic Turret I ordered one. Now, after 700 30-30, 216 30-06, 500+ 308, and more than 400 45-70 loaded on it, I am in agreement that it is a fine piece of machinery. I will continue to use the Dillon 550s for pistol loads and the Classic Turret for bottle necked rifle cases.

[zuke]

The only problem I have with it is that the front pillar can't be moved to the other side.
I use my left to work the press and my right for the detailed stuff.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Your gonna miss primers flying/rolling onto the floor with the classics,
If you deprime using them.:kidding:

[hedgehorn]

I think you will love it.
I have an RCBS Rockchucker, a Dillon 550, and a Lee classic cast turret.
I use all of them for different purposes, calibers.
I'm pretty sure that if I could only have one press, I'd keep the Lee.8-)

I have the same three presses. I use them all but for different cartridges. I wouldnt be without any of them [smilie=p:

[rollmyown]

I also have the same 3 presses plus the classic cast single stage.

If it came down to keeping only one it would be a toss up between the Rockchucker and the CCT.

[flashhole]

Welcome to the club. You will love the press. I use mine loading 40 S&W as well as some rifle cartridges.

[MtGun44]

I like the press, find that the priming system is a real PITA, about the most mickey mouse
mess I have ever used. At least 1/3 of small primers wind up on the floor rather than the
in a case. I gave up and use an Autoprime.

Bill

[edsmith]

You are right about the priming system, it sucks, but the primer tray is a good primer flipper. :bigsmyl2:

[Snyd]

Ditto on the Classic Turret. Works great.

I don't see why so many guys have issues with the priming system. It works great for me with large and small primers.

[milprileb]

The Lee priming system looks fragile and awkward to me so I don't use it on my Lee Turret. I can prime up cases with my RCBS automatic self loading primer tool fast and use that approach when I use the Lee press. Your experience and patience will dictate if the Lee primer system works for you or not. I don't much care for it and its in the way for me.

That said: I got a Dillon 450 and 650 with auto priming systems: when they work, we get along fine but when they jam or stop, its a major drama to tear down and clear the issues. Since both demand loading primer tubes just like the RCBS auto primer tool requires, I just eliminate using the Dillon primer systems altogether. I prime with accuracy and "feel" my primers on the RCBS tool and when I feed those properly primed cases into either Dillon , my production just runs along with no SNAFU or other drama issues. I feed primed cases on the Lee press for same flawless uninterrupted momentum / production.

I no longer have primer seating issues on Turret nor Dillon style progressive pressures. I took Murphy's Law out of that part of reloading with these presses. I don't regret the decision, and I am not spending any more time manually priming than I was on clearing primer systems on average.

In a perfect world, primer systems work perfectly. I live in a imperfect world.

A buddy of mine with the splendid Hornady LNL progressive press has gone this route as well. Nothing works perfectly whether the press is Red, Blue, or Green.

Closing shot: The Lee Turret is fine for what I use mine for and I don't hold its priming system at fault for any reason. Priming on presses is problematic in my opinion and experience. Don't let priming be a criteria for eliminating a Lee Turret from your bench if it meets your mission needs.

[garym1a2]

I like the priming system on the classic turrent press. When I want to make a bunch of 9mm I set the turrent on single stage and do both the size and prime step. Than I take the primed brass and feed the loadmaster with it. The loadmaster is decent except the prime system really stinks.

I recommend you keep a close eye on the autodisk or autodisk pro. I have found they stick at times and I get a squib load. So I put a bright lamp to shine into the case and make sure it gets powder always.

[Three44s]

Another +1 for the Lee Classic Turret!!

I don't do the "gizmos" with it though ........... I have been a hand primer tool guy for too many moons to chance having live primers scattered from hell to breakfast to change now!!

Give me the turret and that's enough for me ........ I hand index it as well.


Three 44s

[Jailer]

Congrats on your new purchase Recluse, you're going to love it.


I like the press, find that the priming system is a real PITA, about the most mickey mouse
mess I have ever used. At least 1/3 of small primers wind up on the floor rather than the
in a case. I gave up and use an Autoprime.

Bill

There are a couple of little tricks to make the priming system work well. First is to trim any flashing left on the plastic parts with an exacto knife. Both the large and small prime on mine needed trimming. Second, if you find that you are dropping a lot of primers shim the bottom of the primer attachment on the press with a washer to raise the entire priming system up a little bit.


I like the priming system on the classic turrent press. When I want to make a bunch of 9mm I set the turrent on single stage and do both the size and prime step. Than I take the primed brass and feed the loadmaster with it. The loadmaster is decent except the prime system really stinks.

I recommend you keep a close eye on the autodisk or autodisk pro. I have found they stick at times and I get a squib load. So I put a bright lamp to shine into the case and make sure it gets powder always.

You might need to add a little lube to the actuating arm on the powder measure. Mine needed a little when it started sticking and it solved the problem. The other thing you might try is to loosen the hopper screws a tad. If the hopper has a close fit to the disks it can bind a bit if they are over tightened.

If you find that your pro auto disk leaks excessively I have a fix for that too. :wink:

[leadman]

I added a spring on the side of my Pro auto disk measures to pull them back. No problems now.
I have the original Lee turret press and may update it to use the new priming system as it is faster to do handgun cartridges on than the new turret press.

[DLCTEX]

I love the Safety prime and use it all the time. There are a few youtube videos that can help with making it perform well, but mine hasn't had any problems. I hadn't thought of shimming it up, I just lower the ram slightly each time to get the primer to feed smoothly. It is just instinctive now.

[30yrcaster]

If you find that your pro auto disk leaks excessively I have a fix for that too. :wink:
Mine leaks with Bullseye. What's your fix?

[30yrcaster]

For all you guys that love the Safety Prime and say it works flawlessly, do any of you have a problem with the last primer not coming out? I put a separate post about it and see others have the same problem as I but maybe some of you have a fix for that other than adding extra primers.

Thanks

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Mine leaks with Bullseye. What's your fix?

Sometimes, a case kinda sticks on the powder thru expander die, then lowering
the ram makes the Pro-autodisk "jump", hence spilling the powder.

I'm not sure if the problem is the sizer die being out of tolerance and over sizing
the case or just a brand of brass or poorly cleaned brass. I have never really
investigated why I have this issue only sometimes. But I found a solution.

I pre-expand the case with a separate expander die so the case doesn't
stick on the Lee powder thru expander die...this may seem to be adding a step
but it also solves the problem of the powder thru expander die that doesn't
expand the case enough for a boolit...I was solving this second problem
when I stumbled onto the fact that my Pro-Autodisk doesn't spill powder anymore.
Jon

[Jailer]

Mine leaks with Bullseye. What's your fix?

Take the hopper off and remove the screws and elastomer wiper. You'll have to remove the powder reservoir to remove the wiper, it's held on by the single screw underneath.

Take the bottom side of the hopper base and sand it on a flat surface. Go slowly and check your progress as you go. This will remove the two small "rails" on the sides where it sit on the body of the measure. What it does is moves the hopper closer to the surface of the disks and helps the wiper seal better. You'll have to watch how tight you turn the retention nuts on after you do this so that it doesn't bind.

I had all kinds of leakage with the double disks kit until I modified mine like this.


For all you guys that love the Safety Prime and say it works flawlessly, do any of you have a problem with the last primer not coming out? I put a separate post about it and see others have the same problem as I but maybe some of you have a fix for that other than adding extra primers.

Thanks

This happens with all of them. I usually just pop the last one out into my hand and place it in the primer arm.

[SkookumJeff]

On the last primer, I take a small allen wrench and using the short leg, insert the allen wrench into the primer arm channel and push the last primer as far as it will go - it loads fine into the primer cup. The problem is there's no weight behind the last primer to force it where it needs to be staged to load into the primer cup.

[FLDad]

I like the safety prime, too -- once you've gotten it aligned right. There's nothing to guide it on top of the press, so you just have to eyeball it and adjust until it works. But that's a minor quibble: the Classic Turret is my go-to press now.