Lee classic cast turret priming system trick

[tazman]

I found a new trick(fro me anyway) that makes the priming system on my Lee Classic Cast turret press work much better. I found out by accident.
I had been loading some 308 cases with large rifle primers and switched the press over to 9mm handgun which uses small pistol primers. I forgot to change the primer arm and cup to the small size.
After loading nearly 300 rounds, I realized that I wasn't having the usual 3-5 primers per hundred fall out of the priming cup onto the floor. Dropping the primers isn't a problem for me since I have a piece of carpet under the press that keeps them from rolling/bouncing away and makes them easy to see and pick up. I checked things and found I hadn't changed out the large primer cup for the small one. Since it was working, I continued to use it.

I have since loaded several thousand small primers, both rifle and pistol using the large primer cup. I seem to have less trouble getting the primer to line up with the hole in the brass as well. The only time I have an issue is when I try to seat a primer in a case with a crimp I haven't removed yet. I am dropping only about 1 out of 200 or so now. I ran 300 9mm through the press today and didn't drop any.
Cases made for small primers have a little bevel/radius around the primer hole that allows the primer to self align if the primer is free to move a little bit. The large primer cup allow this to happen.
This is here just for reference. You may want to try it out and see if your experience matches mine.

[jetinteriorguy]

Hmm, I've never been able to make mine work on my Value Turret and came to the eventual conclusion it was due to differences between it and the cast version. I've never tried the large primer version to see if it would work for brass with large primer holes. I may have to give this a try with both large and small primer brass to see how it works. Sometimes the best discoveries are made by accident. I think I'll try this weekend and will post my results. Thanks, Les.

[dikman]

Jet, I haven't had any problems priming with my Value Turret, seems to work fine (and trust me, if something was going to go wrong it would happen to me!!!).

[Ole Joe Clarke]

I gave the primer outfit away and haven't had a single problem with it since. :-)

Have a blessed day,

Leon

[tranders]

I gave the primer outfit away and haven't had a single problem with it since. :-)

Have a blessed day,

Leon

That's exactly what I did also. Lol

Glad to hear the large primer cup is working out and thanks for sharing your discovery.

[Bookworm]

I use the priming system on my Lee Classic Turret. I think it works just fine.

The only time I have any problems with it is when I get in a hurry, and sometimes a primer will jump out. When I operate the device (and the press in general) smoothly, I have no problems.

Face it, priming is finicky in the best of circumstances, and on press priming as a step in a process is much more finicky.

The easiest priming I have ever done, is with a hand primer - specifically, a Lee hand primer. The kind with the round primer tray.

The one Lee discontinued because they would explode in users hands occasionally.

Damn shame it's not made anymore. Kinda made priming exciting....

[T-Bird]

Once I figured out that I had to line the bottom of the priming arm up with the arm on the primer holder before pushing, I had no more probs. with mine. (guess I'm a little slow on the uptake)