Lee Classic Turret Press Kit (or not...)

[HALODIN]

I personally don't agree with buying reloading gear that you need to replace later on, seems like a waste of money to me. I'd rather save for a bit longer.... At best you'd save probably £350 by buying the Lee kit and the other ancillary stuff that isn't in the kit. Is there even a saving at the end of the day once you've replaced X with Y? I decided I was going to buy once and I couldn't be happier with my gear.

I recently replaced my digital calipers and I now have complete faith in my measurements, I don't mind paying more for peace of mind.

Yep your right. I own two kahles scopes and they don't come cheap. There is nothing wrong with your list it depends what his budget is.

[mag41uk]

The rockchucker supreme kit is good value for money and will last a lifetime.

[FredB]

Interesting. I have both the Lee and the RCBS---both are old, both are trouble free. I moved house in Jan 1985 and I remember setting the Lee up---I don't remember when I bought it, but it had had some considerable use then. The Lee turret is not cheap--it is low cost. What enables them to sell it at a low price is the innovative design, coupled with the optimum choice of materials and manufacturing processes.
Fred

[Dougan]

The rockchucker supreme kit is good value for money and will last a lifetime.

I've got a Rockchucker for my single stage press - I was lucky and got a secondhand one in good condition...it was 25+ years old when I got it, and I can't see it ever needing replacing.

[bigfathairybiker]

Are there any disadvantages to a turret press?

Mark

[dromia]

I have had a Lee classic turret for around 2 years now and rate it as a press, however it is let down by the safety prime mechanism which is at best finicky and at worst won't work. I have managed to get the LP unit working reasonably reliably but I can't get the SP unit to function well at all and I have had four of them on the press before I gave up, the Lee safety prime for this press is the most returned item I have ever sold. just look on youtube and see how many "fixes" there are for it that indeed speaks volumes.

Now the press works fine with the single loading priming arm, although where it seats on the press may need a little fettling with a file, however this sort of defeats one of the main advantages of the press its auto indexing.

The poor quality of the safety prime is what lets down the Classic turret and most of my turret handloads are done on my Redding T7 as its priming system is flawless and I just rotate the turret by hand.

So it you are looking for a turret press and aren't bothered about the safety prime or the benefits of auto indexing then the Lee is well worth a look.

Lee stuff is innovative and well designed but is let down by very poor quality control, look upon Lee stuff as a kit that will need fettling to get to work. I rate their dies as exceptional value for money but their seating dies are not the best for run out, their collet dies are about the best neck sizers out there bar none but the mating surfaces will need polishing before use if you don't want to crush a few cases.

For me their best out of the box item is the Pro Auto disk measure, I have half a dozen or so set up for various loads but they are not ideal for load development being fixed cavity dispensers. Being press activated they are very consistent.

Regarding the purchase of kits they look good but the fact is no one maker excels at making all handloading equipment, the big down on the Lee kits is their scales which I couldn't recommend to anyone unless they had the patience of Job and had a penchant for Russian roulette with near maximum loads. Also with kits you can end up getting stuff that you will never use.

The best way is to hang around experienced handloaders at you club and get to try their kit and see what suits you best and build up you kit as you go.

Don't ignore the second hand market either. That is very good way of getting started cheaply.

You can get into handloading with a good single station press with priming function, a good set of scales, dies+shellholder, case lube, debur tool, Lee case trimmers, a good manual not the Lee one and a couple of loading trays, much of which can be got second hand.

This will get your first 500 rounds or so with ease, as a beginner you won't be going fast anyway so tools for increased capacity won't really benefit you at this stage. Once you have loaded these first few hundred then you will have a better handle on what you may or may not need as your handloading develops and you won't have broken the bank or be surrounded by kit you don't need.

[FredB]

Even more interesting! I have never, in 40+ years of handloading attempted to use any of the priming systems supplied with a press! I normally just take them off and chuck them into a drawer. For large rifle primers, I uae a shell holder die that screws into one of my single stage presses and put the primers in one at a time. All other priming is carried out using Lee hand primers--I have three, one of them is 30+ years old and the plastic cover has gone from transparent to yellow over the years.
You have raised the question in my mind: why don't I use the priminf arm supplied with the press ? I don't know---must give it at try.
Fred

[phaedra1106]

Only problem I had with the on-press auto-prime is the last small primer is always a bugger to get out of the feeder!. The automated priming system on the LoadMaster progressive press is what I will politely refer to as "waste excrement" and has been removed from both of mine.

99% of my priming is done using the superb RCBS Universal Hand Priming Tool, one of the best bits of reloading kit I've bought

http://www.amazon.com/RCBS-Universal-Ha ... B000KKB86A

[TattooedGun]

Got a Lee Classic Turret Press here working well... my dad used it for loading .38spl fr years as an auto indexing press and I myself remember being a little one sitting in the living room loading with my dad...

I've been using it the last couple of years loading .308 and .223 - I just pulled out the indexing bar and use it as a single stage with a nice twist of the top for different stages, and it keeps all 3 dies for each calibre together in the (additional) turret discs...

I might not be able to shoot it at long range (lack of wind experience), but I get sub .5 MOA ammo out of it from the loads I've tested at 100yards, seems pretty consistent, I'm not sure what else you'd want from a press...?

[dromia]

FredB

For many years I hand primed all my cases with Lee priming tools and I still have a few of the old round tray ones now well worn and discoloured, my favourite Lee for feel is the old single loading one with the screw in shellholders.

When I seriously got into handloading in the 1980s the perceived wisdom was that priming should be done off the press with a hand primer so that you could get that all important "feel" of the primer bottoming in the pocket and I duly loaded 10s if not 100s of thousands of rounds this way.

However in the early 1990s my pistol shooting dictated that I get a progressive press to keep up with my pistols appetites for ammunition, obviously priming off the press wasn't an option with the progressive if you wanted to take advantage of the volume these machines could produce.

That was when I discovered that a good press mounted priming tool will do the job just as well as a hand tool despite there being less of this critical "feel" that we were told about.

That was very liberating and I got into a whole new world of priming, not only did I start using press tools both original to the press and such delights as the ram prime and single stage press prime feeds. I also got into bench mounting priming tools from various manufacturers and systems and had great fun with them too and guess what the loaded ammunition all functioned as well as the hand primed ones.

I have far more priming tools that I will ever need, along with far more presses, powder measures, scales and other handloading equipment than I will ever need, but I do enjoy using fine tools and ringing the changes with the equipment I use to make my ammunition. For me that is all part of the pleasure of handloading.

Coming back to turret presses then, I like to use turret presses as true turrets to increase the quantity of ammunition I can produce in a given time as opposed to what many people use them for as a die storage mechanism. They can do more than a single station and a lot less than a progressive so have a place on my bench. However to do this then a good on press priming function with primer feed is necessary if you want to get the most capacity out of them, remember increased volume doesn't come form increased speed but from a more efficient process which is what turrets and progressives do.

The Lee turrets including the new classic also have auto indexing which also helps increase volume on ammunition produced and that is one of the attractions of the classic, however without a reliable priming system then all the other benefits of the press are for nought when you are looking to use it for increased capacity.

Turrets certainly have their places and wouldn't be separated from my Redding T7 but like all things you need to know what you want from your handloading.

Personally I think every one should start with a good single stage press to learn on as it is just that bit simpler and you have less to contend with being simple and reliable the more moving parts the more there is to watch and the more there is to go wrong, also it will be of use to you for all your handloading life.

Once you have the experience of completing a few thousand successful rounds you will be in a far better place to decide if you need anything else.

Whatever you go with, if handloading is for you them you will end up with a second press of some shaptte and colour anyway so start with a single station is my advice if you think hanloading as an activity, as opposed to reloading just to produce one calibre/rifle/load ammunition, is something that you will enjoy for its own sake.