I am in love w/ my Lee Classic Turret!
- Thread starter BombthePeasants
- Start date
Da, Crusty, I was wondering why you used the 3 ball, then it hit me, it's red (LOL). How dumb of me, I would have used the 8 ball, but I have always been behind the 8 ball anyways. (LOL)
Excelent idea.
Jim
You should market those to us that live in townhouses and don't have drill presses. I'd buy one.
Excelent idea.
Jim
You should market those to us that live in townhouses and don't have drill presses. I'd buy one.
Mike Irwin
Staff
There is someone who makes those. It was discussed here in a thread a couple of months ago. I think he charges like $10 + shipping?
Not sure.
As for the Ultimate Reloader roller handle?
$56 will buy a LOT of batting gloves.
Not sure.
As for the Ultimate Reloader roller handle?
$56 will buy a LOT of batting gloves.
The LCT gets pretty good revues. I really enjoy mine. The only dislikes I've read is the plastic piece that strips out (I bought several extras but haven't needed them in a year) and someone complained about the play in the head and used washers to lock it down. So much for a auto advancing turret.
As for the ball, I replaced mine with a chrome skull shift knob. I'm a little twisted
As for the ball, I replaced mine with a chrome skull shift knob. I'm a little twisted
I was going to order one of the balls from Adam when I ran across one at Uncle Lees. I drilled it my self with a 5/8 drill bit and stick it on there. The ones he makes are threaded and there was no need to thread it for a Lee press as it glues on.
Mine works fine. and "CrustyFN" also has one in his photo.
Mine works fine. and "CrustyFN" also has one in his photo.
Lost Sheep
New member
rdmallory said:
Oops, my mistake. I meant to type that they "did not know the Pro Auto-Disk did work with the Classic Turret", or "thought the Pro Auto-Disk did not work with the Classic Turret". I could not decide which phrasing to use, and so wound up with a little of both and reversed the meaning.
But I knew it would work.
To their credit, they did ship me a Pro Auto-Disk and the upgrade kit for the one and did not charge shipping.
Lost Sheep
Doodlebugger45
New member
I have been busy experimenting with my Classic Turret as well since I got it. The biggest problem I have found is that I used up all my brass too fast! It's been unusually cold here this winter so I had a hard time shooting all the loads I made. But I finally got some more .44 mag and .45 Colt brass in and managed to shoot some of the new loads, so now I'm good to go.
I did have a few of the .45 Colt loads that I left the primers sitting too high. The priming system works well, but I didn't have the "feel" down at first and didn't put enough pressure on the handle when seating them. Just a thousandth or so too high and it will lock up the cylinder on my .45 Colt. I might have had a few that way on the initial .44 mag loads too for all I know, but that revolver isn't as sensitive perhaps. Anyway, no similar problems since then.
I did try it on some rifle cartridges as well. I loaded some .243, 7 mm mag, and .325 WSM just to see if the resulting rounds measured up in terms of consistency. They seem to be equal to those loaded on my single stage press. However, unlike the revolver rounds, there was no real time savings for the rifle loads. But the time is not a big deal to me for rifles. It's rare that I load up more than 25-30 rifle cartridges in one sitting anyway. But I wanted to find out if it would work, since my reloading bench is not really set up to have both presses mounted at the same time. I might change that, but for now, it's nice to know that the turret will work for the rifles just fine.
I did have a few of the .45 Colt loads that I left the primers sitting too high. The priming system works well, but I didn't have the "feel" down at first and didn't put enough pressure on the handle when seating them. Just a thousandth or so too high and it will lock up the cylinder on my .45 Colt. I might have had a few that way on the initial .44 mag loads too for all I know, but that revolver isn't as sensitive perhaps. Anyway, no similar problems since then.
I did try it on some rifle cartridges as well. I loaded some .243, 7 mm mag, and .325 WSM just to see if the resulting rounds measured up in terms of consistency. They seem to be equal to those loaded on my single stage press. However, unlike the revolver rounds, there was no real time savings for the rifle loads. But the time is not a big deal to me for rifles. It's rare that I load up more than 25-30 rifle cartridges in one sitting anyway. But I wanted to find out if it would work, since my reloading bench is not really set up to have both presses mounted at the same time. I might change that, but for now, it's nice to know that the turret will work for the rifles just fine.
I would almost have accused Crusty of sneaking into my reloading room for that pic had it not been for the #3 ball and the lack of the Forster co-ax to the left of the Classic Turret. I think no one has mentioned one of the great things about the Lee turret design: While center pinned (umbrella) turret presses of all brands and quality flex away from the axis during use, therefor yielding ammunition which has been formed off axis to some unknown degree, the Lee does not.
While serious target competitors will not be buying ANY turret presses, those folks using the Lee design have a better chance of building more concentric ammo than those using umbrella turrets, and if you believe Corbin and Forster and those who know how C and O presses are formed, maybe even more concentric than those presses.............
While serious target competitors will not be buying ANY turret presses, those folks using the Lee design have a better chance of building more concentric ammo than those using umbrella turrets, and if you believe Corbin and Forster and those who know how C and O presses are formed, maybe even more concentric than those presses.............
BombthePeasants
New member
Floydster, I love the look of your plates. However, I am not a handyman by any stretch of the imagination, and I needed something more weatherproof. In the future, I hope to move my operations indoors, and then I might make/have something more like your setup.
To Doodlebugger45, I am brainstorming how I might load my Garand rounds on the press. As of now, I have a system set up like so:
I use my old single-stage as a dedicated decapping station, w/ a Lee Universal Decapping Die. All cases picked up at the range go through this FIRST, then I tumble it all. With the rifle cases, I then use the single stager again to resize, and then trim them. For the turret, I'm thinking of trading for a second set of Lee .30-06 dies, so in the turret I'd have alternating bullet seater-FCD-bullet seater-FCD dies. So only the last half of the process would occur on the LCT press, but it would still be a little bit faster, no?
EDIT: Wait, I'm forgetting charging cases...I guess I'd do that step off-press still...
To Doodlebugger45, I am brainstorming how I might load my Garand rounds on the press. As of now, I have a system set up like so:
I use my old single-stage as a dedicated decapping station, w/ a Lee Universal Decapping Die. All cases picked up at the range go through this FIRST, then I tumble it all. With the rifle cases, I then use the single stager again to resize, and then trim them. For the turret, I'm thinking of trading for a second set of Lee .30-06 dies, so in the turret I'd have alternating bullet seater-FCD-bullet seater-FCD dies. So only the last half of the process would occur on the LCT press, but it would still be a little bit faster, no?
EDIT: Wait, I'm forgetting charging cases...I guess I'd do that step off-press still...
Doodlebugger45
New member
Yep, it's that dang trimming step that kinda disrupts the flow for rifles. That and the powder charging, assuming you want to weigh the charges.
For me (and I'll admit to being lazy when it comes to some things), here's how I have been doing it so far on the turret.
I tumble the old brass with the old primers still in them rather than decapping separately.
I take the tumbled case into the turret and deprime, resize, and re-prime in one step on the turret.
Then I take the primed case and trim them (yeah, I know some folks don't like that but it works on my trimmer).
Charge each case with powder and set them in loading block.
Seat them on the turret. I don't FCD for rifles, but it would be easy enough to do so with the turret. Actually, that right there would indeed save handling the cases one less time.
No big deal though. I have to be in a fussy mood before I load rifle rounds anyway. I weigh, measure, peer at, ponder, and fuss over a case needlessly when doing rifles. It might be different if I was doing 200 instead of 20 at a time.
For me (and I'll admit to being lazy when it comes to some things), here's how I have been doing it so far on the turret.
I tumble the old brass with the old primers still in them rather than decapping separately.
I take the tumbled case into the turret and deprime, resize, and re-prime in one step on the turret.
Then I take the primed case and trim them (yeah, I know some folks don't like that but it works on my trimmer).
Charge each case with powder and set them in loading block.
Seat them on the turret. I don't FCD for rifles, but it would be easy enough to do so with the turret. Actually, that right there would indeed save handling the cases one less time.
No big deal though. I have to be in a fussy mood before I load rifle rounds anyway. I weigh, measure, peer at, ponder, and fuss over a case needlessly when doing rifles. It might be different if I was doing 200 instead of 20 at a time.
