NFOA MEMBERS FORUM
Ammunition & Hand Loading => Cartridge and Shotshell reloading => Topic started by: Eagle1 on October 24, 2009, 12:16:35 AM
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I am looking at purchasing a Lee Classic turret press kit from Cabela's.
I am planning on reloading 300 win mag, 9mm and later .380, 7.62x54r, .223, .40 and .45.
Looking for pro's and con's. I will not be doing massive amounts at a time. Ease of operation, price and versatility are key point's for me. I like the interchangeable turret design. The scale is not much to speak of.
Below is part of the ad from Cabela's
The kit comes with a Classic Turret Press, large and small primer feeders, and a Lee Pro Auto-Disc Powder Measure with four measuring discs. You also get an Auto Disc Riser for convenient use of other brands of dies with extended adjusting screws, and a Lee Rifle Charging Die for small-capacity rifle cases. The Lee Safety Scale, the only scale that can never get out of adjustment, reads to the nearest 1/20 grain. Once set up, this kit has all you need to turn out a round with a couple of pulls of the handle except cartridge components and dies.
The long stroke permits work on rifle cases longer than 3" using the automatic index. Deactivate the auto index to work with even larger cases, including .50 BMG
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat602007-cat20728-cat20847&id=0044122216337a&navCount=1&podId=0044122&parentId=cat20847&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=XK&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat601233&hasJS=true
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I don't have the classic, but I do have the regular turret press which is slightly smaller. It works well for me. I reload 45-70, .223, 7.62x54R and .303 Brit on it. There is some slop in the turret system so the dies move up and down slightly while operating the press, but it doesn't seem to affect accuracy. One point I've heard is that the loose turret helps to self-center the dies, which actually helps accuracy. Not sure if that's true or not.
I have a separate turret for each caliber I reload, and it's very handy. You just swap out the turret when you're ready to change calibers. You only have to set up your dies once.
On mine I deactivated the auto index, since I prefer to do all of one operation (resize, seat bullet, etc) at once on all of my cases at the same time, rather than run a single case through each station.
I'm pretty happy with mine and I would probably buy it again. If I was a serious competitor I might consider buying something nicer, but for my purposes it works well.
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I have the Classic Turret press, was my first press. I load everything on it EXCEPT 9mm and .40
Since I shoot large amounts of 9 and 40 in competition, trying to load 500 to a 1000 rounds at a time on the Lee Turret drove me to go out and buy a Dillon 550 press for those two calibers.
For the money it is a good little press. I have had a couple issues, and the auto disk measure is sometimes finicky with some powders.... But I would highly recommend the Lee set up to get started
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Like Chris, I found that high volumes of 9mm, .45ACP and 12 gauge required a progressive press to reduce the time I spent reloading, BUT, I highly recommend the Classic Turret ( I have the cast iron base) for rifle handloads.
I use a Dillon Square Deal for pistol, and a Hornady 366 for 12 gauge shotshells