Lee 4 hole turret vs Pro 1000 vs Load Master
- Thread starter chise
- Start date
Do you guys know if the safety primer feeder from the 50th anniversary Lee kit (With the breech lock challenger press) will attach to the turret press? They look the same but I can't see on the youtube videos how the apparatus is set up.
- Location
- Halifax - NS
Having started on a Turret, moved to a pro 1000 and later to a Loadmaster,
(and then someone smacked me in the head and told me to get a Dillon)
My vote is if you have to get a Lee, get the turret - but it would be better to look another direction; you get what you pay for.
I too am a "Snob" - Lee progressives are crap - I've loaded about 100K on them - I know from experience.
You'll spend as much time screwing with it as you will getting ammo out of a turret.
(The thing is - until you use another brand, you don't know how BAD they are)
The Turret used to have 3 positions. Now it has 4. Why? Because right around when Lee released the Loadmaster - they finally admitted (with the release of the "factory taper crip die") that you cannot do a proper taper crimp and bullet seat with the same die. You'll get away with revolver rounds with roll crimps with the seat/crimp combo - but your auto rounds will catch up to you.
I still use my turret for 454 Casul and 44 mag loading.
I had the bullet feeder on my loadmaster - it's a rip off - no collator + the little silly fingers that hold the bullets get chewed up so fast, you only throw away money.
As a final statement, last year - my buddy left his pro 1000 in the gun club for two weeks on purpose - hoping to get rid of it.
No one would even steal it.
(and then someone smacked me in the head and told me to get a Dillon)
My vote is if you have to get a Lee, get the turret - but it would be better to look another direction; you get what you pay for.
I too am a "Snob" - Lee progressives are crap - I've loaded about 100K on them - I know from experience.
You'll spend as much time screwing with it as you will getting ammo out of a turret.
(The thing is - until you use another brand, you don't know how BAD they are)
The Turret used to have 3 positions. Now it has 4. Why? Because right around when Lee released the Loadmaster - they finally admitted (with the release of the "factory taper crip die") that you cannot do a proper taper crimp and bullet seat with the same die. You'll get away with revolver rounds with roll crimps with the seat/crimp combo - but your auto rounds will catch up to you.
I still use my turret for 454 Casul and 44 mag loading.
I had the bullet feeder on my loadmaster - it's a rip off - no collator + the little silly fingers that hold the bullets get chewed up so fast, you only throw away money.
As a final statement, last year - my buddy left his pro 1000 in the gun club for two weeks on purpose - hoping to get rid of it.
No one would even steal it.
funny how my experience is 180 degrees differnt from yours- but maybe it's because all my lees are factory set-up. sure i've had fun with the primers, just like everyone else, but it's the 550 b that gets the least use- i DO NOT like the manual indexing PERIOD- as far as the pistol ammo goes, those 1000 just keep humming along- but i agree with you about the bullet feeder- it eats fingers too fast and i took mine off as well- i do 9mm, 45, 223, all on lee 1000 , 44 mag on the loadmaster, ( seperate presses for each) 308 on the dillon , and 338 on the turret without the auto index- have since about 92 or so- only got the loadmaster a couple of years back b/c i got into revolvers
The problem with the Dillions is that unless you are shooting more than a couple hundred pistol bullets a week, it's not really worth the difference. I could not afford to feed a Dillion the amount of bullets to justify the difference in cost, your looking at around $1,000-1300 more for a Dillion that does what a Loadmaster will do. That's about 10,000 loaded cast lead bullets, maybe more. The Lee turrets are super excellent value and will pay for themselves in no time flat. The Dillions are great machines, if you are planning to shoot lots of pistol, by all means invest in one. Otherwise do a cost benefits study about your usage and budget. I would love a Dillion with all the bells and whistle, but i could not justify it to myself or the wife.
tex critter- sorry to hijack thread but i also have a 3 hole lee turret press and have never gotten the d@mn thing to auto index properly. i've changed the plastic hex nut on the bottom about 4 times over the past 4 years and followed the directions on the lee website to auto index it with no luck to date. i end up using it as a single stage rotating press to load my ammo for the year, put it away, and then try to fiddle with it when i pick it up again. i'm loading 45 and 38s&w on it.
does your press auto index, does it auto index well, and is there a trick to getting the press to work??
thanks!!
I'm getting the taper crimp die for the 4th hole on my Turret press for 9mm, and a FCD die for the .38special rounds. On my single stage press I found that using the bullet seat die to taper crimp after seating functions well in all my 9mm pistols, except my m213 Tokarev. Taper crimping .38special makes it hard for the cases to eject on my model 60 S&W, and I have to push the ejector rod down on a table to get them to come out. I hope the FCD will take care of this.
Thanks for all the advice on the presses. I shoot about 200x 9mm, 100x .40S&W, 150x .38special, and 50x .303British per month. I find it takes me 45 minutes to make 50x pistol cartridges and double that for rifle, so like 7 hours per month making ammo on my Breech Lock challenger. That's just too much time. If I can do 250 pistol per hour I should be able to cut it all down to 3 hours per month which is perfect.
Thanks for all the advice on the presses. I shoot about 200x 9mm, 100x .40S&W, 150x .38special, and 50x .303British per month. I find it takes me 45 minutes to make 50x pistol cartridges and double that for rifle, so like 7 hours per month making ammo on my Breech Lock challenger. That's just too much time. If I can do 250 pistol per hour I should be able to cut it all down to 3 hours per month which is perfect.
mine used to go through ratchets like water- and one misfeed and the rachet is gone- replaced the shaft, the nut and everything else, and it still did - so i replaced it with a 1000 in the appropriate caliber, and have yet to replace a ratchet
