Looking for Recommendations for Turret Style Presses

Re3iever

Re3iever

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I have a Lee 4-hole Turret Press which I have had for a couple of years and for the most part it works well. But there are (2) issues that bother me , one is I cant use it to reload my 45-70 and 38-55 as there is not enough height the other is the I have never been able to get the primer feed setup to work consistently.

I am looking for an alternative turret style press that would solve those (2) issues in particular.

TIA
Retreever
 
I have a LEE Classic Turret press and use it for 45-70.
I prime all my case's off press with my LEE round tray priming tool. I don't use the auto index. I prime them all, charge them all, use a flashlight to check the charge, then seat the paper patched boolits.
The only case's I don't reload on it are 577 and 577-450, but I do prime on it with a LEE ram prime with the primer tray attached. Yes, it's an oldie but I love it!
 
I use a Lee 4 hole Classic turret for 45-70 as well. It works great for me. I used it for years to produce smaller batches of .223, .308 and a variety of straight walled cartridges. I have moved my bottleneck reloading to a Redding T7 but I keep the Lee turret around for all my straight walled reloading .357, .44, 45LC, 30-30 and 45-70. The thumb press primer feeder can be a bit finicky at times. DO NOT FORCE IT. EVER! A light touch with a bit of a thumb 'wiggle' to get it into position when priming works best. If you have gotten rammy with it, little pieces of plastic will probably have been broken off or it may be stretched out of shape. The entire feeder assembly will need replacing.
 
Second vote for the Redding T7. Built like a tank.

All the youtube videos I saw before I bought it makes it look clunky to use. In my experience it is very smooth to operate.

The primer feeder is money well spent. I bought two slider bars so I don't have to change the primer cup between small and large.
 
6MT said:
Ok, I don’t get that. Here’s a picture of my 4 hole Lee turret with a loaded 45-70 round in the shell holder. The bullet is a 300gr Campro. The COAL is 2.525”.

D120-E8-F1-B2-E1-4-F03-A87-B-FF973-EC31953.jpg


The die that reaches down the furthest from the turret is the F.L. die. From the top of that loaded round to the bottom of that die is more then 1.75”. Now, I don’t think the 400 or even 500 grain class of bullets is that long. Aren’t the 500gr class of bullets supposed to have an OAL of around 2.55”? …Lots of room under there for that. How is this press not large enough to load this round?

For comparison purposes, here’s a .338LM round under the same 45-70 die set on that turret. That .338LM round has an OAL length of 3.682”. There’s still room under that die set.

5-B12-FE69-2-D19-44-CD-9-B5-B-0-E4244-EFF9-DB.jpg


Like I said, I don’t get it. I have no issues with loading the 45-70 on this press, as have the others posting above. I will say that yes, the primer system does suck. I don’t use it. And, I also manually index the turret. I load .38spl, .357mag, .44spl, .44mag, .45LC, and the 45-70 on this press. I love it!

Andy 6MT
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The press in your picture is a Lee Classic Cast turret press. The original poster has a 4 hole turret press, it's a different model . I'm not sure if Lee still makes it. I think it is similar to their new "value turret press".

Jim
 
If you want a really good solid turret press then the Redding T7 is a great choice. Love mine.

Redding T7-3.jpg
 

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6MT said:
Ok. But the press in my picture is a 4 hole Lee turret. Different, huh?
Click to expand...

Thanks to everyone that has provided feedback so far , attached is a picture of my Lee press, you can see the base is substantially taller then the unit 6MT posted pics. Maybe I just need to get the model he has, looks like that would at least solve the clearance issue for my rifle cartridges.

Keep'em coming.

Retreever

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I began reloading in the 70s, first with a LEE Loader and then with an RCBS RockChucker. It is one of the better low cost presses, but the alignment issues and such were incentive to upgrade. To summarize I replaced the RC, and added a turret press, a Redding T25 and purchased an extra turret. Although a good press, I wanted to try something different and bought a Lyman T-Mag II and a half dozen turrets. Both of those turrets worked well, and proved the concept, but production rate was an issue.

If you load several calibers you'll want additional turrets for your press. The Redding T7 and Lyman Brass Smith All American 8 have pretty spendy turrets. Turrets for my T-Mag II were about $80 each.

Another lesson, buying used presses has its drawbacks. A few of my used presses had hidden flaws and took a fair bit of time and $ to repair. The expression "Penny wise and pound foolish" comes to mind.

This gets me to the point I want to make. The Dillon 550C is a manually indexed progressive, and IMHO will do everything a good turret will do, and more. There are kits available to convert it into a single stage, and it will handle some pretty large cartridges. The one big advantage is that it has a pretty decent on press priming system. The only annoying part is converting from small to large primers. Another downside is removing primers from the tube. I load just enough primers to do the batch, if under 100.

Some of the reloaders I know have bought two 550s, with one set up for small primers and the other for large. This is a good idea, and I ended up going that route myself.

Dillon shell heads are about the same price as an additional LEE turret. The Dillon powder measure is one of the better measures. The Dillon 550 is fairly versatile, for small batches I just run it like a turret, and if I want production I run it with the shell plate full, one finished cartridge with every stroke of the handle.

I still kept my T-MagII, but I use it very seldom now. It is getting a bit long in the tooth, the ram wobbles some, but alignment is still good. I've looked at the Redding T7 and the new Lyman.

Bottom line, you have to ask yourself what kind of a reloader are you and what press best fits your reloading style and needs.

LEE is the low cost provider, they have a good engineering department but the designs are compromised to align with LEE being the lowest cost provider. IMO their presses are not good enough for the discerning reloader. They will load ammo, and I have a Classic Cast single stage that I use, but the first opportunity to buy a Redding Boss II and it will be off my bench. I'm man enough to admit to my mistakes, purchasing that LEE was a mistake.

Got to love that area419, what's not to like about it.

I'm a bit of a reloading press whore, I have 7 mounted on my benches and another bunch stored for future use or ???

Nitro
 
I wouldn't bother with Redding Big Boss, I would go directly to a Forster Co-Ax. They are slick. The Ultimate Reloader video channel did a test of 14 presses.It's worth watching. If I remember right, the Lee Classic Cast was mid pack. Not bad.

Depriming is weakness of most presses, that primer crud is very abrasive . The last thing you want around your precision ram. My buddy bought a cheap Lee C-frame press and deprimes on that . That is one way. Another solution is to have the primers drop through the Ram, Lee sort of does that . It needs to blank off the on the press priming slot. The Co-Ax has a straight down tube and twin rods well away from the crud. I'll not impressed with either the Redding T-7 or the copy Lyman 8 method of depriming or collection of the spent primers

I bought a well used early Lyman T-Mag. Don't go there, to me,it's a project with modifications .
 
Workin Man said:
The press in your picture is a Lee Classic Cast turret press. The original poster has a 4 hole turret press, it's a different model . I'm not sure if Lee still makes it. I think it is similar to their new "value turret press".

Jim
Click to expand...

I have a few of those original turret presses. 45-70 still fits. As does 338 Lapua and 416 Rigby. I'm not sure what the issue is. - dan
 
Re3iever said:
Thanks to everyone that has provided feedback so far , attached is a picture of my Lee press, you can see the base is substantially taller then the unit 6MT posted pics. Maybe I just need to get the model he has, looks like that would at least solve the clearance issue for my rifle cartridges.

Keep'em coming.

Retreever

View attachment 576348
Click to expand...

Take the auto rotation mechanism off. lets the shell holder drop down further and gives you more room. - dan
 
6MT said:
Ok. But the press in my picture is a 4 hole Lee turret. Different, huh?
Click to expand...
"
The turrets are the same, but as I said your model is called a Classic cast turret (I have the same one). The one the OP has, the model is called "4 hole turret". I see he has posted a picture now, so you can see the difference.

Jim
 
Workin Man said:
"
The turrets are the same, but as I said your model is called a Classic cast turret (I have the same one). The one the OP has, the model is called "4 hole turret". I see he has posted a picture now, so you can see the difference.

Jim
Click to expand...

There uhh, is no classic cast turret press. There is the classic turret, which is what you and everyone else here seems to have. The classic cast is the single stage.
 
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