Lyman All American 4 Turret Press

[DaMikey]

Hello,

I just picked up a used Lyman All American 4 Turret Press. It’s red in colour and one turret hole is larger than others for a shotgun setup I’m told but it does come with a bushing so it can accept standard dies. I’m fairly green when it comes to reloading, but I’ve read a ton and have several reloading manuals I’ve been reading through quite a bit.

Does anyone have any reloading experience on one of these? Anyone still using one currently? I’m looking to see how others are running their setup on this press. I’m thinking of setting up as follows, but open to any suggestions. Also, any suggestions on a good hand primer or even bench primer?

- Stage 1. size, deprime and prime (using a hand primer as I don’t have the Lyman push button primer feed system on this - didn’t come with it and I heard it’s “ok” but not great anyhow)
- Stage 2. bell mouth and dump powder
- Stage 3. seat bullet
- Stage 4. crimp

This press takes the older “J” type shell holders so I’ll need to start locating some of these in the more common numbers for my reloading - Lyman #2, #3, #6, and #7 for now. If anyone has any lying around to offer up, that would be greatly appreciated. Pics to come.

Cheers,

 

[bertn]

Congrats on the new to you press.

Forget finding (expensive and obsolete) J shell holders but buy a J to X adapter.

Shotshell loading on this press is not something you want to do, buy a cheap mec press if you plan on reloading shot shells.

 

[DaMikey]

That’s the info I’m looking for, thanks. I read Lyman makes a J to X adapter but wasn’t sure if it was the way to go. Good to know. As for shotgun, no plans to reload on this press at all. I’m looking to reload 7MM-08, .308, .280, 35 Rem and 44 Mag on this.

 

[Bigbubba]

You can buy the original style shell holders on ebay - I bought some earlier this year from a good seller, came in about a week.

Google search for them.....

The odd size spot can also be used to mount a Lyman #55 powder measure if you can find one.

The odd size hole has the bushing in it...and the bushings for the #55 will screw into it

 

[DaMikey]

Thanks BigBubba for the information and the pictures as well. My press looks the exact same as yours - larger turret hole with adapter and plain wooden handle. I’ve torn my press down and am in the process of degreasing and will repaint it as well while it’s all apart. Yours looks to be I great condition

 

[nitro-express]

Thanks for posting. A few weeks back I saw an Al American 4 hole Turret press, not in bad shape. The price tag was silly, but I'm a sucker for the old presses, so I laid down the cash and took it home. It cleaned up OK, and I have an order in for some dies and such to set it up for loading 44-40. I converted to X type shell holders, and with a few shims was able to set up the priming punches.
i have it to the point of being able to reload, I'll do a short write-up.

When I have it to the point of being able to reload, I'll do a short write-up. For a powder measure I went with a RCBS Dandy.

TTFN

 

[nitro-express]

I did say that I'd do a bit of an update when I had the press working and able to load ammo.

I'm happy to say it is now working well. I mounted on my bench, and placed it a bit over 2" back from the edge. In the manual it sort of suggests that, saying that the handle should stop on the edge of the bench just after the linkage goes over center, cam over.



The Dandy works well, as does the Gun Guides Perfect adapter. I went with a #21 rotor. It is listed at 5.8 gr of Trail Boss, mine drops 5.6 gr, which is close enough for my cowboy loads.

I used the "J to X" adapter, and by drilling out a shellholder (carbide bit) to fit the original design priming punch, and making a spacer, I was able to use the priming feature. I pick up a primer from the tray, place it in the cup, inset a case and push the handle forward to seat a primer. /the feel is not much different than on a Dillon 550. It works well, a bit slow, but very consistent.

When I tried to adjust the rear support stop I was rewarded with an ugly scraping sound. I removed the stop and smoothed the surface, polished it and was able to set it at about .003" clearance. That is close enough that on sizing the clearance goes to zero, IOW, fully supported. My sizing die is a Hornady, and it worked well, but I had the feeling it was not sizing the neck down far enough. The common hint is to grind a bit off the bottom so as to seat the die down a bit more before it hits the shellholder. IMHO, with most dies that isn't required, or necessary. In the end that die was adjusted deeper by app .010". Of all the dies I tried it sized the PRE portion the smallest and best for my various chambers. We're only talking about a thou or two here. The tolerance between cartridge max and chamber min isn't very much.

As already stated the LEE powder through die, with a modified funnel/expander and a Dandy with a 21 rotor worked nicely. The expander, to work a bit better needed to be longer so it would expand the full length of the neck. I get the impression that this lessens the tendency to produce a wasp waist look, and helps create a bit more neck tension on the bullet.



Turning the new funnel/expander was a bit of a challenge for my skill level, but it works very nicely. I also made it with a bit of an "M" design.

For seating the bullets a older style LEE seating/crimp die was employed, with an updated flat plug ( SB5969 ) from LEE and the micrometer upgrade ( LEE pn 92162 ). LEE makes a new die as well, but to seat a flat nose bullet it needs to be updated with a flat stem, ( LEE pn MB5594 ).

For crimping, the more reliable crimping die is the LEE Factory Crimp Die, which I polished as per instructions from LEE Support. I adjusted the die to crimp just enough, IOW a bit short of a full crimp. In operation I crimp, lower the cartridge and rotate it 1/8 of a turn and crimp again. this makes a smooth crimp all the way around. For bullet 427666 (Lyman Cowboy) I prefer the Redding seater/crimp die with the seating stem removed.

NE