I briefly owned a Dillon Square Deal a dozen years ago, but have spent the vast majority of my 40-some years of reloading using a single stage RCBS press.
Thinking about trying the Lee Classic Turret press to reload handgun ammo. I'm not looking for great speed, but certainly more efficiency than can be had using a single-stage or standard turret press.
Those who are using or have used the Lee auto-indexing turret presses, what did you think of them?

I used one several years ago. I thought it worked great.

I have 3 lee 1000s I loaded tens of thousands of rounds on them.

They use them to load pistol practice ammo work great as long as one doesn't try to load to fast 200 to 300 rounds an hour

A buddy of mine has the Classic Turret

He claims as long as you don't hot rod it you will have no problems.

That being said, if you do hot rod it there is a square plastic bushing on the square center shaft that will fail but Lee replaced his bushing for free

Ted, no worries about hot-rodding here. I can hardly walk and chew gum at the same time.

Iused to be a "green snob" all my reloading equipment had to be RCBS. Several years ago I received a LEE Turret Press for a birthday gift, I was pleasantly surprised by how well this press did. It is a good value for the money, the nylon bushing on mine did fine once or twice it got out of time and there is a little trick to installing it which can be found on LEE's website I believe.

I've been using a three hole, Lee Turret since 1981. It was the first press that I ever bought to load 45 ACP, 44 Mag, etc.

I still use it for loading hunting ammo for my 270 Win, 458 WM, 300 WSM, etc.

I started out with a regular turret press without the auto index. I still use it for pistol stuff. I do each stage decap and deprime, hand prime, flair, charge with charge master and seat bullets. I always figured that there was more of a chance for something to go wrong when you are doing more than 1 thing at a time.
I seat the bullet as the charge master is refilling and the timing is about perfect.

Other than size I don't think the Dillon SDB offers any advantage over the Lee.

And several disadvantages of its unique die size and excess height. I have a SDB.

I've been using a Lee 4 hole turret years before they came out with the Lee Classic Turret press. In my opinion they're the best press made for someone that shoots a lot of different calibers of ammo. You can change from one caliber to another in just seconds without using any tools. Just lift out the turret and set in another turret with the dies already adjusted from the last time you used them. Extra turrets only cost $12. I also bought extra auto disk powder measures and leave them mounted too so that I never have to do any adjusting for powder drops either.

I don't know what people are talking about not "hot rodding" the classic turret. You can load on it as fast as you want to go you're not going to hurt that thing it's built like a tank.

As far as that nylon bushing someone spoke of I never wore out the one in my old 4 hole turret after all those years. There's people around I guess that can tear up a steel ball with a rubber mallet that might have a problem. If you were to tear one up you can go to Leeprecision.com and order then for free and they only charge a couple of bucks for shipping. I purchased a couple extra thinking I might need them someday but I never had the need for them but I've still got'em if I ever need'em.

Bill- I've got the classic turret. Actually, it is the only press I own. I started out with .40 S&W. I have individual turrets set up for .357 Mag, .40 S&W, 30-06, .270Win, 7.65 x 53 Arg, 32-20, and a couple of wildcats.

I removed the auto-index and the auto prime, since I'm setting it up for each caliber multiple times. I find it's actually quicker to rotate the turret by hand on pistol cartridges; I can just lower the ram enough for the case to clear the turret instead of going with a full-length stroke. I use the Autodisc powder measure for Pistol.

BIll:
PM Sent

George

I use nothing but a Lee Classic turret press anymore except for specialty procedures. I can't imagine using anything else anymore.

Bill, I started out loading straightwalls with a three holer and it did a quite adequate job of it. But I got a little arrogant about my loading and a Dillon 550b dropped into my lap. Then one day cruisin ebay I threw a bid on a Redding T7 and it stuck. So in my humble opine I will never need anything else. I have never heard anything bad about the classic Lees though.

Lane, what do you think of the Lee powder measure? I've been warned that some of them leak pretty badly.
Mark, the T7 is the cadillac of conventional turret presses.

They leak but wow!!!

You will be surprised how good and accurate they work

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:
They leak but wow!!!

You will be surprised how good and accurate they work

Yep

I have to admit that a lot of time if I am loading something like .500 NE...I don't use it in self automated fashion. I disable the auto advancer and use it as a more efficient single-stage...using my RCBS Chargemaster to weigh out the powder.

But for pistol and AR rounds it is fast in the automated mode.

I have lots of extra turrets and basically store my dies in them...set and ready to go.

Lane, I am mostly loading for hunting rifles right now and have to confess I am still hand weighing each charge on my old RCBS 10-10 balance beam scale. I know, total Luddite.

Bill, if you want to get into powder measures this is what I've found. The Lee Perfect Powder Measure is one of the cheapest on the market. It sux with bal powder. As said it leaks, bad. But...in my own little reloadng world I've found it to be excellant with extruded. Very consistent. Very!!! And it doesn't crunch the powder like my old Lyman 55. So that's what I use it for. The 55 which crunches the extruded so bad is only used for ball powder. No leaks and does great. I have them mounted on each end of a short piece of 2X6. I have a woodworking vise on the end of my bench and just flip it around to whichever one I need for the powder I'm using. Just the way I do it.

Mark, I have an old Lyman 55 gathering dust. I had forgotten about it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SXwYwAEHc4I

Watch this video Bill. When I load pistol...this is how I do it. When I load precision rifle...I just take the auto-activation-mechanism off and use as a manual turret press. Either way...superior to single-stage. I buy extra turrets and for regular use cartridges...just store dies in them.

Thanks Lane. I ordered the whole shebang and should be loading some 10mm by the middle of next week.

Cool Bill. I have been having an itch for the 10 lately. Relay some of your experiences.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Thanks Lane. I ordered the whole shebang and should be loading some 10mm by the middle of next week.

I anxiously await you review Bill.

Bill.

I have never used a Lee Turret, but I bought a Lyman T-Mag and LOVE it! Very solid turret press and a good value. Also, for the longest time I had a Lee PM set up on the press with a press adapter I got on Flea-Bay. The Lee PM is fantastic for stick powder. BUT, recently I discovered that I also LOVE the Lyman 55 for pistol loading. I never liked it much with large quantities of stick powder, but for small quantities of pistol powder it is excellent. If you get a press adapter for your 55 and use it with a turret for pistol loading I think you will like it.

Oh, never mind. I just watched Lane's link. That is a different system. I like it!