Lee Turret selection and setup help

8860 Views 88 Replies 22 Participants Last post by olgutshotwilly, Sep 14, 2012

yoemen66

Discussion Starter · Sep 4, 2012

So I have decided to get a lee turret. What do I need to get with it. Which lee turret should I get? I figure a 4 hole turret. Set of dies. But what extra stuff should I get? Case feeder? Which powder measure, which primer system, etc. Just want to know what stuff is worth getting and what is superfluous.

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RustyFN

· #6 · Sep 5, 2012

Look at the classic turret at www.kempfgunshop.com. It comes with one set of dies and no scale of you can buy a good scale to start with and not have to fool with the Lee scale. Make sure to get the pro auto disk and both safety primes Sm & Lg.

What about the perfect powder measure?

I don't think you can make it case activated for pistol. I have a perfect powder measure on my CT for rifle and I just cycle it by hand.

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RustyFN

· #33 · Sep 5, 2012

deadarrow said:
I'm a classic turret user. Forget about priming on the press. It sucks.... spend your money on a RCBS hand primer instead.

You must not have spent very long trying to make it right. After a few tweaks on mine it has worked near flawless for six years. A hand primer also defeats the purpose of how the classic turret operates. By the time you size 100 taking them in and out and hand prime them I will have 100 loaded and ready to shoot.

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RustyFN

· #34 · Sep 5, 2012

yoemen66 said:
Btw is there a good powder for colt and acp

I don't shoot colt. For 45 acp my favorite powder so far is WST. It meters great in the pro auto disk, burns clean and is accurate.

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RustyFN

· #42 · Sep 7, 2012

+ whatever on the Lee scale. Threw it away and got a cast iron Pacific triple beam scale off fleabay - what a Difference that makes.

I found my Lee scale to be very accurate but not fun to use. I bought a decent digital scale a week after I started and just bought an RCBS 5-0-2 beam scale. I can't believe how much easier the 5-0-2 is to use over the Lee.

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RustyFN

· #45 · Sep 8, 2012

WhyteP38 said:
I want to add one more thought to what I posted earlier. I find that the lube on one rifle case will leave enough reside on the die for me to resize/decap two unlubed rifle cases. So when I prep 100 rifle cases, I spray a pure lanolin/rubbing alcohol mix on 35 cases and leave the rest dry. That saves lube, and when I'm done, the "dry" cases have only a very thin layer of lube on them, which is easier to clean off.

Cleaning lube off is not hard. I just tumble them for 10 to 15 minutes after they are loaded.

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RustyFN

· #53 · Sep 10, 2012

Meh ... not really. The Classic isn't designed solely to avoid hand priming or to simply crank out ammo as fast as possible.

I agree 100%. I just think advising somebody to buy the hand primer without even trying the safety prime for the classic turret isn't the best advice. Not very many people have problems with the safety prime and most people buy the classic turret to speed up pistol loading. The safety prime works near flawless if set up right.

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RustyFN

· #60 · Sep 11, 2012

I have now tried the Lee Safety Prime and I do prefer to use the Lee hand primer. Maybe its just me, but when a primer wouldn't feed into the "cup" on the press, It would end up dropping on the floor. I think I spent more time on the floor searching for dropped primers than it took me to hand-prime 50 rounds.

Out of 100 primers, one will usually pop out of the primer cup when releasing the LPS trigger, typically in the last 5 or so primers. Large primers seem to work better with small primers being more of an issue.

If you add a washer under the bracket it will raise the safety prime and eliminate that problem. On a rare occasion some people will have to add two washers.

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RustyFN

· #67 · Sep 12, 2012 (Edited)

WhyteP38 said:
Okay, but ... I never did that. However, you did write "A hand primer also defeats the purpose of how the classic turret operates," which clearly isn't correct, especially when you agreed with me "100%" that the Classic isn't designed solely to avoid hand priming or to simply crank out ammo as fast as possible. So it would seem that advising somebody that hand priming "defeats the purpose" of how the Classic turret operates isn't the best advice.

A priming system may work flawlessly, but that doesn't necessarily make it the best for every person. If you have as good or better of a feel for priming using the safety prime system, stick with it because you're doing what works best for you. However, I think it's important for the OP to know that hand priming is a perfectly valid choice if it works best for him. I would encourage him to first use the safety prime system to see how it works for him, and to modify it as has been described if he has issues. After all, since it's already part of the device, he's already paid for it. But I wouldn't discourage him from going to hand priming if he feels that will work better.

Yes and when I said the hand primer defeats the purpose I replied to this quote.

I'm a classic turret user. Forget about priming on the press. It sucks.... spend your money on a RCBS hand primer instead.

That's persons experience is far from the norm. Even you agree he should try the safety prime first and that's the same thing I said.

Originally Posted by RustyFN
I just think advising somebody to buy the hand primer without even trying the safety prime for the classic turret isn't the best advice.

So you agree with me but I'm giving bad advice?????

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RustyFN

· #69 · Sep 12, 2012

johnhunter44 said:
I wish you could post a picture of this. I only got a black plastic clamp that bolts under the front-right support bolt of the press and the primer slips into this clamp. Should I put a washer under this black plastic clamp? Thanks...

I don't remember seeing a black washer either. I put a metal washer under mine and it works fine.

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RustyFN

· #76 · Sep 12, 2012

I went back and added a washer (roughly 1/32" to 1/16" thick) between the black spacer and plastic primer bracket. I did not have one primer pop out of the spring loaded priming cup for 201 rounds.

I'm glad that fixed it for you. Every problem I have seen with a classic turret seems to have an easy fix.

It is a black spacer. Probably a 1/4" thick our so. They also came with a silver washer that sits on top of the plastic. It's odd shaped. Fits the contours of plastic bracket. The first one I bought had this back in Feb of 06 when they first came out. The second one I got a couple of years back. Both from kempf. The first press I sold to a forum member.

Interesting. Were either of those PAD's older, say around six years. I don't remember seeing the black spacer but I am going to tear my bench apart to see if it's hidden someplace. Also I did put the odd shaped washer on top.

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RustyFN

· #84 · Sep 13, 2012

yoemen66 said:
well I got the classic set today and some bullets and some tite group powder. The friendswood bullets are already lubed which I didn't realize.

Got the deluxe die set and the powder micrometer which most sources reccommended.

Now I just need to mount that bad boy on my bench and can start trying out some dummy loads.

I didn't get the caliper or a tumbler for the brass yet as I felt I had spent enough money already so we shall see how it goes. I will probably look into getting them next month.

Just need to go by the hardware store tomorrow to get some bolts and nuts and washers long enough to go through my bench.

Congrats on the new press. If you have any setup questions don't be afraid to ask.

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