Lee Turret Press ???

How old is your press?

I use a single stage for all depriming, the primers fall through a hole in the work surface and are collected below. The turret isn't spent primer friendly, I plan on filling the void in mine.

What you you mean they pop out? They're not going into the vinyl tube they're supposed to fall into? Are they coming out the little slot the priming arm fits into? Do you have the priming arm in?

shipped with a clear plastic tube with a red cap. hold +100 primers and than takes a few seconds to empty.
was yours perhaps packaged without this?

The old primers will pop out if you forget to put the primer arm in when sizing and decapping. Mine drops in the clear tube as described in the previous post and I very rarely have one that does not.

If it is one of the new 4 hole presses the primer seating arm deflects the spent primers under the base. If the arm isn't installed they will go everywhere.

Ya mine is a new 4 hole press. I have the seating arm installed, but sometimes the primers don't make it into the base.

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Something tells me that even though you have a 4 hole turret and it may be new, you don't have the classic turret that everyone is referring to. On the Lee CT, the primers don't go in the base at all, there is a hole all the way through the ram and a clear tube connected to the bottom of the ram to catch primers.

sounds like you have the Lee DELUXE 4-hole turret? It is the Classic model (and the 50th Anniv single stage), that have the clear tube and a hollow ram to catch spent primers.

On the Deluxe if memory serves the spent primers get deflected into a well in the casting of the base?

One of the two reasons I recommend the Classic presses. The other is the Classic are cast steel, not aluminum.

My deluxe didn't come with the tube. Previously, I too had the primer flight problem.
What I did was fashion a little 'cup' out of aluminum foil. It molded it to fit the space where the primers always fall perfectly. As I deprime a batch after a range trip ( I use a universal deprimer), the little cup fills up. I dump it, and set it aside for later use.

I, too, have the deluxe. What I've done is elevate the base of the press off of my bench with a block of wood on the side closest to me and couple of hex nuts threaded up on the bolt (between the press and work surface) farthest from me. It gives me about 1/2" or so of clearance. The block stops most primers from falling on the floor and keeps them on the table. The elevation lets me rake the dead primers with a scrap of wood or vacuum with my shop vac.

Q

I, too, have the deluxe. What I've done is elevate the base of the press off of my bench with a block of wood on the side closest to me and couple of hex nuts threaded up on the bolt (between the press and work surface) farthest from me. It gives me about 1/2" or so of clearance. The block stops most primers from falling on the floor and keeps them on the table. The elevation lets me rake the dead primers with a scrap of wood or vacuum with my shop vac.

Q

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I'm trying to visualize this. I too have an older Lee Turret press and the flying primers is the only thing I don't like about it. I'd really like to come up with a simple solution to this problem.

There's a thread on here where folks are using a drinking straw shoved into the slot of a RCBS press to guide the primers down the shaft of the ram. That would maybe funnel the primers closer to the angled opening in the cast base of the press, but the spent primers still drop out the bottom from there.

FWIW, I don't use the auto-index feature or the primer doohickey. I prime off-press using the Lee Auto-Prime

I had the same problems and made a couple of simple 'accessories that work for me.

I also use a similar method to quoheleth. My press is elevated with wood and I made a shute that comes out the front beneath the press. I have a small tray I made out of aluminum to catch the primers as they fall out

The primers that insist on flying out the right side are blocked by a small piece of plexiglass that I shaped to fit using a heat gun. It fits in under it's own spring tension. They fall in the right-side hole and out the bottom shute.

Here's a couple shots - see if that helps at all.

View attachment 115855

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If I were worried about primers rolling off the tabletop (I'm not) I would probably take a couple of cardboard strips or wood slats and "box" off that end of the worktop so primers couldn't roll away.

Q

1SOW, Quoheleth; Thanks for the pics!

Swampboy: FWIW : the primer feed and seat really works well for pistol brass. I don't reload rifle.

Once in a great while, I'll have a an 'UN'smooth pull where the primer will bounce in the feeder cup and endup being seated sideways---oops. It punches out.

This has only happened twice in thousands of 9mm. Oh yeah, I did have "1" seated upside down.

Well, here's what I ended up doing with mine. I got the idea from The Rockchucker Thread.

I put a piece of drinking straw inside the ram slot and ended it just above the bottom end of the slot. With the primer arm removed, the primers drop right down into the angled slot where the primer arm goes and out the bottom of the press. Then I put a 5 gallon bucket underneath the press to catch the primers. Just got done decapping about 200 shells and all but about 5 primers fell in the bucket. Close enough for me.

My simple solution was to but a Lee Classic Turret press and not look back, it is a much better press, sturdy and precise JMHO

Shop vac I rather enjoy crawling around on the floor hunting spent primers. ps my Jack Russell has lost his taste for primers.

I crawl around on the floor picking them up.

It really sucks. Lee needs to change the ram to make primers drop out the bottom.

My simple solution was to but a Lee Classic Turret press and not look back, it is a much better press, sturdy and precise JMHO

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Yeah, that's one way, lol. For me though, I've had my perfectly serviceable old-style Lee Turret Press for ten years. Can't justify getting a new one just for the primer issue.