Lee Classic Turret Press for accuracy loading?

[Ole Joe Clark]

I have a Lee Classic Turret that I have loaded a few thousand pistol and revolver shells on. I prime on a old Lee Auto Prime, have for years. I also have a Pacific Multi Power "O" type press. I do bottleneck cartridges on the Pacific. I have been reloading off and on for over 40 years. Most, if not all, my reloading problems were of my own making, and I suspect the care and detail that a person uses while reloading has more to do with accuracy that which press and accessories are used.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[Walkalong]

As far as accuracy loading goes, I have started using the Wilson chamber style seating dies, and I get much better consistency than with regular press mounted seating dies. JMHO.

I have a Forster Competition seater and a Wilson hand die seater with micro top in .308 and they both load equally straight. I even used an arbor press with the Wilson hand die seater, same result, no straighter than the Forster Comp seater in the LNL. YMMV.

 

[Toprudder]

I have a Forster Competition seater and a Wilson hand die seater with micro top in .308 and they both load equally straight. I even used an arbor press with the Wilson hand die seater, same result, no straighter than the Forster Comp seater in the LNL. YMMV.

Thanks. I have not tried the Forster seating die. Good to know.

 

[flashhole]

The Forster seat dies are great. The magic is in the tight tolerance sliding sleeve guide. I don't see a runout difference in the micrometer adjust vs. the threaded stem adjust. Just that the micrometer looks cool and costs more. Both make accurate ammo for me.

 

[RussellC]

Realguns.com had a nice article comparing turret presses from RCBS, Lee & Redding several years back. He measure neck & bullet runout and came up with the following:

Redding

COL - Comparator2.1822.1802.1802.1812.180Neck Run Out <0.001<0.001<0.001<0.001<0.001Bullet Run Out<0.001<0.001<0.001<0.001<0.001
RCBS

COL - Comparator2.1902.1902.1902.1902.189Neck Run Out <0.001<0.001<0.002<0.001<0.002Bullet Run Out<0.001<0.001<0.001<0.001<0.001
Lee Precision

COL - Comparator2.1812.1822.1822.1822.183Neck Run Out <0.002<0.001<0.002<0.001<0.002Bullet Run Out<0.001<0.001<0.001<0.001<0.001

The Redding held runout on both to less than .001 and had the best support all around. I've read an article by John Barsness where he described using a Redding T7 to craft very accurate varmint ammo in quantity with a few mods. If you can stand the extra, I'd go first class and get a Redding.

You may be better off instead with getting the Lee Classic Cast Single Stage and installing Hornady's lock & load bushing kit for quick & easy die changes.

Maybe I am missing something here, but wouldnt this depend on the dies used? Were the same dies used in all the presses tested? If not, I dont know how meaningful these results are. I'm not saying the tests are meaniless, just wondering how they were conducted?

Thanks,

Russellc

 

[Doublehelix]

I use my LCT for working up handgun loads and making rife and precision loads, so no issue there. My Dillon gets used to crank out the handgun ammo once the loads have been worked up.

Great little press, especially for the money.

 

[thomas15]

Being cast iron I "think" it might be rigid enough.

The T-7 weighs about 30 pounds, the LCT weighs about 13 pounds.

I you want to add 4 station service on the Lee, they make a kit to update older presses to 4 station and progressive.

There is no way to make a single stage turret press into a progressive press. This would be impossible.

 

[RussellC]

True. With a turret, there is one action place holding a single case, and the dies revolve around it. With progresive, the dies stay still, and a shell plate revolves an equal amount of shells rotating past as many "action" points.

Russellc

 

[marchboom]

Lots of good issues posted here. Thank you. I'm trying to find someone with a LCT press so I can check out it's tolerances. Hopefully that will answer my curiosity.

 

[jmorris]

I still have turret presses and they are nice to keep all your dies in one place, if they won't fit in their box with lock rings or bushings on.

You still have to change shell holders and turrets though, most importantly is you have the same number of strokes as any single stage to complete a loaded round.

If you just want fast swap from one thing to another, the only thing faster than a co-ax is another press on the bench already setup.

Like the one :25 into this video, sizing/depriming 3 different calibers in under 30 seconds.

 

[RussellC]

I use my LCT for working up handgun loads and making rife and precision loads, so no issue there. My Dillon gets used to crank out the handgun ammo once the loads have been worked up.

Great little press, especially for the money.

I think the comments contra accurate reloads on a turret or progressive are talking about when in full turret or progressive mode. I do that for pistol and plinking rounds, but when accuracy is the desired outcome, I am basically doing it in various stages, sort of single stage press style. The thing with either the turret or the progressive is that all the dies are set up and ready to do their job. Plus, the convenience of caliber change by pulling the whole turret and replacing it with the desired caliber. Also for accurate rounds, I am using the auto drum powder measure on my turret, but am weighing them and trickling up to the full charge.

Yes, there are less pulls with a progressive than a turret for the same amount of ammo, which is great for full speed plinking round production, but in accuracy mode there is the exact same number.

I clean, size, trim, swage then prime, in that order. Then I can either store the ready to charge and seat brass, or go ahead and charge and seat it. While I prefer the Redding Competition dies, with the lee set I have produced ammo that on a really good day has put 5 shots in 3/4s of an inch at 100 yards, whatever that's worth, and I'm just getting the hang of it. Hopefully with the Redding dies, Sierra match kings and newly acquired Bald eagle rifle rest and protektor rear bag, I can get better. Then longer ranges than 100 yards are next, then building a bolt gun in .223, then on to the 6.5 CM build and longer ranges yet.

Russellc

 

[Varminterror]

There is no way to make a single stage turret press into a progressive press. This would be impossible.

It is impossible, but it is also not what he said.

He said there is an upgrade kit to add a hole to the old 3 hole turret and to the old progressive. He did NOT say there is an upgrade kit to convert the turret presses to progressive.

 

[jmorris]

There is no way to make a single stage turret press into a progressive press. This would be impossible.

I have done lost of stuff just because someone said it would be impossible. This example would be fun but RCBS beat me to it.

Google "RCBS piggyback" and the results will show you the kit used to convert their rockchucker single stage into a 5 station progressive. You can see on the box, where the darker outline of the conversion unit sat on top of the single stage.

 

[RussellC]

It is impossible, but it is also not what he said.

He said there is an upgrade kit to add a hole to the old 3 hole turret and to the old progressive. He did NOT say there is an upgrade kit to convert the turret presses to progressive.

If you look at the quote in Thomas's post, it said "and progressive" I think some editing was done to correct.

Russellc

 

[ArchAngelCD]

It is impossible, but it is also not what he said.

He said there is an upgrade kit to add a hole to the old 3 hole turret and to the old progressive. He did NOT say there is an upgrade kit to convert the turret presses to progressive.

Lee used to sell an upgrade kit to convert an older 3 hole Lee turret press into a 4 hole turret press. I'm not sure if it's still available, a call or email to Lee will find it out.

 

[Varminterror]

If you look at the quote in Thomas's post, it said "and progressive" I think some editing was done to correct.

Russellc

Fun theory - except the forum tattles on users for editing - no editing is shown on @Speedo66's post - and Thomas15's quote of the same reflects the exact same text as his original post. No editing, and the quote reflects what you are saying was edited... Not edited.

That "and progressive" is correct - there was/is a kit to upgrade their old turret press, and a kit to upgrade their old progressive kit. Nowhere is an implication to convert a turret to a progressive. Gotta read it more closely before jumping on the guy.

 

[RussellC]

I see your meaning, not jumping on anyone, wasnt that long ago I didnt know the difference between turret vs progressive!

Russellc

 

[RussellC]

That said, I would like to see the kit that upgrades to progressive, is it like the RCBS unit another spoke of?

This is what I saw, and it isnt edited, my bad.
"I you want to add 4 station service on the Lee, they make a kit to update older presses to 4 station and progressive"

I simply wasnt aware they made a kit to convert to progressive. I would like to see it.

Russellc

 

[RussellC]

Fun theory - except the forum tattles on users for editing - no editing is shown on @Speedo66's post - and Thomas15's quote of the same reflects the exact same text as his original post. No editing, and the quote reflects what you are saying was edited... Not edited.

That "and progressive" is correct - there was/is a kit to upgrade their old turret press, and a kit to upgrade their old progressive kit. Nowhere is an implication to convert a turret to a progressive. Gotta read it more closely before jumping on the guy.

Rereading your post I see you interpreted the post to say upgrades to BOTH the turret and progressive presses, not that there is a kit to convert turret to progressive, at least in the Lee lineup.
If I made a mistake, besides the editing part, which I apologize for, it would be in the way it read, There is nothing said about progressives, until after the statement concerning updating three hole to four hole, "and progressive"...I think what made me think that, was the "update older presses to 4 station and progressive."

Varminterror, as you well know from our PMs, you have forgotten more than I know about most all this gun stuff! I never mind being corrected, I see it as a positive thing. I was wrong about the editing, not so sure about the other...I guess speedo66 could clarify? What say Speedo66?

Russellc

 

[Speedo66]

I wrote the post re: Lee kit changing to a 4 die turret and progressive. My bad, I obviously used the wrong terminology. My original press was an old 3 die turret press I hadn't used in almost 40 years that I believe needed the turret moved manually. The kit causes the turret to turn every time the handle is pulled, I mistakenly called that "progressive". Sorry for any anguish that may have caused. Tough crowd that possesses much more knowledge of this than I do!

 

[thomas15]

Google "RCBS piggyback" and the results will show you the kit used to convert their rockchucker single stage into a 5 station progressive. You can see on the box, where the darker outline of the conversion unit sat on top of the single stage.

When I made my comment about making the LCT a progressive (being impossible) I did so knowing about the RCBS piggyback add-on. There are several piggybacks NIB available on ebay as we speak. About $350.00 or so.

As far as the piggyback is concerned, first (and I know you jmorris know this) one needs to own a rockchucker. This in itself would give the OP the press he needs no further discussion necessary. But just for fun, a rockchucker is $150.00 and a piggyback is $350.00 so we are at $500.00 (more if there are powder measure issues) which is as you know puts us in Dillon territory.

So I'm thinking about the semantic gymnastics applied to my comments another poster made with respect to LCT and progressive press operations. I always say that if you throw enough resources at any problem it can be solved so I wouldn't argue to the most ardent lover of all things Lee Precision that it's totally impossible to convert one into a progressive. But at what cost, ease of use and quality of product?

I'm not conversant with the actual marketing efforts or lack thereof employed by RCBS and the discontinued piggyback. And I've never seen one let alone used one. But I do know, as most of us do, the thinking of those who are full time internet salesmen for the LCT. Broad brush no doubt but how many of them are going to throw several hundred dollars at a one hundred dollar handloading press? And if Lee were to make such a thing what would their target market group be? It would have to cost less than the Professional 1000 progressive so the cost would have to be around $100.00 My question would be would that include the cost of a bottle of aspirin and therapy sessions?

I mistakenly called that "progressive". Sorry for any anguish that may have caused.

No anguish here, this is, after all, a hobby.

 

[RussellC]

I wrote the post re: Lee kit changing to a 4 die turret and progressive. My bad, I obviously used the wrong terminology. My original press was an old 3 die turret press I hadn't used in almost 40 years that I believe needed the turret moved manually. The kit causes the turret to turn every time the handle is pulled, I mistakenly called that "progressive". Sorry for any anguish that may have caused. Tough crowd that possesses much more knowledge of this than I do!

No anguish Varminterror is one of my favorite posters, such a knowledgeable member.

Now lets load some ammo! Im a relative newbie, many members here have forgotten more than I know, and I depend on them to learn. The smartest I ever got was when it dawned on me how much I didnt know...

Varminterror has lined me out on scope issues, I am still digesting info from him.

Russellc

 

[LiveLife]

Hear, Hear!

The depth of my minuscule knowledge barely begins to scratch the surface of wisdom of many on THR and I am often amazed at things I learn on a regular basis. Remember, knowledge is potential power while wisdom is based on experience.

Even though I have been reloading .223/.300BLK/.308 for a few years, I am an absolute newbie for precision long-range reloading when compared to knowledge and experience of THR members who have competed at 1000 yards. They are sheer inspiration for me to diligently work to produce more consistent 100-300 yard plinking loads.

And I am starting over with 18" .223 Wylde 1:7 free-float upper on a quest for new set of lessons in sub-MOA loads.

 

[RussellC]

Hear, Hear!

The depth of my minuscule knowledge barely begins to scratch the surface of wisdom of many on THR and I am often amazed at things I learn on a regular basis. Remember, knowledge is potential power where wisdom is based on experience.

Even though I have been reloading .223/.300BLK/.308 for a few years, I am an absolute newbie for precision long-range reloading when compared to knowledge and experience of THR members who have competed at 1000 yards. They are sheer inspiration for me to diligently work to produce more consistent 100-300 yard plinking loads.

And I am starting over with 18" .223 Wylde 1:7 free-float upper on a quest for new set of lessons in sub-MOA loads.

I am on a similar mission, then build a bolt .223, then once I get as far as I can with that, I intend to build 6.5 CM. First I have plenty to master with .223, and apply my gleanings to the longer range guns. I am just scratching the surface, however.

Russellc

 

[LiveLife]

Someone posted once we are done conducting load development and range tests, it's time to replace the barrel.