Lee Classic 4 Hole Turret Press Kit Review

Getting into reloading is intimidating. To avoid catastrophe up with a workbench chaotic with dust-collecting dies and presses, you want to brand a good initial decision on equipment, just information technology can exist difficult to avoid buying gear that you'll outgrow quickly or find as well complex in the beginner.
If yous're not entirely sure where to start, I think the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit is the best option for the coin. Despite shortcomings, this setup-in-a-box will meet the needs of almost handloaders, without breaking the bank, for their first years reloading.

The Archetype Turret Press Kit's MSRP is $300. I purchased mine for $270. The box contains almost everything you need to get-go reloading.

The kit

– Modern Reloading, 2^nd Edition – All reloaders need a manual (but are meliorate off with ii). Lee'due south manual is okay if yous're just starting out because it goes into surprisingly little detail on the process of loading ammunition. You demand to utilize the leaflets that come with the equipment to get the full picture of bodily handloading.

Lee's manual supplies lots of load data in an easily-readable format. Their information likewise exceeds some manuals in terms of ranges of bullet weights and powder types, which is a boon to experienced reloaders.

Worth noting is the overall tone of the book. Written entirely by Richard Lee, the style is conversational and littered with personal anecdotes that give the book more personality than other reloading manuals. It's refreshing, but I don't know how helpful it would be to someone brand new to handloading. The Lyman manual provides better detail on the process of handloading cleaved down into individual steps. The occasional rambling-style of Lee is a lot more fun, merely less informative.

Overall, I don't think it's the best reloading manual for neophytes but getting into the hobby, but it will serve initially. I strongly recommend making the $20 investment on Lyman's superb 39th edition guide. The writing is purely lawyerese, merely provides the perfect partner to Lee's volume.

The Lee safe scale.

– Lee safety scale – This is a beam scale that volition piece of work well enough for near beginning reloaders. Information technology is extremely sensitive, able to find small-scale changes in grains, simply tends to wander its calibration with handling. Even with the beam magnetically steadied, it'southward choosy to work with, requiring far more attention than electronic scales.

This is a piece that I would recommend upgrading, particularly if yous're reloading for precision burglarize shooting where ultra-consistent powder loads are critical. However, for the beginning reloader, this is a perfectly functional component of the kit.

The example prep tools

– Case prep tools – In a blister pack you'll find yous get a instance cutter, lock stud for the trimmer, chamfer tool and primer pocket cleaner. There's a case of lube included as well to round out your case prep needs. These tools are all passable but time-consuming and the primer pocket cleaner wears out after a few k pieces of brass. I've plant they work fine but for a loftier-volume rifle reloader I would consider investing in a quicker trimming unit.

– Large and small prophylactic primer feed – The Turret comes with an attachment that bolts onto its corner, allowing you to suspend one of these priming arms. The two feeds have a disc that holds primers and feeds them into the Ram-Prime. When your press is at the top of the stroke, you push button the arm forward, and then button a button on the terminate of the priming arm. This causes the feed to release a primer into the Ram-Prime.

While they are well constructed and plenty durable for plastic parts, they don't release primers reliably. Yous need to be in the exact right spot, and and so, occasionally, something goes wrong with the feed and pushing the push button produces no results. Other times the primer is upside-down. Sometimes, the feed gums upward and then badly you lot have to end and tear the matter downward to resolve the issue.

This is hands-down the worst function of the kit. It's workable only it was the first thing I replaced. I recommend investing in a good hand primer to salve yourself fourth dimension and frustration.

– Pro Auto-Disk Powder Measure – This contraption is a little mystifying at commencement. The Pro Auto-Disk Pulverization Measure works by pushing a disk with a pigsty in information technology back and fourth underneath the powder hopper, and then dropping the powder in the hole into your casing through the expanding die. To adjust your corporeality of powder, you lot switch the disks out and then rotate the disk to one of six holes, which vary in size. The majority of the associates is plastic, with a loose-plumbing fixtures lid that goes on meridian of the hopper. Too included is a 'riser' that yous add to your dice to allow the hopper clear the priming arm.

The Powder mensurate disassembled.

This is a middle-of-the-route slice of equipment. It's serviceable but non outstanding. The mechanism is kind of crude and doesn't permit fine adjustment to the corporeality of powder dispensed. You lose granularity every bit you lot increase your loads, too. Lee offers tools to improve on this, but they're not in the kit. If you tin't find a combination of powder and deejay hole that produces your preferred charge, you're forced to compromise on the closest setting you can find.

The Pro Auto-Disk Powder Measure.

In terms of consistency of charges, it gets a passing grade. Minor variances will be found between loads occasionally. In my handgun loads, variance from charge to accuse is well unnoticeable, with the rare outlier of 0.ane-grain difference. It's more susceptible to variations using larger-grained powders in my feel, so my preferred powders like Bullseye tend to fare well.

Speaking of pulverization choices, another issue with the Auto-Disk is that is leaks a piddling fleck with finer powders, especially flakes. Every bit the deejay moves, the tolerances are loose enough to let some flake powders to escape and end upward on your bench, in the turret, and so on. It'southward non a huge leak, only information technology's sloppy-looking and by the stop of a long reloading session you might find powder littering your workspace.

Overall, this is a expert product with some notable shortcomings. I haven't replaced information technology yet and don't plan to.

– Classic Turret press – The press is a robust chunk of metallic. It sports a four-hole turret that indexes automatically using a little rod that runs down the length of the ram. The ram has a cutout to mount the Ram-Prime tool and the linkage to the lever is impressive. I think you'd take to utilize tools to endeavor to break it. The lever is adjustable for length and is ambidextrous.

The Classic Turret press.

As the cadre of the kit, at that place's not much to say most the Classic Turret. It works well and other than the occasional oiling and touch-upwardly for grime, it requires little maintenance. When lubricated, performance is smooth and resizing pistols and rifles requires trivial effort. The auto-indexing feature is groovy when producing handgun armament and if y'all want to wearisome things down, removing the indexing rod, which takes seconds, allows the turret to be used as a single-stage press. The turret plates tin also be swapped out very speedily to change caliber setups.

If I have to list gripes, there are ii meaningful criticisms I can make about the press. One is it came from the mill with some small blemishes on the finish where the paint chipped. The other is that Lee didn't include the bolts and washers to secure information technology to your bench, which were less than $1 to option upward just seems weird not to include. That's the worst I can say about this piece of gear.

Overall

The Archetype Turret is a quality piece of hardware that could anchor your reloading setup for years. Its tough construction and smooth function make information technology great for somebody who wants to reload in quantity merely isn't looking for a progressive press.

With the other components of the kit, you're making a compromise. Although you lot're getting most of your reloading setup for a great price, none of information technology is optimal. Precision shooters will certainly want a faster, easier-to-use calibration; the powder measure can definitely be improved; and priming off the press should be considered.

Simply those complaints considered, remember what you're paying for this kit (MSRP $300). I still view it every bit a superb bargain. Nil included is unusable, so if you just want to attempt reloading for a reasonable price, this is a groovy starting indicate. The turret itself can stick around and continue to serve even as y'all replace some other components of the kit every bit needed and your reloading hobby expands, which it will. For a new reloader looking for a general setup without diving too far into the deep stop, I can't notice a improve deal.

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Source: https://www.guns.com/news/review/lee-classic-turret-press-kit

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