Lee Loader

Steve wrote:Nice movies Bob. I have recomended clasic cast turret to more than a few people. If you spend a few hours loading how many rounds do you make? pistol and rifle. Just some more info I can give them.

Thanks

I do about 50 to 75 an hour but I'm watching the powder like a hawk and weigh and measure a lot. Maxbob was doing about 130 -150 an hour and he wasn't pushing any speed.

My own fumble fingers are what really slow me down. Without racing and keeping an eye on the powder drops I've gotten around 200 an hour tops. How you have the components setup is key. You want easy to reach bullets and brass and the drop bin for the loaded cartridges needs to be very close. I've now put a drop bin on the edge of the bench just to the lower left of the press and that small bit of ergonomic increase just cuts that extra second off. Economy of motion in all your functions adds up to that speed.

I've recently started to wonder if long reloading sessions with the Classic Turret aren't maybe just as fast as with a Dillon 550. Before everyone starts to laugh... Just how long does it take you to fill up those primer tubes? It takes me longer to describe filling the Safety Prime's tray than it does to refill it. Get technical and filling those primer tubes is part of the loading process. I wonder if you add in the primer tube filling how close to the 550's speed you can get because no way are they filling five (and a half) primer tubes and loading five hundred plus cartridges in an hour.

Just food for thought when people trash talk the Classic Turret's speed.

357cyrus wrote:You're much better @ starting 223 bullets in the case than I am. My sausage fingers tend to drop 7/10 on the floor, which has got to be great for bullet concentricity.

You still should have room in the turret for a Lyman M die. I bought one for flat based .223 bullets as I find them next to impossible to load without crushing a case or two in the process. In the video I was using a boat tail bullet so as long as you hold it just long enough for the bullet nose to enter the seating die (and not squish your fingers in with it...) then they load very easy into the case. The Lyman M die opens the case neck just a bit and the bullet sets just inside the neck. I now use them for ALL the rifle bullets I load as they eliminate the possibility of the bullet not being lined up with the neck and for cast bullets they almost never shave lead now. That small be of expanded case neck is closed right up with the LCD as the last step. I have so far found zero affect on accuracy when doing this and the slight loss of that tiny bit of neck tension doesn't seem to do anything either as it's closed right back up again. The only thing is to make sure you aren't crimping the case mouth closed so hard it's leaving bite marks on the neck from the collet closing. I've seen where guys have the crimp set so hard they are chewing up the case mouth and they split when fired.

Maximumbob54 wrote:My own fumble fingers are what really slow me down. Without racing and keeping an eye on the powder drops I've gotten around 200 an hour tops. How you have the components setup is key. You want easy to reach bullets and brass and the drop bin for the loaded cartridges needs to be very close. I've now put a drop bin on the edge of the bench just to the lower left of the press and that small bit of ergonomic increase just cuts that extra second off. Economy of motion in all your functions adds up to that speed.

I've recently started to wonder if long reloading sessions with the Classic Turret aren't maybe just as fast as with a Dillon 550. Before everyone starts to laugh... Just how long does it take you to fill up those primer tubes? It takes me longer to describe filling the Safety Prime's tray than it does to refill it. Get technical and filling those primer tubes is part of the loading process. I wonder if you add in the primer tube filling how close to the 550's speed you can get because no way are they filling five (and a half) primer tubes and loading five hundred plus cartridges in an hour.

Just food for thought when people trash talk the Classic Turret's speed.

Interesting MB54. Filling tubes don't really take too long, I use them on my Priming tool. I think the 550 is probably less work because of 1 cartridge per pull on the handle.

I used to think I needed speed, that's why I got a Loadmaster. Now I am thinking about getting myself one of the classic cast turret press just because I like them. Maybe setup for one caliber on it, just so I can use it once in a while. I wore out a couple of the old 3 hole turret presses. I think the clasic cast turret would run a lot longer if taken care of.

But then again, I sure like running my Loadmaster.

The 4 hole turret is perfect for me. If it takes an hour to make 50 rounds I'm fine with that or even slower. I may only get to shoot 50 once or twice a month. Mostly because the Wife gets tired by the time I get to 30 so have to hurry just to get 50 down range. If the stars are perfectly aliened then 75 will go down range but that doest happen to often.