LEE PRECISION Classic Turret Press (Red)

I ordered this press a little over 2 1/2 years ago. To date, I have loaded more than 8,000 rounds with it. I load 9mm, 45ACP, 22-250,.223rem, .243win and 25-06 - it handles all of those different cartridges with ease. This press hasn't given me any trouble other than very minor issues with the primer arm hanging up. But, If you clean the spent primer crud out and lube the press every 500 rounds, it'll work like new. The parts that rotate the turret are original and still going strong. I'm happy with how well this press has been wearing. When it was new, tolerances were tight enough that I couldn't feel any play in the ram or linkage, now it's starting to loosen up but still feels tight. I'm guessing it might need a rebuild somewhere around 15k rounds.I've spend a lot of quality time with this press and I'm very impressed by the design. I questioned the wooden ball for a handle but now, after using it, wood is the right material for the job. The adjustable clamp for the lever arm allows you to change the arm length to suit the amount of force needed for different cartridges - I set it up short for pistol cartridges where low force and high repetition speed is ideal. Or, you can make the arm longer when you need more force to resize smaller quantities of large rifle brass.It's apparent, to me, that Lee that has done an excellent job of balancing quality vs. cost. Yes, there are some plastic parts on this press but I have found that they are suitable to meet the design criteria. You could spend more money on a press but I don't see the reasoning for it. My rifles routinely shoot <1" groups at 100 yards so there is no question about the press's ability to make consistent ammo.

I’ve had this press for about 3 years. It’s a great press. Still gives you control like a single stage press but you don’t have to waste time swapping out your dies. Tolerances are not as tight as more expensive presses. I load 9, 40, 45, 223, 300 and 308. It does have some what of a learning curve but reloading in general is that way. Great starting press or a good upgrade from a single stage. I would buy it again if I had to start over.

I just started reloading. Everyone's advice was to go with a single stage but this was so inexpensive I decided to just go for it and I'm glad I did! This press is incredibly versatile and I'm currently using it for .40 S&W and .308 Win and eventually plan to go to 6.5 Creedmoor. The turret easily lifts off and you can change out the die set (just purchase a separate turret and die set), no fuss, no readjusting the dies.Within an hour, I had the press mounted to my workbench, assembled (Only parts to assemble are a bolt for the lever/handle with a 1/2 inch wrench, insert the primer seat, primer catch tube and shell holder), dies installed and adjusted and I was up and running!The action is smooth and only required a little extra effort with .308, I'm assuming due to the length of the brass. Pistol cases were smooth as silk and you can easily crank out several hundred rounds in an hour once you get into the rhythm of it.

This press fits somewhere between a progressive and single stage; if you have only one press, this should be it. In my humble opinion, this is the ONLY good press made by Lee Precision. Output is near a progressive, setup is a breeze, the removable die plate makes for easy caliber changes. If you are just getting started with reloading, or have been reloading for a while and don't go through a 1000 + rounds a week, this is what you will need. Buy the kit including powder measure and other goodies to save even more. The sturdy cast iron base, the huge ram, and oversized handle will outlast you!Just a note: I've tried a couple of Lee progressive presses, and due to common failures with those progressives and the length of time needed to recover from those failures, you'd be ahead of the game with this turret press.

Lee fan here. I have been using their products since I started loading my own several years ago. There will always be folks with a "Big Blue" or "Green" bias and if you want to spend 3 or 4 times as much to start your journey be my guest. I own a "green" press as well. This press will do everything you need, particularly in pistol calibers, and do it well. Just get an add on light to verify your powder drop and you're set. I am installing my light today!I started with the value turret so it was simple to upgrade to this one since I already have numerous turrets set up with the calibers I load. I upgraded because I wanted the options available with this press that weren't available with mine, namely the reverse rotation product made by inline fabrication. I am very happy I made the switch!

I don't reload enough to justify spending a lot for a true progressive, but this works great for me. I especially like that you can keep all your dies set up on turrets (buy a few more  Lee Precision 4 Hole Turret (Silver) ,) and then quickly change out calibers. Because of the way I like to reload, I've found it easiest to remove the index rod to keep it from progressing to the next die upon each handle stroke and just manually turn the turret from the size/decap die to the bell die, then back. I prime and charge separately off press, then come back to seat/crimp the bullet, but you could certainly do all the functions on this press in sequence if you wanted. The one weak link is the Lee Safety Priming tool Lee Precision Safety Primer Feed Large and Small  I tried it, and just couldn't get it to work smoothly/reliably, so I'll continue to prime my brass separately off press.

During the last 40+ years I have reloaded many tens of thousands of pistol rounds, mostly on a 3 hole Lee Turret press. When 4 holers came out, I couldn’t see the point of introducing an extra station that only created more work. Whenever I was producing ultra-competitive ammunition, I used the 3 hole as usual but did the crimp as a separate operation in a single press, as they’re more accurate. Also, I have over half a dozen turret discs set up for different calibers, and that would all have to be re-built.However, there is one set-up that has caused me problems. I use the powder-through-expanding die set-up for all my reloading and for short cases such as 9mm that presents a problem. An expanding die must be long enough to match bullet /case intrusion (around 3/8”). Add to that the movement necessary to actuate the powder measure, and the die ends up protruding past the die holder. That means the case is no longer guided to the die by the holder’s chamfer and, given the necessary lack of chamfer on the expanding die, I was getting around 1 in 20 failures as the case caught the edge of the die and was damaged.I therefore thought I’d move my 9mm reloading to a 4 hole machine, where I would de-cap / prime, neck expand (without having to travel further to actuate powder measure) add powder at stage 3 and finally bullet seat / crimp at stage 4.And so I bought the Lee Classic. And I’m not impressed.This new model has extra throat clearance, presumably to accommodate longer rifle rounds. That is unnecessary – indeed a hindrance – for pistol reloading. Maybe, as rifle handloaders seldom reload pistol (and vice-versa) Lee should make two models? And so I shortened the press, which involved shortening to mounting pillars, indexing ram and main ram.Also, though it doesn’t affect me, the new press is right-hand only. The front mounting cannot be moved to the other side as with the original model.But my biggest beef is with the primer arm. On the original press, this was mounted in the machine’s base. It always stayed in the same place. You put a primer in the cup at some stage during the cycle and merely pushed the arm into the ram when you wanted to put primer into the case.Not this new one. The primer arm is in the ram and goes up and down with it. And the ram bottoms out on the primer on every downstroke (on the original model the ram head bottomed out on the machine’s base). Meaning, also, that the primer can only be added into its cup at a precise time. Assuming, that is, you can find the primer arm to put it in - it could be at the top of the ram’s stroke, at the bottom – or anywhere in-between. About as handy, as my mate used to say, as a cow with a musket.I realise, of course, that it was mounted thus with a view to fitting a device which discharged primers into said primer arm. Except, if you look at on-line comments regarding this ‘device’ you’ll see it too falls into cow/musket territory.In conclusion, this new model is far less user-friendly that the original model and, frankly, Lee should go back to the original concept. This sort of halfway house between turret and progressive simply doesn’t work.

Firstly, didn't come withe the fixing bolts... but that's easily fixed with a trip to the hardware store. So why am I disappointed? Am new to reloading, followed all the instructions, double checked, triple checked etc... tried using the full length resizer on RWS .308 brass - needed way more force than I thought it should (case was lubed properly). Then tried it on a GGG .308 case - needed a lot more force... but then the case pulled the expander pin out of the die... now the pin is stuck in the case. on looking this up seems it's a common issue with lee full length resizing dies. the other dies seem to work perfectly. given the nature of this product i'd have expected someone to have checked alignments etc before shipping... the primer arm was out of alignment... this is easily fixed. the ram rod is out of alignment with the turret... slightly off center, talking milimeters but does mean cases are going into dies off-center. not an indexing issue - will have to take the bolts off and give it a wiggle.

It's a Lee so it does what it says it does and does it well, this press is probably far stronger than it needs to be and should outlast me. I do not anticipate any problems with it. CDSG as usual were prompt and efficient, what more needs to be said?.

Awesome wallet and many card compartments, Very happy with my purchase

Just to small for me