Lee Classic Turret or Lee Load Master

[Hellbringer2572]

I want to start off by saying i am just starting in reloading make sure you keep that in mind

also i am looking to reload .223 and 9mm

I have read a lot of posts and blogs that say most people should start with a single stage or turret press because it is safer,not as much going on all at the same time, so i looked into both and for the qty that i want to reload i think a single stage will take for ever so i considered the classic turret. The problem is after you buy the turret kit, the simple primer thing, and a die set you are looking at $198. i can get the load master 5 position progressive with 1 caliber, case feeder, etc for $218. So now the question... If you where is my shoes, starting in reloading, would you spend the extra $20 and get the progressive, or for the safety side stick with the classic turret?

Thanks
Mike

[Gapmaster]

Reloading-- Lee

You are going to get a ton of different answers on this.

Here is my thoughts.

I have been reloading a long time. When a guy first starts learning to reload, there is a whole bunch of information to absorb, especially if your wanting to get it right. I have seen new guys starting out and it seems immediately they assume if the progressive press loaded the round, it must be right, and they have mistakes for thinking that way. I think starting on a single stage, like the Lee Classic, gives you the opportunity to inspect each and every round completely that you produce, while you are producing it, step by step. You are going to have things like, " well, that was too much, or " that could have been longer, or" that wrinkled the case" or, that was a double load",and just stuff like that. You can still produce alot of ammo with a single stage and feel very confident it was done correctly. I think spending some time behind the wheel of a single stage when learning prevents alot of headaches, accidents or injuries. Just my thoughts.

[JNunez23]

tagged

[lpspinner]

As mentioned before, I am a FIRM believer if you are starting out...you don't jump in the middle and learn the craft.

That said and I know people won't listen and want to start out with a full blown rig....Remember that with a 5 station Progressive....you really NEED to pay attention. That means no radio, TV, friends hanging out, and any level of inebriation.

With the progressive, with each pull of the level, you have something happening...so are you going to be able to make sure you decap the brass, then make sure you have a new primer inserted, then it's flaring the brass and making sure you SINGLE charge the case, then insert a bullet in another, seat then crimp. All this is happening with one stroke. With the brass sorter, did it drop a empty brass, did a new primer fall into place? Essentually, you have 5 pieces of brass on the shell plate...each doing a step at the same time.

Reloading is not hey, I'm the coolest, just starting and look at what I just bought.

Next up will be the Turret...A little simpler, all you dies are set up and you are only working with one piece of brass each time. Unlike the progressive, with each pill of the lever, only one step is happening, not ALL. So it's easier to watch.

Now, a lot of us with progressive presses STILL use a single stage to load rifle cartridges. Why? Cause it's simpler and more accurate.

With a rifle cartridge, you first should decap and then clean the brass to get the crap off. You don't want to possibly damage your dies and you want to be able to spot defective brass. So with the SS, you put the brass in, decap and then toss it into the cleaning pile.

Now you need to resize, depending on your case lubing method, you need to lube the case, then resize it, now you need to trim the case with some sort of trimmer, now you need to chamfer and deburr your cutting. At this point, you should throw your brass into the tumbler to clean off the lube and polish the brass.
Now you start the loading process.

So it's up to you how you want to approach it.

btw, I can do about 200 .45's on a Single Stage an hour.

If you are short on time, the SS allows you to break them into steps, as you might be doing a batch of 100-200 at a time.

[Wrangler John]

Mike, reloading on a auto progressive is a bit like learning to play a musical instrument. It takes practice to develop technique, and that means repetition and going slowly. I have two progressive presses, an RCBS and Hornady. I have been loading for 50 years, and I can attest that if your mind wanders, if you don't pay attention to things, mistakes will occur. You will need a bullet puller to go along with the progressive press - it's the eraser.

The two most common mistakes involve powder charging and priming.

Priming on a progressive press can result in a missing primer, when the reservoir runs dry or you forget the upstroke, an upside down primer or a complete primer feed jam. Constant attention must be payed to this step.

Powder charging can result in no powder, when short stroking or stopping a stroke due to some other malfunction, or the reservoir runs out. A double load, when after clearing a problem the lever is stroked again before advancing the case. If you failed to seat a primer in a case that is then charged with ball powder or fine grained extruded powder, the powder will immediately leak out into the mechanism. This must be cleaned up before continuing.

If you want best accuracy from rifle cartridges, and it applies to handgun cartridges too, you may want to size and deprime, then clean the primer pockets and tumble clean any sizing lube. This is also the time when bottle necked cases are trimmed and chamfered. This can be done on a progressive press, but I use a single stage press (turret presses are used as a single stage, I use a Redding T7) as it is just as fast for sizing and depriming.

Of course you don't have to clean the primer pockets at all, many don't, but that residue may harbor moisture. For many years I didn't clean primer pockets.

To avoid primer feeding hassles and get consistent primer seating depth I then prime all cases on a hand priming tool. Now my progressive press is used just to charge and seat the bullets.

Starting with a single stage press means you can perform each operation on every case, inspect, clean, trim and chamfer, then prime on or off the press, change the die and expand pistol cases, then charge each case in a case block and visually inspect for powder, then swap in the seating die, seat the bullets, and then crimp if you use a separate die. The turret press means you just rotate to each die in sequence saving time. You gain experience, and make good ammo.

I wouldn't recommend starting with a progressive, unless you are willing to accept the frustration at the beginning.

[Bill Steele]

I want to start off by saying i am just starting in reloading make sure you keep that in mind

also i am looking to reload .223 and 9mm

I have read a lot of posts and blogs that say most people should start with a single stage or turret press because it is safer,not as much going on all at the same time, so i looked into both and for the qty that i want to reload i think a single stage will take for ever so i considered the classic turret. The problem is after you buy the turret kit, the simple primer thing, and a die set you are looking at $198. i can get the load master 5 position progressive with 1 caliber, case feeder, etc for $218. So now the question... If you where is my shoes, starting in reloading, would you spend the extra $20 and get the progressive, or for the safety side stick with the classic turret?

Thanks
Mike

Get the Classic Turret Kit.

You have enough to learn just loading. There are a few guys on these threads that have Loadmasters and like them fine. I just don't think jumping in with a machine like the Loadmaster is the right first move. You can crank out 100-200 rounds an hour on the turret with few if any glitches. Go with the LCT.

[sofbak]

Well, with a progressive, three, four or five things are happening with each pull of the lever.

I was having the same debate, and chose the LCT for two reasons:

1. I only had to concentrate on one case/cartridge "event" with each pull, so the chance of a major error are reduced.
2. Removing the indexing rod allows the press to be used much like a single stage press for rifle cartridge production.

I took a quick look at Midway's site, and compared the customer reviews for both. For 2012 and late 2011, there were a lot of unhappy loadmaster owners, and no unhappy LCT owners.

Granted a progressive is much faster, but I have more time than fingers and eyes, so I decided to keep it simpler starting out.

[Hellbringer2572]

Granted a progressive is much faster, but I have more time than fingers and eyes, so I decided to keep it simpler starting out.

I do agree ^



Thank you guys for all the input, i do agree that the single stage is safer/easier, and probably what i will go with i just had to ask the question.

anyone else have comments please comment

Thanks Again
Mike

[S&W629Lover]

SINGLE STAGE FIRST!! SINGLE STAGE FIRST!! SINGLE STAGE FIRST!! SINGLE STAGE FIRST!! SINGLE STAGE FIRST!! SINGLE STAGE FIRST!! SINGLE STAGE FIRST!! SINGLE STAGE FIRST!!

Learn how it all works, THEN get a progressive.

Baby steps...

[gatesbox]

It must be the start of a new week if this question is popping up again.

But I'm a lee classic Turret fan. The lee four die sets are also great. A lot of people talk about speed and production. Speed and production on a progressive come at a cost, money and quality. I know lots of guys loading on progressives and they will bungle something up eventually, squib loads, wtc. I have never had a round from my turret press fail. Because I know the mistake as soon as it happens. If you are loading 9mm or .223 you may have an abundant supply of brass. But loading thousands of rounds in a few hours means you need to have the components. Quite honestly I only have at most 500 brass in a particular caliber at a given time. So my turret keeps up with tat column just fine.

I was about a click away from buying a dillon progressive press a few weeks ago, but I decided I liked my little lee turret just fine. You won't be sorry if you get one, and you won't be sorry if you end up trading up later (as your initial investment is nominal and the dies can go with you).

As I have said before, I would recomend getting a replacement turret and powder drop for each set of dies if you only load a couple calibers. This way you can keep your dies in the same spot and swap out the whole turret. Removing the auto disk powder drop requires messing with your dies. I currently have three set up for .45 Colt, .45Auto, and .38 Special.

[johnny1290]

Yeah actually I chime in on this question weeekly I think!

I bought a pro 1000 first instead of a single stage like everybody suggested.

It was much harder than I expected to get the hang of it.

I still bought a cheap single stage for $15 anyhow to re-size my cast boolits so its not like I even saved any dang money hah.

It took months of frustration to get it worked out. now I can do 300 or 350 rph no problem at all, but I was stuck at around 50 forever because I didn't know the right way to seat primers or something.

I still don't know if you need to load on a single stage for a year before moving to a turret, then progressive. that's really slow.

I do think I would have had a better time of it if I'd done a thousand rounds or three on a single stage before switching to a progressive.

That lee turret is really nice. The pro 1000 is fine, the loadmaster is what I wish I got instead. It seems more robust and has that extra station that would be nice.

just my 2 cents

[slo5oh]

OP,
I'm right there with you. Ok, maybe 1 step ahead. After reading thread after thread here I decided a Lee classic turret is for me. Kempfs sells a good Kit (their own mix of what you'll need) I intend to buy. In the mean time I took an even smaller step and bought .45 dies and the Lee hand press. Mostly so I could sit on my couch watching TV while I punch out used primers and start cleaning brass. I just bought a Lee hand primer too, so I can now completely reload 45 by hand. Some may see what ive done as money wasted, but I don't since it also allows me an easy way to help friends get into reloading.
The total sum of nearly every "what reloader is best...." Thread ive read is :
1 once you go dillion you wont buy anything else.
2 most reloaders simply ADD to their collection of presses.
3 I have read several excellent reasons why the Lee turret is a great starter
4 I have yet to read about anyone disliking a Lee classic turret

[CalTeacher]

Would you give a formula 1 car to a person who has never touched a steering wheel before? Nope, you'd give them a volkswagen beetle and make them learn the basics on something slow and simple first.

[lpspinner]

OP,

1 once you go dillion you wont buy anything else.
2 most reloaders simply ADD to their collection of presses.

hmmm, that explain all my presses.

[stilly]

I want to start off by saying i am just starting in reloading make sure you keep that in mind

also i am looking to reload .223 and 9mm

I have read a lot of posts and blogs that say most people should start with a single stage or turret press because it is safer,not as much going on all at the same time, so i looked into both and for the qty that i want to reload i think a single stage will take for ever so i considered the classic turret. The problem is after you buy the turret kit, the simple primer thing, and a die set you are looking at $198. i can get the load master 5 position progressive with 1 caliber, case feeder, etc for $218. So now the question... If you where is my shoes, starting in reloading, would you spend the extra $20 and get the progressive, or for the safety side stick with the classic turret?

Thanks
Mike

So let me get this straight, you wanna be a stunt driver but you have not yet gotten your learner's permit?

DANIELSON! Befuh you can fight you must fust WAX ON WAX OFF!

Yes, start with a classic turret with auto indexing because it can be fast but not as fast as a progressive but much faster than a single stage. You realy do need to learn the fundamentals before you can understand the why and how of the progressive. Then go get a Hornady LOCK N LOAD AP Progressive instead of the Lee progressive after you hit about 2000 rounds...

BTW, ever wonder why the Lee Classic Turret has 4 holes instead of 3 when they sell the 3 die pistol sets? It is so you can have mad sexxorz with them after you get done admiring all of that beautiful ammo you just made with their 3 die set! Lee Classic Turrets (with Auto Indexing) RULE!

Lee reloaders get it done in three...