4-HOLE CLASSIC TURRET PRESS Reviews & Ratings

This is my second Lee turret press. My first one loaded about 30,000 rounds. This one is built much heavier. I'm not sure I have enough time to wear it out. I haven't used it yet. I am waiting for a bench plate.

I started reloading in the early 90's on a friend's single stage then quickly moved to a 3 hole Lee Turret and we loaded 10's of thousands of rounds of .357 magnum on that press. I do own a Dillon Square Deal B (SDB) that I bought in 1992 and have loaded many 10's of thousands of rounds so I am not new to reloading. I will compare the Lee Classic Turret (LCT) to my SDB. I bought the LCT in January 2021. I also bought their 4 die kits for 9mm, 223, and 7mm rem mag dies, along with the auto drum powder measure, powder riser, extra turrets and the Lee Safety Prime. I just set it all up this weekend to run some 9mm. So far I loaded 200 rounds, not much. My observations: like anything new you need to go over it well. First, lube it up. I used gun oil on the ram, the pivots, the primer tool, the turret, and the turret ring/holder. This made it run smoother indeed. I had to adjust the turret indexing as it was off from the factory. A 1/4" wrench and that was fixed. I had some problems dropping primers from the safety prime so I looked it over and I wasn't quite aligned right so I fixed that. After that it ran really well. What I like: I like that I only have to watch one operation at a time as compared to my Dillon (getting older means bad eyesight). With the LCT I can get a good look at every step on every round. On my Dillon I had an issue of it occasionally not dropping powder even though the powder drop was full which made for the occasional squib load. It's very easy to see the powder charge on this press for me as the SDB Dillon is very small with a lot happening in just a little space. This setup with the safety prime I also don't have to use the little primer tubes picking up every primer which saves time. Once I got everything adjusted in the first 100 rounds, the 2nd 100 rounds went through flawlessly other than 1 primer hit the floor. Yes, this is not a long term review but so far I'm impressed with this setup. Cons: compared to a progressive this one is quite a bit slower. On my SDB, if I'm in a groove, I can run 300-450 rounds an hour of 357 or 40S&W if I'm focused. From the 2nd hundred rounds today on the LCT I can run about 200 rounds of 9mm an hour if I'm focused. How much are you really doing to shoot? The Dillon is a good press but it has been back to the factory twice and their customer service was flawless. Lee doesn't have the warranty of the Dillon nor good customer service for me on some of their other products but the Lee stuff is a fraction of the cost. It is early but so far I'm impressed and for someone wanting to start reloading and not have something you will want to upgrade in a year, I would recommend the LCT and you may never want nor see a need to upgrade. You can get a good press that can run enough production for people other than those that are competitively shooting that you won't grow out of. Before buying this LCT I did look at Lee's economy model turret press. For the money the LCT has enough robustness over the eco one I'd just spend the little bit more for the Classic.

I bought my Lee Classic Turret Press figuring I'd upgrade at a later date if needed, but here it is 5 years later and it's still doing everything I need. It is ingeniously designed and its simplicity makes reloading a real pleasure. I hand prime, so my actual reloading is "pull the lever twice, set the bullet and pull 2 more times to get a round". No complaints at all.

I bought this press on a sale as a im first time set. When I started to unbox it I noticed that it was really a no frills set. The instructions take me back to stuff you would see in the 70’s. The whole system isn’t anything special. It just works! All my rounds with Lee Dies Carbide or Not produce rounds within .001-.002 +/-. The Redding does that I bought just have better methods of decapping and resizing the rounds that I reload. The rod tension of the Lee decapping and resizing dies if not centered properly will initially hit one side of the case and thin it slightly. It has nothing to do with the reloader or the turret. The turrets maintain their “zero” well, you just have to turn the dies to make sure they are tight from time to time. Other than the occasional need to oil squeaky parts it makes great rounds for target shooting to accurate rounds within 1-200m. If it’s not an issue with the shooter, better dies will improve what you make in the press. Happy with it

I have to lee loaders I own the Lee loadmaster and the turret press. I started out with the four hole Lee turret press and it did served me very well. I used the lee turret press exclusively for about the first 3 years before my Lee loadmaster and I still use the lee turret press mainly for calibers that I don't load very often. The main thing I never liked about the Lee turret press is the priming system, but I always hand primed anyway and so not a big issue.

My first and only press so far. I would only recommend based on certain idividual needs. Beginner press with multiple calibres to reload? Yes. Plinker? Yes. Moderate volume / pistol / semi-auto shooter? Yes. Precise / long range shooter? Maybe not??? Maybe get a different press for that? I reload .204 Ruger rifle, so do not use the auto indexing feature. Swap out turrets handy for loading more than one calibre, just buy more 4-hole turret rings. Can set one turret up soley for case prep, universal de-priming etc. Maybe include a bullet puller die in one of the holes if needed (I have the Hornady cam lock one in same ring as my three Redding dies: full length sizer, neck sizer and bullet seating). INSTANT change out of dies - just spin the turret ring around. The classic press is heavier and much better constructed than the basic turret press. I do not think the 3 and 4 hole turret rings are compatible / interchangeable ? The advertising is misleading -- primers do escape quite often sometimes, especially if the large or small primer cup holder is not inserted in the ram. The drilled ram and PVC pipe to collect the primers is an excellent idea though! Just that sometimes a primer will fall out of the slot before making it into the PVC pipe. The icluded disc shaped Lee primer holders are great, easily making 100 or more primers face the right way up. The problem is getting the primer out of the system and into the little cup in the ram. This is sometimes a frustrating step, and when the hopper gets very low on primers, the system always misfeeds. I ALWAYS have one or two primers left in the system that I eventually have to place into the ram by hand. They must get stuck because there are no primers above to push them down into the feeder. This is my first and only press, so I do not know if this is acceptable or normal, but because it has a rotating turret disc (very smooth movement by the way), the whole thing has a lot of play in it. The whole turret disc (and so the dies themselves!!) can wiggle / lift up and down about 1-2mm, and when the shellholder finally meets the bottom of the die it all becomes tight and solid. I wonder if this is good for precision / accuracy?? I do not have to set my dies up each time (I just spin the turret to the required die), but if not using the auto index feature, a regular single stage press may have been more appropriate for me. Maybe ideal for pistol / moderate volume / semi-auto rifle reloaders? Not long range shooter's choice?

This is the biggest piece of junk to much slop in the turret can't get two bullets to come out the same they. .030" to long and .010 to short so no!!!! I would not recommend this press