Beefy
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.
Can't be beat for the money
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.
Smart design, no frills functionality
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.
