3 or 4 holes for lee turret press

[oznewbie]

i decided to reload my own ammo and decided to
get the delux turret kit. now, my problem is
which one to get the 3 holes or 4. somebody told
me to get 3 holes because you only have to do 3 strokes to have 1 ready to fire ammo. but i wonder
why they produced this 4 holes, it says in the
catalogue that it is for crimping. i'll be doing
mostly pistols amo. can somebody explain to me
this matter.

thanks a lot & shoot safe....

[zanthope]

I bought a Lee four-holer a year ago, and have NEVER used the fourth one.

I do my priming with a hand-held Lee or RCBS priming tool while I'm watching TV.....it's a lot quicker, and does a better job than those rickety contraptions that come with the cheap presses.

Bell/powder fill, seat bullet, crimp with a Lee FCD....that's how I use it for pistol ammo.

I've gotten away from the auto-indexing turret aspect. I use one station at a time with all my cases until I'm done with that operation, then rotate around to the next one by hand. That way I concentrate on one thing at a time, not three.

[Sisco]

I've got the three hole and most of the time don't use the third hole! Exception being when I'm using the Factory Crimp die.

[nyetter]

I never used my 4th hole. Anyone want to trade their 3-hole parts for my 4-hole?

Here's how I use mine.

I have a single-stage that I use to size/deprime. Then I prime my brass with a hand primer (I use a Lee). Then the primed brass goes through the turret thus:
1. expand & charge (with Pro Auto Disk mounted)
2. press auto-indexes
3. place bullet, seat
4. press auto-indexes
5. crimp
6. press auto-indexes
7. short-stroke the empty hole to index back to step 1

If I had a 3-hole I could skip step 7. The press-mounted priming system is too slow and clumsy to use, and the spent primer catcher is a joke.

[TIR]

I have a four hole and use the fourth hole every time I load for my pistols. It's for the factory crimp die that Lee has, this is a must if you load for the 40 s&w where bullet set back is a concern. I use the factory crimp die on the 40 and the 45 acp reloads I do. The only complaint I have about the press is the bushing that rotates the turret doesn't last that long, only a few thousand rounds if your lucky, however they are very cheap and easy to change.

[Sisco]

I guess I should add; the reason I end up with an empty in the three hole is that I put sizing dies in their own turrent so I can size/deprime three calibers and only change shell holders.

[bedlamite]

I have the 3 hole turret press. I deprime and size on my Lee hand press while watching a movie, then take the brass down and use the turret. The three stages are expand and charge, seat the bullet, and the last stage is the FCD. Normally loading during distradtions is bad, but this way I have to look at the case when I load it anyway.

[dfm]

Get the 4 hole TP w/auto indexing. Even if you don't anticipate using the 4th hole it'll be there if you decide to in the future.

Don't go the route of seperate hand operations such as pre-priming with another tool, resizing all the cases first, etc. Use the press as it was designed by loading a single round from priming to the final seating and crimping of the bullet. To do other is a TOTAL waste of time and defeats the purpose of the machine.

You should be able to crank out 100-150 per hour at the start, increase to 200-250 with experience.

dfm

[Sisco]

I don't know if I'd call it a waste of time.
When I get home from the range everything goes into the tumbler. When they're nice and clean I re-size and deprime then take 'em upstairs, watch the tube or sit out on the deck where I inspect the cases and prime them.
Couple of days, weeks or whatever later when I have the time and I'm in the mood to reload I set down at the bench with a whole buch of primed cases, all they need are powder & bullets.

[nyetter]

Waste of time? It SAVES time!
The priming system on the Turret is an absolute joke. It's tremendously slow, and worse yet it breaks your loading rhythm. Plus you have to touch each primer. And as I said above, the spent primer catching system is silly, primers bounce off hither and yon.
Even when loading by myself (I often load with my wife), I can produce ammo faster (and more importantly, with far less errors) by sizing on the Challenger, priming with the Auto-Prime, then doing the rest on the Turret, than I could using the Turret for all operations.

[Sisco]

I've discovered that with the primer arm removed, most of the spent primers will fall through the slot and into a waiting trash can.

[dfm]

The priming system on a Lee turret is not a joke. It's a simple, inexpensive design for a simple, inexpensive press. I don't see how it breaks the reloading rythem anymore then priming as a seperate operation with another tool.

Same thing goes for it's primer catching ability. A 50/50 bet at best. Again, it's not a $350 Dillon so don't expect all the bells and whistles.

Touching primers is not a problem unless your hand is dripping wet with something that would deactivate the priming compound. If using carbide dies not a valid concern.

I'm willing to bet a $100 bill that nobody is going to load as much ammo as me using a turret press w/auto indexing, carbide dies, and a Lee auto powder measure from start to finish as opposed to going through a few different operations aside from using the press itself. Nobody. As to mistakes I don't see how, after becoming aquainted with the press, anyone could have enough mistakes to constitute a problem.

If reloading is a pastime for you then, by all means, do alot of stuff by hand as that will stretch out the process for you to enjoy. If you reload to shoot more and want to keep the process effective but fast use the turret press as it was designed.

dfm

[ZeusOne]

I've been thinking of buying one of these presses, and I'd like to hear from experienced users about the following:

1) When using the press in auto mode, does the die carrier advance in a smooth fashion, or does it jerk/snap into place a little?

2) Does the above die carrier motion have any negative impact on the function of, or cause leakage problems with the Pro Auto Disk powder measure?

With all due respect, I'd like to hear about the Lee Turret press only : )

[nyetter]

I find the auto-indexing movement to be fairly smooth, though it does come to a somewhat abrupt stop. It is, however, quite noisy.

The indexing motion doesn't cause any problems with the Pro Auto Disk. If my PAD is leaking, it's so little I can't tell. The screw component that fastens the PAD to the expander die may loosen slightly after a few hundred rounds, but it doesn't affect function, and you can just re-tighten it.

[ZeusOne]

nyetter: Thanks. I've found that unless you really crank down on it, the screw component that fastens the PAD to the expander die loosens even on my single stage press after a couple hundred rounds.

[nyetter]

Actually, just yesterday I stripped the plastic that screw fastens to. Never had any problems with it loosening 'til then Some superglue fixed it up, but now I'll have a hell of a time replacing the indexing bushing when that wears out...

Oh well, I'm planning on giving myself an RCBS Pro 2000 for xmas

[top turret gunne]

Someone said they crimped 45ACP loads--My understanding is that the 45 headspaces on the rim--How does one get a correct headspace with a crimp?

[the duck of death]

I got a Hornady L&L progressive and use all 5 holes. What's the matter with me?