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serf 'rett · June 16, 2011, 09:50 AM

While traveling this past weekend, I went by Bass Pro last Saturday and was looking at these two presses side by side, being as I'm in the market for a turret in the next year. I went in mostly to see if they had a Lee Classic Cast, which they did, because I've been reading good reports about the press and wanted to take a look at it. Mounted beside the Lee was the Lyman turret, so I was able to look at, pull and play with both presses.
After all the good press I’d read on the Lee, I was surprised to find the press seemed to have a problem with advancing the turret. The turret would not fully advance when the press handle was raised, unless the handle was snapped upward. The turret moved to within about an eighth of an inch of the next engaged position and stopped. I could twist the turret slightly and it would “pop” into place. After tinkering with the press, I found I could move the handle up rapidly and the get the turret to fully rotate. I don’t know if this is a common problem with this press design or just a problem with the press I was testing. I may ask this question on a different thread, because this failure to advance problem would really bother me.
I did find the Lee Classic Cast had some vertical “slop” in the turret, but I fully expected this since the turret moves. I found it interesting that the Lee had more vertical turret displacement than the Lyman turret. I figured the Lee would have less with its three outer posts supporting the turret versus the Lyman with a single central center post. Logically, the Lyman should have shown more upward deflection, but it actually appeared to be less. I found it was easy to change the positions of the Lyman T-Mag turret and the turret had a positive engagement at the next position. The T-Mag is solid and smooth.
In short, I went into the store feeling fairly sure that a Lee Classic Cast was in my future and came out of the store with the Lyman T-Mag as the favored contender. On my next visit, I may take a dial indicator with me and sort out the sheep from the goats.

June 16, 2011, 09:50 AM	#10
serf 'rett Senior Member Join Date: June 25, 2009 Location: Stuttgart, AR Posts: 1,569	I'm sure they both load good cartridges but... While traveling this past weekend, I went by Bass Pro last Saturday and was looking at these two presses side by side, being as I'm in the market for a turret in the next year. I went in mostly to see if they had a Lee Classic Cast, which they did, because I've been reading good reports about the press and wanted to take a look at it. Mounted beside the Lee was the Lyman turret, so I was able to look at, pull and play with both presses. After all the good press I’d read on the Lee, I was surprised to find the press seemed to have a problem with advancing the turret. The turret would not fully advance when the press handle was raised, unless the handle was snapped upward. The turret moved to within about an eighth of an inch of the next engaged position and stopped. I could twist the turret slightly and it would “pop” into place. After tinkering with the press, I found I could move the handle up rapidly and the get the turret to fully rotate. I don’t know if this is a common problem with this press design or just a problem with the press I was testing. I may ask this question on a different thread, because this failure to advance problem would really bother me. I did find the Lee Classic Cast had some vertical “slop” in the turret, but I fully expected this since the turret moves. I found it interesting that the Lee had more vertical turret displacement than the Lyman turret. I figured the Lee would have less with its three outer posts supporting the turret versus the Lyman with a single central center post. Logically, the Lyman should have shown more upward deflection, but it actually appeared to be less. I found it was easy to change the positions of the Lyman T-Mag turret and the turret had a positive engagement at the next position. The T-Mag is solid and smooth. In short, I went into the store feeling fairly sure that a Lee Classic Cast was in my future and came out of the store with the Lyman T-Mag as the favored contender. On my next visit, I may take a dial indicator with me and sort out the sheep from the goats. __________________ A lack of planning on your part does not necessarily constitute an emergency on my part. Last edited by serf 'rett; June 16, 2011 at 09:59 AM.