LEE deluxe turret press kit

IIRC the 'deluxe' has less clearance between the ram and the turret. PLUS there's no real provision for dealing with spent primers. That alone should get you to buy the Classic Turret.

The LCT is capable of loading 200 pistol rounds per hour.

Here's a quick vid of me loading 5 in a minute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iHPmGXyB6g

I have also loaded .30-06 on this press, but not using the auto-index.

Here's a vid of the guy from ultimatereloader.com loading .223 on his.

http://ultimatereloader.com/2010/08/05/lee-classic-turret-loading-223-remington-part-i/

The Deluxe is just a lesser-quality press, IMO. I used to have one, and snapped the handle right in half. Broke one of the turret rings too. And the spent primer system flat sucks. The Classic drops 'em in a tube that will hold several hundred, or you can just put the tube into a bucket or trash can. When decapping lots of brass, I remove the cap on the tube and put the tube into an empty milk jug. I have a Classic now, and wouldn't trade it for a dozen Deluxes.

I have the Deluxe and wish I had spent the few extra dollars for the Classic. I only load pistol.

The Deluxe will work as advertised and make quality pistol ammo, but I strongly recommend the Classic.

1SOW said:

I have the Deluxe and wish I had spent the few extra dollars for the Classic. I only load pistol.

The Deluxe will work as advertised and make quality pistol ammo, but I strongly recommend the Classic.

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I'm with 1SOW. I have the deluxe and it works well. Primers aren't an issue with me as I deprime on my Lee Challenger with a universal depriming die. If I stop depriming before tumbling, I'll want the Classic. Christmas list to myself has the classic turret on it.

I use the Classic for the pistol ammo I shoot a lot of, 9mm, .45 and .38 Special.

I don't get in a hurry and find reloading relaxing. It takes me about 40 minutes to do a hundred, checking every 10th round on a scale and looking at every primer.

1K, I use a small rectangular box with a divider in it. Brass in the back bullets in the front and it would speed you up even more, although you are fast right now.
I use the micrometer powder charging bar and so far I have had zero problems with my Classic, I am probably at about 15,000 rounds loaded based on used primers.

I used to use a LCT until I got my progressive. Excellent press for the money. But for the extra $15-20, why wouldn't you buy a Classic over the Deluxe?

My deluxe loads rifle and pistol ammo just fine. I did a few mods to it for catching primers though. Got tired of them being all of the floor.

The Classic is absolutely worth the couple of extra bucks.

It's made of much better, heavier metal & the depriming system is lightyears ahead of the so-called "deluxe" model.

I have a Classic turret. AMAZING press.

The short story though is that I ordered the 4-hole turret press kit from grafs thinking it would be nice to have extra loading equipment that I could either use or sell to my buddy that wants to start reloading. Well I didn't even realize Lee made two different presses!

That night while I was admiring my purchases I was reading about the Lee turret presses and realized that the kit does NOT come with the classic cast but rather the deluxe which is not as good.

If Lee would stop making the Deluxe press they would do themselves a huge favor. Either that or at least offer a kit with the Classic turret press.

Lee is always touting about how they get people in to the reloading market, which is true, But they get them in to it with products that do not work as well as the equipment that they sell for $20 more.

Start selling the Classic Turret in a kit please. Then I would know for sure what to recommend a new loader.

I've got both,the Deluxe and Classic.

Both have loaded many thousands of rounds in both pistol and rifle calibers.

I mainly use the Deluxe for loading pistol calibers,and the Classic for rifles.The Classic is a better press,but the Deluxe will serve you for many years also.

TxHillBilly is right.

otiac said:

On a different forum ,he mentioned getting the classic NOT the deluxe if you intend to load rifle.I see nothing in LEE description, that suggests that.It does say the deluxe is capable of 200 pistol rnds per hour. Can someone give me the straight skinny on this,please?

otiac

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The Lee Classic Turret (not to be confused with the Lee Classic Cast, which is a single stage press) and the Lee Deluxe Turret operate in exactly the same manner. (Except for some older, now discontinued models of the Deluxe which have 3 die stations - and, no, the 4-hole turrets do not interchange with the 3-hole turrets.)

Same speed, many of the same parts and same operating mode and technique.

But there are differences.

The Deluxe Turret is the older design of the two.

The Classic Turret's base is cast iron, the Deluxe is cast aluminum. Iron wears better than the softer metal, aluminum.

The Deluxe has a smaller vertical opening than the Classic Turret. Though either is capable of taking long rifle cartridges.

The Deluxe drops primers out of a slot in the ram to fall into a cavity inside the press base. But only about 90% succeed in their intended journey. The Classic drops primers down the center of the hollow ram and into a clear plastic tube which can contain a few hundred primers or be directed into a receptacle of your choice. The difference in the behavior of the debris (products of combustion) from the spent primers is even more striking. With the Deluxe, you wind up with primer detritus all over and have to dismount the press and sweep up the pile of spent primers every several hundred rounds.

The Deluxe ram is smaller than the Classic's ram. This gives a much larger bearing surface for the ram to be guided as if moves up and down.

The Deluxe's linkage is aluminun and stampings. The Classic's linkage is more robust. I believe the leverage on both is the same.

The Deluxe is aluminum, spills spent primers and has a slightly smaller opening (which you may find important when loading long cartridges or long bullets. Unfortunately, Kempf's is the only seller I know of who assembles a kit containing the Classic Turret. All the other kits I found when I was researching turrets last June (2010) were built around the Deluxe.

I think that's about it.
Good luck.

Lost Sheep

magnum9 said:

Start selling the Classic Turret in a kit please. Then I would know for sure what to recommend a new loader.

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I got mine from Kempf.

https://kempfgunshop.com//index.php...facturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=41

I got my Classic Turret kit from Cabela's, but I think the Kempf's is the better kit.

Six years ago I bought a Lee Deluxe turret press. Within 4 weeks I sold it and bought a Lee Classic turret press. I've been using it ever since and I'm very happy with it. It's a much better press than the Deluxe press for all the reasons listed above. I especially like the heavier handle linkage and the much better ram.

The Kempf's kit is good, but too bad it doesn't come with the Pro Auto Disk. When I got mine, I bought it all seperately. Natchez had some pretty good deals. the rest I got from Grafs with my Dealer discount.

AlliedArmory said:

The Kempf's kit is good, but too bad it doesn't come with the Pro Auto Disk.

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Mine did... if you look at the bottom there's a window for "upgrade"... the PRO auto disk is a $12 option.

I have the Deluxe. The ^$(& small primer arm kept falling out and eventually broke. I have one on order.

I'm going to try this for another week, and see. i liked the speed over a single stage, but may have to upgrade to the Classic press.

Anyone want to buy a Lee Deluxe Turret Press? Lightly used

I have the Deluxe. The ^$(& small primer arm kept falling out and eventually broke. I have one on order.

I'm going to try this for another week, and see. i liked the speed over a single stage, but may have to upgrade to the Classic press.

Anyone want to buy a Lee Deluxe Turret Press? Lightly used

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Just keep the Deluxe if you can afford to and have the space for two. A man can always use two presses, for different uses. I pull the drive rod from my Classic and use it single-stage all the time for many reasons, you could do the same with the Deluxe. Bullet-pulling, bulk decapping or priming, bulk resizing, etc.

The deluxe is an ok kit, not bad for the money. That said, the Classic (both single stage and turret) rival anything similar at any price. Really good press for the money. I run the Classic Turret. It's cheap and easy to swap calibers, it makes good ammo, and it's as fast as any turret press I've seen. The deluxe is built much cheaper even though the price is only slightly different. In the long run if you load much you will be much happier with the Classic.

Skivvy Master said:

I have the Deluxe. The ^$(& small primer arm kept falling out and eventually broke. I have one on order.

I'm going to try this for another week, and see. i liked the speed over a single stage, but may have to upgrade to the Classic press.

Anyone want to buy a Lee Deluxe Turret Press? Lightly used

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I've talked to Lee CS about this as both my large and small arms broke from falling out. They suggested that I break the edges of the arm all around, and take 800 or finer paper to the entire thing. Also, clean out the channel that the arm moves in, there's a lot of gunk in there. That has worked for me, but to make sure the arm never falls out again, install a zip tie around the right front post so that the 'arm' of the tie is just above the primer arm at its lowest position. The tie will ensure that the arm doesn't get stuck in the shellholder and then fall out. Here's a photo

The Deluxe drops primers out of a slot in the ram to fall into a cavity inside the press base. But only about 90% succeed in their intended journey.

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Over 99.9+ % go where intended on my deluxe press and zero% go into the black hole after a simple-to-make plug.

Over 99.9+ % go where intended on my deluxe press and zero% go into the black hole after a simple-to-make plug.

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BUT, every week or so you have to unbolt the entire press to empty the spent primers from the press base. With the Classic press the spent primers fall through the ram into a tube which can be easily emptied without unbolting anything.

Just drill a 2" hole in the table below the press..... fixes that issue.

Thanks for the advice! I just did the small zip tie last night. I saw the suggestion on one of the pinned threads. The pics helps a lot.. it took me a minute to figure out the position of the zip tie.

I got the turet press in a package, so it only cost 100. The classic is only 85 or so.. it actually would have been less. Oh well. Now I have the auto disk as well..