help with lee classic turret press and lee dies

[Hardatwork]

I have a lee classic turret press and I use lee dies . The problem that I have is the COL changes with every round that I load.some 1.128 to 1.140 Is it the dies or the press . anyone with experience with this please help. I am about ready to pitch it in the trash. can I use some other brand dies or would that help?

 

[Exposure]

Hardatwork-

I struggled with this EXACT problem when I began reloading on my Lee Classic Turret with Lee dies.

What I finally figured out is this:

The dies seat by pushing on the ogive of the bullet and not the tip. Since actual bullet lengths can, and do, vary from bullet to bullet the action of measuring the base of the case to the meplat is one that can make you go crazy. Take a handful of bullets from your box and measure from the base of them to the tip. You will find that they vary just like your finished rounds! There are tools available to uniform the meplat of your bullets so that every round is the exact same length. Unless you are reloading for benchrest shooting I don't know if I would go into that yet. I use COL as a rough starting point then tweak my dies from there for best feeding/best accuracy. Don't sweat it. Get it within .010-020" of what the book says and you will be fine.

I am assuming these are pistol rounds you are loading. Wait until you get into rifle rounds! I actually started out doing .303 British and the bargain basement bullets I bought were like .020-.025" +/- what I was trying to hit for COL! I thought the same thing you did, "This Lee stuff is junk!" Have faith, it isn't junk. Just get your COL close, work up your loads and go have fun at the range.

Hope this helps.

 

[Eagle103]

The COL varies a bit more with my Classic Turret than it does on my Rockchucker. I suspect it's due to the fact that the turret moves up and down slightly whereas a single stage press doesn't have that problem. On the other hand the variance is so small that there's no way I'm going back to single stage for pistol reloading because of it.

 

[strat81]

+1 to lousy bullets. Bulk bullets, especially Remington, can vary quite a bit. For bulk pistol bullets, I like Winchester. For bulk rifle, Hornady.

 

[RNG]

+1 on the play in the turret

I was having a similar issue with my Lee Pro1000. If I ran just one case through the press the OAL was spot on. If I ran it as a progressive, my OAL's were .005 longer than what I had it set to.

A Lee tech told me to "pre-load" the turret using the Decapping die. Raise the RAM, screw the die in until it touches the shell plate. Now as you're watching the turret, screw the die in a little more until the slack (play-movement of the turret) is taken up. Haven't had a chance to try this out yet but will this weekend. Asked if it would screw up the die and he said it would be ok and won't hurt it.

Sounds like it should work.

 

[Uncle Don]

Exactly - just adjust it out with the dies - there has to be some variance or the turret wouldn't move. Easily solved - the turret goes straight upward as opposed to cantelevering over a pivot like most turret presses.

The other variable is that seating dies don't touch the shell holder because of the crimp shoulder in the die, therefore any differences in case length and bullet length could come out. Without that shoulder, you would have what is common in the collet die set called the dead length bullet seater. That die is turned to touch the shell holder because it doesn't crimp, therefore, the same frame of reference in regard to the press relation to the die stays the same each time. Using a bullet comparitor to measure instead of calipers from the casehead to bullet tip, mine come out perfect.

 

[12Bravo20]

I setup my Lee turret press for COL of .980 for Berry's 100gr in .380 and it varies from .975 to .990. I haven't had any pressure or feeding issues because of it. I was getting a variation in COL with my single stage press too. If you are just loading plinking rounds then don't worry too much as long as the rounds feed well. I load all of my plinking loads on the light side. On average, I get a +.005" on COL.

 

[schenkelini]

Lee seating problem

I have also had the same issue loading 9mm. I found that if I used some spray lube on some of the cases the problem pretty much disappeared. It seems like there is a little binding when seating the bullet and that causes the variatio

 

[Werewolf]

suspect it's due to the fact that the turret moves up and down slightly whereas a single stage press doesn't have that problem.

Follow the setup instructions that come with the Lee dies and you won't have that problem.

At each die verify that there is no turret lift when you've pulled the handle all the way.

Adjusting COL is a function of adjusting both the bullet seating die and the factory crimp die. Follow the instructions that come with the die set for seating both very closely. It's easy to not do it right if you aren't paying attention.

In my experience I always set the bullet seat depth at that die about .002" long because when I factory crimp the round the bullets seem to go in about that much.

It is very possible, using a Lee Turret, to build cartridges with a COL of what ever you want it to be + .002" - which - having measured a number of factory produced non match grade rounds in various calibers is better than the commercial manufacturers do.

 

[FieroCDSP]

+1 on the bullets. I've been using bulk remington SP's for my SKS, and the variation on the tips is horrendous. Used most of a sheet of paper sorting them by length. I don't get much variation on flat point pistol rounds.

 

[RustyFN]

I'm with the bullet guys on this one. I load 9mm and 223 on a classic turret and my oal is never off more than .003. I just loaded 500 rounds of 223 tonight and the oal on every one I checked was between 2.245 and 2.248.
The 9mm rounds are off even less.
Rusty

 

[shadowalker]

I also loaded with the classic 4 station press and I found Lee dies leave a lot to be desired in the consistent COL department, I was also having pretty big COL swings, I changed to RCBS dies and even with the same batch of bullets my COL problem went away.

I was able to sell the rest of my Lee dies for what I paid for them and switched to RCBS and Hornady for pistol loading.

 

[Hardatwork]

Thanks for the help

After reading the posts form all of you I found that my problem is form lift in turret and play in the seating die adjustment. I have a spare turret and it has less play or lift so I will use it and I decided to get RCBS dies I think that will help with my problem. Thanks for all your help. P.S. Werewolf you suggested Follow the setup instructions that come with the Lee dies and you won't have that problem.At each die verify that there is no turret lift when you've pulled the handle all the way. ( I would like to know how you can apply enough pressure to seat a bullet and not lift the turret )

 

[stubbicatt]

At least with the rifle dies, you can get a "dead length seater die" from Lee. It actually contacts the shell holder, so you can get the same amount of turret lift each time, and the dead length is the same. +1 on the variations in bullet ogive to tip dimensions. The Lee dies seat on the ogive, at least in the rifle dies.

Unless you are loading to the limit of your magazine length, Pistol bullets variations in length don't seem to make that much difference in accuracy, at least not to me they don't. If your concern is excessive pressure due to bullet seating depth, you would do better to get a bigger cartridge or different powder, IMO.

I like RCBS dies too, but I really like the Lee finger adjustable dies for the seating die. I just wish they were a scosh longer so I could use them more often in my Dillon 1050.