lee classic turret press question

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Michael R.

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hello,
i was wondering that if you have the lee classic turret press, and you dont want to use the lever priming feature, can you prime them seperately and then put them on the shellholder.
thanks
p.s. the reason im asking this question is because ive heard that lever priming is not the best way to prime. thats why i use the rcbs hand primer, you can feel the primer seat.
 
It doesn't make any difference how you prime. Both the lever priming device and the hand tools work equally well. For consistency I uniform the primer pockets before I prime the case. Uniforming helps ensure a repeatable feel case to case to case. As far as developing a tactile feel for seating on the press, it's not that much of a challenge. It's just different than a hand priming tool. I use both from time to time but mostly I prime in a separate step with an RCBS bench mount priming tool. You can remove the primer arm on the press if you prime via a different tool.
 
Are you reloading rifle or pistol ?

For rifle I remove the indexing rod and do batch reloading so I prime off the press with a handtool (after cases have been trimmed).

For pistol rounds I use the indexing feature and prime using the lever on the press.
 
i've ONLY primed using the press itself and haven't had any issues at all. You can certainly do it either way, but as far as loading for pistol i would imagine it would bring things to a crawl..........
 
Welcome to reloading and thanks for asking our advice

Yes, absolutely.

When you understand the steps of reloading, you can vary your approach any number of ways. As long as you get all the steps done. For some it is important which comes first and for some it does not matter.

One way: You can remove the depriming core of the sizing die if you want to deprime and reprime before doing anything else. (Use a universal depriming die, which does not size the case, then reprime with a hand tool.) Do a thousand cases and store them. Then, when you want to load, size (without depriming) and all the rest of the steps on the primed cases.

That is not the only way. Plan your process flow like any planner would lay out a factory production line. Examine various product flows and choose the one that suits you best.

I considered priming by hand, but the time penalty discourages me. Besides, I have not found that the "feel" is any better with my various hand priming tools (two hand primers, RCBS and Lee and one bench primer, RCBS) than my presses (RCBS Rock Chucker and Lee Classic Turret, Pro-1000 and Challenger). All I have to do is get used to how it feels on the press.

The RockChucker has plenty of leverage, so I use the lever gently with just fingers and feel the primer bottom out very easily - better in fact than I can feel it through the Lee hand primer's linkage. With the other presses, I have adjusted the operating lever so that it is close to the press frame. As the primer hits bottom, I can feel the lever's movement in relation to the frame by wrapping my hand around both. It is very easy to feel when the primer hits bottom.

Good luck,

Lost Sheep
 
Michael R. said:
can you prime them seperately and then put them on the shellholder.
+1 to Yes. :D

All my match grade pistol cases and all rifle cases get hand primed.

Range practice/plinking cases get press primed.
 
Yes you can prime off the press but it will be a lot slower. Kind of defeats the purpose of the way the press is set up. I have been loading on a classic turret five years and my safety prime works near flawless. If I was you I wouldn't go by what you have heard, I would set up the safety prime and see for myself. Also if you don't use the safety prime you will still need to leave one of the levers in the ram to direct the spent primers down the tube. If you leave it out you will end up with quite a few primers on the floor.
 
I tried both and found the on-the-press safety prime to be much much faster. My only issue was the occasional high primer, which is easily dealt with just by looking at each case before proceeding to the powder die. Priming on the press is definitely worth looking into.
 
If you wanted there's no reason you can't prime by hand & then resize in the press.
Of course you'd have to run them thru a standard depriming-only die first.
Just take the depriming rod out of the sizing die.

Or else just resize/deprime - take it out to prime & put the primed case in the press.
Seems like a strange way to do it on a turret press, but to each his own.

What ever SAFELY works best for you!
 
Are you reloading rifle or pistol ?

For rifle I remove the indexing rod and do batch reloading so I prime off the press with a handtool (after cases have been trimmed).

For pistol rounds I use the indexing feature and prime using the lever on the press.
I agree and that's how I do it.

Since you said you will be loading pistol ammo there's no reason not to use the on-press primer system. I have owned a Classic Turret press for over 6 years now and have loaded all my handgun ammo using the on-press primer system without any problems at all. Not one round has failed to go boom...
 
I have a little arthritis in my thumbs and have a hard time using the hand primer now. To me, the safety prime system on the press lets me feel the primer seat much easier than anything I have ever used, including the RCBS bench priming tool.
 
The lever priming system works just fine. Before I got my Classic Turret, I obviously did all my priming off the press using the RCBS tool. The lever prime system is much more convenient. For awhile I also loaded rifle cartridges on the Turret with the lever prime. No misfires, no issues at all with the priming system. I still use it for pistols, but I have come back to the single stage press for rifles, so I still use the hand primer just for rifles. But the lever prime system does just as good a job in getting them seated.
 
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