My Father's Day gift arrived today ... a Lee Classic Turret Press .... and I already have it mounted to the bench. I can't do a full blown review on it as I haven't loaded any ammo on it yet but I can share some first impressions.

The press is more massive than I imagined it would be and it mounts solidly to the bench. The overall impression is it is a quality piece of equipement. It retails for $129, I got it from Lee Factory Sales for $79.95 and for that price it is a steal. It comes with the auto indexing feature enabled but I am not a "progressive" reloader. I batch load and do all the loading steps one step at a time so I have already disabled the auto indexing. I want to use it as a manual turret press and it will be the press I tote back and forth to the range.

The ram area is open and easily accessable. There are two press mountable priming arms (large and small) that are supplied with the press and I'll probably install one to check out functionality but I prime in a separate step with a different piece of equipment. The handle attaches easily and can be set up for right or left hand operation. There were no instructions showing how to attach the handle but it is pretty intuitive (if I figured it out anyone can). The press came with a light coating of machine oil and I wiped it down throughly before mounting it to the bench. Oiling and working the ram smooths it up pretty quick.

The turret - the 4-hole spacing is not real friendly to Forster or Hornady locking die rings. They interfere with one another when trying to mount the dies so a smaller die ring is needed. I think with a little bit of dinking I can get the Hornady die rings to work. Lee, Redding, and the older Herter's rings fit cleanly on the turret. There is a little slop in the turret but I don't know if this is problematic or not. I'll find out when I actually load some ammo. I think the detent ball would have been better served with a little stiffer spring and the turret could definately benefit from a second detent ball on the opposite side of the one in the turret housing. The turret lifts out by pulling up and turning at the same time, it's very simple to remove and install. I will most likely pick up a couple more turrets for quick set up. I can see where this would be very handy if you reload pistol ammo.

I will continue to use my single stage press for FL resizing but the turret(s) will be outfitted with the Lee Collet Neck Dies and sliding sleeve seat dies.

The overall impression is very favorable. I will let you know the results of loading and shooting the ammo when I get the chance.

I have been using one of the new Classic four hole presses for a year or so now. I use it exclusively for pistol ammo and it loads as fast as I can afford to load. I got the extenders so I could use my RCBS dies but added a Lee factory crimp die in each pistol caliber I load for. With the factory crimp dies I get a round that chambers every time and the accuracy is much better too. I love the auto indexing function. I initially had a bit of trouble with it getting out of time but once I got everything working and made a minor adjustment (the instructions on line are great), I now find that reloading pistol ammo is a no brainer.

I bought extra turrets after about a month and have my dies all set up in advance. This way I just change the turret, add the die extention for the power measure, mount the correct primer tool and feeder and I am off to the races.

I really like mine. Buy extra turrets when they're on sale as you'll probably be using it for more calibers than you thought you would initially.

I still use my Dillon for mass quantities of pistol ammo. The Lee works best for me on the 20-40 rounds batches of hunting ammo that I used to use my Rockchucker for.

There are two press mountable priming arms (large and small) that are supplied with the press and I'll probably install one to check out functionality but I prime in a separate step with a different piece of equipment.

I think you will find that you need to have a priming arm installed when sizing/depriming to keep the primers going down the tube.

I have considered making a plug to fill that slot up but just haven't got around to it. It takes just a couple seconds to put the arm in place and remove it.

I see there are two turrets in the Lee catalog, a 3-hole turret and a 4-hole turret. Are these interchangable on this press or will only the 4-hole turret work? They look sufficiently different that I'd guess they can't be switched out.

I think you will find that you need to have a priming arm installed when sizing/depriming to keep the primers going down the tube.

I have considered making a plug to fill that slot up but just haven't got around to it. It takes just a couple seconds to put the arm in place and remove it.

So when you make the plug, make two and sell me one.

It really is no big deal. If you could just find a little piece of foam or rubber of the correct consistancy I think you could cut a strip that would stay in place yet be easy to pick out if needed.

I don't usually use the priming arm either but I loaded some 45-70s for my brother and did not have a shell holder for my Lee priming tool. The priming arm works great if you ever need to use it.

I set up four dies in the one turret I have (25-06 Collet Neck Die and sliding sleeve seat die, 223 Rem Collet Neck Die and sliding sleeve seat die). I took the new press along with my newly assembled "portable" reloading kit to the range and set it up on one of the shooting benches. I loaded 25-06 ammo in real time as I was shooting it. That was cool. Today was the first time I ever loaded at the range. I didn't load for the 223 Rem (didn't take the gun today) because I ran out of bullets to laod. Now I need a new turret (or four) for the other cartridges.

I fit everything in a Rubbermaid portable tool box but may look for a littler bigger case to haul the stuff in. If this one were just 1/2 inch deeper I would be in fat city because the tool box has two stacking/removable trays. I can only use one of the stacking trays because of the depth of the press that lays in the bottom. The consequence of loosing one tray is not having near as many places to put the reloading tools and components.

The press/operator combo made as good ammo as ever while at the range and the press was definately a good addition to the ever-expanding handloading capabilitites. If I get a chance I will post a pic or two of the "portable" kit.

I see there are two turrets in the Lee catalog, a 3-hole turret and a 4-hole turret. Are these interchangable on this press or will only the 4-hole turret work? They look sufficiently different that I'd guess they can't be switched out.
They are not interchangable. The older turret press was designed for the 3 hole turret. The new press uses the 4 hole. If you have an older 3 hole press you can buy an upgrade to convert to 4 hole.
Like the other guys said, buy extra turrets and you can change out calibers and already have all the dies set up.
Enjoy your new press.