Lee Loader

Hey, forum,

At my last match I found problems with my .38spl ammo. Some cases are just a hair shorter than others, and on these my crimp was not suffitient. I had two rounds teleskoping together in the mag tube of my Winchester 66.

I got about 800 rounds of that ammo left, and I don't want to have that happen again. Decorking them, reuse powder and bullets would be too much of a hassle, so I thought I just put a bit more of a crimp on them. I can't put loaded rounds through my pro1000, so I needed another idea.

Just a few weeks ago I ordered a LEE classic turret, that arrived just in time for this project.

I put an Inline Fabrication reverse indexing rod on it, and the custom made four way case kicker. All I needed now was four identically set seat/crimp dies... or a non indexing turret. So I drilled out the square hole in the bottom of one of my turrets, and voila: a non indexing turret on a reverse indexing shaft with custom case kicker.

Please have a look on my video to see how it works. I didn't show the turret underside, I guess you all know how a hole looks like, and because I only had my mobile phone to capture the video, I couldn't feed cases. But it's obvious how it works.

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Interesting modification. I've actually been thinking of doing a one time mass processing of all my pistol brass just to get it all the same length because of the same issue.

All you need is a spare turret, and I used a countersink drill bit OD 16mm to clean out the square hole.

Fyodor wrote:All you need is a spare turret, and I used a countersink drill bit OD 16mm to clean out the square hole.

Fyodor, you could have also removed the indexing rod and used the new primer arm case kicker :-)

I could have done... If I already had it printed. I needed to dig out one of the primer arms from my collection to get the bottom part, because the sample was lost my the mail service. I guess I could have the first try made by mid of September. If that works, I'll have a few made and sent back.

Fyodor wrote:I could have done... If I already had it printed. I needed to dig out one of the primer arms from my collection to get the bottom part, because the sample was lost my the mail service. I guess I could have the first try made by mid of September. If that works, I'll have a few made and sent back.

Thanks, I know another reloader here in Ohio with a 3D printer. If the files are compatible, he says he can print some for me closer to home.

Update, including pictures and new video (old one's gone):

This is the mod to the turret itself: The setup... just on the bottom left edge of the pic you see a second acro bin left to the other one. I put the untreated cases there, ready to be picked up, and the machine will fill the right bin with the finished cases by itself. The reverse index rod came with a clamp-on chute for the bin, but when you put the bin on the far right, so it touches the press body, you don't need it. I only dropped two cases during my last session, and they flew over both bins then I slowed down a bit. Close-up of the Inline Fabrication reverse indexing rod and custom 4-way case kicker. Note the orientation of the shellholder. I tried it in a more comfortable forward angle, but that didn't work well. And now for some action:
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That kicks the case out pretty good so you don't need a chute at all.