Can I mount a hornady powder measure on a lee turret press?

**Mootness** · February 26th, 2012, 01:19 PM

I'd like to mount a powder dispenser on my press to speed up reloading. I currently load with a Lee Turret 4 hole press. I prime on the press, and have placed the red lee funnel on top of my lee powder through expanding dies. As I throw the lever spinning the turret around, my RCBS Chargemaster *almost* keeps up, but not quite (I seem to load at around 100 rounds per hour, regardless of the caliber or charge weight.) It really throws off the rhythm.

With the goal of making things go faster without buying a progressive yet, I'd like to add a powder dispenser on the press. Eventually I'll end up with a progressive press, so a dispenser I can use on a progressive later on is a bonus.

I'm leaning towards hornady's powder measure. If I mount it on hornady's case activated powder drop, will it clear the Lee safety prime and will it bell the cases for me so I can replace the lee powder through expander die? Will I also need the Hornady pistol powder drum?

Does anyone use this? How does it work out for you?

**Yoder** · February 26th, 2012, 03:11 PM

I kind of did the opposite of what you are asking. I mounted a Lee powder dispenser on my Hornady progressive press. The Hornady dispenser is really nice, but the standard kit doesn't come with the case expander. It's only a couple bucks but I just haven't ordered it yet. Right now I'm using the old lee setup and that works pretty good. I can't really answer your question since I never tried it on my turret press, but I do know you need the expander insert or else it just drops powder and doesn't flare the case.

**M&PEE** · February 26th, 2012, 10:24 PM

The lee pro disk works great very consistent throw and cheap to boot, i run the same set up and it works great.

**Mootness** · February 27th, 2012, 12:44 AM

Originally Posted by Yoder

I kind of did the opposite of what you are asking. I mounted a Lee powder dispenser on my Hornady progressive press. The Hornady dispenser is really nice, but the standard kit doesn't come with the case expander. It's only a couple bucks but I just haven't ordered it yet. Right now I'm using the old lee setup and that works pretty good. I can't really answer your question since I never tried it on my turret press, but I do know you need the expander insert or else it just drops powder and doesn't flare the case.

After pricing it out, the idea got canned.
Hornady powder dispenser, linkage arm, 1 expander, 1 powder die, pistol drum comes out around $180. Buying a Hornady progressive press comes with most of that, and comes in just under $400, and now I have a progressive press.

Sticking with the RCBS Chargemaster & Lee Turret combo limits my loading to 100 rounds an hour, but I can comfortable load max charges all day long. For speed, I'm going to try using the Lee dippers that come in the die sets for medium 38 spl loads.

**DucatiRon** · February 27th, 2012, 01:02 AM

Just order the Lee powder dispenser ( Pro Disk as mentioned above) from MidwayUsa and get it over with. They are like 40 bucks and MADE to work with your setup. They are case activated and easy to use.

And just to be correct you do not have a progressive press. You have a turrent press. The Pro 1000 is a progressive and others such as the Dillion 550 models and up. I think Lee is about the only company left that makes a turrent press.

**Yoder** · February 27th, 2012, 08:27 AM

Originally Posted by Mootness

After pricing it out, the idea got canned.
Hornady powder dispenser, linkage arm, 1 expander, 1 powder die, pistol drum comes out around $180. Buying a Hornady progressive press comes with most of that, and comes in just under $400, and now I have a progressive press.

Sticking with the RCBS Chargemaster & Lee Turret combo limits my loading to 100 rounds an hour, but I can comfortable load max charges all day long. For speed, I'm going to try using the Lee dippers that come in the die sets for medium 38 spl loads.

The Lee powder dispenser is really good and is cheap. If you buy the micrometer insert you can just dial in the charge you want and it's easy to switch back and forth for different loads if you know the setting. Just verify with a scale. I only check the weight of the charge every couple hundred rounds, it's that reliable. With my Lee Turret press I could load close to 200 rds/hr using this setup.

Just a heads up, with my progressive with no case or bullet feeder I'm running about 400 rds/hr.

**noylj** · February 29th, 2012, 05:04 PM

In case the question wasn't answered:
Yes, you can mount a Hornady, RCBS, or Dillon PTE powder measure on your press. You can also mount almost any other powder measure on your press (but they will be manually operated).
I consider the Hornady to be the best and the Dillon (which is simply an oversized Pro Auto-Disk) to be the easiest.