I received my new Lyman T-Mag II turret press.
Background information is that I have been loading with a Lyman Spar-T turret press for nearly thirty years. Except when I was on vacation and used a Lee handloader for .38/357 loads. During the years I have accumulated dies from Lyman, RCBS, Hornaday, and Lee.
At the time I purchased the Spar-T I also got the priming tubes. Now days I only use them when loading a lot of handgun rounds. But after see a one-eye handloader who had a tube full of primers go bang on him I have not trusted them. He was loading on an automatic machine of unknown brand. But the scaring from the burns and the loss of his eye presented a rather dynamitic picture. I do most of my priming with a hand primer after seeing the results of his accident.
I watched the UPS truck park out front but I did not rush out. Rather the UPS driver carries it to the door. I mean I paid good bucks for delivery. The Lyman T-Mag II press has gained weight over the old Spar-T.
My current plan is to use the Spar-T press for handgun rounds and the T-Mag II for rifle rounds. I hated getting my dies adjusted just right and the project was done, and I needed to pull them because I wanted to load for a different round. You would think that a head that handles six dies it would not be an issue, but life does not work that way. I’ll still have to change dies at times, but if I no longer have to do that for auto loading handgun rounds I will be happy.
One of the issues I had with the Spar-T press was the spacing provided in the turret head. If I only used Lyman dies the spacing was not a problem but the big old RCBS lock ring is too fat and would not fit. I was always robbing the hex nut from my Lyman dies to fit on a RCBS die. In fact I decided to buy a bunch of hex nuts to solve the problem. With the purchase of the T-Mag II I will not have to do that. In fact one of my justifications was the saving of forty dollars.
The little bit of assembly required was simple. I was unhappy with the blood flowing from the web of my hand. The RAM has a groove in it for the priming arm. The edges of the groove were razor sharp and shaved some meat off me. I touched up the edges with a small stone and that is no longer an issue.
My wife made a remark to the fact that reloading could be dangerous after seeing the blood.
The removable press head has six holes in it for dies. Extra heads can be purchased. I set it up with a Lee decapping die to the right. In the second hole I put in a RCBS Small base for the .300 Savage, full length resizing die, and in the third hole the RCBS bullet-seating die. I was careful to properly adjust the dies on installation. I used a loaded round to get the proper bullet seating depth.
Unlike the old Spar-T the new press has a handle to turned the turret head. The head turns and locks in a positive fashion
After loading a hundred rounds I am happy with the results. I like how the press worked, it is very smooth and almost effortless. As recommended I used dry graphite to lube the ram. Admittedly part of the happiness comes from good preparation, tumbling, trimming, a chamfering the case mouth.
