Beefy New 8-Station Turret Press from Lyman
For 2018, Lyman has introduced a new 8-station turret press, the All American 8. There are two other new Brass Smith presses from Lyman — a compact C-Frame Ideal Press and a sturdy O-Frame Victory single-stage press that competes with the RCBS Rock Chucker. With its eight-station capacity, strong cast iron construction, we think the All American 8 will become popular. With a $195 street price, the 8-station Lyman is $100 cheaper than the 7-station Redding T-7. No question, that’s a significant price advantage, and we believe Lyman will take sales from Redding.
Our friend Gavin Gear of UltimateReloader.com got his hands on one of the new All American 8 presses, and he’s created an informative video showing press set-up and loading function. Gavin was excited to work with this beefy new turret press: “Why has this Lyman press been anticipated so highly since its announcement? A few reasons are: the 8-station capacity, cast iron construction, on-press priming system, ambidextrous design, and turret rear support for repeatable sizing and bullet seating. Plus, it’s made right here in the USA!” To learn more about the All American 8 turret press, watch Gavin’s video:
More Stations = More Reloading Options
Gavin said the press works well — he liked having 8 stations, because this offers more flexibility. With eight stations, you can have four two-die sets, or three two-die sets plus a dedicated decapping die and a powder measure. Gavin notes: “I’ve owned many reloading presses, including 3-station, 4-station, 5-station, and 7-station variants, but I’ve never owned an 8-station press until the Brass Smith All-American 8 came to the shop. I’ll have to say… you can’t get too many stations, especially on a manually-indexed turret. I love the idea that you can leave dies on the press, and load multiple calibers/chamberings using the same turret setup.”
Primer Function Works Well
Gaving also seated small and large primers using the on-press priming system. The Lyman All-American 8 turret press comes complete with all of the parts needed to seat both large primers and small primers. Gavin observed: “The All-American 8 loads quite well! Once I cleaned out the primer tube (always do that on a new press) the priming system worked perfectly, and I had no issues getting up to ‘full turret speed’ after getting into the groove.”
Why Use a Turret Press
This Editor has used a six-station RCBS Turret press for many years. I keep a dedicated decapping die on that press, as well as sizing and seating dies for pistol cartridges. My high-volume 9mm and .38 SPL reloading is done on a progressive press, but the RCBS turret allows me to have dies for two larger pistol chamberings — .44 Magnum and .45 ACP — at the ready. While we recommend single-stage presses for precision rifle reloading, the turret press offers great flexibility for handgun hand-loaders who shoot numerous cartridge types. And if having six die stations is good — having eight is even better. Advantage Lyman.
I was struggling with the math for a while. I reached for my calculator, log tables even a slide rule – but wait!
An 8 station press WILL hold 4 complete 2-die sets.
Thank you Lyman for clearing that up.
are lee’s presses only one that does not ‘cam over’=