Lyman Brass-smith All-American 8 Turret Press

Lyman’s history dates back to around 1878, when it began offering bullet moulds, tong tools, gun sights and other shooting-related products.

- Brian Pearce

While the company has acquired several other firearms accessory companies in the past couple of decades, its core business remains reloading presses, dies, bullet moulds, scales, reloading manuals and sights. New for 2019, Lyman is offering an impressive eight-station reloading press known as the Brass-Smith All-American 8 Turret Press that replaces the T-Mag II press. Upon examining a prototype, I was impressed and immediately placed an order.

In evaluating an All-American 8 production version, I have been especially pleased with its features and overall quality. For example, the heavy duty frame is constructed of cast iron, as are the turrets. The ram is one-inch steel and is hollow to allow spent primers to travel through the center of the ram, then through an ejection port and into a primer catcher. Naturally, the leverage system is a double-compound design, which makes sizing cases, even large cases, easy. The handle measures approximately 15 inches long and features a round handle for comfort. The handle is also easily changed to either right or left hand operation, which along with the open front design results in a true ambidextrous press.

The ram fits very snuggly into the presses’ body, which results in virtually no movement, and ram alignment with each of the eight “stations” is excellent. The press opening is large and easily accommodates large (or long) cartridges such as .500 Nitro and .375 H&H. The press opening from the top of the ram to the bottom of the turret is just a tad under 5 inches, making it the largest press of its kind currently available in the U.S. It is finished in Lyman orange powder coat, resulting in a tough, durable, oil resistant finish that cleans up easily.