lee turret or second single stage ?

G

georgiacatweazle

New member
Need advice on whether to buy a Lee classic turret or another single stage. Nope, don't want to buy RCBS, Dillon etc.

I currently have a Lee single stage breech lock.

My reloading process is that I pre-process my brass and place in parts bins, i.e. clean brass gets de-primed, sized, re-primed (use the auto prime push thingy on the side) until i need to reload it.
then my re-loading phase would be flare, powder charge (have the auto drum). then once i had 50, i then swap out my die for the bullet seat and stuff in the bullet, and depending on caliber, i may have a seperate crimp die.
So, I was thinking about buying a $30 C-frame breech lock and doing the bullet seat on it. so i'd do my flare/powder on the main press and move the brass directly to the second press.

Now, what if i bought a turret ? would that be a better process ? I can add my auto drum, auto prime disk thing, maybe a die to error check the powder charge ? can i add a bullet dropper or any other automation to the turret ? seems like having two presses seems simpler almost ? i've never run a turret so it may be simpler that two presses like i'm thinking ?

Thanks
 
On the classic cast turret loading pistol, I put the index rod in, and do all the operations on the press. If I'm not crimping as a separate step, it is another pull on the lever to rotate the turret around.

For rifle in 223/308 I separate brass prep from loading and take the index rod out
And have the turret set up with a universal decapper, size die with decap pin removed, rifle charge die, and seat die.( Non military calibers I don't use a universal decapper)

I'll decap, manually rotate turret, size, then do the other brass prep ( trim,chamfer,deburr,brush neck,remove primer crimp,and brush primer pocket) as an operation.

I handle brass less this way and it is a time savings for me (about 20 seconds or less to do the prep work per case and I handle brass twice)
For pistol I handle the brass twice for a loaded round, once in the shell holder, once out.
For rifle I handle it 4 times twice in, twice out.for a loaded round.

Every additional operation you do on the turret besides the first one saves you 2 times not handling the brass to do.

Loading rifle I'll prime, add powder charge, and seat as a operation..

There are a lot of ways to do it, but this works well for me.
 
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thinking the processes through in my head, with a turret, you'd put in lets say a 38 special case, pull the handle to flare/charge, another pull to use a powder level checker, another pull for bullet seat (manual step of placing a bullet on the case), then final pull for crimp. this would be the same for my 45 acp. 9mm, 44 mag i don't have crimp dies for those.

if i think through using TWO presses, then i have to manually handle the case with powder (lost count of the amount of times i've dumped powder removing it from the shell case holder), then move it across to another shell case holder in press#2, then pull the handle to load the bullet. then if i'm crimping, remove the die from press#2 and feed them all through again.

so maybe the turret still would be twice as fast and less error prone dumping powder on the floor moving the brass around ??
 
If you load a lot of pistol rounds I would highly suggest a classic turret. I take an empty, fired shell casing with old primer still in, put it on the shell holder, and 10 seconds later it is a loaded round. I could probably load 200 an hour if I busted butt... But I tend to "relax reload" so I'm usually not in a hurry.

If most or all of your reloading is rifle I would go with another single stage. I have made accurate rifle ammo on my turret, but the slop in the turret when I push on the ram coming up doesn't instill confidence...
 
yes there is some play in the turret,
But I still use it for rifle.
A single stage (or pair) would remove all of that.

But for pistol, it is easy.
 
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i have dies for 223 but never done any yet. so everything i load is pistol.

i usually don't get a whole bunch of time to reload, so i tend to have to maximize my time. with a single stage and not rushing, i can get two boxes of 9mm in one hour. but i've got 5 calibers that shoot.
380, 9mm (bulk and special loads for my super B), 38, 40, 45, 44mag
ok that's 6 or 7 depending on how you count :-), but 380 not much and 40 even less, too annoying running those through the bulge buster.

so if a turret would let me get a box of 9mm loaded in half the time, that would be a big plus.
 
I have loaded literally thousands of rounds on a Lee Classic Cast turret press. I would recommend that press to anyone. For pistol, from fired brass to loaded round, it's four pulls of the handle (Fist hole os de-prime and size, second is flare and powder drop, third is seat and fourth is crimp). I set the auto disk and it works fine for me. I usually run about 150-175 rounds per hour, taking my time and looking at every charge as it goes up and down.

For rifle, I batch load. I take out the indexing rod, lube 50 or so, de-prime and size in the first hole, off the press case prep (tumble if needed, clean/cut crimp from primer pockets), then charge with powder individually with Lee Perfect Powder measure, then spin the turret to hole #2 and seat a bullet.

I think the turret is the only way to go, at least for me.

If most or all of your reloading is rifle I would go with another single stage. I have made accurate rifle ammo on my turret, but the slop in the turret when I push on the ram coming up doesn't instill confidence...
Click to expand...

As far as this goes, there is some play in the turret, but only so much. When the ram goes up and pushes the turret tight, the turret only moves so far before it tops out, and it's the same every time. I thought the same thing, and started checking every round with a mic and found they were all consistent. That aspect is mostly mental.

YMMV
 
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849ACSO - sounds good. given the gaps I have between reloading sessions, that would let me get enough ammo for a couple of range trips between loading. right now i have to sometimes skip a week or two due to no ammo on hand.
may splurge for the turret.

how do you keep the turret assemblies ? just shelf them ?
 
I leave the dies in the turrets, and put the whole thing, along with the shell holder, in a 1 pound coffee can with a handful of rice and a few drops of oil and keep the lid on when not using. TYPICALLY, I slap the turret in the press, attach the powder measure, do a little tuning on my powder charge and go to town. USUALLY never have to adjust the dies. I load 38/357, 45ACP, 223, 308, 10mm, 45/70, and 30-06, and have dies in a turret for each one. Caliber change takes MAYBE 5 minutes, depending on powder measure adjustments.
 
Yes it should come with one, additional ones are less than 15 bucks.
get a powder riser if you are planning on priming on the press with the saftey prime and auto disc powder measure. you will need it to clear the brackets for the saftey prime, and get a spare ratchet that turns the index rod or 2.
 
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From my own experiences, the more automatic features on the turret, the better it can be as compared to using two single stages.
Without the auto features, the difference isn't so great, and two singles will be practically hassle free.
 
I turned my old progressive loader into a turret style and have never looked back. The ability to change calibers with a twist is so cool. I can't see any advantage of a single stage press. IMHO.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
 
I don't know why you don't fully process your brass, inluding flaring in the first steps. When I load, I process my brass fully. When I have as many fully ready brass pieces as I plan on loading, I put them in blocks of fifty. Each block of fifty goes to the measure and directly to the seater, then boxes. It is a whole lot easier, IMO, to run 400 rounds of brass through the full process of size, flare, prime, and then charge and seat in another single step. My session loading is faster than what a lot of other people claim when using a progressive.

I know that there are benefits to a progressive loader, but speed is not necessarily one of them. Speed and volume are probably a bit higher in realy high volume reloading, quality of ammo may be better, but the outlay for a progressive is large, and even the biggest fans sometimes complain about setup.
 
to run 400 rounds of brass through the full process of size, flare, prime, and then charge and seat in another single step. My session loading is faster than what a lot of other people claim when using a progressive.
Click to expand...

The Lee self indexing turret is not a progressive, and no where even close to the price of one; and if you can run 150-200 rounds per hour (what I can run in handgun rounds on my four hole turret), up to 500-700 rounds per hour (what most progressives will do) on a single stage - you're the man!
 
I can do about that many in an hour. I forgot the distinction between turret and progressive for that moment. I still don't believe that the self indexing turret is any quicker than running bulk loads of brass to the fully processed stage, bulk priming them, and then finishing them up with charging and bullets, all done on a single stage. Once a person gets a rhythm going, processing is a matter of about two seconds per die, about that much for priming, and then nothing but charging and seating. Using a turret press, such as my lyman, doesn't speed things up for me. Rather than just spinning the turret, I just change in my properly set up dies.

With properly set up dies, there's no real lost time changing from one to the next. with six seconds to process, then you have about ten seconds per fully loaded round, and if there isn't a lot of fooling around with setup or changing, 300 an hour isn't unreasonable to ask, but i don't think that i reach that speed.

Simply put, I think that your self indexing turret is going to be about the same speed as my work on my single stage. No quicker. On some progressives wwith every component loaded into magazines, and such, the loading of tubes and other set up take up about as much time as is saved.

The biggest difference with my technique is that I spend a lot of time pumoing the handle, and i only do these things in twenty minute or so batches. Right now, every piece of brass I have is either fully processed or processed and primed, because I can do this stuff in short spells.

The reason I don't use that turret press is because the single stage doesn't require as much arm force.

It would help if I chould pass on the simple handling technique I learned.

Grab shell out of bin with index and thump. put into shell holder and work press. while press is in stroke, pick up new shell, move to press. Pull sized shell out, slip new one in, drop sized shell into box, repeat cycle as you cycle the arm.

Think about this process carefully, experiment with it, fiddle with it, get your hands trained to do it, and it is fast and intuitive. I use an rcbs hand priming tool, 200 primers take a matter of a half hour at the most to run. The key is to not fool around with a box or two of ammo at one time, going through the whole process over and over, the key is to go to the room where 400 or even a thousand pieces of brass are waiting, primed and ready, and you've done all of that drudge work in ten or twenty minute increments, eight seconds per shell to make it ready to load. a video would help but I'm not able to host one.
 
get the turret, I started the same I have a breech lock and last year bought the smaller turret press for handgun cartridges. yes the kit comes with a plate. I have plates for 380's/38's /357's and 44's each has there own dedicated set off dies and a pro auto disc powder measure installed. its nice to just pull the plate and drop the other in and its all set and ready to go, I use my breech lock to load for my 30/30 and 300 savage. I like the turret because it is faster but one still can keep a eye on every step...
 
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