Reloading Press Questions

The turret press is great.

The auto press is a pain in the rear. I inherited one recently, and I lose more hair every time I use it.
 
I've got no first hand experience with the press so I cannot comment on it but you could check out the 1-star reviews in Amazon if you want some critical reviews of the press.
 
Purty sure the answer is no, the Loadmaster can't be used as a single stage press.
The turret can be used as a single stage press because the shell holder is stationary, and the part that rotates the dies can be removed.
But the Loadmaster progressive action can't be disabled that way.
The dies stay in place and the shell holder rotates.
There's plenty of youtube videos showing how both presses work.
 
You are contemplating a Lee Press?

I have loaded for over 15 years; and am STILL learning. I started on a Lee Classic Turret. EXCELLENT BEGINNER press, highly recommend. Moved on to a Lee Pro 1000. Thank goodness I am mechanically inclined. Finally got it to work and made some good 38 special rather quickly. Stepped up to a Load Master. More mechanical frustrations. Made some decent ammo of various sizes. But what a pain. Finally "graduated" to a Dillon 550B. Everything you hear about a Dillon is TRUE. Expensive, but worth every penny. My Lee equipment stays tucked away on the bottom shelf of my reloading cabinet. I DO use other Lee products. Most of my dies are Lee, all of my "active" lead molds are LEE, though I do have a few from Lyman that I have never used. I am not a Lee "basher", but at 63, I have had ENOUGH frustration in my life. Only feature I miss on the 550B is the auto-index feature. That is available on the 650 but you enter a much more expensive realm of "gear". With the 550, my error, I did double charge a 38 Special.:mad: Fortunately I was firing a S&W 640. That double charge error is really minimized with an auto-index feature.
 
There are different ways of looking at what makes a turret press specifically useful:

--ability to do different things to the same piece of brass while handling the brass only once

--ability for LIGHTNING fast caliber swaps

IMO, the second point is the true genius in a turret press and only the Lee turret presses have that ability. The first point is far down the list, as I see it. As a "poor man's progressive", a turret press fails to deliver and always will because it lacks the key ingredient of a progressive -- a shell plate. If you don't have a shell plate, every thing you do will always require a pull of the press handle and only one piece of brass will be addressed.

For these reasons, I beleive that any Lee brand turret press is a wonderful upgrade to a single stage. But as a substitute for a progressive, no turret press will do.

Between the two listed choices, I would prefer the Lee Classic Turret press.
 
Of the two the Lee Classic Turrent Press is the only way to go to do what you want it to do and trust me you will not regret it
 
Yes, sort of.

rfxcasey said:
I was thinking about getting a Lee Classic Turret press which to my understanding can also be used in single stage mode. My question is can I do the same with this press {the Lee Loadmaster progressive press-for the link, see the Original Post}
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With respect to G.Willikers (who knows a LOT and is right on this one, too, sort of):

You CAN use any progressive as a single stage. You remove all but one of the dies and run your batch of cases through the press and they will be processed by that one die (riding around the shell plate, rotating under the empty stations). Then you (just as you do with a single stage) swap to the next die and run your batch of cases through the press. Repeat with all the dies and you are done.

There are other drawbacks than the obvious one of being slower than continuous processing (which the progressive is designed for and turrets-particularly the auto-advancing turrets offered by Lee, but other makers' manual-advance turrets can do it, too).

The press ram is not aligned under the die. This off-axis alignment (depending on how stiff and strong the press is and how much force is required to process the cartridge in any particular die) can give rise to some eccentricity (or runout) in the finished cartridge.

There may be a bit of increased wear on the ram (also due to the off-axis forces), but I suspect this to be minimal.

There may be other drawbacks but I cannot think of them at the moment.

In many threads, I have seen testimony of people who recommend using progressive presses (and turret presses) in single stage (batch processing) during one's learning to load. So, I infer that it is not an uncommon practice. I never felt the need. When I picked up progressive presses, I just slowed my speed, checked each station in turn after each stroke and after each and every station passed muster, made another stroke of the ram.

Having said that, let me tell you that I traded off my Lee Pro-1000 presses for a Lee Classic Turret. I am much more relaxed after a loading session now. Caliber swaps are a matter of seconds and I achieved a production rate of 100 rounds in 47 minutes my first time out (and that included replenishing the primers, powder bullets and brass as well as boxing and labelling the finished product).

To my mind, your choice depends largely on your 1) quantity of ammunition required and 2) number of different chamberings you will be loading 3) how much space you will devote to your loading bench, 4) if you will leave it set up pernamently or put it away after loading sessions and 5) how much you want to (or can) spend.

Thanks for asking our advice.

Lost Sheep
 
I bought one and it worked very well for the first few hundred rounds. But one day it did not want to index. The plastic shoe got damaged I do not know how. I could not get any replacement parts in South Africa. So I sold it. I then bought a RCBS PiggyBack and found it to be exciting. RCBS replaced all missing parts. That is service! I had bought a RCBS Ammo Master yesterday and it would probably replace the PiggyBack later.
 
Only 10 left in stock

wait

(more on the way).

No rush.

I have a Herters turret press, 6 positions and I have the Herter 2 ram press.

F. Guffey
 
I started with a hand press, no bench mounting.

Then I got a Lee 'C' (open side) bench mount, one die at a time.

My next press was an RCBS Rock Chucker when I got into bench shooting,
Ultra accurate rounds from a Rock Chucker.
One die at a time makes it slow.

Competition rimmed wheel gun rounds were just too slow,
I got a Lee Turret press, 3 stations in the turret, and I still use it for small batches to this day.
It's what they call a 'Classic' Turret Press now, mines been running for 30 years with no issues at all.
Caliber changes take about 30 seconds.
Changing from one die to another is a flick of the wrist, and your dies are always set up after you adjust them once.
Can't really recommend it higher! No plastic parts that give up, no complicated parts to adjust, uses common dies and shell holders, works exactly as advertised, maybe better.

When the Lee Progressive came along, a buddy got one,
Spent a month trying to get it set up correctly and waiting on parts that have up right away.
Plastic parts will always be a weak link...
It was a pain in the butt I finally gave up on.

I finally decided to make the jump to a progressive,
About two years ago I got a Dillion XL650.
Good thing I'm a machinest and parts designer by trade or this thing would have made me beat it with a hammer...
Half the press has been redesigned or tinkered with in some way,
And it took two weeks to get it running for reasonable match quality rounds.
Caliber changes take close to an hour by the time you tear it down, change shell plates, feed ramps, bushings, swap cams around, pull the primer feeder down to loose parts and swap everything, then get it tuned to run the new caliber...

In my spare time I'm working on a CNC produced aluminum version of a couple critical parts that are plastic on the Dillon
I made a point of buying a spare parts kit, but I still don't trust plastic parts.
 
JeepHammer,

Thanks for the review of your loading career (and the prsses that populated it) Very informative and echoes my experiences.

I do have one correction.
JeepHammer said:
I got a Lee Turret press, 3 stations in the turret, and I still use it for small batches to this day.
It's what they call a 'Classic' Turret Press now, mines been running for 30 years with no issues at all.
Click to expand...
Lee's Classic Turret and Deluxe Turret, the Classic Turret design is the newer of the two and has never had a 3-station turret disk.

The Deluxe Turret has an aluminum base, the Classic Turret base is cast iron.

The Classic Turret has a full inch more vertical space/clearance (the base being flatter and the base of the Deluxe being taller, thus losing some clearance).

The Classic Turret drops spent primers down the center of the ram. The Deluxe turret has a smaller-diameter ram and drops primers down alongside the ram. (and a percentage of them bounce onto my floor)

There are other differences, but the Classic Turret is clearly superior to the Deluxe Turret, though they both operate exactly the same way and both will perform admirably (as long as you don't need more than 4 -or for the older models, 3- die stations).

Lost Sheep
 
drops primers down alongside the ram. (and a percentage of them bounce onto my floor)
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Reloaders chasing primers, nothing I can do about it, I am always reminded of a commercial by Chevy Chase. Seems he wore golf shoes with cleats to a board type meeting. I was asked to remove my shoes at Newark International airport, I had at least 20 primers that had imbedded into my shoes, they had been there long enough the only thing left was small metal rings.

F. Guffey
 
Oh I agree on the Safety Prime system. Great system all around.

Unfortunately seems I lost the large primer lever, and had to order another. :(

Even so using the RCBS hand priming tool is likewise a pleasure.
 
I was thinking about getting a Lee Classic Turret press which to my understanding can also be used in single stage mode.
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I started out a few years ago with a Lee Classic Turret press and I'm still using it - love the simplicity and the fact that you can swap dies at a moments notice by setting up a turret plate for each caliber. And yes, you can lift out the center rod and use it as a single stage press (when powder was scarce I primed 100's of rounds this way.)

I'm not as pleased with Lee's auto-disk powder measure, mainly because IMO most powder throws seem to vary by more than 3/10th's of a grain. Plus, it hates larger flake powders. Worst of all, even when it was throwing consistent charges once in a while I'd get a heavy charge that put me a few 10th's over the Never Exceed charge. I discovered this when I collected my brass one day and found a round that was obviously seriously overpressurized. I started checking every charge I threw and got some seriously scary results! I bought a Lee charge bar and again, just not consistent enough for my tastes.

I ended up buying an RCBS Loadmaster to throw charges for my .40 S&W because I need these to be as consistent as possible, and I love the thing so much I use it for all the calibers I reload now.

Good luck with the Lee Classic Turret; it's a great value for the money, and so what if you have to pull the handle 4 times to make a round? I'm not in it for speed, but quality and satisfaction!
 
You didn't go in to detail about what you saw, but I would suggest that you may have jumped to the wrong conclusion. While I will also NOT allow a thrown charge variance of three-tenths of a grain, it's not at all likely that a perfect load at X charge weight will then show a piece of ejected brass that is "obviously seriously overpressurized" with visual signs on the brass at X+0.3 grains of powder.

Especially with .40 S&W, my first suspicion would be unintended and completely unnoticed bullet setback.

Looks great when you seat the slug, in the ammo box and even in the magazine, but a rough feeding cycle slams the bullet deeper in to the cartridge case inside a pistol that's in full battery-- the shooter would never be able to see it before firing and only witness evidence of it after discharge.

It has long been my theory that this is a large part of the source of .40cal's reputation in this regard. High pressure cartridge, small space to operate, case mouth tension/bullet pull becomes CRITICAL.
 
To answer you first question, yes a Load Master be used as a single stage press and a turret press and as a progressive.

I had a Lee turret press and then moved on the Load Master. I am glad I learned on the turret press. With a single stage press and a turret press one thing is happening each time you pull the lever. You can feel each time you pull the lever what has happened. In general, you can tell based upon the feel if it happened correctly. With a progressive press and specifically a Load Master, five things are happening at the same time and you loose that feel. With a progressive press you can mess up a lot of bullets in a short period of time if you are not experienced and careful.
 
To throw in my two cents, if you are thinking you will be a long time handloader/reloader go Blue. That is, consider purchasing a Dillon press I own several presses, including an old Pacific C , a Lee Classic Turret, a RCBS Rockchucker, and several Dillon progressive presses. I use the Pacific, Lee and RCBS as designated presses for small batch single stage loads, usually for bolt rifles. And my Dillon presses, a XL650 and a Square Deal, for larger batch handgun and AR-type loads. If I could only keep one it would be my Dillon XL650 hands down. It is easily the fastest, most reliable and versatile press I own. Switching calibers takes all of about 5 min, 10 min if you change primer sizes. Not only is the XL650 an auto indexing progressive press, Dillon sells a kit that converts a 550 or a 650 to a single stage press, as well. The 650 is expensive but WELL WORTH IT plus the Dillon customer service is excellent. -Tony
 
I would prefer the Lee Classic Turret press have one and it a pleasure to use. It main job these days is to turn our a few hundred 223 a week. Use it mainly for rifle ammo. It can turn out hand gun ammo with the best of them. 45,38, 9mm and 380 are a few that worked great for me. Changing calibers is the charm it takes two minutes. If you enjoy reloading it a true bargain. Can't do that with Loadmaster.:)
I also own two Dillon Square Deals in 45 & 9mm if you can afford them do it.
 
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