Turret Press Reloading for a Newb?

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Itsa Bughunt

New member
My latest interest in shooting is getting good with distance shooting and bolt action rifles. I got a Savage .308 and have done a little reloading with a Lee Loader. Next up may well be a 22-250. I enjoy reloading with what I have so far, and am window shopping a real reloading set-up. Through some YouTube videos I've become aware of turret presses. Is this type of press something a newb should attempt to use, or is it better to start with a single stage? I have a .40 s&w and a .38 so can these be reloaded on the same press that does rifle ammo?
 
Itsa Bughunt said:
My latest interest in shooting is getting good with distance shooting and bolt action rifles. I got a Savage .308 and have done a little reloading with a Lee Loader. Next up may well be a 22-250. I enjoy reloading with what I have so far, and am window shopping a real reloading set-up. Through some YouTube videos I've become aware of turret presses. Is this type of press something a newb should attempt to use, or is it better to start with a single stage? I have a .40 s&w and a .38 so can these be reloaded on the same press that does rifle ammo?
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Either a turret or a single is fine to start with. If the turret has auto index I would deactivate it to make it easier to learn the process.


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I usually recommend keeping things as simple as possible when beginning. As noted, you can (and should) remove the auto-index stem and work as a single stage until you gain some experience. Bottleneck cases require several steps not needed for most handgun cases so you'll be working with a single step process anyway.
The handgun cartridges can be loaded easily on the same press by simple changing dies or better yet, get extra turrets and keep your dies adjusted.
 
Your choice, either is fine. With 2 rifle and 2 pistol rounds, you could get a turret press with one extra turret, set up your dies once, and be ready to go. I have a RCBS turret press with a number of turrets set up for my various calibers. It's convenient for sure. That said, I worked for years with a good 'ole single stage Rock Chucker. Guess what...it still gets a lot of use.
 
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My take, buy the press you want. l started out with a Dillon 650 and utilized it similar to a single stage press at first while I was learning. I decided to go with the 650 since I decided early on I wanted Dillon's Powder Check System and a press that auto indexed. I would decap and resize the brass as one step. Prime the brass in a second step. Then charge the brass, check the powder level, seat the bullet and crimp in a the final step. Even today, I still use this method depending on what I'm loading.

A progressive press is more complicated since you have a lot happening with each pull of the handle. But it really wasn't that difficult to learn. Whenever I ran into a problem, I would call Dillon or ask a question at a couple of reloading sites. Buy once, cry once was may take on my press purchase.
 
For small batches of range or match quality ammo, my Dillion XL650 gets the most use. (1,000-5,000)

For powder or bullet test runs (10 or 20) my Lee Classic Turret gets worked out.
The Classic Turret is manually indexed, allows you to leave your dies set up, and tools like bullet pullers & swagers & universal decapping tools mounted so it's a 2 second set up for working brass or pulling bullets.
The extra turrets are cheap, so you can easily afford to leave turrets set up, and the machine doesn't require proprietary parts other than the turrets.
The press is inexpensive to start with, a 'Beginner' press that you will continue to use no matter how advanced you get.

Make no mistake, the Dillon XL650 is expensive in every way,
The base machine is going to run about $600, caliber changes are over $100,
If you do volume, case feeder is $250, bullet feeder is $500...

For someone that shoots a few hundred rounds a year, it makes no sense buying a machine that cranks out 600 rounds an hour.
It takes a LOT of adjustment & tuning to crank out 'Match' grade rounds, since it's primarily a volume production unit.

I still have a 'Rock Chucker', and I use it for very specific rounds.
It's slow, akward, but gives unmatched accuracy in making rounds.
I only use it for extreme long range rounds or bench rifle rounds, which I don't make a lot of anymore...

It's up to you when it comes to presses,
I recommend finding people in your area to visit so you can see different presses work, if that's possible. Nothing like first hand experience when it comes to yanking on a press.
 
If you are already using a Lee Loader then I don't see any problem with moving up to either the single stage press or a turret press as you should already have the basic concept.

My only suggestion would be to stay away from the smaller Lee turret press in your case and look to at least the Lee Classic Cast turret press for a couple of reasons. 1 is because it is taller and will handle the rifle cases much easier. 2 is because it's beefier and again will handle the rifle cases better.

There are other turret presses available as you are probably aware but the extra turret heads are much more costly as compared to the Lee.
 
Either a turret or a single is fine to start with. If the turret has auto index I would deactivate it to make it easier to learn the process. dallasb
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Yep.
I agree, I disabled the auto index 4 days after I set up my turret press and 20 years later, have not reinstalled it. I found I prefer hand indexing (lost no "speed") and I batch load only doing one or two steps at a time to a lot of cases. I recently bought a Co-Ax and found it to be a great press for those that are satisfied with less than 500 rounds per hour production :p, and except for the cost it would be a good starting press...
 
I appreciate the replies. I've seen some YouTube videos. In my much younger days I did my time as a production machinist, so the turret got my interest.

I notice some turret plates have more than 4 holes. What are those for? Is a turret press part of a progressive system, or does that get a different sort of press?
 
Disclaimer: I have never owned or used a turret press. I have used single stage and progressive presses.

By all means get the turret press. I'm serious. After all you CAN use the turret press as a single stage press if you so desire.

If someone would have started me off with a turret press I KNOW I would have saved a lot of time and I think maybe I would have never bothered to buy the progressive press.

I'm sure everyone would agree a turret press would be faster than a single stage press and still give you all the advantages of inspecting the round at each stage of production.

What I think would be incredibly handy would be to get a turret for each cartridge you load, set your dies up ONCE, and then you never have to set the dies up again---when you go from loading one cartridge to another you just mount the different turret.

I'm on record several time that I wish I would have got this press:

http://www.redding-reloading.com/online-catalog/49-t-7-turret-reloading-press

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/588482/redding-t-7-turret-press
 
The turret press gives you options, and I like to keep my options open. As others said, it can easily be operated as a single stage press, but you can also get down to around 20 minutes a box for handgun ammo. Even operating it as a turret, it lets a beginner (which I understand you are not) go slow, see each step of the process, and learn reloading simply and safely.

I think kempfgunshop.com has a particularly good deal on a kit. It isn't the regular Lee kit. They include the LCT press, primer and powder handling, and one die set, all for around $200. They offer some upgrades, particularly on the powder component, for a modest upcharge. Good folks to work with, too, in my experience.
 
I won't say which is better, that is pretty much an individual thing.

A turret is certainly not wrong no mater where you start.

On the other hand, a single press gets you going and you can figure out if the turret is really what you want and maybe better, which one.

On the other hand, I load up 5,000 or more a year and use a single press (Rochucker. )

At some point if I was shooting all the same bullet and powder and 5000 a year in that specific caliber and changing nothing a turret might make sense.

I now load 3 calibers regularly and switching around just does not seem worth the pain. That's me. I can set it up and crank out to my desires.

I do fine with the single and I haven't figured out where to put another one even if I wanted to. A couple of them might work out longer term.

And that could change, I have gone to an M die and I could see a progressive working for the sizing and primer punch out, then the M die.

Also would work for a dedicated de-prime and the other two.

So it can change for a lot of reasons.

But I still have my RCBS Junior and while its long retired form bench use, it goes to the range with me and I use it to tune COAL so I can load up groups of 50 and do my COAL tuning there.

Old presses never die, they just get repurposed!
 
Thanks for the input. I'm of the mind to wait a while and get the better tools. I had been contemplating the inexpensive Lee kit ($125) before I knew of the Lee Loader. My brother reminds me the first thing I need is a solid work bench.
 
To the OP;

I started reloading about three years ago, and my first press was a Lee single stage. My first cartridge was .223 Remington. Lots of steps to reloading bottle neck rifle rounds. So I learned each step of the process one at a time, in the most tedious way possible. And along the way I made a ton of mistakes. But because I was going so slow, I caught 99% of my mistakes before I seated a bullet in a case. On at least three occasions I didn't, which resulted in some laughable results at the range. Fortunately, I somehow avoided rounds stuck in the barrel or anything that went boom.

Last year I upgraded to the Redding T-7 that others have already mentioned. It's a huge leap forward. It's much smoother, more powerful, and just much more gratifying to work with. I would imagine that the RCBS turret would offer similar results.

At first, I think the biggest advantage to a turret vs. a single stage press for a newbie reloader is going to be the ability to switch from step to step without having to unscrew a die and replace it with the next one. Turrets are kind of "set it, and forget it," affairs.

But this may come back to bite a newbie, because knowing how to set your dies is pretty important. There have been times when an issue cropped up while reloading that had to do with how I set the die. As I've become more experienced (slightly), the reality is that exactly how I want my dies set has changed a little since when I first started. So in that respect, changing dies all the time with that single stage ended up working in my favor, because by the time I understood more about what I wanted, I'd reached a certain level of experience and a comfort level setting and resetting dies.

Anyway, overall I don't think you can go wrong either way, but in the long run I believe you'll end up using and growing with the turret style press more than a single stage.

P.S. Just a side note, but my other single stage, an RCBS Rock Chucker, is still bolted to the bench, mainly for depriming purposes, which you'll find is a very dirty process, and cleaning my turret press is enough of a PITA, that I decided to relegate that step to a single stage. My turret is much cleaner for much longer now. So, at some point you might end up with a single anyway, if you opt for a turret now.

P.P.S. I forgot to add, that I use the extra holes in a turret for another caliber, mostly. So for example, I have my 9mm dies and my .40 cal dies on the same turret head.

But they can also be for additional process dies, such as crimping dies, or powder drop dies, etc.
 
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Eighter way.

If you go turret press then you are able to have 2 sets of dies installed in each turret.

If you go single stage press then buy for each die one press to leave the die installed.

If you reload 357 mag and 9mm Luger for example then you Need 1 turrett press or 6 single stage presses. You could buy 6 of These Lee handpresses.

Believe me. You want the dies to leave in the press since each removing can Change the Setting a bit.

I started with an Lyman T Mag 2 turret press. I leave the 38 spl and 9mm Luger dies allways installed.
For the 380 acp I bought one Lee handpress with the Lee ram prime since I am not planning to reload the 380 acp much. Only for my CCW defensive ammo and I do not expect to defend myself on a regular Basis.
 
Personally, I feel the "which press should I buy" question is best answered by first answering 3 questions. What's my budget, what kind of ammo will I be loading, and what are my volume requirements?

From there it gets easier to figure out. It sounds like your primary purpose (for now at least) is precision rifle rounds and for that you're going to need to load in a single stage operation. It sounds like you also have a couple handgun calibers you may also want to reload and for that a single stage press would be painful in my opinion.

Answer: Lee Classic Turret Press

Your thinking was dead on, as several others have said the LCT will let you reload precision rifle rounds in single stage mode, and you can also load your handgun ammo in what I call "semi-progressive" mode with decent volume. I load 3 calibers and have a turret for each so I never need to play around with my dies again, just simply grab the one I want and it's off to the races. Get yourself the Lee powder drum and a rider to install it on your powder through die and you're cranking out ammo pretty quick.

For .223 I have my prepped and primed brass in loading trays and use my RCBS Charge Master to throw my powder charge. I then funnel the powder it into a case, put it on the press and seat the bullet, hand crank the turret over to the factory crimp die and pull the lever again. Then the finished round goes through a case gauge and into the ammo box while I hand crank the turret back to the bullet seating die. By the time all that is done my next powder charge is ready and waiting for me and I rinse and repeat. I can typically do about 100-120 rounds an hour doing it this way and I like being able to complete both die operations on the single cartridge back to back, rather than running 50 rounds through one die, then swapping the die and running them all through the second die.

For 9mm and .357 I again start with cleaned and primed brass (I hand prime everything on the couch with the TV on) and with the auto indexing rod reinstalled I can pump out around 300 an hour. After each completed round I just have to double pump the handle to skip the sizing / decapping die. With that kind of output I'll likely never get to the point I NEED a true progressive, tho I'll probably get one someday.

Bottom line, the LCT can do everything you need it to do, you can't go wrong.


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I use a Lee Classic Turret Press. It's very versatile.
It's very easy to use as a progressive Turret and it takes
about 3 minutes to go into a single stage mode.
I have a Hornady case activated powder drop that
really makes this Press a 10.
If you decide to buy one just buy the press and
put what ever you want on it. The disk powder drop
lee offers isn't expensive and it works well. Stay away
from the new case activated drop they're offering. They've
had many problems with powder falling out the sides
of the drum. Good Luck with what ever you decide on buying.
I will add, Cabelas has the Lyman Turret on sale right now for
$139.00 which in my opinion is also a great deal. It's a manual
Turret model. It's advertised on SlickGuns.
 
Regardless of which press you choose to start with, you are not locked int that press for life. Most modern reloading presses will last your entire reloading career, but you can try other presses (used presses are easy to get rid of/sell). My problem is I keep my presses and I have 4 single stage, one turret, and a new Co-Ax, not counting my Lee Loaders and hand presses...
 
For whatever it's worth I currently have 2. An old RCBS Jr3 and an old Lee Pro 1000, both of which came to me used but in good condition. I now also have an old Lee 3 hole turret coming to me from a member on another forum.

The 3 hole Lee will be used to compliment the Lee Pro 1000 in which the turrets are interchangeable. This way I'll have 1 turret, 1 die set for each pistol caliber that can be used on both presses.

Reason for the 2 presses, it's a pain in the rear to work up loads on the Pro 1000 when I'm only doing 20 or so rounds and I'm tired of removing dies to put them into the Jr3 and then moving them back to the Pro. Also doing it this way will add consistency as the sizing die and expanding die will never be moved. Nor will the crimp as all that will have to be adjusted is the seating depth which is easy enough.

When I work up a new pistol load with a different bullet or powder I like to load 10 at the starting load just for testing the function of the gun for auto loaders. I'll then load 20 in 0.1gr increments to test accuracy as I do not have the use of a chronograph. I then normally stop the load at 0.2gr below max as a safety margin.

As the others have said there isn't much to a single stage press and not much to go wrong. Turret presses are pretty much the same way with the difference being whether it is manually indexed or auto index. So look at them all and pick the one that fits your style, needs and budget. I honestly do not believe any one is any better than any of the others or will produce any better ammunition.
 
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