Turret reloading presses

That deal at lee is a winner.
I have loaded an ice cream bucket or several of 9mm and .223 brass through my LCT and never any hitch using their pro auto-disk measures.

Most Lee stuff just works. I'm a fan, that press sits right next to a Dillon 650(An amazing piece of engineering), but I enjoy the LCT more.
 
Thanks, KMW1954 for your comments. I know it is possible to look into each case, but I've found even that isn't foolproof. I use a Lee Measure. There have been times when I've prepared 50 rounds, placed them in a carrier before seating a bullet, examined each case by eye and STILL had a faulty round. The only way that I've found to trust is to use a marked dowel in each case.
willr
 
use a marked dowel
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I have both powder checkers, I use the lock out die for straight wall cases.

And then there is that thing about; "How important is it to you?" I know the weight of the bullet, I know the weight of the powder and I know the weight of the case, when I finish I know the weight of the loaded round. I have thousands upon thousands of cases, there is no excuse for not being able to match cases by weight or by another standard.

And the there are all of those variables that I do not have, If the weight of the round is not correct it has to be the powder. And then there is the lock out die, I will not load on a progressive press without one; so I have a RL550B, I do not seat on one position and crimp on another because the 550 has a 4 position tool head.

And then there was that day at the range, a shooter/reloader was doing everything he could think of to pull the trigger on his S&W Model 66; he could not pull the trigger, he could not pull the hammer back, he could not advance the cylinder nor could he open/swing the cylinder out. He had missed one cases when dumping powder, he pulled the trigger, the primer drove the bullet out of the case and into the forcing cone without clearing the cylinder.

We stopped shooting and put our stuff up and offered to help, We drove the bullet back into the cylinder and then opened the cylinder. As soon as he got his pistol back he started loading 6 rounds, I suggested that was a bad ideal, we just drove a bullet out of the barrel on one case that did not have powder; I suggested the powder that did not make it into the case we had to remove could have made it into one of his other reloads. We offered to help him with his reloading, we offered to loan him equipment etc.. We offered to give him all the ammo he could shoot, the more we tried to help the madder he got. And that is the way he left.

F. Guffey
 
Well there is only one 100% sure way and that is to weigh each drop.

I once did a test with cases that were at target level and mixed in were cases that were 0.2gr over and 0.2gr low and I could not discern which was which with the naked eye. Then did it again only at 0.3gr and it was still almost impossible with the very fine pistol powders. I also don't think I could see the difference with a line marked on a rod. 0.6gr of AA#5 is not very much powder. Yet in many small pistol loads that is the entire spread from start to max. Try it! If you can see it then you are better than I am.
 
Try it! If you can see it then you are better than I am.
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Lock out die: A case with no powder will not allow the press to advance, the empty case will cause the press to lock up. The shooter at the range had 200 357 magnum rounds he loaded on a RL550B Dillon press; He did not know if each case had powder, he did not know if each case had the correct amount of powder. The last chance he had to check each case for the correct amount of powder was to weight the cases after loading. If he did not know the weight of the components there was a very good chance the variation in components could exceed the minimum/maximum load.

I have loaded 250 30/06 cases with a 17 grain spread in the difference in weight between the cases. It would be a scary thing if the difference in weight was caused by the powder charge.

Long before the Internet there were reloaders; I remember a few that claimed all they had to do was dip the case in the big drum of powder to fill the case and then seat a bullet. I thought that was a bad habit then and I believe it is still a bad habit. I do not try to get away with eye balling anything,

F. Guffey
 
Well there is only one 100% sure way and that is to weigh each drop.
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Many reloaders are consumed with variations, I have too many powder drops that do not weight powder, they measure in volume. When working with a progressive press I use lock out dies with straight wall cases. For bottle neck cases I use powder checkers.

F. Guffey
 
Although the original question compared Red to Blue, if the OP has not reloaded before, he would be wise to take baby steps first and go w/ a single-stage press.
 
Kevin the Lee Classic Turret can be set to single stage in less than 30 seconds. It is beginner friendly when one then steps up to auto index. I wish I had started with one.
 
F. Guffy, I think you missed the whole point or my last post. Go back and read it again and then think about it. No where in that post did I say anything about a non charged case.

Is your Lock Out Die going to detect a variation in powder of only 0.4gr from target? See I don't know because I've never used one.

Every lot of pistol bullets that I have ever checked did not weigh the same, some had variations of as much as 1 whole grain from high to low so no I am not going to sit and sort every bullet by weight so trying to weigh individual bullets to me is useless. But if you feel comfortable doing that then please continue.
 
When I started reloading a couple of years ago, I bought a Redding T7 turrett press. I load 9MM and .45ACP. I bought an extra turret so I have one set up on each caliber. I use a Hornady LNL case activated powder measure and have a lower assembly for each turret. I have two slide bar assemblies for the primer feed. One for both small pistol and large pistol primers.

I'm really enjoying the T7. It's built like a tank and, of course, could be run as a single stage.
 
Buying the Lee Classic Turret is a no brainer. It's great for a beginner also because you can look inside each case to make sure there is powder. I still do check every case as it takes very little time.
Many of us buy little LED gooseneck lamps to make it easier to see into the case. You made an excellent choice. There's a reason so many of us are very happy with ours. If you have any issues at all they will be easy to resolve.
 
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