Your pick for a new turret press

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techmike
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Your pick for a new turret press

Post by techmike »

I have for many years used a Lee Turret press for all of my handgun calibers, but I am tired of replacing the little plastic index parts. ( I have a powder dispenser attached, and the extra mass tends to wear out the auto index parts) So, am starting to shop for a new turret press, what's your favorite?
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Re: Your pick for a new turret press

Post by Sevens »

I don't use a turret press, I use a semi-progressive hybrid system that gives me production where I need it but provides attention to detail where I demand it.

Personally, I believe there exists only one turret press in the world that is worth owning, and I'll explain why I believe this--
It's the Lee Classic Turret. Because with the exception of the old-school original Lee turret press, there isn't another "turret press" on the market that indexes itself and for certain, there is not other turret press on the market that has low-cost and ultra-quick swappable turrets.

Frankly, I can't even understand the draw to one of the big Lyman, Redding or RCBS turret presses. The "turret", while it revolves, is like a fixed part. It's a large thing and I don't believe folks buy "other" turrets and fill them with dies. What you end up with when you buy a Lyman turret press is a large, sturdy and quality tool -- that holds 6 or 7 dies, and you can flip quickly between dies. Which sounds fine...if you only load 2 calibers (handgun) or 3 calibers (rifle) but any more than that? You are again screwing dies in & out.

The genius behind the Classic Turret isn't the indexing, it's the quick-swap and extremely low-cost turrets. With them, you can dedicate a turret to each different caliber that you load and keep all your dies screwed in, adjusted, and at the ready. It takes but seconds to swap them.

As for using an indexing turret press (the Lee) as opposed to single stage loading, I can see an upgrade in production, and I can see how much more enjoyable it would be to handle each piece of brass less times -- you put the brass in the shell holder once and then perform a series of operations on it before you handle it again.

But I sure like my system FAR better, and I do 13 different calibers of the 17 that I load using my machine and I can do this on a pittance of the cost it would take to outfit even a Hornady LNL AP or god forbid, any Dillon machine to do it. I have no doubt whatsoever that both of those machines are better machines than the Pro-1000 I am using, but the difference in cost is not small. My calculator explodes if I try to price out a 550 or 650 for 13 different calibers. :shock: And because my machine is progressive (though I limit it's functions), I'm doing multiple jobs with each and every throw of the handle, where even a self-indexing turret press can perform only one operation. Without multiple pieces of brass in a shell plate (as opposed to a shell holder), you'll forever be stuck doing -ONE- thing with each throw of the handle.
I like to swap brass... and I'm looking for .32 H&R Mag, .327 Fed Mag, .380 Auto and 10mm. If you have some and would like to swap for something else, send me a note!
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Re: Your pick for a new turret press

Post by Gaspode »

Dillon 650.




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Re: Your pick for a new turret press

Post by techmike »

As great a rep as Dillon has, I do not think I could afford to go that route. Sevens, your Pro 1000 looks interesting, does it use 3-hole turrets? Must one use Lee dies so the powder measure will function?
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Re: Your pick for a new turret press

Post by evan price »

The lee turret would be my choice of turret presses. The steel one is as good as anything painted a different color. I still use the aluminum based one that looks like a Pro-1K, I just removed the auto-index parts and manually index it.

The Pro-1K uses a plastic index piece like the turret press, just a different one.

The Lee Powder-Thru-Expander die is needed to make a lee powder measure actuate. Or you manually trip it.
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Re: Your pick for a new turret press

Post by SMMAssociates »

I have a Dillon 650....

You can easily spend $800 to buy the fool thing, and another caliber can cost up to $200 if you want to quickly swap 'em. Knock a tad off if you don't mind resetting the whole mess for another caliber, and don't forget that the shell plate and primer feed assembly may need swapping too. (As well as one in the case feeder if you didn't cheap out like I did.)

It's a bit Rube Goldberg, IMHO, but reliable, and SOLID. Every once in a while a case won't quite line up, and the die will cut it in half without you noticing it!

Get the "Strong Mount", one of the two roller handles, and the loaded case powder warning, too. (The mount comes with the screws to tie the thing to your table. Otherwise you have to scrounge them. The roller handle seems better than the ball handle that comes with the thing, but YMMV.) I cheaped out on the case feed, and haven't bought that powder sensor yet. (There's also a powder sensor for the powder measure - I can't see any reason for it. The primer assembly does include a low-primers alarm.)

Lots of stuff to do to change calibers. Not all that difficult, though. With the components being hard to find, I've stayed with .45ACP thus far, and I'm happy that I did - lots of minor tweaks to make other components work. Once you standardize, though, it's probably best to crank out six months worth of ammo (or a year's worth?) and then switch calibers. I'd probably lose my mind if I was switching calibers right now.

I'm told that there's an RCBS press that's as good as the Dillon at a lot less money. Dunno - I bought the Dillon because a buddy has one, and we can share parts and expertise, and the dealer will do about anything but a house call if you need help, too. (He might do that, too :D....)

The other option is to buy a bunch of cheapies - one in each caliber you want to load.

Just IMHO, the Dillon is just short of "factory" quality - serious hardware. The Lee that another buddy picked up for under $200 is a toy. OTOH, he probably won't put 1,000 rounds through the thing in two years. I'm nibbling at 2,000 since last October, with three different types of projectile and two different powders (and need more primers RSN)....

One downside that I ran into - it seems like the guy who did the manual built a dozen or so before writing it. You almost have to figure out how some things work before you can figure out how the installation has to be done. Lots of pictures & such, but Heathkit, it ain't....

Reminds me of:

To Fix Your Carburetor:

1. Remove air cleaner

2. Fix carburetor

3. Replace air cleaner....

I'm not sorry - I saved a lot of money for a long time to pay for this thing, and I'm saving a ton (even at today's prices) reloading my own v.s. buying Lord-Knows-What reloads, but right now, finding components is interesting.

FWIW, I probably don't need the capacity. Some nights we shoot more bull than bullets, and 50 rounds may be too many for the session. Other nights it's a lot more. Just depends on who shows up and what else is going on.

ALSO, don't forget a case tumbler and media separator. About $150 should be plenty, and those work for all calibers. DO sort your brass by size before cleaning it. Little cases have a habit of getting inside bigger ones.

Regards,
Stu.

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Re: Your pick for a new turret press

Post by Sevens »

Hmmm, longest Stu post that YET does not mention a daughter or a cat! :wink:
SMMAssociates wrote:It's a bit Rube Goldberg, IMHO, but reliable, and SOLID.
I'll argue that you've misused the essence of the term "Rube Goldberg."

If you set up a run of 400 dominoes, each of which must fall in perfect succession, some of which must hit spoons, VHS tapes and a small collection of TV and DVD remotes, the final of which knocks a piece of 9mm brass in to the hopper that is the uppermost portion of the Dillon's case feeder...now that would be a "Rube Goldberg."

A Dillon progressive machine is the finest non-commercial progressive reloading machine on the market, now and since the dawn of time. It's engineering and construction take a beat seat to nothing available outside of commerical (THOUSANDS of dollars) machines.
I like to swap brass... and I'm looking for .32 H&R Mag, .327 Fed Mag, .380 Auto and 10mm. If you have some and would like to swap for something else, send me a note!
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Re: Your pick for a new turret press

Post by Sevens »

techmike wrote:Sevens, your Pro 1000 looks interesting, does it use 3-hole turrets? Must one use Lee dies so the powder measure will function?
Full disclosure...I -love- the setup I have worked out for myself, and while it's certainly possible that someone else is doing what I am doing, I haven't yet run in to them. I use the Pro-1000 in a way that is most advantageous for my needs. If you want advice or experience on using one in a full progressive mode -- ask someone like Evan Price or the legions of others who do.

As happy as I am with it, I don't trust it for handling powder and I simply don't have any desire to use it for seating bullets.

For me, it's a brass prep machine. I feed it clean brass and it deprimes, reprimes, sizes, and flares the case mouth. And it's no small thing that instead of sliding brass in to a shell holder and removing each piece from a shell holder, the Pro-1000 allows me to drop single pieces of brass on to a slide and it handles it from there, advancing on it's own and ejecting prepped pieces in to a bowl.

I prefer to meter out my powder 50 rounds at a time with my Lyman 55. Looking in to each piece in a progressive machine before placing a slug works -- and using a mechanical/electronic powder cop is also a great idea on a progressive machine, but neither of those fits my requirements. My demands are a full tray of 50 that I can examine and occasionally pull a piece from to spot-check with my scale.

I also very much prefer to seat/crimp with my Classic Cast because there is a particular "feel" in the press lever that I want. This is important to me for reasons that simply aren't important to everyone.

I'll make it clear right here that I have NO PROBLEM with how anyone chooses to load their ammo, but this is the system that makes me comfortable. Part of it is because I use a dizzying array of different bullets and I work with what might be considered an excessive amount of entirely different calibers. While someone who shoots IPSC needs thousands of rounds of EXACTLY the same thing, with the same powder charge, same slug and in the same chambering and he needs thousands of these every month -- I need about 20k a year, across 16 different handgun rounds and a small spattering of rifle rounds. If I went to my log and drew a total of the different bullet shapes, styles, weights, sizes and suppliers I use...the results would get stupid.

So for me, "production" comes in the form of being able to fish out a coffee can of fully prepped brass...so that I can use my powder measure and single stage press to bang out 50 to 700 rounds of one particular load.
I like to swap brass... and I'm looking for .32 H&R Mag, .327 Fed Mag, .380 Auto and 10mm. If you have some and would like to swap for something else, send me a note!
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Re: Your pick for a new turret press

Post by SMMAssociates »

Sevens:

Ooops.... The furry children aren't allowed down there, and Becka's still not sure I should have spent the money. So there.... :mrgreen:

My problem with the Dillon is in the manual for setup, and when you have to diddle something, or change calibers. For example, to shut off the primer feed (those little buggers go all over the place if they don't get pushed into a case), you have to remove a cam from the body of the machine. Should have been a "switch" someplace, IMHO. The little case holder pins are a little easy to lose, but there should have been a "permanent" version in the design. You do have to remove 'em once in a while, but a little lever might have been a better choice.

The shellplate is also kinda odd to remove. A setscrew holds the main shellplate screw, which you don't quite tighten all the way. Then, when you pop the shellplate off, there's a spring loaded ball bearing that rides in a detent on the shell plate. NBD, until you drop the bearing into the huge hole for the shellplate screw. Then, you can't find the ball, and the screw won't touch the threads. Real head scratcher the first time :D.... Fortunately, when I realized where it went, I had the right magnet to retrieve it with....

I'm sure I could think of a few others, but maybe the "good primer catcher" is the worst feature. The primers are supposed to go down a chute so you can recover them if they're not set into a case. Seems like one out of four or five goes flying unless I reach in and grab the thing off the ram first.

All of this said, it is one serious machine, and if nothing goes goofy, I can get 80-100 rounds an hour out of it without breaking a sweat even without the case feeder. Stopping every 19 cases or so is a bit of a nuisance, but for $200 :D.... (The primer feed assembly holds about a hundred, and extra tubes aren't all that expensive. DO buy the primer flipper tray, though.)

The powder sensor, btw, is about $80, and you kind of need one for each caliber if you're doing multiple heads.

If I thought I'd be doing all this "tuning" (due to varying components v.s. just setting up for my favorite .45LRN), I might have re-thought the whole thing, but if you want to go and crank out a couple thousand rounds between "changes", it's generally going to do the job quickly and conveniently.

Regards,
Stu.

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Re: Your pick for a new turret press

Post by Cosmos »

I highly recommend Hornady's L-N-L AP press as an alternative choice. I like it so much that I actually share two of them with a friend of mine. He shoots .40 S&W and I shoot .45 ACP. Makes it nice to reload at the same time, or not have to switch anything.

Hornady builds them very solid. The presses have zerk grease fittings for longevity. They also have top notch customer service in my experience too.
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Re: Your pick for a new turret press

Post by techmike »

Thank you all for your comments and recommendations. I have decided to stick with the Lee turret press that I have, as the convenience of switching calibers in 5 minutes is hard to beat. A friend back east is trying to reproduce the weak index part out of a stronger material, so that may be resolved.
Regards,
Mike
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