What are the advantages of a turret press other than not having to change dies when going from one operation to the other?

I currently have an old Rockchucker and a Dillon 550B.
Is a turret press any faster to load moderate batches ( 100 to 300 at a time ) of ammo than the Rockchucker?
Which brand is most recommended?
I am getting to where I prefer to keep the Dillon set up with the one caliber I use the most ( .38 ) and not screw with it even though I have the additional quick change head and primer conversion parts.

The only non-pistol caliber I load any more is .22 Hornet.

When using a single stage press the most time consuming thing is orienting and inserting the case into the shell holder. You only need to do that once on a turret press, twice if you prime/charge off the press, and up to four times on a single stage. So a turret is quite a bit faster.

For some unknown reason I bought a RCBS turret press kit recently. Looked really nice on the web page and with the reputation RCBS has just said ok..gonna try one. Well I got it. The price wasn't bad esp with all the equipment included... and there are other pluses. Maybe a little better than A Lee classic turret in some ways..primer feeds etc. Better made? Not really but you do have to manually turn it. Now I gotta say..this thing ain't a Redding. Not even close. The Redding IS expensive but it is one heckuva turret Press. I have loaded less than a box on this press from ol green. Not even the quality of their ol RC press. Going to get rid of the whole thing and buy me another Redding. Got to hate it when A company cheapens products. RCBS ain't the company of old though. Sad to say! I still have at least 4 of their ol A 2A A2 and A3s. Maybe 5. The scale is ok..powder measure stand and extras are ok. Just don't match up to my expectations of the company from Oroville

Apparently we're talking about traditional turret presses like Redding's or Lyman's. In what Lee calls a turret press the dies do not move. A shell holder is swung around underneath each die completing cartridges one at a time.

I do not use my Redding turret press like X Ring described. I use it the same as a single stage press. Its advantage to me is not loading larger batches faster. I have progressive presses for that. Not changing then adjusting dies makes loading small test loads faster. A turret press makes it practical to go back and load another 5 or 10 rounds with a different powder charge starting with as fired brass. I can leave two pistol die sets in each Redding turret head and change heads with the center bolt.

Redding's and Lyman's turret presses also give an unencumbered view of and access to their shell holder the same as a C press.

If you have a Rockchucker press, Hornady makes a replacement bushing that lets you use Lock-N-Load bushings. This really will give you the "select a die" advantage of a turret.

Before I moved to a condo, I had a 12'x15' bedroom that was my reloading room. I had about 18' of loading bench, with a Dillon 550 a Redding T-7 and a Rockchucker on one section and a Hornady L-N-L AP and another Rockchucker on the second section. Both of the 'chuckers had the L-N-L adapter. I found that the T-7 would do an accurate job of reloading my 1000 yard ammo. But I did all the case reforming on the Rockchuckers and the really heavy stuff on a 20 ton home made press in the basement. I sprung an old Lyman Spar-T turret press over doing it!

Now I only have 5' of loading bench. On it I have the Dillon 550, the T-7, and a plate to change out one Rockchucker and a 450 sizer. The turret is a great space saver. The Rockchucker still has a Lock-N-load adapter bushing in it, but that comes out for Special Projects.

Ivan

Turret presses still only perform one operation per stroke. The only advantage is the dies remain set in the turret head. The only time saving compared to a single press is the time it takes swap out dies. For large batches(100+ rounds), the few minutes for dies swaps would be neglibile.

Found a deal on this Redding T-7 and have been happy with it. I tend do a lot of loading the same bullet per caliber and varying the charge, so setting the dies the same each time got old. Must have really got to me as I wound up with 3 turret heads! Powder charge is done off the press with a tray and a uniflow. Is it faster than my old single stage? Yes, but it's no progressive. It keeps up nicely though with the volume I shoot and caliber changes are a set of dies.

K22 fan, on the Lee Classic Turret the dies do move in a circular motion, the shell holder on the ram moves vertically.

It works for me.

Referencing progressive presses, there are some good ones out there. Since I prefer a progressive press that indexes the cartridge, not the dies, my preference is Dillon's RL450 & RL550B.

Dillon recently refurbished my 1980 bronze arm RL450 progressive press at no cost to me. It's now set up for 45 ACP and will most likely stay that way.

The center press is a new RL550B that can be set up for 38 Special/.357 Mag. and 44 Special/44 Mag using spacer rings, 9x19mm, 40 S&W, 10mm Auto, 45 ACP and 5.56x45mm.

While 5.56x45mm could be loaded on either Dillon press I've never done so. In fact I've never loaded any rifle round on either one, leaving those tasks to the single-stage Co-Ax press.

A side note. Early on my reloading presses were all single stage C and O type. It didn't take long to tire of primers everywhere and carbon residue covering the press, bench and floor. The Co-Ax press resolves these issues and is the top choice of many bench rest shooters.

Attached Images

	Loading Bench 2-14-16.jpg (104.3 KB, 50 views)
	RL450 - 45 ACP R&M 2-14-16.jpg (56.7 KB, 48 views)
	RL550B - 10mm 02-14-16.jpg (53.2 KB, 48 views)
	Co-Ax Press 2-14-16.jpg (58.6 KB, 49 views)

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Dave
SWCA #2465

If you already have a 550, you have an inverted turret press. Before affordable progressives. Turrets were a viable option for producing higher volume of ammo. There is an advantage of a turret over a single stage, but imo, the modern progressive, especially th 550b, makes the turret a tweener. A 550 can be run as a turret ot progressive. I like options. For $200 more, the 550 os a far better tool. Runi t slow or fast, inverted turret or progressive.
I started on a ss press 40yrs ago. Today, i have no problem recommending the 550 as a first press. Run it as an inverted turret, just like any turret. When you feel you fully understand the process, you can ramp up to 500rds per hour. No turret does that. Its just as simple. Maybe more so because of the priming system. If i had a turret i wouldnt sell it, i still use my ss press. If you own a progressive, especially a 550, i cant see where a turret fits in.
Fwiw, i never understood the argument on swapping/adjusting dies/bushings, i dont get it. All dies have lock rings. Adjust the die, lock the ring, unscrew it. It takes a few seconds to unscrew & screw in a die. There is time involved in swapping tool heads on a lct & if you load more than one caliber on a regular turret, you have to screw dies in & out. Tweeners, stick with or buy the 550.

__________________
NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I use an older REDDING turret press. some years ago I tried a Lee but it wasn't up to me standards so I went with REDDING. Have never been sorry. Their new turret looks to be a fine machine, but I have never figured out why the 7 holes?? At any rate, I have several loaded turrets and they are not inter changeable so no reason for me to upgrade. I also see from the photo above that it sets up on the bench-- not sure that would work well for me. JMHO.

Than a ss press, but not even sniffing a progressive. Tweener.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Huh? I'm thinking you got confused and mis-typed some part of this. The die holder plate is exactly what moves in my Lee Classic Turret. The shell holder is mounted on the ram and moves up and down, but does not move horizontally (swung around).

Anyway, the thing I like about my Lee is the flexibility. I can use it with the indexer in place and have it auto-rotate the dies, or I can quickly remove a couple of the indexing parts and manually advance it from die to die, or use it as a single stage without advancing the dies at all. The other thing I really like is that for only $10 or so I can buy extra die holding turret plates and once I set up the dies in it, I can switch dies to change calibers in literally under a minute.

I spent about two and a half hours at the bench yesterday. I had a couple of hundred pieces of brass to tumble and process, and I had to install and adjust a new set of 44 special dies into a new turret plate before I could get to loading up some ammo. I probably spent a half hour to 45 minutes processing the brass and fiddling with and adjusting the new set of dies. Once I actually got to loading, even though I was using the press in the manual-advancing mode, I was still able to crank out a couple of hundred rounds in something less than 2 hours. Maybe not the fastest production in the world, but producing 100-120 rounds per hour is more than adequate for me. YMMV...

That's the key. It's faster to flip from die to die than it is to move brass in and out of a single stage.
When I load .45 auto I put the cleaned case on my turret press press and work it through all the dies, priming and charging on the press and when I remove it it's a completed round. Much faster than moving each case in and out of a single stage 3 or 4 times. If you load 500 rounds on a single stage, that's up to 2000 times you need to move cases in and out.

FWIW, not all dies have knurled lock "rings" - some use lock nuts so it can take more than just a few seconds to swap and adjust each die. In the few seconds it takes to "unscrew & screw in A die" I can change out a whole set of dies in a die holding plate.

If you're only loading a few calibers and/or load a few thousand of one caliber at a time, so you aren't having to swap them very often, that may not be much of a time savings. But if you are like me and load several calibers but seldom load more than a couple of hundred rounds of any one caliber before switching to loading another caliber, the amount of time saved really does add up.

For me spare time is a valuable commodity that is always in short supply. So hopefully that makes senses and helps you understand the benefits a bit better.

I started loading on a turret press, and will never get rid of it. I use it mostly as a single stage, and just rotate to the next die when I go to the next step. Anybody else still using an old Texan which dates back to at least the 50's and possibly more?

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I apologize. The only Lee press I've owned is one of the hand held ones that Lee threw in free with the purchase of their loading manual in the 1990s. Their turret works differently than I wrote.

My Redding Turret is an older 6 hole slanted press. I bolt it down through a home made wedge to get it vertical. I find it easier to seat bullets straight with the case upright in the shell holder. For me the biggest upgrade in the T-7 is the change to a vertical frame and ram. Lyman made the same change in their turret presses. Looking at H Richard's I see Texan got that part the way I like it in the 1950s.

Speaking of "Tweeners," about 1978 I bought a C-H press that had 4 holes in a row and 4 shell holders on the ram. You advanced all four cases forward one shell holder between ram strokes. C-H's deluxe carbide die sets came with 4 shell holders. Dillion got affordable progressives unto the market a few years later but at the time the only manually operated progressive was the very expensive Starr.

FYI, you can buy proper lock rings for any dies. So again, the amount of time saved swapping dies is pretty small compared to say any turret vs even a 550. I can take one die out & another into a as press in 30sec. Do that four times I wasted an entire 2m. So what? If you are really squared away, you might get 200rds in an hour on any turret. If you are loafing along on a 550, 400rds is pretty easy, but one handle pull every 9sec!!
If your time is really valuable, ditch the turret, spend another $200 & get a 550. Hopefully that helps you with your idea of good time management & value in good equipment. Turrets are fine in their day, again I wouldn't sell one if I had one, but today, no reason to buy one over a progressive. At least I haven't heard a good reason yet but $$. You yourself said you value your time, so die bushings or a turret, not really saving you time.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I load most pistol calibers from .327 Federal to .45 Colt. I load all my ammo on Lyman All Americans. When I started loading I realized that changing dies and setting powder measures was a big waste of time. I was buying All Americans for $60-$100 at gun shows or on eBay. I also bought RCBS powder measures for $40-$45. I mounted each press and powder measure on a piece of 3/4" plywood that I slide into a pair of homemade cleats on my bench. With this set up I can change calibers and be loading away in about 20 seconds. It's saved me a ton of time over the years and I have equipment that will never wear out or break in my lifetime.

Yeah, I'm sure you're right, Lee turrets are junk and I need to go out and spend $500 on a Dillon right now. Thanks.

well he didn't say the Lee turrets were junk. I even have one. But he did answer the time element question you forwarded. I don't care how anyone wants to waste or save their time. Nothing wrong with a turret. If I want to get a bunch loaded, long ago I upgraded to good progressives. From shotshells and on..good progressives. Many I have were bought used. Some very cheaply in fact. I keep them clean in good repair and will guarantee you I will never lose a penny on any and will make money on 'em when I sell 'em. Heck any Dillon if kept in good repair even if bought new and used for 15 yrs will bring more than what you paid. When someone says they can't see the savings by purchasing the best they're usually just saying they don't want to spend that much. Not knocking anyone. Just saying some can't spend it..and I understand that as I've been there too. But many just plain won't spend extra and will also try to economize by buying a thing like a used abused Lee Junkmaster. I've done that too. Purely false economy. Good grief I'm glad that thing is gone

Well, maybe the folks I have been listening to are all wrong, but I've been told by many that the time required to the setup and make the adjustments necessary to switch from one caliber to another with a progressive make it more time and work rather than less - unless you are going to crank out 1000s of rounds of the same caliber per session.

I don't. As previously stated, I reload a couple of HUNDRED of one caliber per session and then reload a couple of hundred of a different caliber the next session. That's the main reason I figure a progressive doesn't make sense for me, and why the quick change head with all the dies already set up DOES make sense for me.

Of course I've also been advised that it isn't the greatest idea for someone new to reloading to spend $500 on a progressive right out of the gate - before even figuring out whether reloading is something they're going to want to do long term.

For these reasons, a turret with spare turret plates makes sense for me. I'm not the dogmatic type who will say that what works for me is right for everyone, just that it is right for me - and why.

Never said that, funny how Lee guys get all butt hurt. I am just pointing out the facts; any turret is a tweener compared to any progressive. Use what you like, waste as much time as tou like, i'm just answering the OPs question.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Actually I didn't see where you really answered the OP's question. He asked if a turret was faster than a rock chucker for SMALL BATCHES (100-300 pieces). I didn't see where you answered that question at all. Maybe I missed it.

I'm not butt hurt at all. In fact I find it kind of amusing how you ignored 90% of what I had to say to focus on the ONE point that you thought you had a good argument against.

Whatever, I can crank out the kind of batches he's talking about - a couple of hundred rounds - in a little over an hour on my LCT. Then after spending about 2 minutes to switch the whole set of dies and a powder measuring disk, and I can crank out another couple of hundred rounds in a completely different caliber in just over another hour. How long does it take to swap EVERYTHING from one caliber to another for your progressive and then tweak and adjust everything to get it working? A half an hour maybe more? So how much time are you saving on small batches? And where are you saving it?


But that's OK Fred - you're still right - just as you have been all along. It's all us guys who don't shell out the big bucks for the latest greatest Dillon right out of the gate who are obviously wrong.

Well yes they were wrong. I can swap back & forth on my 550, large or small primers, any caliber, takes less than 6min. That also includes rechecking the powder measure. Its what makes the 550 such a work horse press, its as simple as any turret but easily twice as fast & you do 1/4 of the work. A turret requires 3-4 handle pull for each round, any progressive 1 pull 1 round.
Now the more stuff you add to a progressive, the longer it takes to swap & adjust. Case feeders, more time, bullet feeder, more time. Any of the quality progressives are pretty user friendly, esoecially the 550.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

You are butt hurt, why else bring it up. I ignored the rest of your post because it is how you feel, not fact based discussion of equipment, its ok though, lee has to have their customer base.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

You're right again, Fred. Thanks.

Ignore list.

Know it.
Use it.
Love it.

Nah, I don't mind hearing differing opinions, no matter how dogmatic.
It takes all types. That's why there is such a wide variety of reloading equipment, guns, cars, trucks, etc.