turret vs progessive

[drdirk]

I am using a single stage press now for all my ammo. I am trying to find out if I want to go progessive or turret. Have been reading a lot on this forum (thanks to all!) and understand the progessive part well I think. Here is my question: How do you use a turret press???
Lets say you are making a batch of 200 (my typical pistol run!)
do you 1. first deprime, resize then add powder then seat bullet and crimp EACH round in each step? or 2. Do you deprime then advance the turret then add powder, bullet, crimp etc. with the same case??
I think if I can finish each case like I discribed in 2. the turret may work for me. This means I would get a new round in 3 pulls. If I have to work as in 1. this would mean that I have to handle the cases just like I do now and I see not much advantage to the single stage I use now (besides the fact that inserting the next die is faster).
Does this have to do with manual or automatic indexing? Does automatic mean after every pull it goes to the next die position?
Thanks for any advice!

[scottys1]

The main advantage of a turret press over a single stage is being able to leave your dies installed and adjusted. While this would be convenient, I don't see enough of a speed improvement over a single stage to warrant changing presses. While I would be glad to replace my single stage with a turret, it would be more for the convenience factor than speed and I would use it pretty much the same as the single stage.

If a high production rate is what you're after, get a progressive.

On a progressive, auto indexing means that the shell plate advances to the next position automatically with each stroke of the lever. Manual indexing means that you must turn the shell plate yourself each time.

In addition to the single stage, I also have a Dillon 550 which is manual indexing. I only load at a comfortable pace and I like to visually check each and every powder charge. Even so, I can load around 400 rds of pistol ammo per hour. This is plenty fast enough for me.

An auto indexing press would be faster and frees you from advancing the shell plate. One of the things I like about manual indexing is when something screws up (and it will) it is easier to correct the problem and get back in the groove.

The main thing about progressive loading is that it requires extra vigilance on your part. You are doing several operations on several cases simultaneously. The possibility for error is much greater so pay attention and if something doesn't look or feel right, stop and check it out and don't push for speed right away. As you gain experience, the speed will come.

[Kamicosmos]

I am actually contemplating selling my progressive and 'downgrading' to a turret. For the amount of ammo I load at a time (2-300 rounds) and my style of reloading (extreme accuracy and consistency) finds me in a constant battle with my Loadmaster. I run my progressive almost like it is a turret anyway, but it is a lot harder to do that style of loading on a full automatic progressive press. And when the pro messes up...oh boy. When it runs great, oh yeah, it's quite a joy to crank out 500 rounds in a couple hours. But, I have also been known to spend an hour to produce a mere 50 rounds because of jams, mess ups, etc. And it always seems to jam when I'm nearly finished!

I am also the type that will load several calibers over a few days. I get in the mood and decide to RELOAD for a few days. So, swapping out a progressive is much more time consuming than swapping just the dies, or even the turret head, on a turret press.

I have just about made my decision to sell off my Loadmaster and it's parts and accessories to fund a RCBS Turret press replacement.

My RCBS single stage will probably be used even less now! Poor thing. But, it will probably be utilized as a powder thrower station, or universal decap or something...

[MADISON]

Considering the turret vs progessive in an interesting subject.
Using a turret press:
[1] Give you the conveniance of multi dies.
[2] If you are new at reloading the turret gives you the control you will need NOT TO MAKE MISTAKES.
The progressive press:
[1] Gives you speed not control. You must be confident in each step of the operation. The think I had the most trouble with was THE POWDER DROP.

[drdirk]

Thanks, after reading all the good info I think I will get the Lyman LNL progessive. It seems to have the right price for the features I want. I know that the Dillon is considered the best and it may be but I have too many old dies and I would like to use them.

[kgpcr]

I have a hornady progressive that i paid 300.00 for new with a powder measure and I love it. Cables has them for that price now. It works like a dream and is cheap to convert to other calibers and is very easy to use. try it you will love it. its faster than a turret and you will fall in love with it.

[JBA]

Dont take this wrong but the Lee Progressive press is seldom a good trouble free press.
If your shooting Pistols, " GET A Dillon or Hornady Progressive press!! " I doubt anyone can shoot a pistol good enough to tell any difference in ammo reloaded on the best turret press or one of the two progressive presses stated! I doubt anyone can shoot a difference with a rifle from standing or sitting positions either!!
and if your shooting benchrest big matches with top of the line equipment then a top of the line turret press might produce slightly more consistant neck tension on resizeing and maybe more consistant bullet seating debth. But you'll drag out a real good set of calipers to see how much. And unless you got top quality match grade dies then the press consistancy may not benifit you.
I think a NEW reloader should use a single stage press to learn the basics of reloading, but you should have the basics now.
I would rather have a press that is faster than what I need than one too slow.

[scottys1]

Just so everyone knows, any standard 7/8" dies can be used in any Dillon press except the Square Deal B.

[Sturm]

Pretty good explanations. The only advantage in any of this is time. The price? Time vs. precision and only you can weigh those factors. A really good Turret press only has one advantage over a SS and that is the lack of adjustment when changing dies. With the turret, you just change the head to go to a different caliber. Unless you reload in 3 operations and then you can get 2 die sets/turret head. I reload in 4 so there is the perspective. But, what if you change bullets in the same caliber? A die adjustment will be required to the seating die anyway. Okay, I do take some shortcuts! I typically settle in on a particular bullet in a caliber. Lock the dies and then change to a different caliber. When I go back to Bullet "A" in caliber "A" the dies are set and I don't worry much as long as my OALs are as they should be, which is very easily maintained by referencing where the die should be when reinstalling die "A" and checking OAL with a dial caliper. The LEE turret is capable of higher speed, but I don't do LEE and it has been covered. So, in essence, I'm saying I like turrets, but any expectation of higher production is slim at best, unless you like LEE. Progressives are great if time is really a concern and there are better qualified reloaders than me to get into that. Actually, Scotty is doing a very nice job as well as everyone else, but I knew if I jumped on, I had better have something better to say than; Beam me up Scotty!

[LAH]

A turret can be used much as a single stage press or:

I started with a 4 hole turret loading 38/357. My set up was 1-size & decap. 2-expand & prime. 3-drop powder. 4-seat & crimp. I simply rotated the turret counter clockwise till a loaded round was complete. Expect 150 rounds per hour.

[snuffy]

The lee turret press is a good alternative to the other types of turrets. The main difference is the lee turret indexes automatically or can index manually. Another difference is the turrets slip in and out quickly WITHOUT tools. AND they are much cheaper, so you can buy extra turrets for each caliber you load.

[klw]

I use to think that the main advantage of a progressive was speed but now I'm not so sure. Maybe, just maybe, a progressive is safer. Having blown up a Smith 500 Magnum lately (I was using a turret press), I've reconsidered. With a progressive one simple glance and you can tell exactly what you've done to each cartridge. If the bullet is already seated at the bullet seating station, then you know it is time to advance the shell holder. You can get a visual confirmation of exactly where you are anytime. I'm beginning to value that a lot more than I use to.

I've got five progressives, three RCBS Pro 2000's and two RCBS Piggyback III's. Love them. They all use RCBS's excellent strip primer system.

I've also got two turrets, a Lyman complete with 50 heads, and an RCBS complete with 10 heads. I like turret presses where I'm going to make small lots of ammunition and want to be able to change calibers/cartridges easily. Turrets are easy to change over. Progressives take a bit more work. Turret presses are undoubtedly slower than progressives.

But maybe, just maybe, progressives are safer.

[Russ5924]

Snuffy, Where did you get that powder drop is that an older style looks a little like mine but lots bigger???????

[snuffy]

Russ, that's the pro upgrade for the standard auto disk. It allows you to remove the pwder measure from the turret without turning the whole measure. It also has a powder shut-off built into it, so you can remove the hopper without turning the whole shebang upside down to empty the measure or change powders.

Midway has the pro upgrade, it's not much more money, check on their site.

[LotI]

Good info. I started with a Lee Anniversary kit and when it was on sale I bought the Lee Reloader press for other duties. My reloading bench now has both mounted so I can do my pistol reloading in 2-stages using both presses.

It's pretty quick...tumble first. First stage is a deprime/resize, move to the other press and flare the mouth. Put batch aside to prime. I have several hundred, if not thousand, cases primed and ready to go. Once they're all primed, I swap the dies and charge the powder, seat, then crimp. It's a pretty good flow when you get both arms moving, and when moving from one press to the other, I can visually check the powder charge, and COL.

I like it because it was cheap (<$100) and I have two presses. The layout is the Challenger press on the right, powder meter in the middle and Reloader on the left. The challenger handles the heavy stuff and the reloader gets the flaring and seating.

[Leftoverdj]

I actually converted a Lee Pro1000 that I hated to a turret which I love. If I ever break down and buy another progressive, it'll be a Dillon. Seen too many other progressives come and go. I ain't taking no more chances.

I use my turret as a single stage and get a pretty good increase in production. Die change is seconds. I tend to batch load a couple of thousand at a time. Only got room for 2-3 loading blocks on my cluttered bench. When I get those blocks full, one click and I am seating bullets. Might not sound like much, but it's at least an hour less time on a batch of 2000.

I also keep a spare turret set up with a universal decapper, a beller, and an AutoPrime II. Saves me looking for where I put them which may be a lot more important to me than to you orderly fellows.

btw, I have those upgrade kits on my Autodisks. They are another little thing that means a lot. Less stopping to refill, less variation in charges, and a lot less leaking. The bigger hopper is attached by thumbscrews and lets you get a much better fit to the disk.

[gdeal]

which is easier to work with? turret or progressive? I know that turret is cheaper and progressive is faster(more expensive). but which is better for a beginner who doesn't want to spend too much time reloading but wants a couple hundred rounds to take to the range each week.

[Shoney]

I own 2 progressives (Hornady LNL AP and a 550) and a couple of single stages. I have loaded on turret presses, and must say that if you have powder measure mounted on the turrret, and you rotate the head after each pull of the press, you can load pistol ammo much faster than a single stage.

When you load rifle ammo on the turret, if you do not weigh each powder charge, there is a lot of time saving, but weighing each charge is only a little faster on a turret.

Whether to go turret or progressive depends a lot on your mechanical aptitude, how easily you can get frustrated, and your ability toward a fast learning curve. If you are low in these, areas, a turret would do.

The Lee Classic turret is a wonderful choice for any beginner. It has auto indexing for speed and you can turn off the auto indexing and treat it like a single stage to learn the ropes.

These folks come highly recommended by members of this forum.
https://kempfgunshop.com//index.php?...hk=1&Itemid=41

[wncchester]

"I am trying to find out if I want to go progessive or turret."

Well, I have an old six station iron turret; it's bad news, IMHO. I think it's about half way between a single stage and progressive, with the virtues of neither and the problems of both. Since I load several cartridges, overall, the time spent changing dies is a wash with my single stage. The iron turrets are too expensive to have a collection of them set up, standing by, and it's too time consuming to change them for it to be practical anyway.

There is an exception to my turret dislikes; Lee. For pistol rounds the older Lee (alum alloy frame) press is fine, the turrets are inexpensive and are easy/fast to swap.

If you want more strength AND speed, but are reluctant to pay for a true progressive, check out the Lee Classic Turret. It's a very strong (cast steel, not cheaper/weaker cast iron) press that can be used as a single stage OR as an auto-indexing turret that self advances through the stages, making it a sort of semi-progressive. It can also do rifle ammo quite handily and the turrets are the same inexpensive "quick change" design as the older Lee presses. It's actually an excellant choice for a bit more speed and versatility, you can easily put out 100-150 rounds an hour.

If you want to churn out several hundreds of rounds an hour, a true progressive is the only way to go. Price is worth it, if you can find the components to feed it longer than a couple of hours a month!

[Kyo]

I been reloading for less then a week. My first reloads were friday, and shot them saturday. I bought the deluxe turret press kit from Lee. it cost me 135 bucks, and the dies 50 for the 45 ACP. It came with an auto powder measure, and I do use it and check that it does give what it says it will with my Bullseye Powder. I did the 26 rounds I shot saturday in about 30 minutes, but I was BSing with my dad taking my time.
I just did 50 in about an hour, also BSing with dad, taking my time, and actually measuring every 3-4 rounds I press out. I check the powder on them as well.
Once I get more experienced, and learn to check things faster(but still accurately) I am confident that I will be able to do 100+ per hour if not more.
I think if I bought a progressive I would spent a massive amount of time making sure I didn't make a mistake, and I would feel a little overwhelmed. I like the control I have with this press.
My dad wanted me to pop out all 50 primers and then do all the priming all at once as well. Then I did the powder/flare, seating/crimping for each bullet. You do have a choice on how you want to run it. I like doing it all per bullet but the old man was nagging so I did what he wanted.

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/spo/1314940602.html
I had to post this, because I was looking through CL tonight. too complicated makes no fun.

[billcarey]

drdirk,
Here's my steps for loading pistol rounds on a manually indexed lyman turrent. I use three dies (lyman carbides) and the expander is a power through die with and rcbs uniflo powder measure mounted on top. It has a press mounted primer arm (lyman) with auto primer feed for the arm. The shell is handled twice to finish a round...one time to put in the shell holder and one time to remove it.

1.Insert shell, stroke ram up/down to decap and size.
2.Rotate turret, stroke ram up/down to prime with the arm, stroke ram up to expand, keep the ram up, manually throw a charge and lower the ram.
3.Rotate turret, put bullet in shell, stroke ram up to seat/crimp and lower the ram. Bullet is finished. Remove bullet and rotate back to start another round.

Moving slow and steady puts me easily past 150hr with this turret press. Batching with a single stage rockchucker at the same stroke rate produces 50hr using the same dies, primer and powder measure setup as the turret. You can batch with the turrent but the only advantage is not having to swap dies. I like the turret way more than a single stage.

[David Wile]

Hey folks,

I will throw my two cents in on this thread, but I warn you in advance my thoughts are simply my opinions even thought I have been reloading quite a few years.

When it comes to bench mounted reloading presses, I never did have much use for turret presses of any kind. Many years ago, a friend had a Lyman turret press when I had an RCBS Jr. He would leave his dies in the turret head and thought that was a big advangtage over my single stage press. It may have truly been an advantage to him, but I never had any problem with changing my dies on my press.

To this day, I still do not have a problem changing dies in presses. In addition to several single stage presses, I also have a Hornady L&L AP progressive press that uses quick change bushings and are a big selling point of the press. In my case, I bought the L&L progressive for almost everything but its quick change L&L bushings. It took me years before I finally started to leave some sizing dies locked in bushings permanently. I still do not leave all my sizing dies in bushings since I may also be using them on my single stage presses. Yes, I know I can put an adapter in my RockChucker which will allow me to use the L&L bushings, but as I said earlier, I simply do not mind changing die sets. I feel the same way about the system used on the Dillons - they simply aren't worth it to me.

On both the Dillon and the Hornady quick change die systems, I still find I usually have to make adjustments to the expander and seating dies anyway, and I always have to change the powder measure for each different caliber, so the whole quick change selling point is just not important to me.

Imagine, all that just to tell a little bit about why I don't care for turret presses. Again, it's only my opinion, and remember, it is an opinion from the guy who would not take an automatic case feeder if it was given to me (I don't like the noise).

Best wishes,
Dave Wile