Loading lots of small series

[mapsjanhere]

My favorite shooting fun involves a lot of heavy calibers. Between my budget and my shoulder, that means I usually come home with about 20 empty brass each in about 3 - 4 rifle calibers. This also means that my reloading sessions are increasingly consumed by swapping and adjusting dies on my singe stage. One of my reloading friends suggested to get a turret press with multiple turrets to cut down on swapping and adjusting.
My questions: How suitable are turrets for big rifle cartridges like the 300 RUM or 450 Marlin? And how accurately are the dies positioned when I swap turrets? Can I rely on the old settings or do I still have to recheck every die? And what models are strong enough for this application?
Thanks for any info/experiences/suggestions.

[Jim243]

Not sure what your question is??

Are they strong enough for rifle reloading? - Yes

Will they stay set once you have setup the die - Yes

Will they stay set once I have taken them out of the holder - should try the Lock and Load (LNL) type that will do what you want.

Are they tall enough for 300 or 416 brass - just.

Turret presses are GREAT for loading pistol ammo, for rifle (because of case prep) I prefer single stage presses.

Don't know if this helps, but hope so.
Jim

http://www.jmlco.com/targetshooter/

[Doby45]

With as few rounds as you load per caliber and as few shots as you take per caliber, I would say stick with the single stage and produce nice accurate rifle ammo. Not that you can not make nice accurate rifle ammo on a turret or progressive but by the time the machine is "loaded up" you are finished with your loading session. I would go with any of the breech-lock type single stage presses. Hornady and Lee both make nice breech-lock style presses.

[Sevens]

I would go with any of the breech-lock type single stage presses.

Respectfully, I have to totally disagree. With the Lee Classic Turret, this may be the finest example of someone who gets the most out of it.

Don't think of a turret press as a poor man's progressive.
It's NOT, it can't be. IMO, the very definition of progressive isn't that there are multiple dies on the press, but that there is a shell plate that makes each ram stroke do MULTIPLE things at once.

No turret press does that... even if it held 20 dies (a damn large turret right there!) it would still be ONE piece of brass being worked with each lever throw.

Best part of a turret press is that with one click, you have a different die in place to do a different operation. And with a easily swapped turret (like in the Lee Classic Turret) then you can swap calibers quicker than any other machine built... single stage or progressive, because you can fling four dies out of the machine and four dies in to the machine in seconds, then simply yank and replace a shell holder.

I suppose some people loading single stage think moving to a turret press will speed them up tremendously, but I don't agree that it will.

However, if you are a guy that has to do 4 operations to only 20 pieces of brass in four or five different calibers, then I REALLY think nobody in the world would benefit from a quick change turret press as much as you would benefit.

But it's gotta be a turret press with easily swappable turrets. A Lyman with it's big gonzo turret doesn't look quick or cheap for extra turrets. A Lee Classic Turret is exactly both of those.

I say do it, for sure.

[Sevens]

I also wanted to add that I personally believe there are a lot of reloaders that spend endless time adjusting dies and I'm not quite sure why that is so. I hear some folks avoid some dies because they don't like the lock ring they use, or that they'll spend hard earned dough on a certain brand of lock-ring to use with their favorite dies.

I don't follow the insanity of it.

Draw an index line on the top of your press with a sharpie-- this will forever be THE index line.

When you have a die adjusted for the perfect mouth flare or perfect roll crimp or whatever, mark an index line on the die body right at the location of the index line on your press.

If you switch back and forth between slim jacketed and fast cast bullets, you might adjust your mouth flare. No problem. It's just a slight adjustment. If you switch between .38 Special and .357 Mag, that's a larger adjustment and with proper notes, you can make that a 10-second procedure, too.

If you change bullet shape or seating depth than you can make a change with the seating stem and experiment with drawing lines on that, too, if you can.

It doesn't take a locking die ring with a set screw to use index lines on a single stage press.

A turret press is obviously much easier because the dies get screwed in and they stay in place.

[mapsjanhere]

However, if you are a guy that has to do 4 operations to only 20 pieces of brass in four or five different calibers, then I REALLY think nobody in the world would benefit from a quick change turret press as much as you would benefit.

Thanks, that's just the confirmation I needed to hear.