Preference for Rifle reloading Single stage press or Turret Press???

The title says it all, which do you prefer and why?????

A single stage has less slop, and therefore SHOULD produce more consistant sizing & OAL dimensions. Which should result in more accuracy on the range.

I do all rifle stuff on single stage presses. Hornady in the garage for resizing. Inside the house, I use Cheap Lee for seating 223, handheld Lee for non-match 308/3006 seating, or Wilson hand dies for seating 308 match rounds.

Dave

I use a single stage Lee for everything. I really enjoy reloading (maybe more than shooting), and I'm in no hurry to finish. Plus I play with some pretty imaginative loads and a single stage requires me to slow down so I can quadruple check every round. Eventually I'm getting a progressive just for 357's since I go thru several hundred a month and my load never changes.

Since my largest reloading batch of anything is never more than a couple hundred, I stick with the single stage. Also, most of the powders used in my rifle loads are of the "stick" variety requiring individual weighing to get consistency. I just don't trust a progressive's powder measure to get that for me.

While I don't own a progressive yet, I load rifle cartridges on an old Lyman T-Mag press and handgun on a Lee Turret press. The Lyman is very solid and has always given excellent results in everything from .223 Rem. to .416 Rigby.

Probably will get a Dillon progressive for handgun sometime soon.

I'm using a Redding T-7 Turret press and I've got no complaints. Solid press, no slop that I can detect. I did snap off a couple decapping pins by not lowering the ram enough when moving the turret. You think I'd learn my lesson after the first time....

I had a single stage, but the turret presses just made more sense. I asked around, and the consensus was that modern turret presses are just as tough as the "O" type single stages.

Ed

I load most of my rifle ammo on a Redding UltraMag, some on an arbor press. I loaded some rifle on my 550, but never liked the results. I dislike changing the primer feed, and distrust it. And, the powder thrower is a bad joke:rolleyes: .I just leave it set up for .45 ACP anymore, and load other handgun rounds on my Rockchucker. With the Casekicker, its fast enough.
Thing is, I like reloading:D .

Tom

I use my Dillon XL650 for most of my rifle loading, ( 5.56X45, 7.62X51, and .30-06) including my super accurate varmint loads. (6MM Remington.)

The big magnums get loaded on a Redding "Big Boss."

Most of my rifle loading is in small enough batches that I use a single stage. Even if I had a tool head and shell holder for every caliber I think I still wouldn't use the progressive for it because of set up time and the extra care that I think rifle rounds deserve.

That said I have run off fairly large (for me) batches of 223 and other rifle rounds on the progressive, but only with easy to meter powders.

Even if I had a progressive, the case prep I put into rifle brass negates the use of a progressive. Rifle brass prep includes the initial cleaning, lubing and resizing, decapping, trimming, chamfering/deburing neck, cleaning primer pockets, second cleaning, and cleaning/deburring flash primer holes. Progressive presses are better served for handgun brass where you don't need to prep and lube and assuming you cleaned the handgun brass, you can go from resizing the case all the way to bullet seating without any hitches.

I have an RCBS Pro 2000 for rapid handgun, I usually load 200 rounds of 9mm at a time. I use a Lyman T-Mag for all rifle rounds and I shoot a lot. I have it set up today for 308 and will turn out 200 rounds of match ammo, Sierra 175 grain bthp driven by 43 grains of 4064.

Using the T-Mag yesterday I turned out 60 rounds of 6.5X55.