Turret Press

[marineman]

What is a turret press and how does it differ from a progressive press?

What items do I need for a turret press?

Do I need a powder trickler?

Do I need case length gages?

Do I need a caliper?

Do I need a powder scale?

What kind of dies do I need? I have been looking at Lee RGB and Pacesetter Dies.


Please answer my questions directly. I have already heard the BS response of look at books on reloading and what not, but I am not looking at them, I am asking THR and would appreciate your candid input. Thanks.

 

[lgbloader]

There are a couple different types of Turrets out there right now so here is probably the easiest direct way.

Go to the Lee website and check out the help videos and you will see first hand what one type, probably the most popular on the market right now. Lee Classic Turret. It features an auto indexing turret head that you can insert one piece of brass and basically load one cartridge start to finish without having to take the brass on and off inbetween stations. People are loading about 150 - 200 rounds per hour on it easy. Pretty damn cool press if you ask me. I don't have one --YET.

Then go to the Redding website and check out the T7 turret which is basically a single stage press with a revolving turret head to hold 7 dies and you can change inbetween manually. I really like this press, I should because I own it.



You can also check out the Lee Classic turret on you tube.

To be honest, unless you are shooting a SH*T load of rounds, a person could really get by with a Lee Classic turret and a good single stage such as a Lee Classic cast single stage or rockchucker.

You still need all the other tools although the trickler is not absolutely necessary, I would still purchase it.

Let us know what you think.

LGB

 

[marineman]

Thanks. Are there any special add-ons or tools that are specific to the turret presses? Can the Lee load rifle ammo and pistol ammo at the same speeds? I have seen the turret press advertised and it seems like it is a cost efficient, yet produces a good amount of ammo efficiently.

 

[RustyFN]

What is a turret press and how does it differ from a progressive press?
I have the Lee classic turret press and can only comment on that. A turret press will take 3 to 4 handle pulls to make one round and a progressive press will make one round with every handle pull. On a turret press the dies rotate, a progressive the shell plate rotates.

What items do I need for a turret press?

Do I need a powder trickler?
No

Do I need case length gages?
They could be helpful but I don't use them.

Do I need a caliper?
Yes I think a caliper is a must.

Do I need a powder scale?
Yes. you have to set the powder measure to throw the right charge.

What kind of dies do I need? I have been looking at Lee RGB and Pacesetter
Dies.
I like the Pacesetter die set. It comes with the FL sizer, seater and factory crimp dies plus the shell holder. I think the RGB set is only two dies and doesn't include the shell holder.

If you wanted to load on a Lee classic turret you would need,
classic turret press,
pro auto disk measure,
double disk kit,
pacesetter die set,
rifle charging die,
auto disk riser,
safety prime,
scale,
trimmer,
chamfer/debur tool,

This is what it looks like setup.


Here it is with 223 dies.


Here is a video of the classic turret loading rifle ammo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOpN9iYOyE8
Hope this helps.
Rusty

 

[RPCVYemen]

I have a turret - I am not sure it's such an improvement over a single stage. Basically, it's like a single stage with pre-adjusted dies. I would think a Hornady LnL Classioc would be the same.

That's partly also the way I use the turret - resize/decap 100 cases. Shift the turret one station and expand/powder 100 cases, shift the turret one station and seat bullets in 100 cases. Shift one station, and crimp 100 shells.

Here's what I think I know.

With a some of the progressives, the turret moves automatically - so you out case in, pull the lever to decap it, and it rotates one station. Pull another lever, and you expand the mouth of the case fill powder. and so on. Each pull of the lever performs one operation, and the turret turns automatically.

There are other progressive (like Dillon) that process multiple shells on parallel. There are shells at all stations, so that when you pull the lever, one shell gets decapped/resized while another shell is getting powder, and another is getting a bullet seated, etc. With this system, each pull of the lever produces a finished round.

I may be wrong about some of this.

Mike

 

[RustyFN]

marineman
Thanks. Are there any special add-ons or tools that are specific to the turret presses? Can the Lee load rifle ammo and pistol ammo at the same speeds? I have seen the turret press advertised and it seems like it is a cost efficient, yet produces a good amount of ammo efficiently.

I load pistol ammo at around 200 rounds per hour at a comfortable pace. After the case prep is done I can load 223 rifle ammo at around 250 per hour. All the ammo I have been making has been very consistant and I have been very happy with it.
Rusty

 

[marineman]

Is a rifle charging die the same as a powder crew expanding die? I believe this is the die into which the bullet is moved for powder feeding. Also, on Lee's website, it mentioned buying a turret for each set of dies. Is this necessary, a convenience, both, or Lee just trying to sell more of their product? What is the difference between the four holes and the three holes? Which is better? Thanks.

 

[SASS#23149]

extra turrets are a nicety,but can be added later.
a four hole press is nice in that you can crimp in a seperate stage by adding a crimp die.Otherwise,when adjusting crimp you are also adjusting overall length,and visa versa.Makes life a WHOLE lot simpler.
Foks,you say how many rounds per hour you are loading AFTER the brass prep.Brass prep is part of the whole process and should be included in the rounds per hour.Sizing,mikeing,trimming and chamfering/deburring DOES take time,and adding it in makes the rph more realistic for the beginner.

 

[marineman]

I am still a little confused over what extra turrets do. Can someone please shed some light on this? Thanks.

 

[RustyFN]

I am still a little confused over what extra turrets do. Can someone please shed some light on this? Thanks.

If you look at my first picture you will see four turrets with dies in them. That lets me change calibers in one minute. If you only had one turret and wanted to change calibers you would have to take the dies out and install the other dies and re-adjust them. Having a turret for each die set lets you install each die set and adjust them and they will stay adjusted even when you change calibers.
Rusty

 

[Uncle Chan]

Hey, Rusty, what kind of electronic scales do you use?

 

[RustyFN]

Hey, Rusty, what kind of electronic scales do you use?

It's a Pact BBK 2. It is OK but after using a friends Dillon digital scale I would spend the extra money and buy it if I was looking for a new scale. The Pact has been fine though and hasn't let me down yet.
Rusty

 

[roach68]

Rusty is that a Flex light that you have snaked around the safety prime?

 

[greyling22]

bare bones:
turret press
lee autodisk
dies
turret

everything else is a Christmas present.

 

[rondog]

I also have a Lee Classic Turret Press, like the 4-station one pictured. Rusty's right, multiple turrets make life FAR easier. At $10 each, they're a cheap way to expand the press' abilities. I have one with only a Lee Universal Depriming Die in it, just for depriming (not resizing) ANY caliber of cases, except .50bmg's. I also have 'em with .45acp, .40S&W, 9mm Luger, 9x18Makarov, .380acp, .38 Special, .44 Magnum, and 30-06 Sprg. dies all set up and adjusted.

As far as "needing" a single-stage press, if you remove the turret ring and lift out the driveshaft, then put the turret ring back in, it'll function as a single-stage all you want. And you can manually move to any other station you want, anytime you want. So you can do the same operation to a bunch of cases at once, if you so desired.

So, if you want to deprime all your cases first (I do) before polishing, you can. I also use mine single-stage to prime all the cases first. I'm getting to where I can poke in a hundred primers, one at a time, in just a few minutes. I don't have to fight the plastic primer dispensing gadget on the press (weak link, IMO), and I don't irritate my carpal tunnel in my wrists with that Lee Auto Prime thing, which works well, just not for my CTS.

Some may think doing it this way is silly, but I have several thousand cases that are cleaned, polished and primed, stashed away in covered buckets. To load any caliber, I just resize, add powder and bullet, then crimp closed. I can crank 'em out pretty quick that way.

I look at the cleaned, primed cases as ready-to-go "containers", that I can then fill up any way I want, anytime I want. Came up with this idea when I had everything I needed, except bullets, and wanted to play with the press.

Cabela's offers a pretty complete kit, but you'll still need dies, powder, primers, bullets, bullet puller, calipers, storage containers, maybe a better powder scale, and on and on. It's quite an addiction, hope you're ready for it. Takes a strong man to only load "what he needs". http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t.../search-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

 

[RustyFN]

Rusty is that a Flex light that you have snaked around the safety prime?

Yes, that's my anti squib light.





Rusty

 

[Frankl03]

I like the light Rusty!

I use a Classic turret press. It works great and right now I'm just loading 223. I like the idea of multiple turrets for multiple calibers. I may be adding a few in the near future. I also use a single stage press just for military brass for decapping and swaging primers. This setup works great for me.

My son uses a Dillion 550 but for the number of rounds I load I could't justify the extra price. You can't go wrong with the Lee Classic Turret press.

 

[SSN Vet]

multiple turrets (@ ~$9/ea.) is well worth the expense....

the next step in convenience is to have a dedicated Auto-Disk (and appropriate charging die) set up for each)

Then you're truely talking about 1 min caliber changes. And at $30/ea, it's still a deal when you compare to the cost of doing it with other manufactures.

I'm not there yet myself.... but was eyeing the pro-Auto-Disk last week at my maiden voyage to the new Cabella's in Scarborough.