GaryL,
Food for thought. Before I got into reloading, I did a lot of design engineering work, including designing systems for manufacturing, some of which was similar to reloading presses. So I tend to be a bit more "out of the box" and more open minded when it comes to reloading applications.
On the Lee Classic Turret, (Unique primer disposal system, keeps the press clean - no primer nasty) which is capable of handling a good number of large size cases, caliber changes are fairly inexpensive. This allows one to add a caliber change for not a whole lot more than a die set. So if you have a caliber change you want to add and do load development for, expense is almost never a consideration. You also don't need to weigh charges for rifle, just get an RCBS Uniflow and a Hornady case activated powder drop.
You'll need to buy one case activated powder drop system (50 bucks if you don't already own a Hornady LnL AP, but this is a one time purchase.) This allows you to reload rifle on the thing by buying a set of dies, a turret (10 bucks) and a CAPD base (basically a die and around 14 bucks or so wholesale) You then switch the CAPD and Uniflow easily from turret to turret.
Can't add a caliber much less expensive than that and still be able to produce an easy 200 rounds an hour. Is it as fast as a progressive? No, but it can produce a lot of ammo fairly easily and with no drama. Besides, 200 rounds of 7.62 X 54 Russian is way more than plenty to shoot in a M44 or M38 in a couple shooting sessions and I don't know about you, but I don't want to load enough of it to buy a conversion for my LnL AP.
On the Lee Classic single stage press. Unique primer disposal system, keeps the press clean (no primer nasty). You can add a LnL conversion kit and make it quick and easy to change dies. Then, using the LnL bushings, you can quickly switch it out from a swager die (such as a CD 4D brand, work great) to a Lee decapping die to adding a Dillon Trimmer to a Lee sizer for sizing cast bullets, etc. Combined these items and the LnL bushings and you can make this single stage an extremely versatile tool for handling a variety of oddball tasks a progressive isn't suited for or you don't want to put on your progressive press. Additionally, you can load .50 ACP on it, which one can't do on any progressive. Finally, it has the cheapest caliber conversion, a single set of dies. Just a really handy tool to have on the bench.
What I'm suggesting here is there are a variety of things out there one can do with such presses one can't do with a progressive. That's what makes them handy. And they''re so very inexpensive for what they can add to one's bench.
Regards,
Dave