Is a turret press much quicker?

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Every few years (at least) since I first read about the Dillon progressive(s) in the mid'80s I have contemplated buying one ...

... and every time I have reached the conclusion that it was not a match for my needs.

The LCT (or something like it), I have found, is a match for my needs, which sounds, to me, a lot like the OP's situation. :)
 
Needs: I'm not sure about this loading twenty rounds of usual handgun cartridges. There may be certain circumstances where this thing is necessary. Normally, I will load rifle rounds in smaller numbers. For the last few weeks have been doing 200 45 ACP rounds monthly. I leave the 45ACP 550 tool head set up with measure and all. Quick Change. What slows me down is casting my own bullets. The next project is to set up more other caliber Lee turrets for cast bullet loading. I don't do black rifles. I load black powder cartridge and magnum modern rifle rounds. A single stage press is needed for those jobs, This is the reason for having a progressive and a single stage press. Getting more gear than you need is part of the reloading addiction. Don't tell anybody!!!!
 
I agree that the LCT is faster than my old Pacific, and a progressive is faster than my LCT. A Dillon would be faster still, I guess. But the fact is: I am not in a race to reload faster than the next guy. My Pacific that I have had since sometime last century is a better built press than the Lee, but who cares, I use them like I want to use them, not like someone else wants me to. My shells go boom when the trigger is pulled, my wife and daughters grin when they out shoot me, and they don't care how many I load in an hour. It is what it is.

Have a blessed day,

Leon
 
Don’t remember how much an hour single stage because I will never do that again. Way to much handling. The great thing about the turret is your still doing one step at a time but you put a spent case in and a loaded round comes out. It’s also perfect for changing calibers back and forth. The safety prime and an auto drum measure make it very efficient.

The issue I have is 4 pulls per round for hours on end does a number on my back. I did about 200 rounds an hour of 9mm on my turret, and 400 an hour on my auto breechlock pro. But after 500 rounds on the turret I feel like a cripple, and I feel fine after that many on the progressive.
 
The big question really depends on the user. Me personally I started handloading pistol ammo because I started consuming a lot of ammo, I would say I was using 400 rounds per month. I also wanted to have ammo that was a little more tuned to my handguns. Once I started handloading on a single stage (because everyone on the forums said start with a single stage) and established a stock of ammo, I then started consuming more ammo which required more time at the bench.

After a time I decided to get a turret press because everyone of the forums said get a turret press which is semi-progressive and will pick up the production time. In short order I then started consuming 1000 rounds per month, an amount I never thought I would ever need. Because of increased demand, I was spending more time making ammo with a "semi-progressive" turret press than 6 months earlier on a single stage press. So that pushed me in the direction of progressive presses.

I have them all (single stage, turret and progressive) and in spite of the chatter on the forums, I now make everything on a progressive, even the small quantity and development runs. My advice then is look ahead to the future, not where you are now but where you think you might be in a year from now and purchase accordingly.
 
/\ /\ /\ Sometimes wonder why I didn't start off with a progressive, using it in single stage mode until I 'got my feet wet'.
Probably because 'everyone said', and I wasn't aware you could run a progressive in single stage mode,,,,,,,
 
thomas, how many different guns/calibers are you feeding with that progressive? I love my 650, and it is perfect for my high-volume competition loading.... but I've got 6 other pistol calibers and 4 rifle calibers to support, and between 2 and 4 regular loads for most of those. But my consumption rate of those is all pretty low. There's no way I'm doing all that on the 650. The caliber conversion expenses alone would be like a dang house payment!
 
The setup I will be recommending to people from now on is that if you are consuming pistol ammo in any volume get a progressive for that, and if your also doing rifle stuff in smaller volumes get a Lee classic turret as well. I would be unhappy doing any cartridge in volumes over about 100 per month on a turret. I load over 20 different cartridges so the turret is tremendous time saver for me switching back and forth between calibers with pre loaded turrets with minimal setup.
 
ATLDave said:
thomas, how many different guns/calibers are you feeding with that progressive?......
Click to expand...

Dave I understand your dilemma and really cannot fault it. On my progressive I load 80% 9mm because 80% of my shooting is 9mm. The rest is 38 spl., 40 S&W and 45 acp but very little 45 acp these days. I have dedicated powder drop lowers and associated gear for those calibers. Still, I don't take caliber changes lightly, I do my best to plan a month ahead. Doesn't always happen of course, tonight, for example, after work or tomorrow evening I need 600 rounds for the weekend then another 400 rounds the week after next so 1000 rounds between tonight and Friday morning, sort of caught me off-guard and to be honest I do need a break from shooting in general. So over the Thanksgiving holiday I intend to assemble another 1000 more rounds of 9mm for winter/early Spring steel challenge, this will use up all of my 105g steel challenge bullets. I have a ton of 9mm for general plinking so I'm going to use up some of that this winter, conserving my steel loads.

All of my rifle (.223, 35 REM, 270 and 30-06) is made on my single stage. I have started goofing around with 38 long colt pistol but not committed yet. I honestly do not see any great advantage in using a progressive press for my bottle neck rifle cartridge reloading needs. The most neglected of my presses for the last 3 or 4 years is my turret press. In theory I'm loading 9 calibers total, in reality really only three (9mm, 38 spl and .223), the rest occasional use. Because of time issues I basically stick to my established loads don't do a whole lot of tinkering. And I confess that I've started shooting more and more rimfire to avoid the time at the bench.

Just as an aside, I read just about everything that is posted on this forum and many times posters will state that they have dedicated $12.00 turret heads for each caliber. I read where caliber changes are, for various reasons, are both a snap and economical. My position on this is that there are quick and inexpensive solutions to die changes even for single stage presses and that any time savings gained from the snap of having dedicated turrets is lost to the progressive after the first 100 rounds. And from there the time advantage goes and stays with the progressive.

I have mentioned in other threads in other sub-forums that in the four weeks between mid-Sept to mid-October I (finally) won my first and second handguns. The second was a prize table pick where I knew in advance that I would have the option of a gun or a LNL-AP or a Mr. Bullet Feeder. I thought long and hard about this but when the moment of truth arrived I picked up the gun. In the back of my mind I have decided that at some point I will get at least 1 more progressive and have dedicated presses. I may buy one or perhaps win one but I see another in my future. I think dedicated presses are the way to go if volume is your thing.
 
Regardless of how one feels about the absoluteness of the "whenever" characterization, it's usually best to start with the assumption that, in any given situation, the market probably reflects some rational outcomes... particularly when it is a pretty stable market and consumers are generally well-informed and intentional in their choices (as most reloaders would be).
 
If I might add one thing, I've been on a budget most of my life. I have 3 sisters and 2 brothers and my parents raised us on just my Dad's paycheck. For 10 years my wife and I lived on just my paycheck when our kids were young. So when my wife started back into the workforce and my job started paying better I have struggled with decades of life on a budget vs. having the funds to acquire better than entry level or shopping strictly on price.

So while I acknowledge that low cost works I prefer robust/quality/functionality and I'm willing to wait (to save up money) and or more narrowly define what I want. I can easily find other firearms hobbiest who have more and better than me but not to sound like a snob but I do have decent stuff. In other words I cannot blame my hardware for my poor performance.
 
thomas15 said:
and that any time savings gained from the snap of having dedicated turrets is lost to the progressive after the first 100 rounds. And from there the time advantage goes and stays with the progressive..... I think dedicated presses are the way to go if volume is your thing.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't think there's any way to really dispute that the volumes that one is loading is the big drivers of what press type makes sense. When I need to get 1,500 rounds in ammo cans to go take a 2-day Ben Stoeger class or even half that amount to take to a major match... progressive is the only way to go. On the other hand, if I'm trying to roll up a box of 50 full-power .357 magnum loads whose primary use will be letting (new or less serious) shooters I
take to the range experience a magnum handgun round - probably only a cylinder's worth - I'm not switching a progressive over for that.
 
ATLDave said:
Yeah, I don't think there's any way to really dispute that the volumes that one is loading is the big drivers of what press type makes sense. When I need to get 1,500 rounds in ammo cans to go take a 2-day Ben Stoeger class or even half that amount to take to a major match... progressive is the only way to go. On the other hand, if I'm trying to roll up a box of 50 full-power .357 magnum loads whose primary use will be letting (new or less serious) shooters I
take to the range experience a magnum handgun round - probably only a cylinder's worth - I'm not switching a progressive over for that.
Click to expand...

Exactly, right tool for the job. My reloading for yesterday consisted of setting out to finish a leftover box of about 300 9mm bullets on the progressive (I didn't finish due to breaking my press but thats another issue) then I switched over to the Turret and loaded 20 rounds of load development in 7.62x39, 20 rounds of 30-40 krag for deer season, and 30 rounds of 357 magnum just to fill my ammo box back up. Either setup by itself would have been ill suited for this.

I don't load in mass qty except for pistol ammo. For most of the calibers I load for I maintain a single 50 or 100 round box of loaded ammo. When I get down to half in a few of them I sit down for an hour or two and fill them back up. The turret press along with an electronic powder dispenser and swapping powder drums in my auto drum allow a lot of flexibility to load in small qty's with no more than 5 minutes of setup time from one caliber to the next, and minimal brass handling. This is where a Lee cast turret press really earns its place, nothing comes close.
 
Reloading is my hobby. My time in the reloading shack is therapeutic - it is the journey.

To some people, reloading is just a means to an end, and I might feel that way if I had to load thousands of rounds each month for competition. Shooting is fun, but it really isn't as much of a destination as it used to be for me.

The beauty of reloading is that we each get to pick what works for us, and spend our time doing it the way we like.
 
It can even be both (therapeutic/journey-is-the-destination and functionalist/means-to-an-end-of-shooting-more) for the same person. Again, when I'm cranking out an ammo can or three of competition ammo, I'm not suffering, but not exactly savoring it. I'm trying to get equipped to do something else. When I'm experimenting with a new powder for a cartridge... I'm enjoying the process.
 
I guess I'm lucky, my turret press will build all the ammo I need for a month within a few hours. (600 to 1,000 rounds) If I were shooting competitions and needed 5,000 to 10,000 rounds a month I would of course need a good progressive press. I have my LCT press and RCBS Rochchucker on those Lee quick switch plates and use both all the time.

A note on the dedicated turrets for each set of dies, not doing so probable wastes some of the advantage of owning a LCT press. Switching turrets takes only a few seconds and makes loading different cartridges very easy.
 
Switching turrets is very fast, but if you've got lock-rings on your dies, switching out dies is not a whole lot slower. It's a couple of minutes (as in 120 seconds, not some indeterminate not-annoyingly-long time) at most. I've got a couple of spare turrets, and have one set up with a set of dies that my brother ocassionally uses to make ammo on my press, but otherwise I've found the more compact storage to outweigh saving 90 seconds of caliber-change time.
 
I use the round Lee plastic cases the Lee dies used to come in to store turrets with dies mounted. Sit them over the holes and put the cover over the whole thing. It doesn't lock down but it keeps everything clean. Lee has now gone to boxes for their dies but when Midway was selling the round cases off for a song I bought a handful.
 
ArchAngelCD said:
I use the round Lee plastic cases the Lee dies used to come in to store turrets with dies mounted. Sit them over the holes and put the cover over the whole thing. It doesn't lock down but it keeps everything clean. Lee has now gone to boxes for their dies but when Midway was selling the round cases off for a song I bought a handful.
Click to expand...

I believe if you turn the base upside down the cover will fit better.
 
All my Lee dies came in rectangular boxes. I can't fit the turret in them by itself, let alone with dies mounted!
 
Most of my dies sets are older and I have Lee Deluxe 3 hole turret press. They designed those round boxes so you could store your dies in the turret using the box. It works really well. I can't say how well it works with the four hole turrets, since they may be larger. You can still buy those round boxes from Lee.
 
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