Please help me choose a new reloading press

[7.65browning]

Hi All,

As the title says I'm in the market for a new reloading press and I have narrowed my search down to two options: Lee Value Turret Press or Lee Auto Breech Lock Pro. Long story short, I'm in Europe and our selection of brands is limited and prices are astronomical compared to US prices so Lee is the brand I need to stick with for now. Some background and expected use:

Currently I use a single stage to load both rifle and pistol cartridges. For rifle I'm fine, but for pistol it takes me upwards of 3 hours to churn out 100 rounds which is way to much effort for the number of rounds to make me happy with reloading.No doubt the fact that I prime off the press has an effect on my time but I just can't get primers to seat deep enough on the press. I also have difficulty with finding a reliable powder dispenser. I use a very fine ball powder for my pistol rounds, and all powder measures I tried leak and show inconsistency of up to 0.5 grains per charge.

So I'm looking for a press that could speed up my reloading sufficiently to compensate for the above factors. I'm looking to be able to do 200-400 rounds of pistol ammo per week, and be able to do it in under 2 hours for 200 rounds.

Any opinions on which press I should choose would be greatly appreciated. I already have a lot of reloading stuff so the turret press would be usable out of the box. I would need to get shell plates for the progressive and I'm also not sure how easy it is to remove sized cases for priming from the progressive press.
I would also welcome any suggestions for a powder measure that can handle very fine grain powder. I was looking at the RCBS Little Dandy but I'm not sure if any of the rotors would throw the correct charge with my powder and if it would leak or not.

Thanks in advance,
Tom

 

[jmorris]

If I were wanting speed I would get the one that can do more than one operation per stroke, that would eliminate any single stage or turret and leave me with the only other choice, ABLP.

 

[drband]

^^^^This^^^^
The ABLP should be a good fit for you based on your description. It can prime on press adequately and should work well for handgun calibers.

With a turret, you might get 200 rounds per hour, but you definitely need to go with the ABLP if you want to exceed that rate and limit your time on the bench.
There seems to be a significant learning curve, but since you already reload, that should not be a barrier.

There are some good threads on THR on the ABLP.

The Lee AutoDrum powder measure mounted on the ABLP should handle fine pistol powder with no issue. I use one on my LCT and it does not leak AA#2, or CleanShot pistol powder at all (very fine ball powders). Again, the PM must be set up properly (drum assembly, etc...) but mine are perfect (I have 4). No leakage.

 

[drband]

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ch-lock-pro-support-thread-no-bashing.835405/

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...pro-user-review-discussion-no-bashing.835426/

 

[GW Staar]

Agree with jmorris......from your choices. powder measure leaking with fine powder is a Lee feature on their "perfect powder measure....don't know about the one that comes with their new progressive. You might also look in the "used press" market in your area, if there is one. Dillon, Hornady, RCBS progressives might be found at a good price and they come with powder measures that handle fine powder. Used presses are as good as new, unless they are broken.

The RCBS Little Dandy option isn't made for a progressive....no press linkage.

 

[Rule3]

Hi All,

As the title says I'm in the market for a new reloading press and I have narrowed my search down to two options: Lee Value Turret Press or Lee Auto Breech Lock Pro. Long story short, I'm in Europe and our selection of brands is limited and prices are astronomical compared to US prices so Lee is the brand I need to stick with for now. Some background and expected use:



Thanks in advance,
Tom

The Lee CLASSIC Turret Press is not available where you are?? It is much better than the "value" press. Add a Lee Auto Drum Powder measure and you will be set.

https://ads.midwayusa.com/product/814175/lee-classic-4-hole-turret-press

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/803372/lee-auto-drum-powder-measure

 

[Toprudder]

I have 4 Autodrum measures. A couple of them do leak, and I have been through all the various fixes on one of them, it got better but still leaks a little. This is only on H110 and Nitro100NF powders. All of the stick powder work great, though. The earliest Autodrum I bought seems worked fine from the beginning.

FWIW, I can comfortably do 200 rounds per hour with my LCT with auto-index enabled. For all my semi-auto pistol rounds, though, I have a Dillon progressive press.

 

[kmw1954]

I keep posting these 2 videos when I come across topics such as these. In my opinion these are the best descripted videos out there in relation to these presses.

My opinion is that either one will fill your needs and it then comes down to 2 factors, just how fast do you want to go and how much money do you want to spend. And these two issues were what held me up from buying either one right away. I couldn't decide. The New 2018 Value press is the same frame as the new Breech Lock Pro.

The new Value press will be the least costly to obtain and set up. Here in the States a new model can be found for under $90.00 and then all that is needed is a die set with a shell holder and away you can go. The Breech Lock Pro will need a separate shell plate with each caliber you add along with the die bushings. The cost of the removable turret head is also about 1/2 the cost of 4 bushings.

I chose the Breech Lock Pro over the Value press for a couple of reasons. One was to reduce strokes overall and the other was I just wanted to try this new press.

I have and use both the Lee Auto Disk measure and the Auto Drum measure. I am also using some very fine powders such as AA#2 and #5 along with HP-38 and Ramshot Silhouette. For me leakage is a real issue as I also use these measures on a Lee Pro1000 and anyone that has ever used one knows that this press does not do well will leaking powder. When I first got my Auto Drum it was shortly after they came out and I will admit that it leaked horribly and was sent back. The ones today are vastly improved over the first issues and I don't experience any leaking from the new one. Also with both of these measures I have found with the powders I am using I can easily hold 0.1gr. tolerance on my powder drops.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

For handgun ammo I highly recommend the Lee Classic 4 Hole Turret Press. The turrets are not expensive and breech locks are an unnecessary cost since you will be leaving the dies in their own turrets.
You are looking for 200-400 rounds a week and this press will safely produce 180-200 rounds an hour.

I know you won't be buying from Midway since you are in Europe but here are the links to look at.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/814175/lee-classic-4-hole-turret-press
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/292460/lee-4-hole-classic-4-hole-turret-press-turret

The Lee Auto-Drum measure works well with ball powders. I'm still using a Pro Auto-Disk but have seen the Auto-Drum working. Both are used with W231, W296, AA#2 and AA#5 without leakage.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/803372/lee-auto-drum-powder-measure

I know you didn't list the Classic Turret Peress but it's in the same price range as your listings. I don't know anything about the Breech Lock Pro but I have used a LCT press for over 12 years now. I would never buy a Deluxe Turret Press because they are poorly made and are terrible at handling spent primers. I have never seen a value turret press so I can't comment there.

 

[Whiterook808]

I would never buy a Deluxe Auto-Disk because they are poorly made and are terrible at handling spent primers.

All of my powder measures do not handle spent primers well!

 

[egd]

You use a single stage press and you can't get primers seated deep enough???
I don't have a single stage so maybe there's something I don't understand. Can't you just use more force?

 

[ArchAngelCD]

All of my powder measures do not handle spent primers well!

Lol, thank you I will fix that!

 

[7.65browning]

I have an auto drum powder measure and to be honest, I hate the damned thing. Never could get it to run well, leaks powder, fails to fully rotate the drum quite often, binds, etc. I might have gotten a bad one but I really didn't have a positive experience. The reason I was thinking about the little dandy is that I could have a funnel in the mouth expander die and I could use it to manually load charges.

Regarding on the press priming, I dunno. I could never get it to work well, it requires an inordinate amount of pressure to fully seat primers on my press so I'm currently using a ram prime. The added leverage seems to help, but that's obviously not compatible with a turret or progressive press.

I was thinking about using my single stage to resize and prime with the ram prime, and then run the sized and primed cases through either a turret or a progressive press for the rest of the steps. I'm not sure if that would negate the advantages these types of presses have though...

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I have never had a problem priming handgun brass on the LCT press. It works very well for me.

I'm not sure which single stage press you are trying to prime on but not all of them work well, as you already found out.

 

[kmw1954]

I was having a horrible time with my Auto Drum when I first got it. It was leaking badly and was chipping out brass on the mouths of the 380 cases. Twice it jammed up and jumped the gear inside and was sent back. Since I got it back the 3rd time it has been wonderful. Zero leakage. I get that shipping it back to Lee can get costly.

If you are going to prime off the press then I think either of these presses will work very well with the advantage still going to the progressive press in that it will still be faster. Plus there would still be the advantage that with all the dies removed accept the sizing die with using the case feeder with the collator you could deprime and resize 100 cases as fast as you can pull the handle.

 

[Whiterook808]

I was thinking about using my single stage to resize and prime with the ram prime, and then run the sized and primed cases through either a turret or a progressive press for the rest of the steps. I'm not sure if that would negate the advantages these types of presses have though...

Priming off press is done all the time. You will find good feel with the ram prime, and it is inexpensive, but there is no automatic feed. A hand priming tool or a bench primer would be best if you don't want to handle each primer. I don't care for the on-press priming feature of my rockchucker, so I use either a Lee Ergo prime or my RCBS bench primer. I have no problems with the priming system on my Dillon 550, so I prime on press when using that machine. I also decap off press before I clean the brass. I would rather add this step, which I can do in front of the TV, than have all that crud get into either of my presses and have to clean it out of the nooks and crannies.