Reloading press

Status
Not open for further replies.
U

utvolsfan77

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2015
Messages
55
Location
Greeneville, Tennessee
Hey guys, I've been using a Lee Challenger single stage press for the past few years and I've debated about picking up a lower priced turret style press. Because I'm already familiar with Lee, I looked at the three hole and four hole turret presses.

What do you folks think? Comments? Suggestions?
 
I would never resort to buying a manual turret press. You are still pulling the handle four time for a four hole press.
What are you saving by buying a manual turret press over your single stage?

Never mind, I may have spoken our of place.

All I will say is when I was in a position like yours (maybe) a long time ago when I was young, I bought my first auto progressive for half the price that the good manual turret would have cost. It was the right thing for me to do.

Just make sure that's not what you need and go from there.
 
I am in the same boat, and I would be leaning towards a Lee Pro 1000 as my next press.

Size/decap/prime on the Challenger. Flare, charge, and seat on the Pro 1000 with a relatively light pull for each round. Auto case feed, auto round eject. All for little more than $200.00 for the first caliber? Yeah, that sounds really nice, to me.

And you still have the SS press to overcome any deficiencies or compromises with a progressive, cheap or otherwise.

If you rather have a turret, I have put a lot of thought into it. For my purposes, I would rather have a 4 hole turret, because I shoot cast and I am using a non-fill-through expander die for some of my calibers. But if I didn't have that burden, I think I might prefer a 3-hole, personally, if auto-indexing. Although I suppose it isn't a big deal to turn the turret manually, once per round.
 
Last edited:
I would look at the Lee Classic Turret press, It works great with rifle or pistol loads and auto indexes. I went from a single stage to the Lee Classic and have been extremely satisfied. Buy extra turrets and set up your dies and make changing calibers a breeze.

Yes you have to pull the lever four times to make a round but you have to do the same on a progressive press. If your satisfied with 200 to 250 rounds an hour at a real good price is what you want.
 
Yes you have to pull the lever four times to make a round but you have to do the same on a progressive press.
Click to expand...
I think you meant SS press? Or haven't you heard about the latest progressive presses that make a round on every pull? I think they hit the market just 40 years ago. :)
 
Unless your looking at a auto 1050 where you load up the primer tube, shell feeder, and bullet feeder, and turn it on, your looking at 4 pulls no matter what to get a full round. Somehow each case has to make it through a sizing, priming, powder, and seating station..

I have a RCBS turret and find I use it quite a bit for loading small amounts of handgun ammo, give ot take 50 or 75 rounds. What is nice about it is having the extra hole to screw in the same caliber bullet sizing die so I can size my cast and load up test rounds on the same turret. I still find myself running them through in batch fashions similar to if I were using my single stage but I only have to turn the head to the next die instead of switching them out all together. Then sometimes I load the complete rounds turning the head as I go from step to step. Just depends on what else is going on I guess.

If I am loading a large batch of handgun rounds I use the progressive where I only have to set up a case and bullet, and pull the handle. After the 4th pull a new loaded round drops after each pull.
 
press

If you have been using a Lee press get the Pro 1000. When it is set up right and you learn its quirks the press will run just fine. I think the Dillon 650 is a better press but you can buy 4 Pro 1000s for the price of the 650.
 
I say it really depends on what your reloading volume is. If your shooting a large amount of pistol each month, I'd consider the lee pro 1000 or a loadmaster. If you shooting mainly rifle caliber then I would more lean to the classic turret press.
 
Get a blah blah blah... Tired of the color wars.

You already know from experience that Lee is not inherently junk, therefore you're looking at some Lee options. That's fine. You should know that they no longer make the 3-hole turret press. Their remaining 4-hole turrets are the Deluxe and the Classic. The Classic is built of cast iron and has 1/2" more clearance to allow for rifle loading. Deluxe is cast aluminum, same as your Challenger SS, used primarily for pistol but costs less.

You did not mention what calibers you load, or how many you need to load. This is important to your decision! An auto-indexing Lee turret is great for loading about 200 quality rounds per hour. I do not feel that I am missing out or wasting time, money, or resources by using my LCT to load a few hundred rounds of .38, .45acp, and 9mm in an easy evening. I don't need an over-priced piece of blue for that.

If you need to load a greater quantity than 200 per hour, you may want to look into a progressive. I don't need a thousand rounds per week. The LCT fits exactly for my needs. I doubt that I'll ever go progressive.
 
No color wars. I have no agenda.

I reload shotgun with my MEC9000g - it works ok, but if you are not careful the auto indexing leads to powder and shot spills, ect. I got this one used and it works well enough that I do not see a need to upgrade.

Rifle I load on my RCBS Rockchucker, I do batches of 50-60 at a time and that meets my hunting and shooting needs for .30-06 & .30-30, planning on .308 and moving into 7mm rifle when budget allows.

Pistol reloading, I have a Dillon 550b and have it configured for small primer cartridges. I have quick change tool heads for each caliber, 9mm, and .40SW, future plans would be .223 rifle.

What I like about the 550 is the manual index, I know this slows me down, but it allows me to better control the process. It would be nice to have more stations, at least one more.

I do not think one press fits every need. If I end up needed to do a bunch of case resizing for a unique cartridge, I will need the old Rockchucker. In the future I may need a auto-indexing press for pistol and perhaps higher volume rifle.
If I was going to load a pistol caliber, I would start with the 550b, even if new to reloading. It is not hard to control.

If I was getting started on low volume pistol or rifle, I would go for a single stage or something more manual than the 550b. Used would be best option. If forced to go new I would avoid the big kit, and selectively buy what you need.

Instead of doing the half step to a three or four hole turret press, why not go to the manual index 550b? Save up and wait a few more weeks to save up the money and get a base 550b setup.
 
Personally I'm getting the LCT, here is my reasons
200 rds an hour is more than enough to suit my needs, I simply don't think I could afford more.
Turret plates are 12.99, meaning a caliber change is inexpensive.
However I do not intend on using it the traditional way, my intention it to decap/ resize then hand prime on the single stage. On the LCT 1 die- bell/powder charge, die 2-powder lockout, die 3-bullet seat, die 4-Factory crimp. Reasons for this is safety, I don't want to inadvertently not set the primer right or worry about a double charge/no charge situation.

I was considering a Dillon,damn near pulled the trigger,but it made more sense to me to go towards the LCT
 
I load target and hunting loads in .22-250, .243, .270, .270 WSM, .308, .30-06, and .300 Win Mag.

Because I'm already familiar with Lee and have a lot of their equipment already, I decided to go with the Lee Classic Turret. I ordered it, several turrets, and the round storage boxes from MidwayUSA last night. It shipped today and I'm scheduled to have it here by Wednesday.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! I really do appreciate it
 
I just picked up a LCT. I don't shoot enough to warrant the extra bucks required for a blue press. I still have a Lee single stage, so if I decide to do some low volume rifle loading, that's what I'll use. I actually already have a progressive press, I picked up a used Pro 1000 before I had my single stage but I wanted to learn on a single stage so it never really left the box. I did take the pro auto disk from that set-up and bought a spring and return lever to use that on the LCT and save a few bucks. The Pro 1000 is set up for .223, and I am saving .223 brass. I expect one day I'll set it up and start cranking out some rounds.
 
your (sic) looking at 4 pulls no matter what to get a full round. Somehow each case has to make it through a sizing, priming, powder, and seating station..
Click to expand...
No, not at all. Clearly you have never loaded on a progressive press, like a Dillon 550.

After the initial three pulls to get a case in each station, each successive pull performs one function on each case concurrently, and each pull produces a loaded cartridge.
That is the entire idea behind a progressive press, and that is how the Dillon can produce 550 rounds per hour.

Try it some time (or search YouTube).

It is amazing. :)
 
I like you started on a Lee single then went to their turret and then to the Load Master as I kept wanting more options with reloading. I recently sold the Load Master and purchased a Hornady Lock n Load Ammo Plant as I want to have hands off case and bullet feeding and I like having the added insurance of using a Powder Cop along with eyeballing the powder drops.
 
It looks like you made a good choice. :)

What I don't like about my single stage press is the repetitive removing and installing the dies for each stage, and I just can't rationalize paying for the whiz-bang Red, Green or Blue machines, as marvelous as they are.

I am thinking the Lee 4-hole turret press might eliminate some of the drudgery, even if I never used the auto index feature, in addition to speeding up the process a little. With reasonable care, it should last as long as I do.
 
IWAC, that was exactly my frustration with my Lee single stage too! I load in smaller batches, 20-200 rounds at a time, so I don't load enough to justify a progressive style press. Even with the turret press I have coming, I probably will not use the auto-index feature very much. Like you, I just got tired of switching dies every 15-20 minutes. Once I get the new press set up, I'll take a batch through each stage, then I'll just manually advance the press to the next die.
 
If safely loading 180 to 200 handgun rounds an hour will fill your needs you have no reason to buy anything other than a Lee CLASSIC 4 hole turret press. The Classic is much better than the Deluxe turret press and well worth the slightly higher price tag.

If you buy an Auto-Disk powder measure to go with the press buy the PRO Auto-Disk, again a much better tool for not a lot more money. I have been using a Classic Turret press for over 9 years now and I'm very happy with that press. I even sometimes lift out the auto-index rod and load rifle cartridges like it's a single stage press. (30-06, 45-70, 30-30 and more)
 
Another option is the value version of the Turret press. Just a few $ more than the Turret press by itself.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/62...ith-auto-index-value-kit?cm_vc=ProductFinding

For more consistent powder drops I made a baffle out of an old credit card (because the shape of the powder hopper is rectangular), shaped it like a tent with 1/4" holes on either side of the card to keep powder flowing smoothly. It worked quite well!
 
mmesa005 said:
Another option is the value version of the Turret press. Just a few $ more than the Turret press by itself.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/62...ith-auto-index-value-kit?cm_vc=ProductFinding

For more consistent powder drops I made a baffle out of an old credit card (because the shape of the powder hopper is rectangular), shaped it like a tent with 1/4" holes on either side of the card to keep powder flowing smoothly. It worked quite well!
Click to expand...
IMO that is not a good deal because the press and powder measure are sub-par. That is the Deluxe press which does not handle spent primers well, the linkage is not heavy and the ram is thin. The standard powder measure is also not great. They use screws into the plastic hopper to mount the hopper and the holes become unserviceable.

IMO the CLASSIC turret Press and PRO Auto-Disk is a much better value.

This kit includes the Classic turret press, the Riser, Safety Prime System and a set of dies. Add the upgrade at the bottom of the page for the Pro Auto-Disk and you will be much happier IMO.
https://kempfgunshop.com//index.php...facturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=41
 
you chose well by choosing the turet classic over the cheaper turret. I am a penny pinching fool and have not regretted upgrading 1 bit.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top