Why a turret press?

[1hole]

What's often missing in loading equipment reccomendations is, "How will it be used?" The range of opinions here only show that many of us need very different tools to suit our purposes. I try to make suggestions based on what the questioner's needs, not mine.

I started in '65 with a Lyman turret and used it until I started doing a good bit of case reforming in '93 and added a heavy single stage. I thought a turret press would obviously be faster, right? Wrong.

As a safety system I have always batch processed my ammo and a smooth (fast) reloading rhythm was soon developed. I found I could smoothly swap cases almost as fast as I could manually rotate (and accurately index) the turret, and doing so destroyed my rhythm, sooo???

Thus, after a lot of years using both turret and single stage presses, I can see NO advantage to buying turret presses that don't auto-rotate (like Lee's Classic Cast turret).

[bjklme]

There is a human factor benefit of the turret press with respect to repetitive motion. For many years I used a single stage press doing one operation on a batch of cases in wood blocks, and I used the RCBS hand priming tool. I reached the point where the numerous and repetitive small motion of picking a case out of a block, putting it into a shell holder, then putting it back into a block became painful to my hands and wrists. For me, single stage loading of a 200-300 round batch of 45 ACP became dreadful even if some stages were done on separate days. The turret press greatly reduces the number of times one has to manipulate a case, and re-orders hand movements to going through all operations on one case. The variety of movements reduced my hand and wrist fatigue. This also organizes the work so that rounds are completed one-at-a-time. If you only have half the time then you produced half the number of completed rounds, and you could still head off to the range. Any of the turret presses are good choices to provide these benefits.

I decided on the Dillion BL550, their basic loader stripped down without the primer tubes. It is a turret press with two turrets, one moving and one fixed. I added a Lee Auto-Drum powder measure, because I use Lee dies on the Dillon. I did not want to do the repetitive small motion of loading the primer tubes, so I place a counted number of primers in a tray and pick them out by hand to prime on the BL550. This priming motion is broken up by the variety of hand movements before it is repeated, and I have no difficulties doing this. I usually load one round at a time, and my production rate is ~4x faster than using the Rock Chucker. If need be I can further increase production rate by running 4 cases at once. This worked so well for me that I now have two BL550s, one for large primers and one for small primers. I still use the Rock Chucker for load discovery with bottle neck rifle cartridges, because the number of rounds per batch is small and I like the control of single stage loading.

Many compare among the turret presses to manually indexed to auto-indexed progressive presses, with points well-made. A significant underlying factor is "how big is a batch?". I enjoy the mere step from a single stage press to any turret press in terms of greatly reduced hand/wrist fatigue, completion of one round at a time, and increased production rate.

[alamogunr]

Well! I've got the T-7 mounted. Haven't loaded anything yet but I do have one minor gripe. The threading of the turret die holes is as rough as any I've ever seen including pipe threads. I won't say that it will affect performance of the press because I just don't know. I do know it grates on my nerves when I screw a die into the turret and hear and feel the threads grating.

I did one thing that helped a little bit. I used some lapping compound on a 7/8-14 bolt and tried to smooth things up a bit. It did help some but I stopped rather than try to make it extra smooth. As I said above, I don't know if performance would be affected but I do know that I don't feel that I'm forcing mismatched threads together.

[fn1889m]

It’s just nice to have options. I used an RCBS RC previously. But added the Lyman T-Mag 2 (on a closeout sale). I have my priming, crimping, and case forming dies in the turret press. The seating die is in the RC. I have no idea which method of loading is faster. But all the dies are on the table at the same time. Nice

[OS OK]

Well! I've got the T-7 mounted. Haven't loaded anything yet but I do have one minor gripe. The threading of the turret die holes is as rough as any I've ever seen including pipe threads. I won't say that it will affect performance of the press because I just don't know. I do know it grates on my nerves when I screw a die into the turret and hear and feel the threads grating.

I did one thing that helped a little bit. I used some lapping compound on a 7/8-14 bolt and tried to smooth things up a bit. It did help some but I stopped rather than try to make it extra smooth. As I said above, I don't know if performance would be affected but I do know that I don't feel that I'm forcing mismatched threads together.

I wouldn't stand for that quality from that manufacturer and at that price...they prolly won't stand for it either. Send some quality pictures with an e-mail and I would think they'd have a new turret coming ASAP.

It's worth your time...otherwise you are going to get even more disgusted as time goes by.

[KenT7021]

I have eight reloading presses.Four of them are turret presses.I like the turret presses.I have never considered speed in reloading.I reload for economy and for precision.I also reload because a number of cartridges I reload are not available otherwise.To me turret presses are handy.

[onelight]

What's often missing in loading equipment reccomendations is, "How will it be used?" The range of opinions here only show that many of us need very different tools to suit our purposes. I try to make suggestions based on what the questioner's needs, not mine.

Great point.
We have great selections of equipment to choose from to fit how we like load and shoot and almost all of it works great in a particular nich.