What's the difference between different brands of presses?

[1hole]

Your selection of the Classic Cast Turrent is wise. I can be used as a single stage by disabling the auto-indexing feature or use it as a much faster press by using the auto feature. Few reloaders ever need a progressive and even fewer ever need anything faster than what you now have.

I greatly dislike the currently popular "quick insert" gadgets. IF I wanted to make faster die changes I'd far prefer to use your Lee CCT's excellent rapid swap turrets with dies preloaded and adjusted. Your turret exchange can be done in seconds and without tools and without buying sleeves for every die; for those of us with a lot of die sets those things can quickly amount to some significant money!

[onelight]

Another bonus with the LCT in my experience the press mounted powder measures are very consistent on them the charges with the pro auto-disk meter better than any thing short of trickling than any of my other measures . Even with difficult to meter powder like red dot the movement off the measure through the 4 lever cycles settles the powder consistently.
If not kept lubed the disk can stick and give a light charge so you keep your eye on it at the charge station. I have the habit when finishing a session to give the external moving parts a light shot of Hornady one shot, if I change the disk a little graphite powder where it slides.
The disk will meter slightly more powder on the turret than a progressive or single stage.
I have extra disks so if I can’t get a charge I like I can fine tune one with this reamer.

[David2011]

. I only wanted a new press for more ease with the damn dies. Always fumbling everywhere, changing them out, and whether you want it or not they get messed up with the adjustments and all...

Congratulations on your decision to get the Classic Turret Press. Too late now; I was going to suggest a press that would let you use the quick change adapters whether Lee or Hornady. I have all of my commonly used dies and other tools equipped with the Hornady bushings and it literally takes 2-3 seconds to swap dies while maintaining the adjustment. You can set up turrets with your specialty tools like a collet bullet puller, universal decapping tool and the like.

As I stated in my previous post, I think a beginner should start with a single stage press. It teaches you what each step is. And teaches you safety. What not to do or what to look for.

I also am of the opinion that beginners should start on a single stage or at the most, a turret press.
Three44s

Even though I've been loading on progressives for 28 years I find a single stage indispensable for correcting mistakes, working up loads and for those cartridges that I only load in smaller batches like .44 Mag and my hunting rifle loads.

What do you guys do with multiple presses?
one for each stage?

One for each caliber?

You people have solid setups it sounds like!

And unrelated: What do you guys use as a mat on the bench for cleaning or resting a rifle on. I bought 2 hoppes green mats but they are pretty much just cheap felt and are already falling apart leaving green fluff on guns and tools...

I have a clear vinyl floor runner on my gunsmithing bench to protect the bench and firearms, stapled to the bench around the edges.

Multiple presses:

Single stage: Depends. My bench is set up with three positions and any single stage tool can be mounted at any of the positions. Sometimes I size and decap rifle cases on a press at position 1, charge the case at position 2 and seat the bullet on another press at position 3. Sometimes I pull bullets on one press, dump the powder, recharge the case and reseat the bullet on another press. With the flexibility of all of my presses, powder measures, swage, Forster trimmer and bench priming tool being on plates with the same bolt pattern I constantly reconfigure the whole single stage bench to suit whatever needs to be done. Sometimes a friend comes by needing to do something I don't typically do myself do it's easy to set up the bench accordingly.

Progressives: I mostly load .40 S&W and .223 on my 650 and can load many cartridges on the 550. A single caliber conversion that fits the .30-'06 casehead can load a bunch of different cartridges just bu changing toolheads.

[glaciers]

Kev18,
I just wanted show you a powder stand idea for the LCT press I got from Ben.
A powder stand which allows use of any brand powder dispenser. Great idea, not real happy with the LEE press dispenser, but being able to use a Little Dandy, Lyman 55, or Uni-Flo makes a big difference.



Yeah, the LEE pro auto disk powder dispenser looked like it missed the KISS principle completely. I took it out of the box and look it over and promptly put it back in the box where it remains. I had been removing the cases and filling them, then back to the press. The priming system on mine works great, so with the "Ben" mount, reloading life became simple. Back to KISS.

[Dan Cash]

Some brands are an unfinished project as received. Some are good while others are superlative. Pick your poison but if you are too ham handed to make simple adjustments and too illiterate to read and follow instructions, then get the most simple press on the market and don't bash the others. Know thy self.

[David2011]

Everyone is arguing about the presses! Honestly I dont own any calibers that would fit in there. I have the lee manual on my lap right now and they say the biggest caliber that fits in there is a .223! I dont reload anything that small. A turret would be good for me... It would be nice to just poop out 100 rounds in 5 minutes but I dont even have any "simple cartridges" all odd ball stuff. Maybe except .44 mag. I only wanted a new press for more ease with the damn dies. Always fumbling everywhere, changing them out, and whether you want it or not they get messed up with the adjustments and all...

The Hornady LnL bushings were a very nice solution for me. I felt the same way about messing with dies.

As I stated in my previous post, I think a beginner should start with a single stage press. It teaches you what each step is. And teaches you safety. What not to do or what to look for.

Couldn't agree more. They're also nice to have for fixing mistakes or salvaging brass.

What do you guys do with multiple presses?
one for each stage?

One for each caliber?

I have 3 RCBS single stage presses. One mostly sits off the bench unused. The Rock Chucker is the mainstay of my single stage bench. I bought Summit but have not fully explored using it yet. So far it has mostly been used for seating rifle bullets after sizing the cases on the RC. Bought it because Cabela's never seemed to have what I wanted and I had a bunch of their credit card points saved up that paid for it completely. It's a red/white/blue one and just looks cool sitting on the bench. Worst reason ever to have a press taking up space? I have 2 progressives. The 650 loads primarily .40 and some .223. The 550 loads most of my pistol rounds and .30-'06 for the Garand.

Kev18,
I just wanted show you a powder stand idea for the LCT press I got from Ben.
A powder stand which allows use of any brand powder dispenser. Great idea, not real happy with the LEE press dispenser, but being able to use a Little Dandy, Lyman 55, or Uni-Flo makes a big difference.



Yeah, the LEE pro auto disk powder dispenser looked like it missed the KISS principle completely. I took it out of the box and look it over and promptly put it back in the box where it remains. I had been removing the cases and filling them, then back to the press. The priming system on mine works great, so with the "Ben" mount, reloading life became simple. Back to KISS.

That is brilliant. Does the die serve any function other than as a fastener? My powder measure like that doesn't have threads in the bore.

[Kev18]

The lee powder dispensers are bad. They leak everywhere. Powder falls out the mechanism.

[onelight]

The lee powder dispensers are bad. They leak everywhere. Powder falls out the mechanism.

I wound up with a perfect powder measure the one that is all plastic don't remember where I got it . It was a mess to use.
I like the auto disk pro I now have 3 ,and the auto drum I have 1. For press mount.
The auto disk pro is much better than the base auto disk.
For bench mount the Lyman 55 is my favorite .

[Kev18]

I wound up with a perfect powder measure the one that is all plastic don't remember where I got it . It was a mess to use.
I like the auto disk pro I now have 3 ,and the auto drum I have 1. For press mount.
The auto disk pro is much better than the base auto disk.
For bench mount the Lyman 55 is my favorite .

I have the plastic one... Not great. One day maybe il get those expensive automatic dispensers.

[kmw1954]

Kev18 I believe you need one of these, especially if you have the old model Auto Disk with the small rectangle hopper. It will truly make a difference. https://leeprecision.com/pro-auto-disk-update-kit.html

Otherwise if interested I can PM you and explain how to modify the one you have with only a pc. of emery cloth.

[Kenstone]

Kev18,
I just wanted show you a powder stand idea for the LCT press I got from Ben.
A powder stand which allows use of any brand powder dispenser. Great idea, not real happy with the LEE press dispenser, but being able to use a Little Dandy, Lyman 55, or Uni-Flo makes a big difference.

Yeah, the LEE pro auto disk powder dispenser looked like it missed the KISS principle completely. I took it out of the box and look it over and promptly put it back in the box where it remains. I had been removing the cases and filling them, then back to the press. The priming system on mine works great, so with the "Ben" mount, reloading life became simple. Back to KISS.

I'm with you on the auto disk wrap-around return spring you are forced to use on a turret, that and that chain thingy that supposed to shuttle the disc back under the hopper isn't much better.
I use the chain lever and a spring attached to the adjoining die for smooth and trouble free operation of the Lee Auto Disc Pro.
An added bonus of this setup is the spring is easily disconnected to throw a single (or 10) to confirm the charge weight.
here's a pic:

[onelight]

Good idea Kenstone ,
I don't use the chain either .

[Kev18]

The ones that attach to the turret press look nice but I dont have alot of lee dies. Mostly Rcbs for the odd ball rounds.

[Kenstone]

The ones that attach to the turret press look nice but I dont have alot of lee dies. Mostly Rcbs for the odd ball rounds.

Well, you can buy the Lee Powder Thru Expander dies separately for less than $12 each.
https://www.titanreloading.com/lee-p...-expanding-die
But you'd still need an Auto Disc Pro PM to get the benefit from that die, if you don't already have one.
Then you could rig it like have it, except on your new turret, mine's on a Piggyback.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post4705580

[kmw1954]

Or you can also check out this powder stand. at the beginning of the video and then again at about 16:20 He makes them for all the Lee presses. If I had an RCBS or Lyman 55 measure I would look this way. Or if I was doing a lot of stick powder.

[44magLeo]

I've read most of this thread. My opinion on the question is the color.
Each press out there was designed by a team that has specific ideas on what a press should do. No two teams came up with the same list of what the press should do.
I don't believe any press out there is made of cheap junk. People that believe that tend to be tool snobs.
I learned from a friend while in the service back in 78. He had a CH C press. I bought a set of RCBS 44 Spec/Mag dies.
I didn't like the way he did some things. So I went shopping and got a Rock Chucker press, a Lyman scale and 55 measure and a Lyman Manual. And started with what he taught me and what the book taught me and started making very good ammo.
I loaded for a Marlin 1894 in 44 Mag while living in the barracks. Bought the loading tools shortly after I moved off base.
I started casting shortly after that when a friend started cast fishing jigs. Bought a Lee pot with the 4 inch riser. Much better than using my cast iron fry pan.
I added a Lee hand primer after a few years. Didn't really like primers in tubes.
Since then I have used a Lyman Tru Line JR. Lee's C press and the Challenger.
I use Lyman 310 tools as well. I even have a couple Lee whack a mole kits. I have one of the Lee hand presses.
As far as a press needing some fiddling to get to work, is it the press that needs the tuning or the operator?
I have known a lot of people that they know more about what a tool should do and how they work than the people the designed and built the tools.
When these people can't seem to get it to work they blame the tool, when reading the directions thouroughly.
It doesn't matter the color, you can't just pull the press out of the box and load at max speed. You need to understand the way it works and how to operate it.
In some cases I have read the instructions and pointed out the error of their ways but they still think they are right.
I just go on my way. Let them curse it as junk and buy something else. It's there money.
I like the Challenger press for the way it handles spent primers. I like the excessive strength of the R/C.
I like the ease of use the Lee C press. The lee hand press handle spent primers ok but doesn't hold many.
I have had the presses on the bench to use in a progressive fashion.
Size and decap one #1. Clean brass. Hand prime with Lee's Bench primer. Charge with a Lyman 55. Seat on the next press.
With straight wall case I expend between size/decap and clean. If I want to crimp I have that In another press.
So do as you wish. I like my set up. I'm sure you like yours.
Leo