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Thread: What's the difference between different brands of presses?

  1. #21
    Boolit Buddy
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    I have Lee 'Turret' (tool head) presses next to my auto-indexing progressives, they are just WAY too handy for tooling, taking down QC loads/fails (no 'Mystery' rounds laying on the bench ever).

    While the tool head does move up/down, it doesn't 'Tip' side to side/front and back.
    The ram can go what ever direction when it deflects...
    I hear the guys with concentricity gauges complain, but they are blaming the wrong part of the press.

    I know guys like their toys, but to be honest, the only thing the neck of the case does is hold the bullet mostly centered with the bore.
    When you show them the difference in the throat, where the lands of the rifling meet the bullet when it's fired, and the lands have more difference than the case/bullet out of common loader/dies, sometimes they connect the dots, sometimes they don't.
    That bullet slamming into a slanted throat has way more to do with things than the bullet being slightly askew in the case AT REST...

    Most presses will produce reasonable ammo with a reasonable die. That's why there are so many brands/colors.
    If one worked above all others every time, that would be the design everyone jumped to.

    Slow, stout so it beats the brass everytime,
    Or faster/lighter/cheaper with a little less consistency.

    Keep in mind, this is a punch press that bends brass...
    When you look at industrial metal presses, they are always 'Chunky', overbuilt, and never aluminum.
    They have to beat the brass every time, so overbuilt is good.
    They have to live for decades, in some cases running 24/7 so they are steel or iron, cast aluminum stresses & fractures over time, use cycles.

    When it's steel on aluminum, the aluminum always looses, so clean & lubricate so the aluminum doesn't wear like crazy.
    (Lee owners, take note, the gray 'Slurry' that collects up on the ram is abrasive, liquid sand paper, clean it off and lubricate!)
    I can, and have put a bronze sleeve in the older, worn presses, but that costs nearly as much as the press did new, and the way to avoid it is simply cleaning and lubrication.

    With cleaning & lubrication even a Lee aluminum body press will last decades (depending on use, it's not an industrial unit).

    It's the upper fame where I don't much want cast aluminum.
    Even Dillon heavy 'O' frame presses break, there are several warnings about trying to swage primer pockets or bullets on Dillon aluminum fame presses.
    If you are going to swage, get a swaging press... The correct tool for that job.

  2. #22
    Boolit Master Kev18's Avatar
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    I might get a turret press then. Not yet but soon... I don't really go for heavy cartridge production. I dont mind it taking time but i want cartridge production with ease! It takes forever Screwing, unscrewing, UH OH I MESSED UP , unscrew again... It takes a while and its not fun. Sometimes I just walk upstairs to get my mind off of things because it's going bad.

    Like I said I might do 10-30 cartridges at once.

    I have:

    40-82 WCF
    .32 Remington
    .44 Mag
    .44-40
    7.62x54R ( Never even took the dies out the box, Never used them yet )

    I love my .40-82 but it drives me mental when it doesn't chamber or a random issue pops up.

  3. #23
    Boolit Master kmw1954's Avatar
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    Kev18 I have 4 presses, a single stage press, the Lee Turret press I already mentioned and 2 different progressive presses. I use them all and they all serve a different purpose. If I could only keep one because of what I load and the way I load I would probably keep the Turret press because it is the most versatile and can do everything I need to do in a relatively easy fashion. Now if I was loading mostly rifles then my choice of press may be different.

    I am one that believes there is no perfect press just as there are no perfect press operators.

    Read, listen, ask questions and you will make an informed decision. No matter what everyone else will tell you which is best only you know yourself, what you like, dislike. How you prefer to do thing. Just be honest with yourself as to what you want to accomplish.

  4. #24
    Boolit Master
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    Kev18,

    Everyone of the cartridges on your list would perfectly thrive on a Lee Classic turret or any other for that matter.

    The area I have a concern with turrets is with the small bores in a long range setting.

    Those cartridges are not on your list.

    Best regards

    Three44s
    Last edited by Three44s; 07-26-2019 at 08:56 AM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bret4207

    “There is more to this than dumping lead in a hole.”

  5. #25
    Boolit Master

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    If Ruger ever built a reloading press I'd retire my orange crusher for it!
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    I am a sovereign individual, accountable
    only to God and my own conscience.

  6. #26
    Boolit Master

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    My wallet is skinny. I am happy eith my Lee Classic Turret Press. I have the Loadmaster waiting on me at home after deployment.

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
    "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."
    ~Theodore Roosevelt~

  7. #27
    Boolit Master

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    This is like asking why Taurus is cheaper than Kimber when they're both 1911s...

  8. #28
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    You get what you pay for. Some of the cheap presses are made out of crap. You pay more for precision and you will understand more when you actually use the different brands. Buy once and buy good.

  9. #29
    Boolit Grand Master GhostHawk's Avatar
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    I have loaded everthing for the last 5-6 years on a lee hand press. Uses the quick change bushings.

    It is probably not as its best resising large rifle cases. Imperial sizing die wax makes a huge difference.

    I have a lee classic cast C mounted inverted for sizing and gas check work.

    I have some variant of a Lee O type press that I play around with swaging on, and resizing large rifle cases.

    Everything else gets done on the Lee hand press. I like the feel, the control.

    I do decap with a Frankford Arsenal hand decapper. From there brass gets citric acid wash, several rinses. I then like to bring the mass wrapped into a towel to my recliner where I run a primer pocket brush into each case and roll it over a clean cotton towel on my leg. This pretty much gets rid of the last of the goop. From here I could run them in several options of vibratory or tumblers with a variety of mediums from walnut hull to stainless steel pins. But for me this is good enough.

    The mass of brass in a towel is places on my kitchen stove over the pilot to dry for an hour.

    Clean and dry, they are now ready to be resized.

    I do primers with a pair of RCBS Univeral hand primers, one large, one small.
    From there they go into a block primer up. Each upside down brass gets charged, and placed into a different block right side up.

    30 seconds with a flashlight shows up double charges, under charges, etc.
    From here they are ready to have a bullet seated.

    This right here IMO is the heart of the lee hand press advantage. As you have significantly improved feel on the seating process. Anything wrong is instantly apparent.

    I do use the Lee powder through die to flare neck. And if I don't have one, I use the lee univeral neck flaring die for the same purpose.

    The vast majority of my shooting these days is 2 to 4.6 grains of Red Dot in almost everything.
    .32swlong to .357 mag.

    .44 mag and .444marline get 6.5 grains. They seem to do well there.

    I don't shoot that much so I don't care about progressive or turret presses. Except to say if you make a mistake there, you can be a long time fixing it.

    With single stage, if I get distracted and screw up, its one round. Toss it and move on.

    Using this system I did do 200 rounds of 9mm in 3 days including the casting, lubing. The last 2 days were long sessions. But they made good accurate ammo. Ammo that cycles well in my guns, is easy on the shooter, not so easy on the target.

  10. #30
    Boolit Master
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    Ghost hawk,

    I liked the looks of those portable presses as well and scarfed up a Lyman of the same sort a while back. No breech lock bushing but you can also bench mount it if you care to. Have not done much with it yet.

    With my varmint gun shooting I picked up on inside flashole deburring. I was noticing how dirty Red Dot burned in my revolvers and was doing some 44 Mag shot loads. I was so impressed with the better burn that I adopted the practice with all my metallic cartridge hand loading.

    You need your cases uniform in length to get an even bevel but once the deed is done, you never look back. Just don’t over cut with the debur tool as you can not put it back.

    I am like the Op at times as once in a while some straggler casings float into the process and I get frustrated having to change dies in and out to usher them into the rest of the batch. There a turret press really shines. The lock and load or breech lock system also achieves smoothing out those frustrations.

    My big ‘ole Redding Boss press is a brute by the Lee hand press by any standard but I can feel with it if I use less fingers on the handle but being able to work in a chair of more comfort and to chose the scenery as I work is appealing especially when I get a wry neck and shoulder at the man cave bench. My session gets cut short when it gets to hurting too much.

    My little “secret potion” rubbed there and that goes away though (you would think I would keep a bit of it there so a walk back to the house would not be require to get relief, I need to smarten up?). The truth is that I like to apply it with clean unleaded fingers and there is no washing facilities at the man station. I suppose waterless hand cleaner could suffice?

    Best regards

    Three44s
    Quote Originally Posted by Bret4207

    “There is more to this than dumping lead in a hole.”

  11. #31
    Boolit Buddy
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    It is true that with a higher price tag you buy higher quality,but you are also payi g for name recognition, and in some cases you are paying for a press that has more ability,or features that you may never need.One feature that all presses share is the fact that they all apply full pressure to the rim of the brass,and even the cheapest press can pull one off the rim..You definitely don't want to tolerate a sloppy ram,or one that you think will become sloppy with whatever your personal use will envolve,and you don't want one that looks weak.Like the aluminum C styles with the hollow base.Logic goes a long way in picking a press.

  12. #32
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    I sincerely doubt that you will get anyone here on the forum to say they regret the purchase of their Dillon reloading press. You will however be able to obtain comments from those with questionable brands that regret their purchase of the brand that saved them a few bucks.

  13. #33
    Boolit Master
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    “ you get what you pay for” What you pay for may not be worth what it costs to fit your needs.

    Here are a few items for the nothing but the best crowd.
    https://thetechreader.com/top-ten/to...-rich-can-buy/

  14. #34
    Boolit Master Shawlerbrook's Avatar
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    Hard to beat the RCBS Rockchucker unless volume reloading is your thing.

  15. #35
    Boolit Master kmw1954's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 6bg6ga View Post
    I sincerely doubt that you will get anyone here on the forum to say they regret the purchase of their Dillon reloading press. You will however be able to obtain comments from those with questionable brands that regret their purchase of the brand that saved them a few bucks.
    So, once again the only press worth buying it a buy once cry once Dillon. The only presses Dillon makes are progressives. They do not make a Turret and they do not make a single stage. So what are you to do if you do not need or want a progressive press? You do understand that not everyone needs or wants a progressive press, Right?

  16. #36
    Boolit Master
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    Someone pass the ...

    I knew it was gonna happen... Like so many times before.
    2nd Amend./U.S. Const. - "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

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    Restore the Republic!!!

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  17. #37
    Boolit Master kmw1954's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JBinMN View Post
    Someone pass the ...

    I knew it was gonna happen... Like so many times before.
    Sadly I agree. As you seen the other thread a couple weeks ago was completely deleted!

    After Kev18 made comment on a turret press in post #7 I offered an opinion on the turret press in post #9 and referenced a press that is no longer in production, the Lee 3 hole and offered the reasoning behind the purchase. Then in post #11 Kev18 asked another direct question on the use of a turret press. Again in my post #13 I tried to answer that question and again referenced the Lee press with a description of how I implement it.

    Not once in any of my posts or comments did I advocate for Lee presses or suggest that everyone rush right out and get one. All I did was relate my impression of a tool and how I used it. How anyone else takes and interprets or implements those comments is entirely up to them. If they want to follow my usage, great. If not well that is great too.

  18. #38
    Boolit Master
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    Earlier , in post #8, I posted, then edited to remove what is below, between the dashed lines, ------, for a comment.
    I offered some suggestions on how to find topics where this "choice" has been discussed before, described what was likely to happen, as has been shown above now in a few posts, and what is usually the result of such topics.

    It all boils down in the end to the decision being made by the OP in the first place and they usually just wanted some "backup" or "group assurance/confirmation" on their decision, to help them just get to obtaining it. A final "help me make MY decision" to get them to "take the leap".

    It is natural for many folks to seek the counsel of others. The only thing is , is that that person seeking the counsel now needs to sort thru what is bias & what is actual info worth considering.

    An example would be that if someone says, "I only use "whatever", it is what I started with & none can top it, so get the same "whatever" I did & forget about the others.", I will see bias because that person has not used any of the other choices & is just promoting that "their choice" was the best, and would be for someone else & they have No Experience with any of the other choices. Usually just hearsay about the other choices & generally use any bad reports of other choices as "confirmation bias" to help them convince themselves that they made a good decision when they obtained "their whatever".

    One would be better off with a person who has the experience of using more than a few of the choices of "whatever", and has actual "hands on" use & can describe those "pros & cons" as I mention in the part of the post I removed earlier, that I will place below.

    These "what is the best?" type topics, although usually well meant for someone to get help in making a decision on what to do, or how to do something, usually devolve/erode into a "pssing contest" and end up either being removed/deleted, or just fizzle out until the next person askes, "What is the Best" or that type of thing & it starts all over again.

    And that is why I started out in the post below on Searching the forum first before posting one of these type topics...

    Anyway, here is the topic below & I have no interest in replying to any more posts in this topic. I am stating an opinion, "MY opinion, & if you don't like it, go kick rocks.


    Now, for what I removed. ( & likely should have left there, now in hindsight... Might have made a difference. Who knows. )

    -------------------------
    There are a LOT of topics here at CB.GL forum covering this question about what presses to get when looking to "upgrade".
    I know you don't want to hear this type of response to your OP, but please try using the Advanced search engine here at the top right corner of each forum page just above the first post, or one of the other internet search engines & ask with keywords like:

    single stage reloading press

    or something along that line of keywords.

    Just using the Fourm Advanced Search engine, there are 1202 topics that you could look at & see if the title of the topic is worth searching in. {http://castboolits.gunloads.com/sear...archid=5657020 }

    Using Google, and setting the parameter, "site:http://castboolits.gunloads.com" with those keywords, to just have Google look in just his forum, like:

    single stage reloading press site: castboolits.gunloads.com

    there are about 3,610 results (0.33 seconds)
    { https://www.google.com/search?source...V8RBR4Q4dUDCAs }

    Using Google & , in particular the "archives" of the forum, by using the addition of the term "archive" in the keyword set above, you get just the results from the CB.GL forum Archives. About 1,730 results (0.36 seconds):
    The keywords used & parameter:

    single stage reloading press site: castboolits.gunloads.com/archive

    You can use those same keywords & parameters in any internet search engine & find a lot of topics just in this forum alone that cover what you are asking to know.

    You may have just asked, "What is the Best Single stage reloading press" & you would get the same answers & conflicting opinions you are likely to get here in this topic.

    I understand you are trying to gather info in order to make a decision about upgrading to a different press than the one you seem to think is not doing what you want any more, but remember that folks have been asking that same question numerous times & still usually end up with the same choice.
    The one that they want & were just looking for some "group assurance", or "group confirmation" that it is a good decision.

    You will read/hear that Blue ones are better than Red ones, or Green is better than Orange & all sorts of combinations.

    You will read/hear that what you should do is just move to a progressive instead of a single stage because you may want to increase your production in the future, etc..

    You will read/hear about the advantages of a turret press over a single stage, that a progressive is better than either a turret or a single stage, etc.

    You will get answers/opinions of others who want to justify that their decision on what press to get was the best one & you should follow their lead, etc..

    You will get replies suggesting you just get "such & such" a press by some particular mnfr., since it is the best & none of the others are as good, etc.

    And so on & so forth.

    Now, not yet in this forum, have I run across a serious look at presses listing each ones "pros & cons" across the board covering ALL manufacturers.

    It appears no one has taken the time that I know of to do such a topic/post.
    . Kind of like what Consumer Reports does with products. Rating them on price point, abilities to do the job, length of service (with normal usage), warranty, etc...

    Once someone does that, then all that would be necessary is to just point folks to that list & let them decide on their own. ( Which is what they are going to do anyway.)

    Yeah, I know folks don't want to realize this & just will keep on posting what their opinion of what press they have or do not have and why, ad infinitum & as nauseam. I guess it is just a typical thing for folks to just ask the same questions over & over without doing any research thru the search functions available & then asking about a particular press( or whatever item) and specifics about that particular press.
    BY doing a sort of "narrowing down of what is being looked for & then asking. Such as " I have narrowed down my researching to " whatever", and would like some input on those who have & own those particular "whatevers".

    Otherwise you are going to get all sorts of leads on "whatevers" that Others bought & use, & likely not ever get a consensus on what would be the Best for YOU...


    -----------------------

    Once again, like in the post #8,

    I wish ya G'Luck! in your search & decision(s). In the end it will be YOU who decides what you want & why though, regardless of what others say to try to help or even persuade you what to get.
    2nd Amend./U.S. Const. - "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

    ~~ WWG1WGA ~~

    Restore the Republic!!!

    For the Fudds > "Those who appease a tiger, do so in the hope that the tiger will eat them last." -Winston Churchill.

    President Reagan tells it like it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6MwPgPK7WQ

    Phil Robertson explains the Wall: https://youtu.be/f9d1Wof7S4o

  19. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sig556r View Post
    This is like asking why Taurus is cheaper than Kimber when they're both 1911s...
    Having worked on both brands and seeing the similarities in their internals it’s a reasonable question.

    Quote Originally Posted by 6bg6ga View Post
    I sincerely doubt that you will get anyone here on the forum to say they regret the purchase of their Dillon reloading press. You will however be able to obtain comments from those with questionable brands that regret their purchase of the brand that saved them a few bucks.
    Well, there will always be one.

    The OP should evaluate both wants and needs. What someone wants to accomplish will help define the needs. I have a Rock Chucker II and if it somehow broke beyond repair (hard to imagine) the one difference I would seek in a new press is better spent primer handling. Other than that it does everything I want from a single stage press. It has LnL bushings on the press and all frequently used dies/tools. That provides much of the utility of a turret press. Die changes take 2 seconds.

    I would certainly consider a Lee Classic Cast if the RC II broke due to its primer handling.
    Sometimes life taps you on the shoulder and reminds you it's a one way street. Jim Morris

  20. #40
    DOR RED BEAR's Avatar
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    I use lee single stage. Not because its the best thing since sliced bread but because it just worked for me. I know exactly what you are saying about having to change dies in middle of loading. I to have considered a lee turret press. I did buy a smart loader c press years ago mainly because i couldn't believe they could make a press for $10 dollar press. Now i just use it so i don't have to stop and change dies.
    Now for the advice i have to agree with JB the final choice is yours. I would suggest going to store where you can see and feel how they work. And pick the one you like best and can afford.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check