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Thread: Considering a turret press

  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by HP9MM View Post
    I have used an RCBS Rock Chucker since 1973. I started out loading maybe 50 9MM's at a time plus 20 rifle rounds at a time. As time has moved on I find myself loading at a time 150+ 9MM's. I want to speed up my loading without going to a Dillon type press. My question is would I see a pick up in speed with a turret press sufficient to buying one? If so which one would you recommend?
    Our choice of the Rock Chucker and using the batch method of reloading is the same. Like you, when the need for more pistol ammo presented itself I went to a turret. I bought a Lee that used 3 hole die plates, but later converted it to a 4 holer. It has served me well. I mostly use it for 45 ACP and 9mm Parabellum, and have two Lyman "C" presses that I use for .38 Spec. and smaller quantities of calibers like .380 ACP. I still rely on the Rock Chucker for my rifle ammo.

    DG

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Der Gebirgsjager View Post
    Our choice of the Rock Chucker and using the batch method of reloading is the same. Like you, when the need for more pistol ammo presented itself I went to a turret. I bought a Lee that used 3 hole die plates, but later converted it to a 4 holer. It has served me well. I mostly use it for 45 ACP and 9mm Parabellum, and have two Lyman "C" presses that I use for .38 Spec. and smaller quantities of calibers like .380 ACP. I still rely on the Rock Chucker for my rifle ammo.

    DG
    I also load my rifle ammo on an RCBS single stage press. Sorry, old pal, but I trump your Rock Chucker with an A2.
    Disclaimer: The above is not holy writ. It is just my opinion based on my experience and knowledge. Your mileage may vary.

  3. #23
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    There's always somebody that's one up on me......

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  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pressman View Post
    Everyone has their own ideas to what works for them and what they wish to accomplish. For many, it's production speed, for some of us reloading is therapy from the worlds problems.
    Some years ago my department adopted the then new Glock 17 as a duty pistol. So I set about to learn everything I needed to know to shoot it accurately under any condition. That meant 5000 rounds of 9mm reloads, all done on a Rockchucker, 50 rounds per session. It was great stress relief and just plain fun.
    Today, I just counted, there are 25 full size turret presses in the basement, one, a Lyman T-Mag II has 8 turrets. I have used all of them and they work OK, but I still load on a single stage RCBS A4 and a Precision PR3.
    It's slower with die changes, and I do spend time screwing dies in and out for every step, otherwise there is no difference.

    I just like the pleasurers of quiet time at the reloading bench.

    I am not a fan of Lee products, but what the Lee fans say is true, their presses give them shortened production time without the cost and physical size of a Dillon.

    It's something to consider if it meets your criteria.

    I think I'll go prime some 45 ACP brass, one at a time on a Lachmiller tool.

    Ken
    I am with Ken that enjoyment of using the tool/time utilization is very important part of reloading.

    I had a much different start to reloading than most. Starting at around 10 years old I started reloading for a reenactment group. By the time I was 15 I had loaded over 50K of 45 Colt and 45/70. I cast all the bullets also. These were loaded on a RCBS junior that I still own. I always wanted something more efficient.

    Like Ken I also tend to collect presses. I like my single stations and I love my progressive's. Turret presses and the Dillon 450 and 550 not so much. Never liked or understood the purpose of a turret. The Dillon 450's and 550's lacked auto advance and while I have owned both they went down the road when the 650 came out. I really like the 650 but I flat-out love my 1050's.

    Enjoyment for me is running a batch of 1,000 or more on my 1050 without any sort of stoppages or issues while being able to hold 3/8" to 1/2" MOA for 10 shot groups for .223 or 308.

    As a toolmaker I built tooling for production machines for me. Relaxation for me is watching a finely tuned machine operate.

    As to the OP's question of gaining speed it's very minimal at best. Die change time is it. For me if I index the turret through all the stations I am slower than if I do each step in batches. Some people really like turrets but frankly I don't see any benefit to them and I do see some negatives.
    Last edited by M-Tecs; 04-05-2021 at 06:19 PM.
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  5. #25
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    I use a Lyman T-Mag but found that to make good time I run all the to-be-loaded brass through it single stage style. All my brass gets sized before storing. It’s faster for me to prime on a Lee auto Bench Primer so that starts my load sequence. Then flare it all. Then charge then seat & crimp. Usually batch 100 pistol rounds at a time, from priming to crimping it takes an hour per 100. For me that’s 6 hours loading for a week’s shooting.
    The (to me) advantage of a turret is dies are set the way I want them and don’t need to be fine adjusted. I really don’t like to fiddle around adjusting dies. Each Six station turret has dies set for two cartridges. Five turrets equals 10 cartridges I can load for.
    I run an SDB for the cartridges I use most of. Faster for sure but the charge weight isn’t as consistent IMO. If you’re thinking of shooting more than a couple hundred rounds a week I’d seriously consider a progressive. You’ll wind up with one sooner or later.

  6. #26
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    To me a turret press is just a single stage that you can leave the rest of the dies set up on. It never made any sense to move the turret for every step of loading each cartridge; it may work for some, but not me.

    I have a Lyman six hole T-Mag I think, and the thing I like best about it is being able to do load development without changing dies constantly. It also reminds me of loading on an old C frame like my old Pacific Super C, lots more hand access than with the O frame type.

    I would not try to do heavy duty case forming with it, that is what my Rockchucker is for, but granted you don't always need the strength of a Rockchucker either.

    I tend to process brass in stages anyway and prime off the press with an RCBS hand priming tool.

    If I were shooting hundreds or thousands of rounds per month, I'd have a progressive again, probably a Dillon.

    My bottom line is as long as you are safe, it doesn't matter what you use.

    Robert

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by rbuck351 View Post
    ..... The main difference between an RC over most of the older and some newer presses is the compound linkage.
    I've not seen a new simple toggle link press of any brand in at least twenty years so suggesting a noob get a Rock Chucker to be sure he gets a compound toggle press really doesn't compute.

    Soon after I got my RC 2 in 1995 I modified my then 30 year old six hole Spar-T to give it compound linkage too. I enjoyed the challenge and it worked out great, the old single toggle press now has MUCH better leverage. I still use it from time to time but only for special purpose tasks so the few dies in it stay put most of the time.

    I've used a lot of single stage presses over the years - Lyman, Hornady, Redding, Forster, Herters, Pacific, Lee, etc. If they are compound toggle presses, all web hype aside, I am yet to see any great difference in effect between them.
    Last edited by 1hole; 04-05-2021 at 09:18 PM.

  8. #28
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    A single stage a turret and a progressive all have a place for me at the reloading bench and many of the folks here have all 3 types they each have advantages . But what I shoot and load for now if I had to pick just one it would be the LCT because of its versatility and I find it very enjoyable to use .
    But I don't want to give up any of them. And I sure would not tell anyone my way is the best way . Every one should use what they like , and what fits the budget for time and money invested . When I bought my first press I saved for months to by a pacific single stage , PM and scale . And I have been where I could have bought any manually operated progressive press I wanted .
    I always enjoyed what I had but some I would not buy again . They have all worked for me but I am not a collector or competitive shooter and would rather put my money in guns and components than reloading equipment . It's fun to have all the choices and to see and read about all the equipment old and new , that members use and what they like and don't like about it . This forum is a great place to hangout

  9. #29
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    I didn't recommend the RC just stating the difference between it and most older presses and some newer (not new) presses.

    The main thing I like about my Lyman AA is it only has 4 stations which is just right for loading handgun rounds one at a time without having to click past empty die holes. Also I like the wide open access to the primer punch and shell holder. Many folks wouldn't benefit from this but I did for years. Because my time was always short and I could be stopped by swmbo at any time, it was nice to be able to load for even a few minutes and have a few loaded rounds rather than loading for a few minutes and have a handful of primed brass or part way through powdering a batch of cases. For me it was as fast this way as batch loading.

    When I started shooting a lot more I bought a Dillon 550b and went from maybe 150 rds per hour to 400+. This is as fast as I need. This is one press that can be used single stage, turret style or progressive and although it is manually advanced I prefer this. Unfortunately they are not cheap.

    If one is looking for more speed, I don't think a turret press offers enough more speed to make it worth the cost.

  10. #30
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    I have a Lee 4 hole turret & really like it.I use it as many others have stated, as 4 setup single stage presses that only need 1 shell holder. Right now I have 8 set up turrets , 1# coffee cans make good storage units for them. I have 2 single stage presses also, a universal decamping die is always in one of these, I normally pull the recapping pin out of sizing dies.as any times I want to run a primed case through a sizing die.

  11. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pressman View Post
    It's Monday, and it appears that the highly esteemed Mr. Frog person is having a bad day. After all it's Monday.
    No, I was having a good day after having spent Easter Sunday with some favorite family members and eaten a great dinner. I got to sleep in late since Monday was a holiday, I’d had plenty of coffee, and my meds, so all was well with the World... it just plucked my last nerve to see this kind of thing again!

    This is in many respects a very good forum, but this kind of intentional but selective willingness to accept this kind of disorder and flouting of some rules while others are enforced is just illogical. See additional comments and response below. Ken, you know me well enough to know I’m not a troll and that I don’t go looking for flame wars, but enough is enough. NOT nor just Dixie!

    Quote Originally Posted by Scrounge View Post
    Hopefully, that will be the worst problem he has today. If not, well, I feel for him. Personally, as a relative newbie myself, I'm inclined to forgive the offender, and answer his questions...
    Bill
    “How will they hear without a preacher?” Romans’ 10:14c

    See my comments below concerning the reasons for my post. Please note that I have tried polite, strident, snarky, sarcastic, abusive and repetitive along with a about every other strategy I could think of to deal with these problems, with virtually no effect. Next I guess we’ll see people typing in all caps about new their Browning Automatic Rifle on the Single Shot Forum! While I’ll admit I don’t spend time on all the pages (only the eleven I’m most interested in!) this particular page seems to attract the worst offenders... a while back somebody posted here about building a cartridge tumbler from a cement mixer. May his computer screen become a whirling beach ball!

    QUOTE=mdi;5161368]The Frog that roars! J.K.!
    I often feel the same way but on very rare occasions I have put threads in the wrong forum. Actually Mr. Frog is correct, but I gave up trying to direct posters to the correct forum in 2008. Reminds me of an old saying about pouring sand down a gopher hole.[/QUOTE]

    mdi, this has the potential for being one of the most useful firearms related fora (“forums”) on the entire InterWeb. Hundreds of questions and pieces of information are posted each day. It can be polite, organized and useful, or it can be like a roomful of people all talking loudly at the same time a loud whatever comes to mind. Don’t you agree that the former is more productive? There is a title for each individual forum for just that reason, yet the only time someone seems to be steered to a specific forum is when they offer to buy or sell something outside of Swapping and Selling. Ask me how I know this.

    With all the respect I can gather,
    Green Frog

    PS If the OP posts this question on the Reloading Equipment page I’ll be happy to share my experiences with a couple of different turret presses I now own and use and several others I’ve had some experience with.
    "It aint easy being green!"

  12. #32
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    As Mods, we try to keep the train on the track. But posting not in the exact forum is not an issue we pay too much attention too. For instance the creation of the vintage reloading section, still there are plenty of vintage tool questions popping up in Reloading Tools. If a thread gets moved it is to another forum where it may get more attention.

    Personally, I have enjoyed this thread as the information is solid with a lot of variety and not as if there is a crowed shouting get a Dillon or get a Lee.

    Now, Mr. Frog Person Sir, should you wish to become a moderator, and I believe you have the talent and attitude, I would be honored to provide you with a splendid recommendation.

    I mean that in all honesty and seriousness.

  13. #33
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    My press choice will make most on here cringe.

    My 1950s Ezy Loader is my choice for most of my rifle loads, it's definitely not fast but it is one of my favorites to use.
    My 1960s AA Turret is my choice for most all of my pistol requirements, again not the fastest but I really like the bench top mounted presses.

    No, I don't use the priming system on either press, that is more fun than anyone should have.

    Scott
    Last edited by dsh1106; 04-06-2021 at 07:16 PM.
    Scott

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  14. #34
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    Scott, you are right on the cringe, Ezy Loader???

  15. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pressman View Post
    Scott, you are right on the cringe, Ezy Loader???
    Pressman
    You and floodgate sent me down that ribbit hole a couple years back and I'm still completely fascinated with that press. I do agree with both of you, the priming system is less than user friendly.

    I'm still in search of the "cast iron" version, I have the two aluminum version now.
    Scott
    Scott

    You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them.

  16. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pressman View Post
    As Mods, we try to keep the train on the track. But posting not in the exact forum is not an issue we pay too much attention too. For instance the creation of the vintage reloading section, still there are plenty of vintage tool questions popping up in Reloading Tools. If a thread gets moved it is to another forum where it may get more attention...

    Now, Mr. Frog Person Sir, should you wish to become a moderator, and I believe you have the talent and attitude, I would be honored to provide you with a splendid recommendation.

    I mean that in all honesty and seriousness.

    Ken, with all due respect,

    I can see a retro entry like you describe... OTOH, if somebody were to go onto the Vintage Tools section raving about their brand new “Dillon Ten Thousand” or some such, that would be inappropriate, IMHO at least. Likewise posting questions about old Lyman numbers in the Group buy would be inappropriate unless it were to compare and contrast the proposed new product with the original. It doesn’t do anyone any good to interrupt the flow of a perfectly well defined forum with clearly extraneous stuff.

    It would appear that I might have the knowledge and discernment to identify misplaced threads, but talent? Maybe yes, maybe no. Attitude? Probably not since I don’t suffer fools lightly, and my threshold for accepting foolishness is pretty low. I don’t want to be thought of as the “Forum Nazi,” and I’m not sure my concept of a proper attitude would mesh with those of the existing moderators. Some of them have already indicated that they think too I’m rude and crude to suit them. I don’t want to be the first moderator to be banned for “Conduct Unbecoming.”

    All of that being said, if your offer still stands drop me a PM or e-mail... you have my address. In the meantime, wouldn’t it be a good idea to inform our members and certainly new members to at least think for a couple of seconds before opening a new post and put it someplace reasonably close to appropriate?

    Green Frog
    "It aint easy being green!"

  17. #37
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    Must be nice to be perfect.

    If we are going to start picking fly stuff out of pepper technically most presses are operated by hand so they are hand tools.

    A Lyman 310 is operated by hand. My Dillon Super 1050's are operated by hand.

    Power drives are available for a lot of the progressive presses so TECHNICALLY all hand powered presses are hand tools until power drives are added to them...............................so this location is more than reasonable close to appropriate.

    Stuff like this is what killed Rimfire Central.
    Last edited by M-Tecs; 04-06-2021 at 11:02 PM.
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  18. #38
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    I agree with Mr. Frog. It takes very little smarts to read the section heading and know whether a new topic fits in that category.

    Personally, I only check certain sections for new posts and replies. If a new post is made in the "wrong" category then I may miss a post I would be interested in or I am subjected to seeing extraneous posts to what I am interested in. Also, if I am interested in finding out information about hand tools I don't want to have to look through 20 or more categories to find information that is under the wrong heading and a search finds so many posts that are not what is desired spread among many categories.

    P.S. The given definition for this section is somewhat short "The 310's and such of our hobby. Lee Loaders included" so a little added description might be needed for most readers to agree upon what is meant. Personally I can see that most would agree that the original Lee chamfer tool is a hand tool, the Lee Zip trim is probably not because it is difficult to use handheld. I definitely think a press that has to be solidly mounted to a bench or stand should not be considered a hand tool even if it is hand operated.
    Last edited by ulav8r; 04-07-2021 at 03:39 PM. Reason: Added P.S.
    Spell check doesn't work in Chrome, so if something is spelled wrong, it's just a typo that I missed.

  19. #39
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    Now I don’t know where to go, I use my Lee loaders with a bench mounted press.

  20. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by rbuck351 View Post
    The main thing I like about my Lyman AA is it only has 4 stations which is just right for loading handgun rounds one at a time without having to click past empty die holes. Also I like the wide open access to the primer punch and shell holder. Many folks wouldn't benefit from this but I did for years. Because my time was always short and I could be stopped by swmbo at any time, it was nice to be able to load for even a few minutes and have a few loaded rounds rather than loading for a few minutes and have a handful of primed brass or part way through powdering a batch of cases.
    If for no other reason you just sold me on a turret. I have three kids in school and time is always short. I hate having a batch of charged cases in the tray and have to get up from the bench.
    Cargo

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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