Badger Boy

well speaking of turrets, how many diesdo you all use on your presses?

there the resizing- die (full length and/or neck)
theres the powdercharging die
the seating die
and the crimping die
...

Ive seen some presses with a single die, other with a pair of die other with turrets of 3, 4 and 6. what is the point of a 6 die turret what other dies are there that you would recommend? I know that you explained the difference between the presses and I realize the difference between a regular and a progressive press but its the dies that I would like to know more about.
You usually find them in kits of 2 or 3 but how many other kinds are there and how many and which do you all use?

thanks... glad to be aboard :-)
hope i dont drive you all crazy with my newb questions

bigpappa

With out starting any arguments all I'm going to say is I have a Lee progresisve press, a Dillion progressive press and a RCBS Single Stage if your going to load a littleSingle, fairly often Turret, all the time Progressive, as far as equipment you get what you pay forBUT what will cause the arguments is this statement, The Lee equipment is built two-three times stronger than you will ever need, Dillion,RCBS, Redding etc is built 12-18times stronger than you will ever need that is your price difference, I look at each item and buy the one you like best and don't think it all has to be the same color!! Good Luck

bigpappa

If loading pistols get all four dies and make sure they are carbide if loading rifles you may want a full length sizing die or only a neck sizing (collet die) if you prefer to fire form your brass, and the other three, you may not need the crimp die depending on what your loading but some believe you will get more accurate ammo if you crimp....

Pavomesa

Badger, Bigpappa makes some good point about the dies. Rifle die sets are traditionally a 2 die set. One does all the sizing and the other all the seating. Pistol dies are traditionally a 3 die set because you need to bell the case mouth prior to seating the bullet. But do yourself and get a 4 die set that includes a Carbide sizing die. These are so hard and slick that you can almost eliminate having to mess with lubing the cases. This saves a lot of slop.

It might help us help you if you told us what cartridges you plan to start reloading for. Some cartridges have different needs or quirks that others don't have.

shewe

i have a lee classic turret press. i love it. it's inexpensive and does a fine job.

HEAD0001

I have a turret press and I like it when I am loading for pistol and such cartridges where I am not interested in the most accuracy I can get from my rig. There is always going to be a little bit of play in the turret press.

If you do not have a single stage press then that is the one I would buy first. You can not beat their strength. The Lyman Orange Crusher, or the RockChucker are the best IMO. They are both basically the same press. Go to the Lyman web site and the RCBS web site. A lot of times they will sell presses with blemishes for a discounted price. I just bought a new Lyman for $60. It was a steal. I can not find a thing wrong with it.

If I were you I would not buy a kit. I would buy each piece, and get the best you can afford each time you purchase an item. The most important thing you can buy is 3 or 4 manuals. Tom.

Pavomesa

Ditto what Tom said. A lot of stuff they put in kits today is crap. And I never load anything without consulting at least two different reloading manuals to get a "feel" for how a powder/bullet combination perform together. Nosler and Speer are my favorite manuals. Sierra is a good one as is Lyman. The rest I'm not so sure of.

flutedchamber

I have found the Lee manual to be accurate...at least so far. I also buy the powder manufacturer manuals..Hodgdon for one. It gives bullet choices by weight, and occasionally by manufacturer. There tends to be more loads per cartridge listed compared to the bullet manufacturer manuals. YMMV

Briman

The Lee that I use has 4-hole turret heads.
For rifle I use a Sizing DIe, A powder charging die (A Lee Perfect or Disc measure sits on top of the die) and a seating die. For reloading for the AR-15, I add a factory crimp die, with cast rifle loads I have either a Lee neck flairing die or a Lyman M die to bell the case mouth before the bullet seating die. All other rifle setups have 1 empty hole which with one extra pull of the laver indexes past it and back to the sizing die. I leave the dies permanently set in the turrets- you simply tist the turret about 1/8 turn or so, pull it out, store it in a turret box, then snap the next one in and you're pretty much ready to reload a different cartridge (You might have to change the primers or change the powder measure- I just keep an extra Lee disc measure on the .45 acp turret, since they are cheap enough.

For pistol, I set it up with a carbide sizer, powder-through charging/flairing die, seating die, then taper crimp die.


There are older 3-hole turret presses made by lee that also had 3 holes that were meant for reloading .223 or 7.62x39. They aren't worth buying- for $20 or so more, you can get the cast Turret press which is infinately better.

Lyman and Redding make presses with up to 7 holes in the turret. These are ok if you just want the convenience of reloading for 1 or 2 different rifle cartridges and don't want to bother with setting up dies every time. Extra turrets cost upwards of $40, where extra Lee turrets cost about $10 each.

Briman

Here's a good and fairly technical review of the Lee Turret press.
http://www.realguns.com/archives/122.htm

Turret press videos from Lee

http://www.leeprecision.com/html/HelpVideos/videos/Turret%20Press/loading%2045%20case-1.wmv
http://www.leeprecision.com/html/HelpVideos/videos/Turret%20Press/loading%20on%20turret-1.wmv

I wouldn't be such a cheerleader for this press unless I thought it was just plain incredible. These things cost under $100 and are better than any similar product made by RCBS, Redding, or Lyman at many times the price. If these were designed by someone else and had a green or orange paint job, they would be selling these for $300 and would probably selling nearly as many as LEE is. Unfortunately LEE has a reputation of making cheap products, a few of which are poorly executed which makes people shun the company. I personally never had much of a positive view of LEE equipment until I started using Lee dies for obscure calibers that would cost me $100 or more to buy tools from RCBS for. Ther classic turret press might be by far their best design and implementation of a product yet.