I was reading into different kinds of presses and was over whelmed by all the different kinds of units, hand press, bench press, turret press and so forth. From what I have read I believe that the Turret design would probably be best for me but I was wondering if i should just get a press and get all the other things seperate or should I just by one of the Deluxe Kits offered online. I dont want to spend too much money, but I understand its an investment so what do you think?

what kind of "deluxe Press Kit" would you recommend for some one who will eventually load 6 or so different calibers... and also 12g shells?

What companies/designs do you like? which would you advise against?

what are some of your setups?

just eager to know as much as possible... thank in advanced everyone

The LEE is the least expensive Kit and has most of the basics to get you going and will give good results .
IMO personaly I prefer RCBS its about twice the money for the same tools butyour grand kids will still be using them .
Add a case trimmer and a tumbler to either of the above and your off .
MECisa fine product for shotgunning and have about all the gadgets one could ask for . if you are loading more than 1 ga get a press for both it's worth it .

Badger, presses for rifles and pistols come infour flavors. The "C" press. The "O" press. The Turret Press. And the "Progressive."

The C press is the cheapest, is easy to use and will work reasonably well on most cartridges. It's main problem is it's not very strong. If you consider the C.......you realize one side of the thing is open and unsupported. This allows the press to do a lot of flexing even if it's built of good steel. A reloading press generates many thousands of ft lb of force when resizing cases. The "O" press costs more but as you can see almost totally eliminates any flexing...although there is some give even with the "O" design, believe it or not.

The Turret press is a glorified version of the C. It's not particularly strong, plus it adds the additional "slop" of a revolving head. It's only advantage is it's a little bit faster...but very little.

The progressive presses today are variations of the "O" design. Basically a big "O" press with all the dies mounted above and it's the shell plate below that revolves. These are good solid presses and considerably faster than all the above. And they build as good a ammunition as any of the above. But the progressive has some serious drawbacks as well. First, they are much more expensive. Secondly, they can be tedious to set up or adjust most things. Thirdly, they aren't versatile. Because of the commotion involved with setting them up and adjusting things, they are NOT a press for the experimenter or guy who likes to continually try different combinations of bullets, powders, etc. A progressive press is for the guy who wants to make one thing and make lots of them.

For anyone starting out reloading, ask yourself how serious are you about guns, hunting and reloading. If you just want to try it and dip your toe in the water, get the cheapest Lee "C" press. They will work fine starting out and you can likely sell it later if you really get into reloading.

If you are seriously a gun nut and hunter, I suggest you get a good "O" press...........the RCBS RockChucker is probably the most popular. It's very strong and you won't live long enough to do it any harm or wear it out. A turret press really offers no significant advantage to anything.

I would NOT start out with a progressive press. The vast majority of all reloaders get a good "O" press and live happily ever after.

Hope this helps.

My reccomendations:

If you want a single stage press that will handle anything that you can throw at it for pistol or rifle reloading: Lee Classic Cast press- they run around $75. RCBS, Lyman, and Redding offer pretty much the same press with the same features for 2-3x the price.

Turret: Lee classic cast turret. Its a very strong press based on the Lee Classic Cast press. It has auto-indexing so that you can reloadd in a semi-automated fashion unlike other turret presses that are pretty much a single stage press that holds several dies.

I completely disagree about this other than the standard 'old' Lee turret press wasn't the strongest and isn't the best for rifle reloading. Reloading with an auto-indexing turret is very fast- I can and have reloaded 100 rds of 30-06 in an hour- and these were cast loads where there is an extra case mouth belling step and extra care has to be taken with handling the bullets.
The 'slop' is not an issue if the dies are set correctly. If you set the dies up so that all of the 'slop' is taken up at the top of the upstroke, everything will be perfectly aligned- there is an advantage to this as unless you use a perfectly machined die set up perfectly square to your ram, something is going to be forced out of alignment in a rigid setup. People curse Lee for using their O-ring lock rings and 'sloppy' turrets, but they serve a purpose towards self alignment of the tools as a case is pushed into a die and just as importantly as its pulled back out. The only big improvements that can be made is to throw away the spring clip that retains theshell holder and replace that with a o-ring, and place an o-ring under the expander ball locknut on a resizing die- which I do both on my sizing dies and presses.

RCBS Rockchucker. You will never wear it out, and it has the strengthto reform brass to different calibers if you desire. IMO it is the strongest and sturdiest of them all. There is no aggrivation with setting it up, and once set, nothing moves besides your arm. Have fun. I know that I do.

I second what Briman said. The Lee Classic Cast press is the way to go if you decide to start out with a single stage press. I was told to go the single stage route as well when I started out. I have one it it is bomb-proof. I reload 22-250 the most and it does the job perfectly. I do reload 25-06 and 7mm Rem Mag and it handles the long cartridges just as easy. You can getstep up to the Lyman Crusher or Redding Boss cast single stage press but they are anywhere from$30-$50 more in price at least. Just my 2 cents worth.

thanks for the advice guys i appreciate it

Badger, looking at presses in a store is one thing. They all work about the same and thebiggest difference seems to be the price. Where you will notice a big difference is in actually working with them. A solid "O" type press like the Rockchucker takes noticeably LESS effort to do everything simply because of the strengh and compoundleverage built into the design.

But any of the above will build you some good ammo. I would never imply otherwise. It is going to boil down to how much you want to spend and your personal preferences. Best option would be to play with several different presses and see how each feel to you.

Welcome to reloading. Follow the rules and pay attention and you'll have a great time.

As stated elsewhere, I would go with an "O" style press. More accurate and stronger and not really any slower to use than a "C" type press because there is more clearance around the ram on the "O" press.

Unless you are going to load huge volumes of shotshells at one time, you can't go wrong with a Mec 600 or a 650 progressive. Both will last you a lifetime with a little care.

Most important, buy loading manuals from different powder manufacturers. Lee puts out a good one, as does Hodgdon. Don't use anyones "miracle home brewed load" and you'll be safe. Enjoy!!

I would go with the lyman turret press.I have used mine for years now.

You can add extra turrets and have things all set to load another

caliber...