Turret Press recommendations

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  • Scorpioj

    Member
    Feb 27, 2017
    99
    US of A
    Good morning folks. Looking for recommendation on a turret press specifically for reloading 308 and 223. Not looking for anything really fancy (expensive) but also not something too basic(cheap) to be useful. i already use an inexpensive (cheap :D) Lee loadmaster progressive press to do my handgun caliber loads. I don't do as much rifle shooting so not really concerned about high volume output. Just something in the 150-250 range(if possible to do a few (100) rifle rounds a month.
     

    platekiller

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 7, 2011
    1,780
    Martinsburg, WV
    I would say go with a lee. There stuff is cheap but works. If you want to try something else look at getting a used one (Craigslist, FB market place, etc)
     

    Neutron

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Nov 20, 2014
    1,532
    severna park
    The Lee Turret Press has been around for a while and has been a very reliable solution for many reloaders. As long as you're not loading hundreds of rounds at a sitting, the Turret Press should be fine. I usually only load about 50 rounds at a time so the Turret Press has been great. More than 50 and I start to get bored and not pay attention like I should.
     

    Cochise

    Ultimate Member
    Sep 5, 2008
    1,383
    Rockville
    The Lee does not have compound leverage which makes pistol rounds a little harder to size, for rifle rounds I wouldn't even consider it. Any of the better brands will do Lyman, Redding ect... I have an older Lyman All American Turret which is a tank
     

    85MikeTPI

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 19, 2014
    2,699
    Ceciltucky
    Good morning folks. Looking for recommendation on a turret press specifically for reloading 308 and 223. Not looking for anything really fancy (expensive) but also not something too basic(cheap) to be useful. i already use an inexpensive (cheap :D) Lee loadmaster progressive press to do my handgun caliber loads. I don't do as much rifle shooting so not really concerned about high volume output. Just something in the 150-250 range(if possible to do a few (100) rifle rounds a month.

    My $0.02, the turret adds little to no value in doing 100 rifle rounds a month. I use my Lee turret for handgun rounds that have several steps to the process, but rifle still gets done on a single stage and I'm doing 1000+ rounds a month..

    I have the Lee APP for doing pre-processing of rifle brass that may need swaging, but once processed, it sits in a container until hand priming, powder dumps, and bullet seating on the single stage.

    YMMV
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    I use the Lee Classic Turret for rifle all the time. The auto-index and the reverse ejector system availability make it my hands-down favorite for cranking out rifle rounds quickly. Only downside to it is that the priming system is garbage, so you will want to do that off press. My system is:
    1. Clean
    2. Resize
    3. Trim (which you could TECHNICALLY do when resizing with a power trimmer and appropriate trim die)
    4. Prime -> put into the primed brass pile
    5. Case neck expansion (M-die) -> powder -> bullet seat -> crimp -> eject into the bin (single toolhead)

    My $0.02, the turret adds little to no value in doing 100 rifle rounds a month. I use my Lee turret for handgun rounds that have several steps to the process, but rifle still gets done on a single stage and I'm doing 1000+ rounds a month..
    You're doing 12k rifle rounds a year on a single stage? Really? Geez, I could never even imagine that. I barely want to do 750-1000 9mm a month on my 650.
     

    lazarus

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 23, 2015
    13,678
    I use the Lee Classic Turret for rifle all the time. The auto-index and the reverse ejector system availability make it my hands-down favorite for cranking out rifle rounds quickly. Only downside to it is that the priming system is garbage, so you will want to do that off press. My system is:
    1. Clean
    2. Resize
    3. Trim (which you could TECHNICALLY do when resizing with a power trimmer and appropriate trim die)
    4. Prime -> put into the primed brass pile
    5. Case neck expansion (M-die) -> powder -> bullet seat -> crimp -> eject into the bin (single toolhead)


    You're doing 12k rifle rounds a year on a single stage? Really? Geez, I could never even imagine that. I barely want to do 750-1000 9mm a month on my 650.

    I think the priming system works okay. That saidddddd....

    I've been having some issues with 9mm not seating primers deep enough so some rounds take a 2nd strike. I've yet to encounter this issue with any other caliber. I went back and checked all my rounds for high primers and found maybe 1 in 10 which were out of the ~300 rounds I loaded. I ran some though my classic turret and they seated flat. Some through my Franklin hand primer to get the job done.

    I've done hundreds of rounds of pistol and rifle on it so far with the issue only on 9mm. It could be that with 9mm I need to swage the primer pockets, but there doesn't seem to be a particular case manufacturer that the issue happened more with. Perhaps I just need to be more diligent with making sure they are seated all the way.

    I really like my lee classic turret for rifle. Yeah, some of the steps I do off press, but it is still a lot faster than a single stage. I am priming, charging on the press, seating the bullet and them I am running a lee FCD to crimp (with the appropriate amount).

    Even if I skipped FCD on a single stage, priming, charging and seating the bullet as separate tasks rather than all on press would likely add at least 20-30% more time. If not more. I really like the Lee auto drum. Maybe not long range precision accurate, but I am getting dumps accurate to within .1gr with pistol and even larger rifle drops my dumps are often within .1gr, occasionally I'll see a variance of greater than .1gr.

    Real world testing, when I have a load my rifle or handgun likes, I am typically seeing ES of under 10fps in pistols and under 20fps in rifles. And that is without weighing and sorting bullets or anything else "extreme".

    It would not be my choice to sit there and cranking out many hundreds of rounds in a sitting. I can usually do around 250 pistol rounds an hour and maybe 200 rifle rounds an hour if really motoring. However, I try not to load more than about 100 rounds at a time. Generally, I'll load an entire tray and then go do something else for a little bit. Some of it is my time is often limited. So I might not HAVE an hour where I am not going to get interrupted in my day (or evening). A perk compared to a single stage and doing every step separately as well as a progressive is there is nothing "in progress" unless the house is burning down. You load one round to completion. Start the next. No tray of cartridges sitting there with half of them charged with powder and something comes up. Or a progressive where you get interrupted or something and you have a few cartridges in varying degrees of being loaded ammunition.

    Anyway, so that means I might spend 20-30 minutes loading ammo once everything is setup. For rifle, that might be a day for me. I am usually not trying to load hundreds and hundreds of rounds of the same ammo. Maybe just 100 rounds of .223 or whatever because that is what I'll shoot over the next 1-2 range sessions, which might mean 2-3 months (winter months I am lucky to get out every 5-6 weeks, warmer weather maybe every 3-4 weeks and I shoot a whole mix of stuff. With 13 calibers I reload for and 14 total calibers and 2 shotguns gauges and maybe taking 3 or 4 guns on a given trip....)

    Pistol it depends on the caliber. If I am, say, loading 32acp, 7.62x25, 9 Mak, etc. well then 100 rounds might be a range trip or two also. I just tend not to keep many hundreds of rounds loaded of all of my calibers that I reload for.

    Enough for at least a range trip, if not two. At worst what would happen if I came up short is I'd dip in to my commercial ammo. Which depending on the caliber is anything from maybe 300 rounds up to a few thousand rounds (not including 22lr which I don't reload for and might be 10k rounds). It is uncommon that it happens the last couple of years. I've shot upwards of 95% reloads, ignoring 22lr.

    That said, some stuff I shot a lot of I do tend to keep more reloads on hand. I've got (I'd have to check for sure) something like 100 rounds of 69gr RMR .223 to hand and I think 200 or so of 62gr plinking .223. 9mm I've got 300 or so rounds of plinking 115gr 9mm and 200 ish 230gr ball .45acp. I've got...I don't know, a stupid amount of 38spc coated lead 158gr SWC (at least 200 rounds, probably over 300).

    I would NOT want to use lee classic turret if I did need to load up 500 rounds (or more!) at a time for IPDA shooting or something like that. But a typical range session for me often includes bringing a rifle or three and a pistol or three (usually at least one of both, rarely 3 of each) and probably shooting from between 50-150 rounds in each handgun and 10-100 rounds in each rifle. Just depending on if I am testing something, zeroing something or just shooting for fun/practice. An average trip is probably 100 rounds of handgun and 50 of rifle. If I've toted one of my 22lrs than it is likely at least 100 22lr on top of that (sometimes 150 or 200, but rarely more). With rare ones maybe being 200+ of handgun and 100+ rifle.

    So it isn't THAT hard to keep up with it if you figure an average of 13-14 trips a year. That's maybe around 1500 handgun rounds and 600-700 rifle rounds a year I need to load.

    1-2 short reloading sessions a month.

    Now sure, I am hoping this year I'll get out more once it warms up. Heck, I haven't been since near Christmas and then it was to take my 9yr old daughter shooting for her first time and get my 13yr old out who wanted to shoot my Garand for the first time and run the M1 carbine and my 10/22 a bunch too. And likely I won't get out for at LEAST another week or two. Too much on my plate with work and home life. I've got a deer hide I've gotta flesh and get tanning (I've done a couple of rabbit hides with an egg and smoke process that work not great, but okay. First attempt a full chemical pickle/tanning process and I have high hopes. But I still need to make a fleshing board). A couple of home projects too.

    But the lee Classic wouldn't annoy me even if I was loading 2x as much as I am now. If it was much more than that, it probably would. But again, if I load for 20-40 minutes, meaning maybe 80-150 rifle rounds and 100-200 pistol rounds. Add in maybe 5-6 minutes of setup and validate the first 3 or 5 rounds slow and maybe tweak something if it needs it. Go do something else for 10 minutes, or even an hour. Come back, load for another 20-40 minutes. Do that 3 or 4 times on a Saturday or something like that and you are in for 300+ rifle rounds and potentially 500+ pistol rounds in a day for an investment of maybe really only like 2hrs or so of time. Even going super slow, that's maybe 3hrs.

    I enjoy the process. If I disliked this, but needed to save money or couldn't get commercial ammo, I'd be progressive all the way and just bite the bullet, sit down and spend a day 2-3 times a year and crank out as much ammo in each caliber as possible for my day of work to get everything loaded for a year (or even 2) of shooting and then clean it all up.

    Instead, in part, this way I can spend half an hour or an hour reloading once or twice a month because I enjoy it and it keeps me topped up. My only real annoyance with reloading is I don't really enjoy working up loads. I feel like I spend a lot of extra time tweaking things on the press to get the ladder right, extra time and effort pulling apart rounds that might not have been quite right. Plus often a range session almost dedicated to just testing that load. I got a magnetic chrono for rifle because of how crappy it is to try to use an optical one (especially on my rifle range!). But it is extra gear to tote. Extra setup and tear down. Usually its enough of a time investment I MIGHT take one extra gun with me for a bit of other "fun" shooting.

    But once I have a load worked out, well that is nice and easy to do. And my lee classic means I've got cheap spare turrets with my dies already setup. At worst I have to adjust the powder dropper before loading to make sure it is still on (and I've got spare drums to swap for each load also caliber at least) or change the seating die if I am changing bullets.
     

    davsco

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 21, 2010
    8,607
    Loudoun, VA
    when i started reloading just over a year ago, i got the redding t7 turret press. i ended up also buying a dillon 750 for all the handgun stuff. but the t7 works just fine for the .223 i have done, basically have been duplicating black hills blue box 69g smk's. i've also done a few test loads in 6.5 creed & prc but haven't shot them yet.
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    Yeah, I hate the process. I just want to crank out huge quantities of cartridges quickly so I can shoot. The only reason I reload is because I want those cartridges to be exactly the same every time, within tolerance. Catch-as-catch-can factory ammo won't do that for me.
     

    guzma393

    Active Member
    Jan 15, 2020
    736
    Severn, MD
    I started with a lee 3 turret (older, obsolete model of the 4 turret) and it does the job. It'll be fine for 223 or 308. I've since moved on to loading pistol/intermediate cartridges on a lee auto breech lock pro and anything similar/larger than a 308 on a loadmaster. As what everyone says, I am not a fan of Lee's upstroke priming system, although it does work. I prefer to prime on my Lee App as a single stage, using the lee ram prime.

    Since you already have a loadmaster, why not just buy shell plates for 223 and 308? It is more than capable of loading for those. Only thing that I see unfit for the job of the LM is the priming system.
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    The problem with Lee's priming system isn't the upstroke, it's the absolutely garbage hand-off between the feeder and the priming arm. The RCBS system is like a million times better.
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    For rifle rounds, I prefer a single stage, non-turret press.

    A simple O frame.

    I get a bunch of brass. I clean it. Then I lube and size/decap all of it. Thern I clean off the lube. I prime off the press (watching TV) with hand primer. Then I sit down with the powder measure to one side and seating die in the press. Powder, bullet, seat, repeat.
     

    Speedluvn

    Active Member
    Dec 23, 2019
    340
    Baltimore County
    I can understand reloading a “few” .308 rounds for hunting but I can’t imagine loading any considerable amount of rounds on a single stage press. I find reloading relaxing but just damn!
     

    Scorpioj

    Member
    Feb 27, 2017
    99
    US of A
    Decision

    Thanks for the input everyone. Settled on a Lee Classic Turret press from seller in referred in this thread. Good transaction with a friendly guy. Just waiting on my dies to get the bullet rolling.
     

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