How Do Turret Presses Work?

T

trky chsr

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
50   0   0
Location
Ontario
I've been reloading for a while with a single stage press. I'm not a high volume loader, maybe 100/week so I can't really justify spending $700+ on a new progressive. So an alternative for me would be a turret but how much of a time saver are they really? My routine is to re-size/deprime, expand on the upstroke, prime on the downstroke, charge the powder, place the bullets on the case and seat the bullet. I do each step for all 100rnds at a time. All this takes me about 45 min with checking the powder at the start and checking the OAL every 20rnds or so. Would a turret really do 300+rnds in an hour as they claim? TC
 
Last edited:
Consider the Hornady LNL. I got it from Henry (click on Budget Shooting Supply link on top of page) for $460. The 500 free bullet offer is still on that gets you Hornady bullets valued over $150 for $20 shipping (I got the 500 308s).

Doing 300 9mm or 45ACP per hour is average. I've done 100 in 15minutes once everything is all set up. Any more would be rushing, BAD for reloading.

PS. I built my own casing feeder out of UHMW Plastic and the Lee tubes for $50. Goes a long way to speeding up reloading as you only have to worry about placing the bullet on the casing.
 
I started out on a Breech Lock Challenger press and I liked it. I went to a Lyman T-Mag II turret press and love it. I like having all my dies set up together and just moving the turret head to the die I want. An auto indexing press would probably be quite a bit faster but I do my loading in stages so it's not an issue for me.
 
The only turret press that's worth a damn is the Redding T-7, every other turret press I've tried has had play in the turret which can be plainly seen during full length resizing. The play might not matter when loading pistol ammo, but it will cause concentricity problems with bottle neck cases if you load for accuracy. I think a turret press is a good choice for an intermediate press between a single stage and a progressive.

Now and then I've consider switching to a progressive, but I find that case prep is what takes time, and is generally done after resizing. Therefore I doubt that a I would see the full advantage of using a progressive. By contrast, a turret press could speed up the loading process once your loading practices are modified to optimize the advantage the turret has over a single stage press.
 
The guy that taught me reloading had a very old Lyman turret press, it was functional but had some play. He got a RCBS rock chcker soon after. This was 40 years ago. I believe his son still has both presses just doesn`t use the Lyman any more. I prefere a progressive where the shellholder turns rather than a turret that moves the dies, a little faster and right or wrong i feel a better system.
 
Boomer said:
The only turret press that's worth a damn is the Redding T-7, every other turret press I've tried has had play in the turret which can be plainly seen during full length resizing. The play might not matter when loading pistol ammo, but it will cause concentricity problems with bottle neck cases if you load for accuracy. I think a turret press is a good choice for an intermediate press between a single stage and a progressive.

Now and then I've consider switching to a progressive, but I find that case prep is what takes time, and is generally done after resizing. Therefore I doubt that a I would see the full advantage of using a progressive. By contrast, a turret press could speed up the loading process once your loading practices are modified to optimize the advantage the turret has over a single stage press.
Click to expand...

Not that I doubt what you are saying but has anyone ever tried two presses side by side to see if there is a concentricity issue? If the dies are true inside and the bullet/shell are almost fully captured within the die set (except for the base which should make the least difference) and the chamber is tight and true I don't really see it as an issue other than piece of mind. I can't see any flex in the shell plate on my Lyman as I have the stop set up on it and if there is any concentricity issue it can't be more than a few thousandths of an inch. Mind you I do not compete.
 
trky chsr said:
...how much of a time saver are they really?... All this takes me about 45 min...Would a turret really do 300+rnds in an hour as they claim? TC
Click to expand...

Normally I would say "hell no, a turret press won't do 300 per hour". I mean, I can't get 300/hour out of my progressive press. But then it takes me over 1.5 hours to do 100 rounds on a single stage. Given that you are a speed demon on a press, you will probably go much faster than me on a turret. I figure on about 45 minutes to do 100 rounds on my Lee Turret. I figure that a turret is twice as fast as a single stage and a progressive is 2-3 times as fast as a turret.
 
Lee Turret works ok, and is way faster than a single stage press. That said, I'd like to get something faster, a progressive setup for reloading handgun ammo. Rifle, I use the turret, but dont' make any use of the turreting feature. I use it like a single stage.
 
As mentioned the Lyman T-Mag II has an adjustable rest under the rear of the turret head that can be set up to take all "flex" out of the turret. It is a very good press and while it wouldn't be my first pick for heavy case re-forming it is more than adequate - and accurate - for the average hand-loader.

I use my turret (The T-Mag II) mainly for handgun and can easily turn out 150+ rounds per hour which may be too slow for a serious competitor but is more than adequate for the amount of shooting my wife and I do.
 
BattleRife said:
Normally I would say "hell no, a turret press won't do 300 per hour". I mean, I can't get 300/hour out of my progressive press. But then it takes me over 1.5 hours to do 100 rounds on a single stage. Given that you are a speed demon on a press, you will probably go much faster than me on a turret. I figure on about 45 minutes to do 100 rounds on my Lee Turret. I figure that a turret is twice as fast as a single stage and a progressive is 2-3 times as fast as a turret.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the replies. The "twice as fast" info is what I'm mostly looking for. I should have specified that I load mostly 9mm with some 45 Colts thrown in once in a while. Also I use a Rockchucker and as such I would probably get the RCBS "add on" turret. However if a LNL is under $500.00 thats a pretty tempting option as I'm sure a turret setup would probably be more than half that anyway. TC
 
KDX said:
Not that I doubt what you are saying but has anyone ever tried two presses side by side to see if there is a concentricity issue? If the dies are true inside and the bullet/shell are almost fully captured within the die set (except for the base which should make the least difference) and the chamber is tight and true I don't really see it as an issue other than piece of mind. I can't see any flex in the shell plate on my Lyman as I have the stop set up on it and if there is any concentricity issue it can't be more than a few thousandths of an inch. Mind you I do not compete.
Click to expand...

After my house fire, I had the loan of a Lyman turret press, and you could see the turret move under pressure from the ram when resizing a rifle cartridge. Now if there is enough movement that you can see it, it must have an effect on concentricity if you consider the length between the shell holder and the cartridge case mouth, especially when one considers that neck concentricity can be effected by how you tighten the lock ring on the decapping rod, tighten the lock ring on the die body, or even by the pressure exerted by the spring which holds the shell holder to the ram. By the time I was outfitted with a good concentricity gauge, the turret press had been returned, so I don't have any hard numbers to support my claim. But I believe the Redding is the only turret press commercially available today that can keep the tolerances as tight as those from a single stage press.
 
if you do pistol you might as well upgrade to a turret, I really like my hornady LNL AP. im new to reloading (ie just about to hit 1000 rounds) and i can do 300 in an hour on it without rushing. throw i a bullet and case feeder and i bet it could be twice that easily
 
trky chsr said:
... if a LNL is under $500.00 thats a pretty tempting option as I'm sure a turret setup would probably be more than half that anyway. TC
Click to expand...

Under $500 for the base setup. You will need to add a shellplate for each caliber, and if you go to a second caliber you will need more bushings and a powder measure insert. My LNL was nearly $800 USD by the time it was ready to load 4 calibers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom