Best Turret Press under $600 for loading 5.7x28

Kevin M.

Kevin M.

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Edmonton, Alberta
Getting back into the turret press game.

I currently use both a single stage for my benchrest ammo, and a Dillon 1050 for 9mm, 45ACP, 223, and 30-06.

I finally got a set of dies (Hornady Custom Grade New Dimension Dies, Lots of really good reviews) to reload my massive pile of 5.7x28 brass (3000 pieces of brass and growing fast) and I really need to crank them out.

I don't want to spend every night of the week loading them on a single stage, and I am not buying a Dillon 550 and a stupidly expensive and hard to find shellplate just for one caliber.

I want a High quality turret press to do the job. I owned a Lee, and while it worked, I won't be buying one a second time due to the cheapness of parts. (Plastic and cheap metal parts broke alot for me)



My budget is roughly $600 for the press and some kind of on press priming system, but that is flexible depending on what is out there.

Looking for quality, consistancy, and solidity of the press and priming mechanism.

Is there anything that fits the bill in budget?
 
The more I read about reloading that caliber, the less I'd consider it viable. I thought it sounded good at first, but then I began reading about the amount of shoulder set back and the thinness of the brass.
 
Most places say the only turret press to buy is the Redding T7. I've got one but it's still in the box. It has a back arm that just touches the turret so when you really pull on the press the turret will not flex. Can get them at lots of places that sell Redding stuff, bought mine at WSS for $350 or so.

Super rugged, all metal parts and you can get a on-press priming adapter with a primer tube to feed primers.
 
Canuck223 said:
The more I read about reloading that caliber, the less I'd consider it viable. I thought it sounded good at first, but then I began reading about the amount of shoulder set back and the thinness of the brass.
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Everything I have read seems to state that the brass will fail after 2-3 reloadings.

Still, at $0.80 a round or over $40 per box of 50 rounds, 2 or 3 loadings is a huge savings of money on 3000 rounds of ammo.

Plus there is the aspect of how hard it is to source in large numbers. I am going to give it a shot.
 
Kevin M. said:
I want a High quality turret press to do the job. I owned a Lee, and while it worked, I won't be buying one a second time due to the cheapness of parts. (Plastic and cheap metal parts broke alot for me)
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If your Lee Turret was the old model, perhaps its not unthinkable to try the Classic Turret. Way better built than the old turret. The Classic should be strong enough to handle your 5.7 x 28.
 
I owned both. The classic was the 2nd one, and while it was a big improvement, I still disliked the overall feel of the press, and the fact that parts seemed to break often.
 
The Lyman T-Mag II is supposed to be pretty good. I bought one but haven't used it yet.
 
Sounds like you need a Hornady AP LNL.

Might cost more than $600 with shell plates etc. Don't use it for rifle calibers and not familar with 5.7 x 28. I load six pistol calibers and I have about $1000 into it so I can change calibers in a hurry.
 
Agreed, plus the shellplate is a problem as 5.7x28 is an oddball caliber for shellplates. One company makes one for the Dillon 550B, but other then that the only shellplates available are the single shellplates for single stage and turret presses, not a multi shell plate.
 
I have a turret press, and while handy for not having to swap out dies, it isn't much faster than using a single stage. For volume loading the progressives can't be beat. I would be getting the company that makes the 550 shell holders to make me one for the 1050 or get one custom machined. It will be a lot less than $600 and it won't take any time at all to load up 3000 rounds.
 
Dean2 said:
I have a turret press, and while handy for not having to swap out dies, it isn't much faster than using a single stage. For volume loading the progressives can't be beat. I would be getting the company that makes the 550 shell holders to make me one for the 1050 or get one custom machined. It will be a lot less than $600 and it won't take any time at all to load up 3000 rounds.
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I would love to be able to go that route, but your costs are way off.

A prototype shellplate cost thousands of dollars to produce and test, tweaking everything to get it just right. A manufacturer on FiveseveN Forums did exactly that for a 650 shellplate, got a prototype built, and was ready to take orders. Aparently he needed 300 orders just to make them anywhere close to reasonably priced, and despite all the people chiming in and saying "I will take one", only about 5 people were willing to put cash down.

As such, they were hugely expensive per unit, so he scrapped the idea and shelved it. I can only imagine that a 1050 shellplate would be more costly to build and there would be less interest in it still as it is a less common press.

If you know a machinist that has the ability to make even a $1000 prototype 1050 plate, I would be impressed and would like his info asap! :)
 
I don't know how much the shell plate for the 550 is, that aleady exists to load the round you want. I am guessing you are saying a 550 and the custom plate is a lot more than $600. You don't want to go that route but you would do $1000 for a plate for the 1050?

I don't mean to seem ill humoured but you are obviously a real expert. If you are in fact right about how difficult the shell plate is to make and get to work well, though not something I would expect looking at them. Cutting the basic design by copying an exiting shell plate on a CNC machine, and then adusting the opening to fit the shell head doesn't seem like it would be that tough a deal to replicate. Having never actually tried it, I cannot say that positively, but I have copied and cut lots of other thigs using a similar copy and adjust method and it has usualy worked very well the first time out. All said, I could well be totally wrong and these plates are a real bear to get to work right. In that case, all I can suggest is buy the 550 with the existing shell plate that is avaialble and quit asking for advice on something you already know the answer to.
 
I am not too well versed in turret presses, that's the reason I asked. CGN is a great way to learn quickly and easily. :)

I don't really want another expensive press, thus why I was looking at turret presses under $600. The 550B would come to over $800 once all is said and done with accessories, the custom shellplate, and shipping.

Bench space is also starting to become very important now, and a turret has a smaller footprint then a progressive.

If I had access to a 1050 shellplate, that would be a different ballgame from a manually indexing progressive though. The added cost would be worth the time saved reloading, to me at least.
 
Just found what my holy grail would be...

A Dillon 1050 fully decked out to load 5.7x28.

Copied from the original poster of the photo...

"A lot of modding went into this machine, 1050 shellplate for 5.7, which cost several thousand dollars, a custom plate for the brass feeder, custom swaging rods, custom primer feeder, custom powder measure pieces (to handle the heat buildup from the speed) custom dies, and a custom crimp die."

All in all, he had over $14,000 in machining costs into the press itself, not including the bullet feeder or the automated motor drive.

Press was rated at just under 2000 rounds per hour if the operator did his part.

A little rich for my blood, but just amazing to behold.

Photo_031809_002.jpg
 
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