I have been reloading for about 15 years now with the same single stage RCBS 505 kit I bought years ago. It has served me well but the time has come where I would like to save some time with the whole process as I shoot a lot more these days. I only do rifle cartridges. I reload 3-4 different calibers so I was considering a turret press to save on setting up a dies every time i switch calibers. I was also looking at various electric case prep centres to speed up those processes. What are your thoughts? What do you think is the best bang for your buck as far as brands? Any other ideas to speed up the process? I like weighing the charges by hand on the beam scale because I have trust issues with electronic scales.
Need advice on equipment upgrades
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I don't bother with a turret press, because it take a minute at most to change from one die to another. My best time savers are my Chargemaster, and my RCBS Univeral Case Prep Tool. Neither is cheap, but both save a lot of time when loading 100 or more rounds per session. If you don't trust electronic scales, you could switch to using a measure to dump .2 Or so grains under, and trickle from there.
The Hornady Lock'n'Load press might be worthy of your perusal .
http://https://www.hornady.com/reloading/presses/
Rob
http://https://www.hornady.com/reloading/presses/
Rob
Try shooting with dropped charges and see if you are actually gaining anything by weighing or not. The trick there is you have to let the targets decide, not the scale. Worst case you can weight the few you need for target shooting past 600, or a big match, or a few for hunting for whatever piece of mind that gives you. I usually use my Chargemaster for convenience but fast it isn't. Drop and trickle up is faster and that's slow.
For case prep center I use an RCBS, but one is as good as the next.
For case prep center I use an RCBS, but one is as good as the next.
A turret press has four stations if I am not mistaken. I use 2 dies to reload any rifle cartridge, FL or NS, and a seating dies. So if you are reloading for 3 - 4 calibres, won't you still be swapping dies in and out? Not sure if the press will be a real time saver.
hillbros_96
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I agree with eynhallow and don’t know if the press will really speed you up. But if you are looking for ease of die replacement I don’t think you can beat the forester press. What really sped me up was going to a electronic scale and dispenser.
Lee has 4 stations. Redding has 7
Like dogleg said try throwing your powder. I started with a Redding and it was good + or - about .2 of grain. Switched to a Harrels and with any decent ball powder its bang on every time. Tried it one day with loads for my 204. 31 grains of blc-2 throw 10 charges in the pan and weighed 310 grains on the nose. Did the little experiment twice to double check it and bang on both times. Only thing I weigh anymore is stick powder and I try to find loads with a ball powder if I can. A good powder thrower can load 50 rounds in about 10 mins with set up. The other greatest time saver I have is the Frankford Arsenal case prep center. Trim, chamfer inside and out and clean primer pockets. Maybe 20 seconds a round from start to finish.
Thanks for all your replies. Yeah I guess a turret press isn’t really saving on anything here. The Hornady lock and load is a pretty fancy setup, I gotta look into that some more. I will definitely invest in a dispenser of some sort and get over my phobia of electronic scales.
If your press has the 1" hole with the 7/8" insert for the dies, check out the Hornady Lock N Load die collet system. That is my next revamp for my single stage loading. Set the die in the collet once and just pop them in and out as needed, no more adjusting needed.
I own 2 RCBS Turrets and an oldschool Rock Chucker as well. I have thought about switching over to Progressive but I dont see it being worth the costs even though I shoot quite a bit. I also like the added peace of mind of having control over single process vs 3-5 depending on press. A time saver I use when having to trim with the RCBS Trim Pro 2 is using the RCBS 3-way trimmer that de-burrs and camphers at the same time. I prefer it over electronic trimmers or drill mounted ones. I also use a Handprimer vs the on press tubes. The X-die is probably the biggest time saver I have. Basically I only trim my 223 once.
RCBS Turret Press 1 - Rifle press. Ive got 2 sets of 223 dies on it. specifically I have a set of Lee dies I use for the first loading. Then after I trim the brass the first time, I never have to again because of the RCBS X-die for Full Length sizing. This die is awesome once you get it set up correctly which can be sorta of finicky. This saves me massive time. I know they make a bunch of others for the major rifle calibers so you should be able to find one in whichever rifle calibers you load for. I finish my 223 off with Lee FCD.
RCBS Turret Press 2 - Pistol press. I have the seating/crimp dies on here for 9mm, 40s&w and 45acp as well as the flare/belling dies for them as well. I so far have had good luck with combo seating/taper crimp dies from RCBS but I do find I get more consistent seating depth when I separate seating and crimping when I do not trim my brass to equal lengths (something I dont bother with and have had no problems with). I am trying a Hornady Seating/Crimping die shortly on 40s&w to see if its a bit more consistent. You can adjust without having to skrew the die down deeper.
Rock Chucker Single Stage - All of my Sizing for pistol gets done on this press for my Pistol calibers. I sometimes use the Redding G-RX or Lee Bulge Buster die to get the base of the case sized where the shell holder covers it. Im sure I could knock off more time but I like the way I am doing things now. Not near as quick as a progressive but this way I can probably get close to 200 an hour if my brass is primed and flared already.
RCBS Turret Press 1 - Rifle press. Ive got 2 sets of 223 dies on it. specifically I have a set of Lee dies I use for the first loading. Then after I trim the brass the first time, I never have to again because of the RCBS X-die for Full Length sizing. This die is awesome once you get it set up correctly which can be sorta of finicky. This saves me massive time. I know they make a bunch of others for the major rifle calibers so you should be able to find one in whichever rifle calibers you load for. I finish my 223 off with Lee FCD.
RCBS Turret Press 2 - Pistol press. I have the seating/crimp dies on here for 9mm, 40s&w and 45acp as well as the flare/belling dies for them as well. I so far have had good luck with combo seating/taper crimp dies from RCBS but I do find I get more consistent seating depth when I separate seating and crimping when I do not trim my brass to equal lengths (something I dont bother with and have had no problems with). I am trying a Hornady Seating/Crimping die shortly on 40s&w to see if its a bit more consistent. You can adjust without having to skrew the die down deeper.
Rock Chucker Single Stage - All of my Sizing for pistol gets done on this press for my Pistol calibers. I sometimes use the Redding G-RX or Lee Bulge Buster die to get the base of the case sized where the shell holder covers it. Im sure I could knock off more time but I like the way I am doing things now. Not near as quick as a progressive but this way I can probably get close to 200 an hour if my brass is primed and flared already.
This was money well spent. I bet it has cut my time by 1/3 or a half of what it was before. I got the Lyman cases prep Center, it seems to do really well. The powder thrower is an older rcbs model. That is a big time saver to. I should have done this a long time ago. Thanks for all your help I appreciate it.
