Reloading Press Types/Recomendations

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shootnprep

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I'm a complete beginner and am looking into doing some reloading. I'm trying to decide what press to buy. I'm confused as the the difference between the presses I see single stage, turret, and progressive.

I want to buy something good but some of the stuff out there looks very complicated with machines running and dropping stuff into the press. Any advice on what to buy that won't scare me off with complexity. I'll likely be reloading .308 win, 5.56x45, 9x19, .45 win mag, and 7.62x25 and if my obsession keeps expanding who knows what else.

I'm a buy it right buy it once guy so I'm more concerned about getting the right press than the cost of it. Reloading is a lot like voodoo everyone's heard about it nobody does it except for the crazy guy in the woods :) Make me that crazy guy.
 
I'm an rcbs guy and have been for about 27 years. Single stage to start with then if you are into it buy a progressive for your handgun ammo. I do close to 40 rifle chamberings and 357 mag 44 mag 45 colt 9 mm and 41 long colt on my old rcbs single. It takes longer but it's a labour of love.
 
Reloading is a lot like many other things....its best to use the KISS principle, when first starting. To that end, I'd suggest you learn the basics of reloading on a good quality, single-stage press. There are a number of them out there, including RCBS, Hornady and Lee. Both Lee and RCBS also offer "kits", which include many of the basic items a person will need to reload. These are a good buy. From there, you can move on to a "progressive" type press, which will allow you to load ammunition in quantity. This will be useful when loading your pistol rounds. Even .308, if you shoot it a lot. Dillon, Hornady and Lee are worth checking out. As well as RCBS. All feature comprehensive websites. Once you have a good overview of each press's features and operating system, it will be easier to make a decision. If possible, try to connect with someone locally who reloads. If you already belong to a gun club, this should be fairly easy. They can teach you the basics, without having to go through a whole lot of trial and error.
I agree....buy it right, buy it once. Before you do though, its best to gain as much information as possible on all the reloading systems and options that are available. Hope this is useful.
 
Unless you are really uncomfortable with anything mechanical (in which case go with a single stage), I would make my decision based on what volume of pistol rounds you will want to produce per week. If it is under 100, then a single stage is fine. If it is 100-250 go with a turret, 250 or over - go with a Progressive. The next decision criterion is budget. Lee is at the low end and Dillon is at the high-end (for Progressive presses).

All of the presses will reload rifle rounds but you are likely to use them all as a single stage when reloading rifle cartridges. Speed is thus not an issue for rifle.

Other lesser factors are things such as how easy it is to switch between calibres and the availability of accessories. From what I've seen Lee, Hornady, RCBS, Dillon all do a pretty good job in providing warranty service.
 
When changing calibers you end up also changing the shell holder. For a single stage or turret press the shell holder typically comes with the dies. On a progressive press you need to buy a shell plate and caliber conversion kit typically. So that adds to the cost of doing a caliber swap.

For rifle and other high accuracy loading you also don't want to rely on volume charges for the powder drop. So your .308 rifle loading and similar stuff will likely mean you want to weigh each charge for tighter control over the accuracy of the loads. The slower pace this forces on you works well with a single stage or even a turret press.

Handgun ammo typically does not require that sort of control and generally needs to be reloaded to larger volumes. That suggests at least a turret press and more typically a progressive press. But it also demand the sort of accessories needed like the shell plate caliber conversion kits and multiple die plates in most cases. But this IS the road to easy times for higher volume handgun or less demanding rifle loading.

But you CAN reload handgun ammo on a single stage. How much per hour? Once you get past the initial learning you can load around 150rounds an hour running them off in batches of 50 at a time. This includes starting with clean brass and sizing/decapping, flaring, hand priming, charging, checking the powder charges and finally seating and crimping the bullets. That all takes about 20 minutes for 50 rounds without a lot of hurry and includes switching dies.

A progressive can double to triple that amount per hour depending on you, the press and the accessories mounted to the press. Or with a full blown, and costly, higher end progressive can run at 4 to 5 times that much per hour.

What I really like about having one of each (I've actually also got a Lyman turret press too, but who's counting) is that I don't need to break down the progressive with its greater number of steps to do some simple little job that I can do on the single stage. So I'll never reduce down to JUST the Dillon.

Even having both I far and away prefer a single stage for rifle loading. And it saves me having to buy the shell plates. But for handgun I've got a Dillon 550b. In terms of the hierarchy among progressive presses it's a good quality but mid speed option. But it's also mid priced.

And if you follow my line of reasoning then it suggests that starting with the simpler to use and simpler to understand single stage for now isn't a bad option. It won't be money wasted and it will be simpler to set up for changing between steps. Then just add a progressive a little later to up the production rate for the handgun ammo.

Folks mention turret presses. But for handgun ammo this still means 3 or maybe 4 lever pulls per round produced. At that point a single stage is only marginally slower. So I tend to go with the idea of a single stage for rifle and side projects and a proper full "one round done per pull" progressive.

As for brands I was given and used Lee presses for the first couple of years. Then I bought a Dillon to move on away from the niggling issues that kept cropping up with the Lee presses. On the Classic 1000 progressive the mods needed to make it work reliably amounted to a total of 6 things before it could be considered almost as easy to use and reliable as the Dillon. But there's legions of Lee press fans out there and really for the cost they do deliver. But consider that this is very much a case of "for the cost". Some of the issues that did frustrate me on the admittedly older Lee presses have since been changed. But that still leaves 4 or 5 pretty major issues that I found needed to be fixed. Their non progressive turret and single stages are somewhat better. Still, by the time you spend your money I feel it's better to add a little and go Hornady or to add a little more and go RCBS or Redding.

Also consider that with a bayonet lock bushing setup such as Hornady offers switching dies is almost as fast as a manually indexed turret.
 
CreamySmooth said:
Buy a Forester Coax single stage then get a Dillon 550 or 650. Yer done and can do it all. If someone would have told me this at the start beau coup money in my pocket.
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this is what i did. i too am new and purchased the Forster Coax for my 1st press because I know i will use it for high-quality rifle ammunition down the road. Once I become more familiar with the reloading process and get out shooting handguns a little more, then I will venture into the progressive world. For now though, the Forster meets my handgun needs as i don't shoot them as much as my rifles. Listen to the experienced guys here and they will tell you what they would do differently.
 
I have 2 lee classic turret presses and 2lymen t mag 2 both work great and easy to use ,you can set all your dies up at once and use it as a single stage press . check them out on line or talk to some guys about them.
 
mister308 said:
this is what i did. i too am new and purchased the Forster Coax for my 1st press because I know i will use it for high-quality rifle ammunition down the road. Once I become more familiar with the reloading process and get out shooting handguns a little more, then I will venture into the progressive world. For now though, the Forster meets my handgun needs as i don't shoot them as much as my rifles. Listen to the experienced guys here and they will tell you what they would do differently.
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+2 This what I did as well and I have never regretted the decision started with the Forster on rifles then pistols the the Dillon..
 
The Forster is nice for a variety of reasons. But it's interesting to note that the big feature of having the ram forces lined up with die is shared by the simple loop frame style press.

Now I appreciate the fact that the Forster has a lot of other features. The method for die holding is brilliant in how it is so simple but allows for the case and die to float and self align. But is it worth 2x to 2.5x the price of a nice loop style press? That I'm not so sure about. The better closed loop style presses are darn nice and solid and don't give up any actual ability. Just some convenience.

However for anyone where the extra cost is not a huge deterrent I gotta say that it's the way to go over the long run for a higher end single stage press. While more money than the loop frame presses it's actually fairly affordable luxury in the overall costs found in shooting.
 
BCRider said:
The Forster is nice for a variety of reasons. But it's interesting to note that the big feature of having the ram forces lined up with die is shared by the simple loop frame style press.

Now I appreciate the fact that the Forster has a lot of other features. The method for die holding is brilliant in how it is so simple but allows for the case and die to float and self align. But is it worth 2x to 2.5x the price of a nice loop style press? That I'm not so sure about. The better closed loop style presses are darn nice and solid and don't give up any actual ability. Just some convenience.

However for anyone where the extra cost is not a huge deterrent I gotta say that it's the way to go over the long run for a higher end single stage press. While more money than the loop frame presses it's actually fairly affordable luxury in the overall costs found in shooting.
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You know how you crave that higher end gun or car? Reloading is no different. I find the equipment to be half the fun. Just get the best first. Buy once. Cry once. Or you'll end up like me... I'm DOWN to 5 presses.... Wife beats me daily.

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BCRider said:
The Forster is nice for a variety of reasons. But it's interesting to note that the big feature of having the ram forces lined up with die is shared by the simple loop frame style press.

Now I appreciate the fact that the Forster has a lot of other features. The method for die holding is brilliant in how it is so simple but allows for the case and die to float and self align. But is it worth 2x to 2.5x the price of a nice loop style press? That I'm not so sure about. The better closed loop style presses are darn nice and solid and don't give up any actual ability. Just some convenience.

However for anyone where the extra cost is not a huge deterrent I gotta say that it's the way to go over the long run for a higher end single stage press. While more money than the loop frame presses it's actually fairly affordable luxury in the overall costs found in shooting.
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I think between the die holding and the shell holder design are truly brilliant, the open feature really helps me when reloading the pistol (but I cannot wait until I can afford a progressive lol).
 
I started with a Lee kit, it's not a Forster but for starters you get a nice kit for a very good price. I still use the press to this day but have added a progressive (Dillon 550).

If you got the dough you can start with a very high end press (like the Forster) but either way I'd recommend starting off with a single stage. Even if you end up buying a progressive, which you likely will, everybody needs a single stage on their bench so it's not wasted.
 
shootnprep said:
I just checked online the only one I could find in stock was that price. Clearly I need to look locally.
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finding one is half the battle. it took me about 4 months of searching and waiting until one popped up. some of the vendors have features where they will text message you when it's back in stock.
 
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