Turret or progressive?

Butcherbill

Butcherbill

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Which is quicker/easier to switch between calibers, everything I’ve watched or read makes me lean towards a auto indexing turret press but a progressive looks nice as well.

A progressive will load more than a turret in the same timeframe but either volume will work for me. Ease of caliber change and a quicker overall process than a single stage is more important to me.

I already have a couple single stages I’ve been using, one of which is a Hornady with the quick change bushings so their AP progressive looks fairly easy to swap between dies and shell plates. I have lots of quick change bushings and a couple of their powder measures, which I’m happy with. I’ll be loading 3-4 pistol cartridges, rifle for now will be strictly on the single stage presses.
 
if it's for higher volume then a progressive for sure.

I load my 9mm ammo on a dedicated older hornady progressive (the pro-jector model, before they came out with the AP) and thus I am not swapping calibers so I have no comment on that.
 
bertn said:
if it's for higher volume then a progressive for sure.

I load my 9mm ammo on a dedicated older hornady progressive (the pro-jector model, before they came out with the AP) and thus I am not swapping calibers so I have no comment on that.
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I’m looking to speed up the process, the volume between either a turret or progressive in an hour is fine for my use. In order of importance I’d rank ease of caliber change/setup over total number of cartridges I can load in an hour, I’m not loading for ipsc or anything else. If the Hornady AP will do both for me then bonus, I know the Hornady progressive will be better quality than a Lee turret.

Just want to speed thing up from loading pistol calibers on a single stage, so anything between 150-250/hr is fine by me. I don’t need to load 300-600/hr, I have plenty of free time to handload and I enjoy the process to begin with. Loading 9mm, 10mm, .45auto, likely 7.62x25 somewhere down the line.
 
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If you are after very fast caliber changes the Hornady Lock n Load AP is probably the quickest.

That being said, a Dillon 650/750 is imho a much better press.

The hornady requires tinkering.

The Dillon just works.

My 2 cents.
 
I have a Redding T7. Believe Frankford Arsenal and Lyman have basically Chinesium copy's. Love it, very Skookum unit with no run out. I have a extra turret, so can have as many as three rifle die sets in each turret. Run it as a redneck progressive with a powder measure or big batches of one or two stages.
The convenience of quick switches, leaving your dies set up, along with greater speed.
 
I have a Dillon 650. I think for around 15 years. Probably reloaded only 10k. Been on hiatus for a decade. Thx to our supreme leader, I went on a panic buying spree and added many new pistol calibers. That just gave me incentive to have another one setup strictly for large primers. Added a 750 this year. I have some powder spill on both presses but the 750 will get some on the primer cup (if it's called that) and whatever powder is on the cup leaves an impression on the primer surface when seating it. Maybe there is a way to avoid that but don't think it matters but it's annoying.

The 750 eliminates any chances of more than 1 primer detonating. I still reload with ear muffs with the 650 just to be safe.

Be aware the no BS warranty is around 17usd shipping to canada. On top of customer service not being as good as before with claims, in my experience. I filed an online claim for a brand new broken part and whoever handled my claim didn't even ask for further proof like receipt or better pictures. Was quick to judge and denied my claim. At the end, it was honoured but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
 
Markit said:
If you are after very fast caliber changes the Hornady Lock n Load AP is probably the quickest.

That being said, a Dillon 650/750 is imho a much better press.

The hornady requires tinkering.

The Dillon just works.

My 2 cents.
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Ease of change between calibers, auto indexing are the things I’m looking for. I don’t know if a progressive will be a huge bonus over a turret for me to be honest as I’m not concerned with mass volume gains. I’m really just looking to simplify loading pistol cartridges, having a set of dies set up in a removable plate vs loading on a single stage would be nice.

I’ve watched a video comparing the 650 to the Hornady AP progressive and the consensus was the Hornady takes more tinkering to set right but works well once set up right, the quick change bushing makes powder measure removal easy vs the 650. I don’t mind tinkering and I’m already invested in a few of the Hornady components, I’m not looking for auto case or bullet feeding options which simplifies things as well.

nowarningshot said:
I have a Redding T7. Believe Frankford Arsenal and Lyman have basically Chinesium copy's. Love it, very Skookum unit with no run out. I have a extra turret, so can have as many as three rifle die sets in each turret. Run it as a redneck progressive with a powder measure or big batches of one or two stages.
The convenience of quick switches, leaving your dies set up, along with greater speed.
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Looks like a nice press, I’m pretty set on auto indexing but I think I’m going to have to look harder at a manual indexing press. It would open up the options a bit for better built presses than a Lee classic turret, which I’m sure will work but I know there’s better built presses to choose from.
 
Butcherbill said:
Manually indexing turret or progressive presses are a deal breaker.
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Auto index turret press would be a Lee. I started with that and it was very frustrating to use. I went to Dillon 550 and very happy with it. It is manual index but not hard to do 500 rounds in an hour once set up. I do like that I can do 45-70 on it, saves me time from having to switch to crimp die on single stage. Versatile press. Lots of shooters use for precision rounds as well.

Dillon does have very good customer support. Had to use once and parts shipped for free at that time.
 
I have used numerous press's over the years from an indestructible Herters (the one I learned on and still have that one) a couple RCBS single stages a couple Lee progressives to 3 Dillons ( 2 650's and a 550) and a Lee Classic Cast Turret....and without a minutes hesitation I will say that the Lee Turret will still be on my bench long after the Dillons are not needed & gone.
One point I will make is that every press I have used produces excellent ammo, even the much maligned Lee progressives, they make ammo but the primer attrition rate is what soured me on them and that was when primers were $35 a brick, canr imagine how frustrated I would be at 3-$400 per brick now.

As for your stated caliber change time being your make-or-break criteria, If no primer size change is required i can change my 650 over in 90 seconds or so and that includes an already set to go powder slide. I can change my Lee Classic over in 45 seconds but then I have to re-set a powder drop or scale for the new cartridge and that will easily double the time to change a Dillon over.
I kept one Dillon ( the other 2 given to a family member that started reloading) just because the wife & I still shoot a large volume of pistol caliber but when that part of our lives dies out that Dillon will go and that Lee Classic will still be here.
 
Is as if there is a fear or do not know how to set up dies in a press - I use a single stage Rock Chucker - every time, the die is re-set up - talk about "saving time" - "quick to change" - sounds like advertising or marketing - you are going to sit there for 1/2 hour or 2 hours reloading - what difference did 5 seconds or 15 seconds make to change the die? Is perhaps different if you do not know how, or had someone else set it up for you - my advice to the young fellow that I am coaching to reload is to learn how to set up his dies - every time - that way he will KNOW they are done correctly. If they are done "wrong", there is only a finite number of rounds that were sized or seated in error.
 
Butcherbill said:
Manually indexing turret or progressive presses are a deal breaker.
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I load on Dillon 550, and manual indexing is not the limiting factor.
For medium volumes of 9mm, the biggest workflow improvement was Mr Bulletfeeder. If I had a D750, I would have bought the case feeder as well. Dillon makes case feeders for D550, not sure how well they work.
Sometimes it happens that a 38 super or 380 ACP brass slips through and into the loading sequence, that’s when manual indexing is an advantage.
D550 works better with medium rifle calibers than a fully progressive.
 
Potashminer said:
Is as if there is a fear or do not know how to set up dies in a press - I use a single stage Rock Chucker - every time, the die is re-set up - talk about "saving time" - "quick to change" - sounds like advertising or marketing - you are going to sit there for 1/2 hour or 2 hours reloading - what difference did 5 seconds or 15 seconds make to change the die? Is perhaps different if you do not know how, or had someone else set it up for you - my advice to the young fellow that I am coaching to reload is to learn how to set up his dies - every time - that way he will KNOW they are done correctly. If they are done "wrong", there is only a finite number of rounds that were sized or seated in error.
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I know how to set up dies, I’ve been loading all three calibers of pistol ammo I shoot on a single stage. Now that I know the setup and process well I want to deal with less setup between sizing/decaping and crimping as well as be able to load a couple different calibers in one evening, is that so hard to grasp? Setting up a die plate on a turret once and swapping turrets sounds like less work than swapping single dies with setup in between, pretty simple to me.

There’s a reason that turret and progressive presses exist, I like my single stage presses but they don’t load fast or efficiently with regards to loading 200-300 rounds or pistol ammo.
 
I've reloaded for decades. Most on a probably early 70's rockchucker. It's find a load for a caliber, load up 10+ years worth method. Switch out from my turret with volume calibers; for me 3die 44mag, 2die 30-06, 2die 7x57.......to a oddball caliber turret. Everything set up, one Allen bolt, make one dummy round, done.

Not a big deal to set up dies, it's just one less step. Probably add another turret, there's a stainless aftermarket improved T7 but not currently in Kanada. If I was a huge volume shooter I would have, still might, go Hornady AP. The T7 is fast enough, still hands on, I enjoy the process as a hobby in itself.
 
If you plan on reloading a lot / for a long time, buy once cry once.


The best advice I could give you is go on you tube.

If you see a lot of videos on a particular press on how to DIY fix this or DIY improve that or DIY solve this issue then avoid it. There are a lot on the hornady lock n load AP - I know I have had to watch a ton of them to sort mine out.

I don’t see many on the 650/750 other than primer issues some people seem to experience on the 650.

Dillon’s no bull#### warranty is Ironclad from what I have heard from friends of mine, most of whom have never had to use it.


About 12 or so years ago I went with a Hornady Lock N Load AP right around the time they switched from their older projector press (plan was to save around $200 - $300 as that was the price difference between the 650 at that time), added a case feeder, then a bullet feeder (so now it is an ammo plant), bought several more powder measures, and load 6 calibers 3 pistol 3 rifle for two shooters.

While the press loads very accurate ammo,it is constant tinkering. Shell plate comes loose every 75 rounds or so (no matter what youtube fix I try and I think I have tried them all), the Pawls that index the shell plate now for the past few years have to be adjusted quite often (I’ve probably loaded well north of 40k rounds so there is definatly some wear), and i am starting to experience primer feed issues for the first time even after changing out the primer slide.

Personally I hate reloading. There used to be quite a cost savings, not so much anymore given the price jacks.

The only reason I reload is because I can Tailor loads for my firearms and in almost all cases can create cartridges far more accurate than expensive match ammo (for rifle), and when I was somewhat competitive in IPSC, could create a solid IPSC Minor power factor load with minimal recoil for fasts follow up shots.

YMMV but if you can afford it and justify the cost, i would suggest a used Dillon 650 or new 750.
 
Had the same dilemma a few years ago, and went with a Lee classic turret press. It has been reliable with no issues. I do all the operations on the press (de-priming, priming, powder load, bullet seating, crimp) I use the lee-auto drum (very accurate with ball powder), and the lee safety prime. I reload 25 acp, 32 acp, 38 special, 9 mm, 40 S&W on it.
 
Your problem on something like a 650 will be changing between small and large primers, which takes a bit longer.

I load 3 different pistol calibres on a 650 and switching between calibres with dedicated toolheads makes things faster but they're all small primer. If I read correctly, you'll be loading 9 mm, .45 and 10 mm. Changing will/might require a different dedicated toolhead, different shellplate, different station locator, different locator buttons, different body bushing, different case arm bushing, different casefeed adapter, different casefeed plate and completely swapping out the priming system if you're going from small to large or vice versa. I'm not sure how everyone else is doing this in 90 seconds.

With all that said, I think you're too concerned about the time it takes to change between calibres, but that's your prerogative. Once my 650 is setup, I can pump out 1K rounds in ~1.5 hrs. In my opinion, and it's just that, speed matters much more when loading pistol rounds. While you're fiddling around with a turret press, I will have loaded all my rounds and BBQed a few steaks. You're just displacing time from setup to loading, again, just my 2 ¢ (probably not even worth that).
 
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