Thinking about geting a Redding turret press.

#1 is a turret press a good way to reload?
#2 is a Redding turret press a good choice?
THANKS
Jerry

I have 4 diffrent turrent presses. I have had to do some work on the rcbs to get it to produce streight cases.
All the lyman presses are good with no real [problems.

If you can find one, the old Hollywood Sr., and the Hollywood Super D's are great presses. I don't think they make them anymore but you might look on e-Bay or GunBroker for one.

Just looked on e-Bay and the only one they had was the Hollywood Sr. single stage.

My Lyman "All-American" turret press has served faithfully for hundreds of thousands of rounds since I bought it new in 1967. It's as good as the day I got it, and maybe a bit smoother after all that use.

These presses are discontinued, but are commonly seen on Ebay where they usually sell for less than $100. They originally used a "J"-type shellholder, not the common RCBS/Pacific type most common today. However, Lyman has an adapter which allows use of our current shellholders. If the adapter is used, a new priming punch is also needed for priming on the press.

I have several good presses, but this Lyman is the last one I'd dispose of. It handles everything I need, from 9mm Parabellum to .416 Rigby. NICE machine!

T-7 Turret Press.

I purchased one of these Redding T-7 presses at Camp Perry and got a good deal for it. Not that I needed it because I have a Lyman T Mag turret press. Because I have both I can make a comparison.

Both of these presses have long handles and provide all the leverage that is needed to small base size .223, .308, and 30-06 cases. The handle on the T-Mag is angled better and can be moved to the left side of the press for lefties, the T-7 appears to be a right hand only press. The T-7 weighs much more than the Lyman and has one more threaded hole on the turret. The T-7 turret is larger and there is more space to get wrenches on the dies for die adjustment. The turret on the Lyman is much easier to remove because it was intelligently designed to use the turret handle as the tool to remove the turret. It is a nice touch but since I do not have extra turrets that is not an issue for me. The T-7 has an advantage in that it does not use a primer cup. Primers are ejected through a hollow ram into a plastic tube. I am tired of spent primers bouncing out of primer cups, and I always had primers on the floor with my Lyman T Mag. I really hate picking up primers and they eat up my vacuum. While the T-7 has a tube, mine did not come with a cup at the end of the tube. So I drilled a hole in the cap of a 6 ounce water bottle and duct taped the tube to it. I can not unscrew the bottle and dump the primers.

The T-7 is almost twice as expensive as the T Mag so I do not know if it is worth it, outside of the aggravation of picking up primers.

Both of these presses are cast iron, should last forever, both provide excellent ammunition with minimum runout. I am sold on the concept of turret presses as I just leave my High Power sizing dies on the turret along with my decapping dies. Since I dump powder and seat bullets on my Dillion I hardly ever remove my dies once I have them adjusted. I do not use the primer seating feature on these presses, I prime using a Lee Hand Primer, so I cannot comment on that feature.

Last year I was able to purchase for very little money a used Lyman Spar T turret press. It is instructive to see how much better these late model presses are compared to this 1960’s vintage press. The old press has a very short handle which limits the leverage, makes sizing a lot of work, and the handle end does not have a ball, which rubs the skin off my palm. The turret is small and the limited space makes it is very hard to torque dies on the turret. The ram is not nearly as tight in the Spar T as my later model presses. The Spar T handle is directly in front of the shell holder which means you have to reach around the thing as cases are taken in and out. If you notice with later presses the handle is offset out of the way. And designers have positioned the center of gravity on the handles of the newer presses so the handle stays upright. With this older press the handle falls down unless you bungee cord the thing up! We have it much better than the old timers and their equipment.

I use a Forster Co-Ax press, I can change from die to die in 2 seconds, my dies all have Forster lock rings, I looked hard at the turrets, but the KISS that the Co-Ax offers can't be beat.

Brian

Have ordered a Redding T7 press. Midsouth has the press in stock and free shipping on orders over $150.
Thanks to all that replied
Jerry

Turret presses good to load on? Here are mine: