Currently, I have a Lee Classic Press and a RCBS Rockchucker. In the next couple of months I'm going to be loads probably 500 to 750 rounds for PD hunting and other things.

I'm trying to understand how Turret and Progressive presses are used and which one will help speed up reloading ammo? So far, I'm only loading the following cartidges: 223 Rem, 17 Mach IV, 6mm PPC. But in the future I will be reloading Tactical-20, 222 Rem, and 6mm BR.

Regards,
Kory

On a turret press, you screw all the dies into the head and then run all of the cases through the sizing die and reprime them. Then you drop all of your powder charges and set all of the bullets in the seating die. All a turret press does is save you the time involved with screwing in the second die and setting it. I believe that it also means that all of your dies are always set the same which should mean more consistent ammo.

In a progressive press; you set all of your dies once, then insert a case.
On the first stroke of the ram you size it and seat a new primer. Then it, (or you) rotate the shell holder to the second position and insert a second case in the first position.

On the second stroke it sizes the second case and you drop the powder charge in the first case. And then you it (or you) rotates the shell holder again.

On the third stroke you seat a bullet in the first case, drop a powder charge in the second case and resize a third case. When the shell holder rotates the third time it will kick out a loaded round.

After that, every stroke of the ram will kick out a loaded round and you just have to insert new cases and bullets for seating.

Progressive loaders can be manually operated where you set all of the primers, cases and bullets or they can be automatic where they feed all of the components by themselves and run the ram up and down or any combination of the above.

Whew!

My progressive, the Dillon RL550B has a fourth hole for a crimp die, but that may not be needed for those calibers you load.

Basically, a turret moves all the dies over the stationary cartridge, whereas a progressive moves all the cases under stationary dies.