I am fairly new at reloading, and was givven a Texan press.

This press is working, but someth/ing is just not right with it, the ram has alot of movement side to side. This thing has seen alot of use by the looks of it.

As of now I am only reloading .223 and .45. In the future I will also be doing 30/06 and when I pick up a new gun either 308 or 300 win mag.

I have been looking at the Redding T7, along with the Big Boss II SS press.

Is a Turret press worth the extra money? I do like the thought of having all my dies set and and never again having to worry about them.

If you are going to be doing pistol and/or large quatity rifle batches go with the turret, I use a single but rarley load more than 50 per sesion.

How big of volume are you planning on loading at once, with pistol and rifle?

I am more concerned with quality over quantity. Mainly in my .223.

The volume aspect is not really a concern to me.

That being said, is a Turret worth the extra $100 or so?

Who else makes a good quality and solid turret? Is the Layman one a solid press? What about the RCBS? I know Lee makes one, and alot of people use them, but I am not interested in the Lee Turret.

quote:

Originally posted by midminnesota:
How big of volume are you planning on loading at once, with pistol and rifle?

Right now I am doing my pistol in lots of 50 and my rifle in lots of 20.

I load all my High Power ammo on a T-7. The only thing it doesn't do well is hold a collet puller. There isn't any room to spin the handle. In the T-7 I have a universal deprimer that I don't use to often, it just added a step as far as I'm concerned. Sizing dies for .223, .308 , and .30-06. Competition seating dies for same. If you add more calibers you can get Turrets also. I think for handgun calibers it would be just as slow as a single stage. I use a single to work up loads then set up my Lee loadmaster for the handgun loading.

I don't think you could go wrong with a T-7. I have all three on my bench RCBS Rock Chucker, Redding T-7 and Lee Loadmaster. If you don't have a single already you could get by with a smaller single if all you need it for is a collet puller or you could use a Turret head with a lot of open space with a collet puller. The .223 dosn't pull easily with an inertial puller and there will come a time when you need to take a few apart.

I have no use for a turret press because of the process I use. Mostly because I use the Lee case length trimmers which require the case to be removed from the press after the old primer is punched and the case is resized.. So even if I had a turret press I would still be doing a single stage process..

The big advantage with the Redding T-7 turret press, is that you can leave two or 3 sets of dies all set up. That said, I have a couple of single stage presses that still serve me well.

"Is a Turret press worth the extra money?"

I don't think so. I started with a turret, eventually went to a single stage and rarely use the turret anymore.


"I do like the thought of having all my dies set and never again having to worry about them"

Well, the three cartridges you mention will fill up a T-7 turret. If you get another you would have to get another press or excange dies anyway. Actually, exchanging dies is NOT a "problem" nor is adjusting them difficult or time consuming. And, if you really want things to be done right you will have to make a few die tweaks as your cases harden anyway.

The best turret press available today, at any price, is Lee's Classic Turret but hear-say seems to have you turned off to them. You are the one who will have to live with it so.... your money, your choice.

I really doubt the slack in your Texan's ram is doing your ammo any harm at all. A little slack will allow the cases to self center into the dies. All a tight ram can add is to bend the cases if the ram-die-threads alignment aren't all perfect, and they rarely are.

a turret press is useless in the eyes of having a co-ax. you can change dies in them in 2 seconds

yes, its worth the extra money ... i have one.. as well as several singles, and two progressives ..

my hornady progressive loads 95% of everything i do these days .. it stays setup on the bench, and the recbs suprme is only for my 550 express and other monsters

quote:

Originally posted by biggenius:


I have been looking at the Redding T7, along with the Big Boss II SS press.

Do not overlook this DILLON.

As someone said, the turret turns into die storage. Yep, it's stored right where I need it. I don't have to look for my dies, a wrench, swap dies, drop it on the floor. I tumble a batch of shells, size and deprime in one step, clean the lube off, hand prime the batch, turn my turret and seat the rounds. Or prep and prime a gallon of brass, turn the turret to my seating die and load what I need.
The only change to my press is to swap out the shell holder.

quote:

As of now I am only reloading .223 and .45. In the future I will also be doing 30/06 and when I pick up a new gun either 308 or 300 win mag.

Well, your .223 and .45 ACP take up five of the seven spaces on a Redding T7, leaving enough space for the .30-06. If you add another caliber, you'll have to pull the dies for one of the previous calibers. HOWEVER . . .

In practice, either one or both of your larger rifle calibers will probably see limited usage. Unless you do target shooting with one of them it is unlikely that once you've found a load you like and produced a supply of ammunition that you'll have need to load that particular caliber more often than once every couple of years. Which means that you can leave the (presumably) higher volume .223 and .45 ACP in place pretty much permanently and trade out the other two as needed. This would seem to make the T7 practical and worthwhile.

My bench holds both a T7 and a heavy-duty single stage press. In practice, the T7 stays set up for the three calibers I load most often, and the single press is used for nearly everything else. Works for me.

BTW: Once adjusted to a particular press by clamping the locking ring securely, a die never needs further adjustment (at least not in regard to its press position). Trading dies out is as simple as loosening the one in the press with a wrench and screwing the replacement in the hole.

quote:

Trading dies out is as simple as loosening the one in the press with a wrench and screwing the replacement in the hole.

To each his own but I haven't used a wrench on dies since I was a noob; hand tight is plenty tight! That's why so many die makers have used round rings, to prevent use of wrenches...but then some folks will use pliers!

Using a wrench or pair of pliars to tighten a die......Eeeewwwww.

I like the single stage press for the single-mindedness of doing one task at a time: resize all of the cases; clean all of the cases; prime all of the cases; charge, etc. And at each stage, every case is looked at closely as it's manipulated, QC so to speak.

Whether a Turret press is "worth it" is based largely on how you want to reload.

You can load batch style: size/deprime a batch, prime a batch, charge a batch, seat a batch, etc. You don't change dies except between batches, but you do swap brass in and out of the press on every pull of the handle.

Or you can load "turret style": do each step in sequence on the same cartrige, start to finish, before you do another cartridge. This means you need to change dies every pull of the handle, but on a turret that's not a problem. You don't have to swap brass in/out of the press every pull.

If you intend to do some operations off the press, "turret style" rapidly devolves into a lot of extra work, since you are swapping dies and brass an awful lot. Operations that are often done off-press, between on-press operations, include case prep, priming, and charging powder. Generally speaking, pistol cartridges are more amenable to complete, on-press processing than rifle cartridges.

If you load batch style, there is very little advantage to a turret press. You simply don't change dies very often. And if you don't want to screw/unscrew dies in/out of the press, get a LNL conversion kit and use their QC die bushings on many single stage presses (Lee Classic Cast, RCBS RC, Redding BB, BBII or UltraMag, and of course the Hornady LNL, which comes with conversion kit already installed.) Or get a press that has its own QC die retention system (the Forster Co-Ax uses floating, snap-in/out system that works with several different brands of lock rings, no QC die bushings required).

I load batch style for one main reason: I want to see an entire batch of charged cases in a loading block, so I can visually compare powder charges in cases side by side (I do not weigh each individual charge). If I loaded turret style, I would have to remember how much powder was in the last case, however many operations ago that was, to compare it with the present charge.

For this reason, I would recommend a single stage press, and either live with screwing dies in and out, or get a QC system (either the LNL conversion kit, or the co-ax). I use and heartily recommend the co-ax. It is expensive for a single stage press, but not compared to the Redding T7.

Andy

Thanks for all the reply's guys.

I am kicking around what I want to do. I do my reloading in batches, so really all the Turret press will be is a die holder.

One thing I am considering is staying with a SS press and buying competition bullet seaters to make it easyer to get the dies set up after swaping them out.

quote:

Originally posted by biggenius:
Thanks for all the reply's guys.

I am kicking around what I want to do. I do my reloading in batches, so really all the Turret press will be is a die holder.

One thing I am considering is staying with a SS press and buying competition bullet seaters to make it easyer to get the dies set up after swaping them out.

Big Jake said it. A lot of time is saved by leaving the shell in the press through all the operations in one straight-through loading from decapping all the way to finished round.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Jake:
Or you can load "turret style": do each step in sequence on the same cartrige, start to finish, before you do another cartridge. This means you need to change dies every pull of the handle, but on a turret that's not a problem. You don't have to swap brass in/out of the press every pull.

If you use the turret as a convenient die holder to avoid the necessity of re-installing and adjusting dies with every change, it might be good, but a single stage with quick-change bushings might be better. There would be less chance of any flex. All single-stage presses have no flex to speak of. All Turrets have some play (so the turret can have clearance to move).

Take a look at the cost of the quick-change bushings and the cost of spare turrets. Figure out how many you would need to mount all your dies. Then look at the Forster which quick-changes the dies without the expense of bushings. The premium price of the Forster becomes less of a barrier. (However, you will want the split-ring lock rings, as they are more secure than any others.)

From reading your other posts, then, I recommend the Forster over any turret. (Despite my affinity for the Lee Classic Turret, I think it may not be the best choice for you, BigGenius, as you have described the loading algorithms you intend to follow. I think you will decide to get one eventually, particularly for your pistol cartridge loading-as your loading methods evolve-but you will still want to keep your single-stage, especially if it a Forster.)

If you eschew the Lee, you will avoid irritating your mentors. No one will fault you for the Forster. Then, when you get more seasoned, and decide to try the Lee Classic Turret, you can rub their snobby noses in the high quality, high functionality, speed, fit and finish of the Lee Classic Turret.

When you are selecting dies, be aware that the Lee "Powder-Through" case expanding die is a practical requirement for the most efficient use of the auto-indexing Lee turrets. With only 4 stations, it works best that way.

Good luck.

Lost Sheep

I have two turret press's and two single stage press's 5 progressive press's plus misc shotgun and use them all. I guess if one is only loading small amounts of a couple of differant calibers.

I most likely would go with a turret a seven hole would give enough space to hole two ses of pistol and one rifle die set or two rifle and 1 pistol set. ne would not have to reset your dies each time.

But I have loaded many thousands of rounds on a single stage press of both rifle and pistol.