Participation in the field of guns, handloading, and related gear requires numerous decisions. Fundamental in the game of handloading is the choice of one or more reloading presses. As with most of the related topics, it is helpful to develop a set of selection criteria to help guide the decisions one must make.

Experienced handloaders have established their criteria and put them into practice. Those new to the game will need to give the subject of press selection a little thought. Press designs range from single station C or O configurations, through various turret designs, and finally to sophisticated progressive machines. Each category has its merits.

For high volume ammo production the need for a progressive press is apparent. For meticulous, slow, and low volume work, the single station presses are effective. They are often of extra strong design and may be used for bullet swaging and heavy duty resizing operations.

My particular choice of press category is for a high quality turret machine. Better machines of turret design offer very good strength with some time-saving advantages. With 6 or 7 die stations, one may leave 2 or 3 calibers set up. Flexibility is further enhanced with interchangeable turrets, offered by some manufacturers. At the same time, the turret designs allow performance of one process at a time. For example, the reloader may deprime all the cases of a particular batch and, if desired, each primer pocket may be individually cleaned as a separate manual operation. After resizing, priming, case expansion, powder charging, and bullet seating, the crimping step may be accomplished as a completely separate step. Turret presses offer reasonable efficiency combined with full control of all processes.

Among the turret presses currently available, several good products exist. I would draw special attention to the Redding T-7. Details are available here: Redding-Reloading.com (http://www.redding-reloading.com/pages/t7turretpress.html). The T-7 offers 7 die positions, has interchangeable turret heads, is super strong, and is constructed of cast iiron. Retailing at about $336.00, several suppliers offer this machine for less than $200.00. In my book, it is an exceptionally good machine available at a great price.

For those who may be in the market for a good reloading press, the Redding T-7 is well worth a close look.

Bob

You are correct, great press. Just got mine from the UPS truck this evening, might even get it on the bench before the weekend. i bought an Ultramag many years ago and wouldn't give it up for any other single stage press, but for turning out quick, small batches of ammo, I think the T7 is going to be great.

Another Redding fan here! I have two Ultramags on the bench and hope to add a third. Redding dies are top notch too. Oh yeah, their powder measures are not lacking in any department either. Their powder trickler is a joy to work with and did I mention the market a pretty decent scale to boot.

The Redding T7 is probably the top of the line, and also the most expensive. However, don't overlook the RCBS and Lyman Mag II turret presses, which are also very strong cast iron presses that will certainly get the job done with ease.

I have the Lyman Mag II and I bought a second one for my son. We load several black powder cartridges that require six dies on each turret. The turrets are the cheapest of the three manufacturers and we can easily interchange them on our respective presses.

I'll soon be setting up a second reloading bench in the U.P. I will be able to take my set up turrets between Michigan and Florida and leave the presses on their benches. The turret press is the perfect answer for me.

The Lee turret, whether used in single-stage mode or self indexing, allows the use of a turret for each caliber, and a turret change in seconds.

Darrel

I just got my new T7 on the bench tonight. Reminds me a lot of my UltraMag...very sturdy.

I don't have any doubts about the performance of this press and I didn't when i bought it.

I guess I'll have to test if for 30-40 years and report back. :)

I like other brands of equipment also, but the RCBS was about $12.50 less than I paid for this...it didn't get a second look. I didn't get to look at the new Lyman in person, but the rear support for the turret looked a little underbuilt to me from photos I've seen...probably a great press but more suited to handguns...at 2/3rds the price.

"My particular choice of press category is for a high quality turret machine. Better machines of turret design offer very good strength with some time-saving advantages."

I agree that Redding makes top-quality equipment,but I don't care for turret presses.
I think the design requires that the head has to have some "slop" in it or you couldn't turn it.The better ones,like Redding,probably have minimal but it's still there.
Maybe my reloading habits contribute to my judgement as I rarely load less then 100 rounds in one session,and changing dies only requires a couple minutes.
I wouldn't want to do a lot of case-forming or bullet-swaging on a turrent press.I'm probably dating myself when I made that statement as most reloaders,today,use store-bought components.

I would love to get a new Redding T-7 turret press but as hard as I try I just cannot wear out my Redding #25 turret press! That T-7 is a nice press, if I didn't have my old #25 I would order one today. Redding equipment is built for the long haul by a company that will back their gear up when you need help. A reloader that chooses a Redding product will not be sorry. Odessa

Redding T7 is the cat's meow. I've got one on the opposite end of bench 1 from my Forster Co-Ax. Bench 2 has the powder measures and the Lyman progressive that I use to throw a lot of pistol down range.

Starting to look like I might need to close up shop for hurricane season again. Dennis is about to thrash the panhandle, but we Orlandoans are getting serious feeder band storms.

God bless, and protect my fellow Floridians in the panhandle tonight.

Indeed,

It appears Dennis the Menace is going to make life very unpredictable for lots of you folks in the next several hours.

I'll keep not only you, but others as well in that region in prayer the next day or two! Keep us posted.... provided of course that you have power to the 'puter!

God bless,

On the subject of turret presses, what do y'all think about the Dillon AT500? I was just at the Dundee, MI cabelas last weekend and they had one out to play with. It looks beautiful, the action works like a dream, and hey have those interchangable toolheads for caliber swaps without die re-adjustment between calibers. At just under $200, it looked like the deal to beat (to me). Anyone with any good/bad info on this press?

It's the same bottom end as a RL550B, so I'd have nothing but good to say in that respect. I'm of the opinion that you'd be better off just purchasing the 550 because you can use it in the manner you're talking about, but you can still use it as a progressive. The 550 is not an auto indexing press, so you can pretty well do with it what you want.

The extra benefit of being able to load 3-500 rounds an hour of handgun ammo would more than offset the cost difference from my point of view.