I am curently reloading only .45-70. I am planning on reloading .223, .45 acp, 9mm and what ever i add to the collection. I currently use an RCBS rockchucker and a Lee hand press. I am looking at a Redding T-7 and a Dillon either 550 or 650 not sure yet. How many rounds per hour working at a medium pace should I expect to load with a turret press? How durable are the turret presses? I have hurd that the turret heads get loose after a lot of use is this true? What is the deal with 7 stations? If I get the Dillon I will mostlikely only use it for handgun ammo if I get the Redding I will probably use it for both handgun and rifle.

Which one should I get?

Zapzoo
I use Dillons for handguns and a Coax for rifles. I have no experience with a turret press.
Jim

I use two Redding Ultramag single stage presses when handloading. For the 45-70 I set up the FL sizer and expander, expanding after the case prep. Then I change the set up to seat and crimp. I want to add a third single stage press - an O type or Co-Ax as a dedicated seater press. I like the Redding Big Boss for an O press. I had a Forster Co-Ax but the opening was too small for my hands when seating bullets in 7mm Rem Mag and 300 Win Mag cases. I keep looking on eBay for a used CH Co-Ax press but they seem to be worth their weight in gold or the bidders have more money than sense.

I had a Redding model 25 turret press (six station) for awhile for handgun ammo but gave up loading for the handguns because I could buy good quality reloaded ammo for very reasonable prices. It wasn't for me. I like the idea of the new LEE classic turret with auto indexing. If I were to get back into handloading for hand gun ammo that's the route I'd take.

When I was looking for a progressive press, the only two that had all the features I wanted, including auto indexing, were the Dillon 650 and the Hornady Lock-N-Load AP. When I started looking at what it would cost to get set up to load for a number of different cartridges, the Hornady was the most economical by far.

With the Lock-N-Load bushing system, you can change all the dies with less than a quarter turn, and you don't have to readjust anything. You can also use the dies with Lock-N-Load bushings in their Classic single stage press too, if you want. You can actually change all the dies out in about as long as it takes to read me describing it. A nice feature of the Hornady lock rings is that they don't bugger up the threads on the dies in case you ever do have to readjust anything.

As far as changing over to a different caliber, one of the really nice things about the Lock-N-Load AP, other than not having to readjust your dies, is that with the different shell plates and powder measure inserts, you can change over to a different cartridge, and begin loading in a few minutes. When you're done, you could change back to the original caliber, and begin reloading for it again just as fast. It's a really slick set up!

Check out Hornady's web site at http://www.hornady.com/ & click on the link for reloading.

I can't speak about the two presses you mentioned. I have a Lee Classic Cast Turret Press, it at least doubled my output. With an auto powder measure and primer arm on the turret press I can do a box of handgun ammo in about 20 mins. Rifle ammo is a little slower becuase I measure each powder charge individually. The auto index on the Lee Turret press makes it pretty quick.

I have a Rockchucker and a Dillon. I use the Rockchucker on most of my rifle ammo and the Dillon on my pistol ammo and some rifle ammo. The Dillon is fast but the Rockchucker is easier for me to load precision ammo on.

I learned on a Lyman turret press, I now load on the Dillon RL550B, YES it can be a PITA to set up but once it's set you're GOOD TO GO!.
I load from 40S&W to 458WinMag on my Dillon, and I LOVE IT!
If you're going to be loading LOTS of pistol ammo the progressive's are the way to go, the progressives are about four times as fast (AT LEAST) as the turrets.
The RL550B can also be opperated in a simmilar mannor as the turrets or single stage presses. I'd say 500 rounds per hour isn't out of the question for pistol amo with ball powder, I weigh all my "stick powder" charges for rifle.
This is truly a "do it all" press.

My experence outside single stage presses is limited. How hard is it to swap the tool heads on the dillons or the hornady's? once you install a tool head that is already set up how much tweeking does it take to get it wright again or is there no tweeking at all?

Zap
I have no experience with the Hornady progressive.
I bought a Dillon 300 when it first came out, using it for 45 Colt. Then I got into IPSC and starting shootin lots of 45 acp. Found changing and readjusting the set up going back and forth between 45 Colt and 45 acp was a pain. So I bought a Dillon Square Deal for 45 acp. That lead me to buying another Square Deal for 357. Then another for 44 spec.
Then I really got lazy and bought the 650 for 45 Colt. The 300 Dillon got shifted to 45 auto rim.
The 44 spec revolver got swapped off for another S&W mod. 25 45 Colt, because I couldn't hit a bull in the butt with it. The fellow who bought it uses it for the center fire portion of Bullseye. So right now I have a Square Deal without a job.
Seems I have a need here, a new revolver, to give the lonesome Square Deal a job!
Jim

I use lee presses.the turret press is fast to change cal. twist and lift.snap in snap out shell holder.i clean all fired brass so i decap sep.i use bonanza coax for decapping.speed can be deadly on any press.as i have 13 presses i can set up for ind.cal.lee presses are oriced right to get dedicated units.

My experence outside single stage presses is limited. How hard is it to swap the tool heads on the dillons or the hornady's? once you install a tool head that is already set up how much tweeking does it take to get it wright again or is there no tweeking at all?
For the DILLON, once you have the toolhead set up for a particular caliber it's SET!, pull two pins and slide the tool head out, if you only have one powder mesure it's two allen screws and then ajust the charge, if you dont have a tool head for each caliber your defeating the porpus of the system. and change the shell plate and your going!

My experence outside single stage presses is limited. How hard is it to swap the tool heads on the dillons or the hornady's? once you install a tool head that is already set up how much tweeking does it take to get it wright again or is there no tweeking at all?


Hornady uses a bayonet mount lock on the Lock-N-Load bushings that screw on the bottom of the dies. About a 1/8 to 1/4 turn, and the individual dies come out of the press. They stay adjusted, so you don't have to reset anything. You can take a die off of the AP progressive, and switch it over to the single stage, without readjusting it too. On the Dillon, all the dies are mounted together in the tool head, so you can't use them in a single stage, unless you remove them and readjust them. The Lock-N-Load bushings for the are fairly cheap too.

The big difference between the Dillon and the Hornady is the price. I think a lot of people look at the suggested retail prices of the Hornady and think it's almost as much as the Dillon, so "why not get the Dillon?" What you have to keep in mind is that anywhere you buy the Dillon, you'll probably be paying full retail. Most of the dealers offer some pretty good discounts on the Hornady. When you look at the cost of the Dillon tool heads, etc. for a number of different calibers, the price starts adding up really fast.

I don't have the automatic case feeder for my AP Lock-N-Load, but I can crank out a lot of ammo really fast without it. It just depends on how fast you can put a bullet on the top of a case, and pull the lever.

I have and use single stages, hard turrets, Dillions, and straight lines. My most used and handiest is an old Lee 3 hole turret, set up for 13 calibers. Much handier than either a single stage or hard top turret and faster to change calibers than any other. There is far more to production than just rounds loader per hour. Caliber change over can contribute more than you might think. My experience only, but a couple of years experience with a Lee turret would tell you whether you need to think of a Dillon.

I don’t think you can beat the Dillon 550B for loading progressive, bit you do need to make an investment up front. You will need a tool head for your different calibers. I load 38 special and 357 with one tool head, 44 mag another, 45 acp and 223. So that is some investment.
As Wrench Man said you need them and you can see in his picture, he has several.

I have a friend who has a Lee and while it cost less, I do not think it is as good as a Dillon. I heard about Hornedy lock-in-load, but I have no experience with it. What I do know is most volume loaders I know use a Dillon.

Some use a Dillon for rifle loads and one can use it well that way. I set up two RCBS Rockchucker presses, on to neck size (or full length size) and one to seat the bullet; this way I don’t have to change out the dies back and forth.

Until you are needing 4-500 rounds per month of any single caliber, I believe the Lee turret will serve best, especially with multiple calibers. After that it might be time to look at a Dillon, not any Lee progressive.

400 to 500 rounds sounds like a nice summer Sunday afternoon's supply.

my lee 1000 works for me.but I am willing to tinker to get it right.however I want to have clean primer pockets so I decap/clean and prime with hand tool.decap with Bonanza press.I have a green machine for 38 spec.thad was a great machine base on the C&H progresive.both ahead of their time
every one seems to want speed.

I learned on a Lyman turret press, I now load on the Dillon RL550B, YES it can be a PITA to set up but once it's set you're GOOD TO GO!.
I load from 40S&W to 458WinMag on my Dillon, and I LOVE IT!
If you're going to be loading LOTS of pistol ammo the progressive's are the way to go, the progressives are about four times as fast (AT LEAST) as the turrets.
The RL550B can also be opperated in a simmilar mannor as the turrets or single stage presses. I'd say 500 rounds per hour isn't out of the question for pistol amo with ball powder, I weigh all my "stick powder" charges for rifle.
This is truly a "do it all" press.


500 rounds per hour? thats like a round every .75 seconds 8+ rounds a minute, and keep it up for 60 minutes. WOW! I am impressed with that output. I have to assume theres a case feeder and bullet feeder involved here?

Hmm. 3600 seconds per hour divided by 500=7.2 seconds per round. Not unreasonable. I have done a bit better than 2 seconds per round on a Dillon 1050, but that does not include primer tube filling.

500 rounds per hour? thats like a round every .75 seconds 8+ rounds a minute, and keep it up for 60 minutes. WOW! I am impressed with that output. I have to assume theres a case feeder and bullet feeder involved here?
My math tells me that's one round every 7.2 seconds.
But yes its posible, you have to stay VERY foucued!!!
I loaded 470 rounds of 40S&W in about 45min!
No case feeder, I place a gallon ziploc bag at the right side of the press and the box of boolits at the left side (I am going to get the optional bullet tray!) and you get one finished round with every pull of the handle.
Put the first shell in the feed hole and push it into the shell plate, pull the handle decaps and sizes it while the primer feed loads (every one I know says the "automatic primmer feads" are a pain! they are using the RCBS system, the Dillon system holds 100 primmers and only the slide moves, it automaticly loads a new primmer with every stoke of the handle), push the handle and reprime, rotate the shell plate one station, repeat the first process and at the same time the shell operates the powder meashure, rotate the shellplate repeat the loading and at this point gab a boolit and hold it in the mouth of the shell and pull the handle it seats the boolit, repeat, and the fourth station crimps if required, and you're off and running!
It does take some time to set up, I wont lie to you there! but once you get it set up, WHAPPAA!!!! you're done already!!???

But when I load riffle shells I pretymuch run it as a single stage press, decap and size, remove it from the machine, there are "buttons" that hold the shells into the respective stations, the can be removed to remove the case, trimm it to size debur, and clean the primmer pocket, reprime, charge the case, removit once again, weight the charge and ajust acordingly, and go back to the press and seat the boolit, the neat thing about this is that it's ALL set up, no changing of the dies or going over hear to the meashure, in my opinion it's just a little faster than the turret press and WAY faster than the single stage, once you have it set up it STAYS set up, two pins for the tool head and change the shell plate if the next calliber uses a different bolt face, and ajust the powder meashure.
The initial investment isn't cheap and accessorys are some what pricey but it realy is a GOOD system!