A Red guy went Blue

Status
Not open for further replies.
tur·ret
ˈtərət/
noun
1. a small tower on top of a larger tower or at the corner of a building or wall, typically of a castle.


By definition, a turret is just a tower, so if the OP wants to call the 550 a "turret" so be it.

Honestly, I would have to say that a "progressive" is just a style of turret. I think there are certain conventions as far as terminology, but does it really matter that much in the long run if he calls it a turret or a progressive? We all know what he is talking about.

We don't have to call each other out over every single detail just to show our superior knowledge over others.

The point of the thread becomes lost in the minutia when we do this and derail the thread.
 
Something to realize here is that everyone's mind/body works differently. For example, a gun that the owner consistently experiences malfunctions no matter how much coaching/practice, yet others had no problems with it. This guy has no problems with any other gun and is an excellent shot. This may be nothing more than one press fits well with the way the OP's mind/body works and the other does not. Nothing wrong with either press, just a non-optimal combination of a particular person and a particular machine.
 
By definition, a turret is just a tower, so if the OP wants to call the 550 a "turret" so be it.
Click to expand...

and if he wants to call it a wagon, I guess he can call it that too. By that definition, the 1050 is a turret too.

A turret press performs it's action on only one cartridge at a time. The 550 can perform 4 different actions on up to 4 cartridges at a time. 1 pull 1 cartridge done once all the stations are filled. A turret press cannot do that because it has only one shell holder. Most progressive presses can load "turret style" by putting one case in the shell holder and moving it one station at a time without putting any more cases into the press until the first one is out.

The point of the thread becomes lost in the minutia when we do this and derail the thread.
Click to expand...

point taken
 
Yes, a turret press, not a progressive like the L&L or the Dillon 650 in that one must manually index the plate for each step, not just pull the handle.
Click to expand...

Not to be picky but if you are preforming operations with every die in the same stroke, you are loading on a progressive. If your dies are in something you can rotate over a single shell plate, thus requiring a stroke for each die one at a time, you are loading on a turret.

The 550 is a manually indexed progressive press. When folks say it’s not a “real” progressive, I have to wonder if they think a car with a manual transmission isn’t a real car.
 
To start off with I have bought and sold over 20 Hornady presses in different configurations, from a stand-alone press all the way up to a complete Ammo-Plant. Every press I bought was a "LEMON" or as I call them"paperweights". And when I sold them they were perfectly timed and running presses.
Click to expand...

That’s kind of surprising, I have only owned and used two LNL’s a pre and post EZ ject and I wouldn’t have called either a “lemon” they had their issues but were not that difficult to over come. I’d say the biggest thumbs down I had was the half index made it a pain to load 308. Set the bullet on top and lower the handle and the ram raised the bullet above the bottom of the die before it finished the index, knocking it off. I finished the season sticking the bullet up into the die, raising the ram enough to finish the index then set the bullet in the case, got my hand out of the way and finished the stroke.

That said if you spend enough time with one and are decent at trouble shooting you can figure them all out even the often cussed Loadmaster.
 
This is too funny! They all are technically just multi station machines. Nothing special about any of them. Multi station Turret Drill presses and Turret Lathes have been around for over 100 years and are still in use. Some have turrets with stationary tools some have turrets that rotate, while others have mounting points that only allows one piece at a time to be worked and others have multiple mounts. Again some of those rotate the parts while others rotate the tools. They are still all turrets. Go try and apply for a job and them then you are a Progressive Turret Lathe operator or set up person.
 
IMHO....

The LnL is the best design on the market. Liked the big open work area, easy to get your hands in there and do whatever work you needed to. The cases in work are easy to remove from the shellplate with the spring capture design. The collet design for holding in the dies gives a lot of flexibility. The linkage and cam over made the task of operating the handle easy and consistent. The cases sitting on the frame and being slid around by the shellplate is an awesome design for consistent COL. These are just some of the design features I thought were superior when researching this press.

When I decided to buy mine I went whole hog. Bought at one time everything to load three calibers plus all the additional niceties. Unfortunately, I got the lemon? Don’t know really, as it was the only LnL I have owned. Superior design with poor implementation. Too often in these press wars I see people say, “you didn’t tweak it right.” That is surely the case at times but, sometimes your favorite color was just manufactured wrong. It happens. I had to replace, shim, or grind on everything but the frame. After getting it to work (I don’t sell problems) I sold it.

Went back to my Loadmaster for awhile then a bought an XL650. Sweet!
 
"Press Wars" can certainly bring out the ugly in some folks. :(

My Brother has the patience of Job, but he isn't very mechanically inclined.

I'm 'the Mechanic' out of all us kids, but I'm prone to 'too fast' a pace (in so many different ways) as well as a short fuse.

Should I chide my Brother for his pace and not being much of a mechanic, or admire him for his patience?

Presses:

We all have our preferences. I've looked at the individual offerings of (8) different press manufactures available today. (3 Red's, Blue, Yellow, Black, and 2 Green's).

Still happy with what I have, and if I wasn't,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I'd try something else.

It really is 'Just that simple',,,,
 
This is too funny! They all are technically just multi station machines. Nothing special about any of them. Multi station Turret Drill presses...
Click to expand...

...still do only one “station” at a time, just like a turret press.



If you could center drill, drill, tap and chamfer all with one pull of the handle, I guess we could call them a progressive drill press. ;)

There certainly would be a speed advantage to one vs the other, that’s the main difference.

No turret press could match the speed of a 550.
 
Its pretty simple, turret = preforming the operations in sequence, progressive = preforming the operations simultaneously.

If you resize and deprime 100 cases on a turret, that’s 100 strokes. Somewhere you’ll need to seat 100 primers. Bell 100 cases, that’s another 100 strokes. Somewhere you’ll need to throw 100 powder charges. Seat 100 bullets, yep another 100 strokes. Crimp 100, add another 100 strokes.

Once you have the shell plate full on a progressive in 100 strokes you have resized/deprimed 100 cases, seated 100 primers, belled and charged 100 cases, seated 100 bullets and crimped 100 times.

Add up the numbers and they equal less time and work. This is of course dependent on how well the particular machine works and yes some have better reputations than others. That doesn’t mean there are folks out there that can’t get the “worst” ones to run well, just as it doesn’t mean someone that doesn’t have the necessary skills could successfully operate the “best” ones.
 
Last edited:
I do have one of each. Single stage press, turret press and an auto advance multi-station press, or progressive as most refer to it.. I like all three and use all three quite differently. and I have all three just for that reason.

Recently I started having problems with primers feeding on my "progressive" because I changed brands of primers as the ones I were using are NLA. Asked for suggestions and some info about another brand of primer and right away I got the "well I never prime on the press" with the implication being that I shouldn't either. What is it that people don't understand? If I didn't want to prime on the press I wouldn't have purchased a "progressive" press. I would do the one stroke one process at a time thing.
 
I agree, some people rather “deal” with problems than take the effort to solve them. Kind of like a child will wear shoes on the wrong feet vs swapping them so the are more comfortable.
 
I think the turret vs. progressive discussion is hilarious. There is not a formal definition, only a convention that we use based on how manufacturers have labeled their products over the years, whether it be ammo presses or drill presses.

At the end of the day, these conventions help us all to communicate more clearly to each other, but there is not a true right or wrong answer, only conformity to convention.

We all know what the OP was talking about, and that is what is important.
 
There is not a formal definition
Click to expand...

There is an accepted definition used by even people that don’t have a brand name on one.

Progressive presses are much different as they perform multiple tasks with each handle pull.
Click to expand...

https://www.sinclairintl.com/guntec...-is-right-for-you-trade-/detail.htm?lid=16062

Not to mention the company’s that market and sell “single stage”, “turret” and “progressive” presses and one can see the differences between them.

There is also currently no one that sells a single shell holder turret press that calls them a “progressive” or a company that sells a “progressive” press that calls them a turret.

There are actually more companies that call a magazine a “clip” than those that call a turret press a progressive or a progressive press a turret for that matter.

I suppose it really doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things other than having others knowing what you are talking about. My wife always thought it was cute for children to use words like “Ba Ba” instead of “milk”, so I understand.
 
Last edited:
I have a single stage, turret, and now a Dillon 550 and have kind of been watching this thread. Hearing that a Dillon 550 is a turret press certainly didn't set well with me. Having been a reloader over for 50 years now and seeing all the remarkable types of reloading equipment that is now available with people fussing over what's available these days is like watching someone winning a gold mine and then complaining about having to dig up the gold.
 
Back to the OP's new "Dillon turret press", even Dillon describes the RL550C as “the easiest progressive loader in the world to learn to reload with." You can call it a potato if you want, but it is a manually advanced progressive press.
 
I went from red to blue a few years back. Started with the Hornady L-N-L and now have a Dillon 650 and 1050 both with case and bullet feeders. I think both manufacturers have great projects. I found the Dillons in my experience have had less issues but every so often lady luck gets pissed at me and I run into issues. When my 650 decides to mess with me I get side ways primers. When my 1050 is having a bad day I crush primers and jam up the works. Nothing is ever going to be 100% so whatever makes you happy at the end of the day is the best machine for you.
 
Whatever you wish to call it, the 550 is a great little press. I actually like the manual indexing, as it gives me more control when things don't feel right. It is a pretty simple machine and was a great choice for the small runs that I have made with it over the last twenty years. It should serve the OP well. I am glad that others are pleased with their Hornady and Lee gear, since it means that competition drives the market place and when that happens the consumer benefits.
 
dh1633pm said:
If you have ever heard a Hornady versus Dillon discussion then you know its just as heated as a political discussion can be.
Click to expand...
True, but at least here, unlike politics, you'll have the wisdom of some moderator knowing when enough is enough.
Politics can go into a free for all at the drop of a hat.
 
I'm going to go down and order a red hat that the top line is going to have "MRGA" and the second line will say "go Hornady". I vote red and I reload red.

MAKE RELOADING GREAT AGAIN
 
Oh Man, I've got an all green, much older RCBS Piggy Back mounted on a RCBS 3 press, that I got back in 1992 which is progressive self indexing press that is quite capable of producing 300 rounds per hour, used the instruction manual and never had any problems with it. When parts wore out I simply got on the phone with RCBS and they sent me the defective part. Before that I had the Rock Chucker made in 1970 to which I still have, and recently got a primer catcher from RCBS with just a simple phone call. I did have an old Texan reloading press that if my memory serves me right was red, but I had to let that go when I could no longer get parts for it. BTW I do have a bunch of red on my reloading bench, but those are all Mec 12ga, 20ga, and .410. BTW the only thing I changed on my Piggy Back was the powder drop. When I was younger I was quite capable of producing 250 rounds per hour without any problem, once I got into the rhythm. Now days I'm doing good if I can produce 200 per hour, but they are excellent rounds each and every time..
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

T
  • Locked
Thinking about Hornady L N L
Replies
9
Views
762
redneck2
redneck2
T
  • Locked
Hornady Lock-N-Load Classic Press
Replies
8
Views
1K
Crashbox
C
R
  • Locked
Questions About Die Sets
Replies
9
Views
455
RichardInFlorida
R
I
  • Locked
Low Down on Progressive Presses
Replies
24
Views
1K
Rugg_Ed
R
I
  • Locked
Converted RCBS RC Supreme to Lock-n-load bushings: NICE!
Replies
5
Views
2K
Idano
I
Back
Top