Need Advice Selecting My First Reloading Press

[noylj]

Best press? Best wife? Best???

The question is, what do you want to spend? You can buy a lot of ammo for the cost of a premium press.
For pistol rounds, nothing beats a progressive. For multiple calibers, nothing beats the Hornady L-N-L AP. I consider it superior, for me and my preferences, to every press I have seen except the Super 1050. For me, it is several steps up from the 550 and 650, and they are a step above the RCBS, which is several steps up from the Lee.
If you are willing to disassembly, file of burrs and mold flashing, and not get frustrated, you may be happy with the Lee LoadMaster.
The Hornady is, as far as I can see, about the fastest and the least expensive to make caliber changes with.
For pistol rounds, I gave up on single-stage or turrets back when Hornady first came out with the Pro-7 (I think it was called) AP with 5 stations (late '70s or early '80s?). I never regretted that decision and working with a friend's 650s only made me more sure of my decision.
I gave my son my L-N-L when I got a Super 1050. Do not even think about starting with a 1050.
You want either a Lee Challenger (with die bushings), a Lee turret (with auto-indexing), a Forster Co-Ax, or a Hornady L-N-L.
Go to manufacturer's sites and read the manuals and watch any videos. Go to YouTube and watch videos. Find someone who reloads and try their press. Note what you like and what you don't like and then look for a press that addresses YOUR likes and dislikes. Never assume that someone else's "perfect" press will be even moderately acceptable to you.

 

[flashhole]

The spend issue is very real. I keep a running inventory of all my reloading equipment with the price I actually paid and the retail price. It gets updated frequently. I do not have a progressive press of any type so no big dollar items. Nor do I have power trimmers or multiple powder dispensers. Mostly lots of hand tools but if I had to replace everything I have today I would be out well over $4000. My actual out-of-pocket cost is less than half that but most of the stuff I have was bought on eBay when you could get a good deal.

 

[Nushif]

I'd say go with a turret ...

From my rather limited experience it's kinda the same as a single stage, minus having to swap out dies in-between calibers, once you remove the funky rod that makes it turn.

I can honestly say we're using the turret press exactly like a more convenient single stage ... but always have the option to get the fancy parts that make it more like a progressive one.

 

[highlander 5]

Myself,I'd go with RCBS or Redding single stage because of the LIFETIME warranty on both these presses. Even though I have 2 650s I still have a single stage for tasks that the progressives aren't designed to do. Case in point,I plan to get an upper in 300 whisper/fireball for my AR. The brass in made by expanding the neck of the 221 fireball case. 221 fireball brass in hard to come by so I plan to make the brass from 223 rem. I wouldn't try that on my 650 I certain that I'd break something.

 

[stubbicatt]

If you anticipate more than maybe 100 rounds each time you go shooting, a progressive is the better choice for you. IME, Dillon make the best progressive presses, and I've owned Hornady and Lee progressives.

For my present uses, I like the Redding Boss press for my bolt actioned rifle loading, but if I'm loading for a shell shucker where absolute accuracy is not necessary, I use a Lee Classic Cast Turret press. Far from perfect, but since I sold my Dillon equipment, this is what I have!

 

[Legionnaire]

I'm kind of surprised by the recommendations for single-stage presses over turrets. I like single-stages just fine (and picked up a second hand Lee Classic Cast to add to my bench recently). But I really like the Lee Classic 4-Hole Turret. I have my various cartridge dies mounted and stored in the removable turret heads, so swapping cartridges is as easy as swapping heads. Works for me.

 

[flashhole]

stubbi - I use my classic turret when loading for my bolt guns and get very accurate ammo. I don't see a difference in accuracy with press type. Accuracy comes from payong attention to detail and knowing how to use the equipment you have.

 

[angus6]

3) Best value for the $-I'm very willing to settle for a turret press and sacrifice some speed of reloading for lower cost.

Well that just screams out LCT.Now is that the best for you thats a good question that only you truly know the answear to, theres been some great input to help you make the best choice for you.
My self I've got a Lee S/S - LCT and a SDB

ETA: flashhole love your reloading center

 

[Joemyxplyx]

Gerym526 wrote

Calibers I'll be reloading are 45ACP, 9MM, 38/357, 223.

Here's my opinion: get the Lee Classic Turret. I started with one. It's not hard to learn reloading on it. There are plenty of videos to help plus people on this forum to ask for help.

The choice of press is dependent on what kind of ammo you want to reload. Rifle ammo is well suited to a single stage press because of the extensive case prep involved. A turret is not necessary unless you want to load a bunch of .223 or something like that.

I really wouldn't want to load pistol ammo on a single stage press. It's just too slow. If you want to reload less than 100 rounds/week, you could get by with a single stage. Loading between 100-500 rounds/week would go very nicely with the Lee Classic Turret. More than 500/week of the same caliber is more enjoyable on a progressive like the Hornady or Dillon.

Another plus for the LCT is caliber changes. The Lee is faster than anything I know of. Pop one turret out and another in in a few seconds. Change primer sizes in a minute or so (try that on a Dillon or Hornady). The Lee Pro AutoDisk is cheap enough at $38 or so to have one set up on a turret for each pistol caliber you load frequently.

My son and I shoot Cowboy Action. He reloads for .44 mag pistols and a .45 Colt carbine. He loads for himself and his wife so he need 120 .44mags and 120 .45 Colts for each match. That's 240 rounds/week with a caliber change. He was doing it on a RCBS Rockchucker. It was so painful for me to watch and think about that I got him a Lee Classic Turret for his birthday. The Rockchucker is now a paper weight waiting for a need to arise for it to be called back into action.

Figure about 2 hours to load 240 rounds of mixed .44 and .45 on a Lee Classic Turret. That was taking my son about 5 hours on a single stage.

Life's too short to load a lot of pistol ammo on a single stage press.

Just my $0.02.

 

[PR MAN]

Gerryn526, I strongly recommend Lee presses. I've been in the reloading game just a scant 6 months and without question Lee is the way to go. I have 2 of their presses, one for handgun and another for rifle. Lee's customer service and technical support has no equal! Good luck.

 

[chineseboxer]

Lee Classic turret would be and was my first choice. You can run it single stage as well.

 

[budman46]

gerrym,

like hydralicman i'm a fan of lee's classic cast turret.

some ramblings:

i have two dillon square deals and a 550; they're great, but very pricey these days and they aren't ideal for small runs...caliber changes are $$$.

i chose the classic cast turret over lee's other turret designs because of its construction material...i'm old school, prefering cast iron to aluminum, if possible. after using it, i idled my dillon, lyman and rcbs presses.

i purchased lee's priming attachment, but prefer their hand primer; the attachment works but isn't as fast for me.

most of my loading is rifle, so i don't auto-index.

a completely set-up turret fits in a 13 oz. coffee can; i have 26...lee would've made money on me if the press were for free.

budman

ignorance is its own reward

 

[Kevin Rohrer]

The Journey Begins With A Single Step, errr, Single-Stage Press

You are loading high volume rounds that say "progressive".

But you are a beginning, and for safety reasons, that says, "single-stage".

Think safety and start out with a single-stage press. As you will be moving on from it fairly quickly, don't spend a lot of money on it.

I recommend you goto Ebay and get a used one for <$50. The old Herters Super 3 can be had there for $30-40 and will do an admirable job. If it doesn't come with a universal shell holder, CH/4D will sell you one for $11.

Once you have been loading with it for a year, then move to a progressive. The Dillon 550B and Hornady LNL are both excellent.