What is the Diff between Progressive & Turret Presses?

[GrampaMike]

What is the difference between Progressive & Turret presses?  I see presses called single-stage and progressive and turret.  Is there ever any problem with a turret or progressive stations lining up?  New at this and curious.

Mike

[snuffy]

Here's a dillon progressive, the dillon 650 set up for .223.



Here's a lee turret. set up for 40 s&w



With the progressive you have the tool head,(where the dies are screwed into), that stays stationary. The ram has multiple shell holders or shell plate that rotates under the tool head. On the  650, the shell plate is automatically advanced to line up under the dies. All five operations are done at the same time to all five shells in the shell plate. This results in a loaded shell being produced with every pull of the handle.

In a turret like the lee in the pic, the turret with the dies mounted in it, turns to align dies with a single ram with one shell holder in it. This lee is the 4 hole model and has automatic advance, or can be manually advanced. This requires 3 or 4 handle strokes to produce a loaded round. You also have to handle each primer, case and bullet to load.

The dillon has an automatic case feeder, auto primer feed and powder measure as well as a powder sensor and low primer alert buzzer. All that is required is place a bullet on the mouth of the case and pull the handle.[/img]

[GrampaMike]

Thanks snuffy...

Let me see if I have this right.  A Progressive is a "Production" press.  A Turret is a single-stage that is more convenient (all the stages has their own spot on the turret head), each pull of the handle does one thing until the turret head is turn to the next station.

Mike

[snuffy]

You got it Mike. The dillon can produce as many as 1,000 shells an hour. The turrett is capable of 150 - 200 an hour. There are other types of turret loaders on the market. Redding, lyman and others make a turret. With the lee, you can pruchase additional turrets that quickly change out. That means you can leave the dies set up to eliminate having to screw them in and out and re-adjust them each time.

[GrampaMike]

I see.  Each turret would be set up for a set of dies for whatever cartridge your shooting.  Are the additional turrets very expensive?

Thanks again for the education.

Mike

[snuffy]

For the lee turret, they are about $9.00 apiece. The tool heads for the dillon are almost $20.00 When I had the lee turret, I had 7 turrets with all the calibers I loaded for mounted in them. Caliber change was only a couple minutes to change the turret, shell holder and powder measure. I sold it when I got the dillon. The guy that's got it now thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread and canned beer! It's a giant step up from a single stage loader.

[longwinters]

For reloading for rifles you could actually have 3 calibers worth of dies set up on one turret (if it is a RCBS).  I have 2 turrets and have 5 different calibers set up plus a Hornady bullet puller.  The turret presses are really the way to go for a single stage guy like me . . . imo.

long

[williamlayton]

This is a different take, now doan tell OL Graybeard bout this conversation cause it will cause him to get tha bighead, but if ya want ya can do a strictly single stage with tha Hornady setup using tha lock an load bushings. This is my plans. Do a string of each stage, the simple change of tha stage an then do tha next string in tha stage.
Seems less complicated, too me, an  will keep me from gettin more confused than I already am.
Blessings

[GrampaMike]

Thanks Guys... this is the greatest site for learning and getting information to make decisions.

Are there any bad turret presses to stay away from? And are there ones that are outstanding.  I think I am a single stage kind of guy too, because I am just a paper-puncher these days.

Mike

[Catfish]

If your looking for a turret press you should consider the Dillon AT 500. It`s a stripped down RL 550B and you can add to it as you go to make it a 550. I`ve loaded on a 550 Dillon since not long after they came on the market. I load 6 or 7 handgun cartridges and about 20 different rifle cartridges. It don`t load quite as fast as they 650 Dillon, but I can change from 1 round to another in alot shorter time which is better if your only going to load afew hundred rounds and switch cals. again.

[longwinters]

If you are looking more mid-range I would look at the RCBS and Redding.  Cannot say, even though a lot of guys like them, that I would go with a Lee, and am not that high on the Lyman either.  If you could actually see the set ups for these presses up close and personal it would really help you.  Generally speaking, like in most things, the less you spend the less quality you get.  And the great thing about turret presses is that you actually use them like a plain single stage but insteat of having to change out the dies for every different thing you do, you just turn the turret.  

long

[Val]

I have an RCBS Turret press and I like it very much. It is large enough that it will handle my 300 RUM cases.  It's a very solid press.

[Questor]

The difference is productivity. You load shells quickly with a progressive press, and slowly with a turret press.  

Almost nobody uses turret presses any more because they have little advantage over a single-stage press, and because a progressive press is a quantum leap in productivity for those who shoot a lot.

[Val]

The Turret Press advantage over a single stage is that, if you suddenly find a case with a split or you screw something up, you don't have to take the die your using out and have to re-insert and readjust it. You have extra holes where you can add additional dies and bring up another case to where you are in the loading process with the others.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Val,

Huh?

You must load in exact counts of 50.  Then if a case gets boogered up you replace it.

I always just load one case entirely before taking the case off the press.  That way it functions a little more like a progressive.

I can get about 100/hour done.

Snuffy,

How do you get 200/hour on the turret press?  Are you using Lee's 3-hole turret?  Or do you start with sized and primed cases?  I thought I was doing good at 100/hour and that didn't leave me much time for spot checking charges on a balance.