Any reviews on turret presses?

[jtcarm]

I’m thinking of going to a turret press for my rifle and small-batch pistol reloading.

My LNL AP is great, but I’m up against our 5-hole limit when I use a compression die and separate seating die.

Any reviews, thoughts?

[Spartan1980]

I wouldn't trade my Redding T7 for any other. It's pricey but so worth it in my opinion. With the way the turret is supported in the back I'm pretty sure you could press ball joints and not hurt it if you could rig it up to do that.

In an email inquiry with Redding about compound leverage and durability they told me that they gave one of the first T7s to Sierra Bullets for T&E purposes. Sierra called several years later wanting to buy some replacement parts. Redding sent them a whole new press in return for the old one so they could evaluate how it held up in loading over 2 million rounds...

[GyroF-16]

I’m very content with my Lee Classic Turret.
4 die stations:
- reform/ deprime
- flare / powder charge
- bullet seat
- “factory crimp”

I can load about 200 rds of 9mm or .40 in an hour once I get into a rhythm.
The only other load I’ve done is 300 BLK- it’s a little slower, mostly because of the need to lube cases.

I can’t imagine an easier system to change caliber - with a dedicated disk and powder dispenser for each set of dies, it takes a minute or so.

It’s the only press I’ve ever used, so I don’t have anything to compare it to. But I’m also not looking for anything else.

[fatdog]

I have an old 6 position Lyman that is 25+ years old and shows no signs of any problems, I load all my .45LC and .45-70 black powder stuff on it these days. Sized and loaded thousands of rounds of .30-06 and .308 on it over the years and it is still tight.

[ACP230]

I have loaded a lot of ammo on a Lee Turret Press.

Made .45 ACP for bowling pin and plate shoots. Also .38
Specials for practice and small game hunting.
Deer ammo for my .250 Savage and .30-06. Plus
.308 target rounds for match shooting.
No real problems with any of them.

[fly out]

Another vote for the Redding T-7. Mine gets light-duty use, and is about 8 years old. Looks and works like new. I bought it because a friend had one that I liked quite a lot, which saw medium-duty use, and it looked and worked like new, many years later. Still does to this day. I assume that the new manufactures are still tanks.

The swappable turret heads haven't always been easily available, but I've managed to accumulate three, so that's good enough for me. The last turret head that I purchased, during the pandemic, had no apparent drop off in quality, which is the basis for my saying that I bet they're still as solid as ever.

[oregon45]

I've had a Redding T7 since they first came out; it's rock solid, as solid as my RCBS Rock chucker single-stage press, even when re-sizing very large cases such as 450/400 3" Nitro Express.

[Unisaw]

Another vote for the Redding T-7. It’s absolutely rock solid. An ergonomic handle from Inline Fabrication makes it even better.

[Exiledviking]

Do you guys swap turret heads when swapping calibers or just the dies? I'm running an old 4 hole Lee Classic turret press and I have turret heads for each caliber I load.

[Spartan1980]

To add a little color to my post above, I was getting into USPSA Limited division pretty heavy at that time. I load on a Dillon 650, but I was using a RCBS Reloader Special and a carbide Redding GRX push through die to debulge my .40 brass prior to loading. That can be a real bear if they are bulged a lot, even with lube, and the compound on the little RCBS just wasn't going to cut it for the volume I was planning. I emailed Redding CS to ask about high volume durability and more specifically about the compound leverage of the T7 vs. one of their other presses with monster long compound links. That's when he shot back the Sierra tidbit on the T7 that I posted above. I thought it an interesting data point. ETA: And yes the T7 compound is pretty robust and works fine.

I was and am quite happy because that T7 turret allows a couple of die sets to remain setup for other things and still have an open station or two for decapping, GRX, etc. And as mentioned you can buy more turrets pretty reasonable and they are easy to swap.