Input on Reloading Investment

[awp101]

OK, how about the Redding turret press? I haven't seen anyone discuss them yet...

FWIW, I have one of the Co-Ax presses. Haven't done anything with it yet but built like a tank is a pretty accurate description.

[Old Time Hunter]

AJMD and I must be the two laziest of the bunch here, why go through the hassle of continually setting up the dies when all you have to do is throw another insert in. Heck, I have twenty plus four hole inserts set up for my Lee Classic Turret, some dies are even the cheap dies made by someone other than Lee, they all work the same to me. Except, I also have wierd off-common dimension stuff too, Lee is the only one that accomodates me on a pauper's income. I paid more for a custom RCBS die than my whole Lee turret press and it didn't last very long. That and being "custom" I was stuck with it, brought it to Lee and they duplicated it for less than 1/4 the cost, plus it is still putting out shooting ammo after 20+ years. Can't force myself to buy products not made here in the USA, check out where parts of the Dillon and RCBS are made....might surprise you.

[Charles]

"OK, how about the Redding turret press? I haven't seen anyone discuss them yet..."

I have always liked the notion of a turret press since owning a Lyman Tru-Line Jr. many years ago. About 2000 I bought a Redding turrent after researching the market at that time. It is on my bench a few feet from where I key this in.

I have checked the press every way I know how and measured and checked the ammo every way I know how and it produces ammo fully equal to a good single stage press. I can find no problems whatsoever.

There may be other turret presses just as good, I dont know. But, I can give the Redding a 100% clean bill of health. If I needed another turret press I would buy Redding again.

[AJMD429]

AJMD and I must be the two laziest of the bunch here...

Hey, I resemble that remark...

One other good thing about any 'insert' type press (and you'll find few 'turret' presses with die-holding turrets or inserts as easy to change (5 seconds, no tools) as the Lee ones), is that if the 'die holders' are inexpensive, you may just wind up having a bunch of them all ready to go - including more than one in a given cartridge. I already am gearing up to set up a separate set of dies/insert for two different loadings for the .44 Magnum (240 gr JSP high-velocity, and 300 Cast low-velocity) and it will be a snap to just use two inserts and die sets (Lee dies are cheap and work for me, but any dies, and any press allowing 'inserts' to hold dies - turret or progressive - will do the same), and the Lee Pro-Disk or whatever it's called has such quickly repeatable settings (maybe allow one minute to twist the powder hopper, even if it is full of powder, drop out the powder remnants with two strokes of the handle into an empty case, and dump back in the hopper, change to different disks, and you're set to go without any screw-adjustments or repeated checking on a powder scale) that you only need ONE powder measure, unlike some systems that require bunches of powder-measure resetting, purchase of separate 'micrometer' powder-bars, OR buying duplicate powder measures so you have one for each die-insert and load.

Sometimes 'lazy' is not a bad thing....

[awp101]

There may be other turret presses just as good, I dont know. But, I can give the Redding a 100% clean bill of health. If I needed another turret press I would buy Redding again.

Thanks Mr Charles, I may have to give them a look-see when I get ready to move up a bit.

[Don McDowell]

Don McDowell and Charles -- I was a little too direct in my posts to you guys and I'd like to apologize. As said by many here, almost all reloading equipment on the market today is good quality stuff. I happened to get my start with LEE and that probably accounts for my bias for LEE dies. Funny thing is, my bench mounted press is a RCBS Challenger, one of my scales is a Lyman and I have several Hornady components too. Just goes to show how confusing the reloading game can be to a new reloader.

No problem here Ed. I have alot of Lee products that I really like and if there's a more accurate and consistant powder thrower than the Lee perfect I haven't owned it , altho I do have RCBS,and Lyman and another that escapes my brain at the moment....

[awp101]

At the risk of high jacking this thread anymore (too late! ), I have to go back to the Redding and Lyman turret presses. What makes the Redding worth another $100 over the Lyman for the basic press (priced at Midway yesterday)? I see extra turrets for the Redding are about $14 more than for the Lyman as well.

[Don McDowell]

I think green paint costs more than orange?

[AJMD429]

Turret costs do seem to vary alot! Lees are $12 or so, Lymans $40, and Reddings almost $60, but I do like all the 'holes' in the Redding. There are times it would actually save you buying an extra turret if you could say mount two different crimp dies or sizer dies (or both) on the same turret; you'd just have to remember which one you were using that session. With my Lee ones I'm stuck with four...

I do like the Lee ones I use because of the 'snap-in' changing, and it seems like having support all the way around the turret rather than in the center helps enable a much lighter press design, because you're not applying force at the edge of a turret only supported in the center. Looking at the Lyman and Redding ones though, they seem plenty strong enough to endure that!

I doubt anyone using any of these brands of presses properly has ever 'sprung' one, but if I had to just see on a bet if I could crush a shellholder or deform a die, I'd probably prefer to try it on my RCBS Rockchucker than either my 'better, and more expensive' Dillon, or my 'more user-friendly and plenty strong' Lee. I wouldn't want to do that to any brand of turret or progressive press, for that matter.

When you get right down to it, this is like the ".45 Colt vs. .44 Mag" topic - they all work pretty durn well. I'm sure that for most of us, if we reload 'bad' ammo, it's our fault and not our equipment, just like if we don't kill the deer, it's doubtful that the cartridge was as much a factor as our shooting skills.

[awp101]

I think green paint costs more than orange?

There's a greater than zero chance...

AJ, I understand they all do the same thing the same way and probably to the same effectiveness but it had me wondering if there was a warranty difference or what.