Reloading Virgin Pls Help ;(

[evollep3]

Okay i been reading alot on reloading I bought my beowulf and i understand that by buying it i will need to learn the skills of reloading so now im looking at the tools that i will be needing so I been looking at the
Lee Deluxe 4 Hole Turret Press Kit
the question is now I read on some sites that this kit is capable for rifle calibers such as the .223, 6.8, .308, 6.5 grendal and the .50 Beowulf (these are the calibers that i plan on reloading) and than on another site it said that its a pistol kit only so I am now way confused and need someone to please shed some light and let me know the right direction?

[dreyna14]

I have the Lee Classic 4-hole turret and love it. Highly recommended for beginners since it can be used as a single-stage for testing/learning or to pump out decent quantities of ammo. ~200 rounds of pistol per hour isn't a problem. Rifle is much slower due to case prep time, but still worth the savings. Changing calibers take a few minutes if you have additional turrets. The dies keep their set VERY well and require minimal adjustments when changing calibers. I'm currently set up for 9mm, .45 ACP, .357 Mag, and .223, all on the Lee Turret. I, too, plan on getting a Beowulf upper, I'll definitely be picking up the dies and another turret for that.

Anyone who says that the Lee 4-hole is just for pistol is an idiot. I punched through ~125 rounds of .223 earlier tonight, piece of cake. I do have a separate small RCBS single-stage press for decapping and sizing .223 cases, but this just makes things a bit cleaner and easier for me personally. I recommend the Classic turret because it is a bit better in quality IMO than the other model. Any questions about the setup or use, feel free to PM me.

[Sheldon]

Got this off the Lee site. http://leeprecision.com/cgi/faq/index.cgi

"Rifle loading on Turret Press

The Turret Press is a great press for loading rifle cartridges. If you choose to load cases that are over 2 5/16" in length, the Auto Indexing feature of the Press must be disabled. This can be done in mere seconds by simply taking the actuator rod out of it's clamp from the top of the press. It can be re-assembled in the same time.

If your desire is to load very large cases on the Turret Press, the clamp that rotates the actuator rod which is located on the back of the ram must also be removed. This too is a simple process but takes a minute or two. It can be reassembled in the same amount of time.

The Auto Index feature was primarily designed to speed the handgun loading process and allows the press in experienced hands to load 200 handgun rounds per hour. If your desire is to load larger rifle cartridges, we recommend the purchase of the four hole press over the three hole. This is because the four hole auto indexing feature can be quickly removed and re-installed with no ill effect to the timing. With three hole auto indexing, the clamp that holds the rod must be "tweaked" to achieve proper timing."

[Sunwolf]

Been there ,done that.I would go single stage or go whole hog and go Dillon XL650.

[Fjold]

I've been loading on a three hole Lee turret for over 27 years and have loaded 10's of thousands of 308, 300WSM, 25.06 and 338 Win Mag on it without a problem.

[Rule .308]

I would get a Rock Chucker for single stage requirements and a Dillon for mass production. I have been using a 550 for years but am looking for a 650 to upgrade to.

[wellfedirishman]

Lee Turret

I have a Lee Turret for rifle reloading and it is great. You can make about 150 round of quality ammo an hour with it. Total setup cost was just about $120 for mine.

The nice thing about the Lee Turret is that it makes learning easy, since you don't have to fiddle around with multiple stages of a progressive press.

Good luck, and use a loading manual always.

[NotSoFast]

Make sure that if you get the a Lee turret press that you get the Lee Classic Turret, not the other turret. I made that mistake and I can't index with large cases like the .30-06. The Classic turret doesn't have that problem.

[rayra]

I have a Lee Turret for rifle reloading and it is great. You can make about 150 round of quality ammo an hour with it. Total setup cost was just about $120 for mine.

The nice thing about the Lee Turret is that it makes learning easy, since you don't have to fiddle around with multiple stages of a progressive press.

Good luck, and use a loading manual always.

This is nonsense. Setting up each die station for a progressive vs a turret is not significantly different. But the difference is that after the 4th pull of the handle on a progressive press, every pull produces a completed round. Your repetitive motions are identical each time, speeding operation. With a turret you have to change up what you are doing to the mounted round each pull.

[rue]

I wouldn't tell a beginner to get a progressive setup like a Dillion. Some people lose interest after they figure out that it's more work than they thought or whatever.
I ended up going to purchase a RCBS rock chucker as my first press and ended up with a Lyman press that has a turret that I can mount 6 dies on or 5 dies and a powder thrower. I'm much happier and glad the salesman recommended it to me over the rock chucker. There is no way in hell I'd buy a single stage press unless it's for a special purpose like .50 DTC or something. I can't imagine swapping out each die after every step. Here's the one I have,

http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/presses-and-kits/Lyc_RPK_Tmag.php

The only thing I hate is the primer seating setup which takes a bunch of force and it wouldn't seat the primers deep enough. I got a hand primer seating tool from RCBS and it's MUCH better. I see that every press almost uses the same system so I wouldn't fault Lyman products for that.
Progressives are great if you have the money to invest in one but I do just fine with my turret press for moderate reloading.
I always hear guys claiming they make so and so rounds an hour like that's what everyone should be striving for. Personally it's quality not quantity I'm looking for. I want accurate rounds that work everytime and don't blow up my gun. If I make 10 rounds an hour I'm ok with that.

[Mikeb]

You can't lose geting a singlestage or simple turet press. As Rue said it is all about learning to make ammo and collecting all the peices of the puzzle and figuring out how to use them and not hurting anyone in the process. It will always come in handy or you can give it to someone to get them started.
Mike

[Captain Evilstomper]

i've got the classic 4 hole turret and it works very well. you can get a package deal that will give you all the basic tools that you would need to get started. i think it's about $150. personally i don't like the priming system, but unless you spend the bank on a dillon they are all pretty much the same.
so i got a lee auto prime hand primer tool. it works very well and you are able to get a good feel for seating each primer. easy to tell if the primer pockets are blown out.
the dillons are good, but a little expensive. but they have a 'no BS' return policy, meaning if it's broke, they will probably replace it.
they have the 'square deal B' press which is cheaper, but you may only load pistol calibers on it i believe.
once i get out of this apartment i will be looking into a dillon though, you really can't beat it for churning out massive amouts of ammo.

[rue]

Yeah I can't stress what I said enough earlier. I just started last year reloading and it's not about speed. Just go at your own pace and be safe. I ran into plenty of mistakes learning.
The first one I did was with my scale. My scale sucks and has a big metal tab which adjusted 5 gr. at a time and a small one that adjusts 1 gr. at a time. It's not perfectly lined up so the big tab looks like it's not on the first line (5gr.) when it actually IS on the first line. So on my first run I loaded 5gr. extra which is a critical error. If I wasn't so careful and questioned my loads then it could have been very bad for me.
I had to buy a bullet puller and take them apart one at a time and reload the powder correctly to fix them.

The second mistake wasn't as bad but was annoying. As I said in my previous post the primer seating thing wasn't seating the primers as far as they should. This wasn't a problem on automatic pistol reloads as my .45 didn't care about the primer depth. When I made .38/.357 reloads for my revolver they would cause the cylinder to stop turning because the primers were rubbing the inside of the gun when the cylinder turned. Big problem that was only fixed when I bought the hand primer tool and I started using a primer pocket reamer to clean out the pockets better so they seat deeper.
I also had too little crimp on one and the bullet came out of the case in my range bag causing a mess.
I also had a few rounds that wouldn't fully seat into the barrel causing my slide to fail to lock up or forward.
Both the last two issues were fixed by setting the crimp correctly.

Whatever you decide at least get a turret press so you don't have to set up a die each time you do a step. I like the lyman one I have because I can set up two different calibers (6 dies) that I use the most and not have to keep changing them out.

[NotSoFast]

When I started I removed the index rod from the Lee turret press and learned each step on its own, going slowly and doing batch processing, not progressive loading. It was easier for me to pick up that way. Had I listened to advice to buy a Dillon right off the bat, I would not be reloading right now but would have lost interest very quickly.

[Sheldon]

You can use the Dillon 550B like a single stage press if you choose to. Just put only one die on the toolhead and do just that one function. You have the capability of adding the other dies when you feel comfortable. It's a great press.