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Reloading press

RedCloud

RedCloud

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North Central Ohio
Sitting here at the house the past couple days with work being slow. I got to thinking (I know, that's dangerous) about finding something to do during the down time. I got to remembering how much fun it was reloading when I was younger and helping dad and his gunsmithing buddy. Just for my own reloading purposes (I do a little shooting here and there but nothing on a large scale) I thought about getting a press and tinkering with reloads for my .223 and maybe my 9 mil. So here is what I was looking at getting and feel free to add to the discussion.

Press I was looking at that will work for my needs and not break the bank in the process.

Lee press.JPG

Not sure if I should go with the 3 or 4 die set to go with it. Only about $15 price difference between the 2 sets for the .223 anyway.

Would be better then the single stage press I had a couple years ago. That was a lot of work changing the die out for each step.
 
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been seriously considering getting into reloading and have been saving my brass but really have no clue where to start. I was looking at this same setup and was wondering if it’s any good and/or what else I would need.
 
The Lee Classic Turret Press is the best press available for the money. There are better ones but not any as flexible and such a great value.

Just make sure it is the 4 hole classic.

Run it as a single stage, manual indexing or auto indexing. Awesome. I load 9 calibers on it.
 
I know this one is beter then the single stage I was using but nowhere near as good as the one I used as a kid helping dad and his buddy. Dad's buddy had a couple contracts with local LEO departments so we loaded thousands of rounds at a time. We loaded 9MM, 45, and 12ga rounds for hours lol.

We used a progressive press and it was nice to just pull the handle and the finished shell just dropped out into the catch box. Had feeder tubes for the primers, powder, wads, bullets, shot, and crimp. Really nice if your doing large volume stuff but not for what I'm doing.
 
The go to press is my 4 hole Lee turret press. Take the indexing action rod out and you have a single stage press. We have been a Lee Dist for almost 27 yrs now had have 1000's of these turret presses.
I would recommend to anyone.

My daughter can load 200 easy per hour and that's what we tell our customers. Lee says 300.

In the past I had 4 Dillon progressive presses on my bench and a Lee 4 hole turret press sat in the center. I have every caliber set up in a 4 hole turret and I can load a sample load in just couple minutes after setting the correct grains in the powder measure.
 
MK111 said:
The go to press is my 4 hole Lee turret press. Take the indexing action rod out and you have a single stage press. We have been a Lee Dist for almost 27 yrs now had have 1000's of these turret presses.
I would recommend to anyone.

My daughter can load 200 easy per hour and that's what we tell our customers. Lee says 300.

In the past I had 4 Dillon progressive presses on my bench and a Lee 4 hole turret press sat in the center. I have every caliber set up in a 4 hole turret and I can load a sample load in just couple minutes after setting the correct grains in the powder measure.
Click to expand...
Yep...
 
I won't be putting my hands on one until January but figured I would put it up now just to get feedback and any additional equipment I may need to go along with it. Thanks for the info Frank and Beener. Figured you guys would have some good feedback on this.

Going to add a brass tumbler as well.

You guys have any suggestions on case trimmers? I don't remember using one when I helped reload those 9mm and 45 rounds. I know the kit comes with one but I don't know that it gets used a lot?

Also thinking about adding an additional replacement turret and use it to setup the other caliber I plan to reload so all I have to do is swap out turrets and adjust the powder measure.
 
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Brass tumbler--- Avoid buying a Harbor Freight junk. They have a weight on the motor shaft that will cause self destruction in a very short time of use. Yes you can pay extra for a warranty and keep returning them. The ones that carry the Lyman name will last much longer and go on sale often.
As for Lee products, you get what you pay for. Dies do last, but other "tools" tend to be fragile. Go with RCBS if you plan to load for the next 20+ years.
Buying dies, go to gun shows or flea markets and its possible to pay $15 or less.
 
RedCloud said:
I won't be putting my hands on one until January but figured I would put it up now just to get feedback and any additional equipment I may need to go along with it. Thanks for the info Frank and Beener. Figured you guys would have some good feedback on this.

Going to add a brass tumbler as well.

You guys have any suggestions on case trimmers? I don't remember using one when I helped reload those 9mm and 45 rounds. I know the kit comes with one but I don't know that it gets used a lot?

Also thinking about adding an additional replacement turret and use it to setup the other caliber I plan to reload so all I have to do is swap out turrets and adjust the powder measure.
Click to expand...

Yes you want a $10 turret and powder measure for each die set. Set the dies up one time and always set and you can change calibers faster than I can type it here.
I got by without a cleaning tumbler for the 1st 25 yrs. I just used a clean rag with a cleaner (kerosene). Brass don't need to be picture perfect just clean so don't scratch your reloading die of gun chamber. If you do get a tumbler any small ones do the job OK. We sold 1000's of Lyman and Vibershine models and both are the same. Any media works fine but I prefer and sold corn cob media with a corn cob cleaning additive. NEVER use the red rouge cleaner as the stuff never comes off and will wear a set of carbide reloading dies out over size in about 10.000 rounds.

No real need to trim pistol cases only rifle cases. The Lee kit comes with a hand held deburr tool and the cutter for the Lee trim case trimming. But like I said no need to trim pistol cases unless you have many different brands of cases then trim for somewhat better crimping. But both of those auto gun rounds are tapper crimped. But both headspace off the case mouth. But most all experience auto loader reloaders set the bullet using the gun barrel so the bullet just touches the riflings . As long as the loaded round fits OK in the magazine that's the best way.

On all pistol rounds I reload I use the Lee Factory Crimp die as the 4th dies. That was the reason Lee went to the 4 hole turret over the 3 hole turret press. The Lee factory crimp die has a carbide sizer in it that brings the loaded round back to SAMI loaded round specs. I get better accuracy and function is 100% on autos. If you reloaded lead bullets it will swell the case and may not chamber. The factory crimp sizing brings it back to factory specs.
One thing to remember that different brands of cases of the same caliber the cases will be different body thickness. The factory crimp die corrects this.
We use to tell our customers that 'if you can read and have common sense you can reload safely'. My son's
customer hear this in KY and told my son 'I can't read or write a word and I can reload safely'.
 
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MK111 said:
Yes you want a $10 turret and powder measure for each die set. Set the dies up one time and always set and you can change calibers faster than I can type it here.
I got by without a cleaning tumbler for the 1st 25 yrs. I just used a clean rag with a cleaner (kerosene). Brass don't need to be picture perfect just clean so don't scratch your reloading die of gun chamber. If you do get a tumbler any small ones do the job OK. We sold 1000's of Lyman and Vibershine models and both are the same. Any media works fine but I prefer and sold corn cob media with a corn cob cleaning additive. NEVER use the red rouge cleaner as the stuff never comes off and will wear a set of carbide reloading dies out over size in about 10.000 rounds.

No real need to trim pistol cases only rifle cases. The Lee kit comes with a hand held deburr tool and the cutter for the Lee trim case trimming. But like I said no need to trim pistol cases unless you have many different brands of cases then trim for somewhat better crimping. But both of those auto gun rounds are tapper crimped. But both headspace off the case mouth. But most all experience auto loader reloaders set the bullet using the gun barrel so the bullet just touches the riflings . As long as the loaded round fits OK in the magazine that's the best way.

On all pistol rounds I reload I use the Lee Factory Crimp die as the 4th dies. That was the reason Lee went to the 4 hole turret over the 3 hole turret press. The Lee factory crimp die has a carbide sizer in it that brings the loaded round back to SAMI loaded round specs. I get better accuracy and function is 100% on autos. If you reloaded lead bullets it will swell the case and may not chamber. The factory crimp sizing brings it back to factory specs.
One thing to remember that different brands of cases of the same caliber the cases will be different body thickness. The factory crimp die corrects this.
We use to tell our customers that 'if you can read and have common sense you can reload safely'. My son's
customer hear this in KY and told my son 'I can't read or write a word and I can reload safely'.
Click to expand...
Some great information right there. Thanks!
 
MK111 said:
Yes you want a $10 turret and powder measure for each die set. Set the dies up one time and always set and you can change calibers faster than I can type it here.
I got by without a cleaning tumbler for the 1st 25 yrs. I just used a clean rag with a cleaner (kerosene). Brass don't need to be picture perfect just clean so don't scratch your reloading die of gun chamber. If you do get a tumbler any small ones do the job OK. We sold 1000's of Lyman and Vibershine models and both are the same. Any media works fine but I prefer and sold corn cob media with a corn cob cleaning additive. NEVER use the red rouge cleaner as the stuff never comes off and will wear a set of carbide reloading dies out over size in about 10.000 rounds.

No real need to trim pistol cases only rifle cases. The Lee kit comes with a hand held deburr tool and the cutter for the Lee trim case trimming. But like I said no need to trim pistol cases unless you have many different brands of cases then trim for somewhat better crimping. But both of those auto gun rounds are tapper crimped. But both headspace off the case mouth. But most all experience auto loader reloaders set the bullet using the gun barrel so the bullet just touches the riflings . As long as the loaded round fits OK in the magazine that's the best way.

On all pistol rounds I reload I use the Lee Factory Crimp die as the 4th dies. That was the reason Lee went to the 4 hole turret over the 3 hole turret press. The Lee factory crimp die has a carbide sizer in it that brings the loaded round back to SAMI loaded round specs. I get better accuracy and function is 100% on autos. If you reloaded lead bullets it will swell the case and may not chamber. The factory crimp sizing brings it back to factory specs.
One thing to remember that different brands of cases of the same caliber the cases will be different body thickness. The factory crimp die corrects this.
We use to tell our customers that 'if you can read and have common sense you can reload safely'. My son's
customer hear this in KY and told my son 'I can't read or write a word and I can reload safely'.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Frank.

I'm also glad your felling better.
 
I used to reload, but I just don't shoot enough rifle anymore to do it with mostly bowhunting. I sold my stuff about 10 years ago. May get back into it some day. I never minded the single stage press, but I was reloading mainly for hunting, so I wasn't doing thousands of rounds. I would usually do a 100 or so at a time. One thing that I always did with the hunting rounds is I would weigh the powder for every shell. That would add a fair amount of time. If I got back into it, I would get one of those setups that electronically dispenses and weighs.
 
I shot big bore in nra matches and weighed every bullet, case, and powder charge.
Then started pd shooting I WY and sd. Loaded all rounds on dillion 1050. Weighed nothing and still shot 5 shot groups in under 1 inch at 100 yds.
My grandson shot a pd at 960 yds on 2nd shot using 260 rem in a AR 10.
Moral of this story if not shooting for super long distance I'm sure it doesn't make much difference.
It takes a bench rest precise rifle to ring out accuracy to weigh powder. Just use a good powder measure.
Imho
 
MK111 said:
I shot big bore in nra matches and weighed every bullet, case, and powder charge.
Then started pd shooting I WY and sd. Loaded all rounds on dillion 1050. Weighed nothing and still shot 5 shot groups in under 1 inch at 100 yds.
My grandson shot a pd at 960 yds on 2nd shot using 260 rem in a AR 10.
Moral of this story if not shooting for super long distance I'm sure it doesn't make much difference.
It takes a bench rest precise rifle to ring out accuracy to weigh powder. Just use a good powder measure.
Imho
Click to expand...

You are probably right. My Dad always did it that way so I followed suit.
 
So I got everything the other day but haven't had time to get it setup yet lol.
I had another question for you guys that are already reloading.

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday and he said that I would need to get a different resizing die for the AR loads. He said the long is fine for the bolt action rifle I have but would need a short for the AR loads.

Just strikes me as odd as I have never walked into a gun shop and seen ammo on the shelf specific to AR's or Rifle or I just didn't pay much attention to it.
 
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