What is the Best Turret Press? Reviews 2023

best turret press

Photo by Sue Clark / CC BY

What are the Best Turret Press and Its Advantages?

A turret press is the middle brother of reloading presses. It’s more complex and effective than a single stage reloading press, but can’t crank out as many rounds per hour as a progressive press. As a beginner choosing your first press, you can get away with starting with a turret press rather than a single stage press, as it’s still fairly simple.

Whether you’re choosing your first reloading press or upgrading from a single stage press, a turret press can be a great option. Seasoned hands can make over 250 bullets in an hour. A turret press:

– Is far faster than a single stage press
– Is moderately cheap
– Has an easy set up

Determining if You Need a Turret Press

Depending on your goals and your weapons, a turret press can be a better option than either a single stage reloading press or a progressive press. You may want to use a turret press if:

– You use modern, commercial bullets
– You want to save time making the bullets you need
– You don’t need to make THOUSANDS of bullets at a time …
– … But you can make HUNDREDS of bullets at a time.

A progressive press is a better option for making lots of bullets (think thousands of bullets in one day), though the single stage press is best for fine-tuning exotic loads in general (an exotic load for that elephant gun you have above the mantle).

If you want the best turret press, we strongly recommend the Lee Precision Classic Turret Press Kit (see full specs here).

Why the Lee Precision Classic is the Best Turret Reloading Press

This kit was built and designed in the USA to be a reliable press. The press itself is made out of cast iron and was created to be compatible with die sets from any brand to make it incredibly versatile. The kit comes with:

– A well-built press
– A powder measure
– A plastic primer feeder
– A scale
– A case trimming tool
– A great starter’s manual

Lee Classic Turret Press Review

Once you have this kit and some dies, you can start pressing. The manual is comprehensive and will allow you to start making quality bullets very quickly. If you have multiple turrets (the cap on top of the press), you can customize each turret to work with different calibers and increase your productivity. That way, if you want to make many bullets of different calibers, you just have to swap the turret on the press. Overall, this is simply the best turret reloading press for the money, and the reviews have all been exemplary.

Reloading is the perfect hobby if you own and enjoy shooting guns. Reloaded bullets can be made to best fit your weapon, improving the overall usefulness of the gun. And while there is a startup cost, the money you save from reloading the bullets yourself quickly pays back your initial investment. Whether this is your first kit or your first upgrade, it will reload your bullets with minimum effort and maximum return.

If this sounds good, well, just get yourself a turret press. If not, you might want to check out what single-stage and progressive presses have to offer on our homepage. Happy reloading!

  • Owner of Reloaderaddict.com, Boyd Smith is a major handgun enthusiast, and although he owns Glocks, he prefers the revolving wheel type. His go-to guns are a Smith & Wesson 642 Performance Center for carry and a Ruger GP100 in the nightstand biometric safe (he has kids). He loads both revolvers with old-school 148-grain Federal Gold Medal .38 wadcutters. It’s OK if you think he’s a wimp. Email him.

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2 responses

  1. I’m the kind of guy who really does my homework before I jump into something. I found that reloading is like a religion to some folks, and reloaders can be rabid fans of their brand of choice. It took a lot of time and research for me to come to the same conclusion that you did. I believe the Lee Classic Turret is the ideal press for most turret press users. It’s solid, reliable, and affordable. You can use it in auto-indexing mode or you can quickly and easily disable the indexer and run it like a single-stage press. There may be some reloaders with special needs for whom a different press would be their best choice, but I think that you nailed it by calling out this one as the best overall turret press. I believe it is the standard by which all others should be judged. Love your blog. Keep ’em coming.

  2. i agree 100%. i have a turrent press and love it…over 5000 rds n 11 months and i am always findinding ways to refine my work with each use. i use the 4 die set. i have upgraded to a drum powder feeder and undersized resizing dies just cause i can. everything is good out of the box with lee. read the book and take ur time and enjoy..if u were to have a problem then go to a lee resource tech page.. u can fine tune ur press there..u tube is ok for the most part but for the other part there is a lot of idiots out there…lol..i do think lee is the best. it isnt cheap stuff but it is better tooling at a smaller cost…enjoy!…i load pistols… .32, 9mm, 357 and 45 acp.

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