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DMG asked dws1117 what a turret press was, and how it differed from a progressive. I'm not dws1117 but I'll take a crack at answering.

In a single stage press there is a ram, and a hole up top into which you screw the dies, one at a time. Put in the resize/deprime die, adjust it, and do all your cases. Then the belling die (if appropropriate), and bell all your cases. And so on through primer seating, powder charging, bullet seating, and crimping (if appropriate). I got primer seating out of order - it is often done immediately after deprime/resize.

In a turret press, the ram is the same, but there is also a rotating tool head up top, that contains all the dies. You put in a case and go through all the steps, rotating the tool head to get to the next die. A finished round comes out and you put in the next case.

A progressive has a rotating case-holder on the ram, and fixed places for the dies up top. You start with one case, but you turn the case holder and add another case each step. So there are several rounds being worked on with each pull-push of the lever - each round one step ahead of the next. You basically get a finished round out with each cycle of the operating lever.

You can use a progressive like a single stage while you are learning - just don't put in the next case, process one round all the way around the circle.

Dillon makes the most popular progressive, as far as I know. There are other brands that people like, but "the blue press" is many people's favorite.

A single stage is very useful but does not turn out lots of ammo in a hurry. A turret is a step faster, and usually not as expensive as a progressive. Dillon sells at least three or four levels of progressive, each more automated and more expensive than the last.

I hope this helps and is not too confusing.

Purrrs,
BobCat

Not much to add to Mike's excellent post, but you might want to consider a Lee press - single stage or turret - for your first press. Lee equipment feels cheap, *is* cheap, and many reloaders badmouth and scorn it - but it works.

There is no feel of "quality" to Lee equipment, but if you want to see if reloading is for you, or if you just want to load some good ammo cheaply, it is worth looking at.

I have a Rockchucker from 1971 that still works fine; an old Dillon 450 (predecessor to the 550); and a Lee single stage and Lee turret. I use the single stage Lee exclusively for seating .223 for the match - it cost about $30 on sale from Natchez, so I can afford to dedicate it to one simple task and not have to change/readjust dies for that task. I think the turret cost me about $50 used, with a bunch of other stuff. These things are cheap, fairly durable, and usable, so if you can forgo "pride of ownership" for a while, they are worth considering.

If you choose to load lead bullets in .45 ACP, you might want to check Lone Star Bullet Co. in Halletsville. Randy gives a 10% discount if you buy 10,000 bullets. Sounds like a lot, but split two or three ways it isn't. No financial stake, just a satisfied customer.

BTW everyone will tell you how "dirty" Unique burns. They are right, but it is still a very versatile powder - for .45, .357 (light to medium loads; not slow enough for full-power loads), .38, and 9 mm. There are better powders for each of these calibers, but Unique is quite usable for all of them.

Anyway, you will enjoy reloading; have fun!

Regards,
Andrew