Single stage is good for operations that need a lot of leverage. Case forming is an example. I personally prefer to load larger rifle calibers on single stage. I don't think single stage makes more accurate ammo, I just find it easier.

The Lee turret is awesome. I dearly wish I still had mine. I have a Hornady progressive and while it's nice, I find I work on it more than I use it. Lee turret never had stoppages and caliber changes were fast and easy.

Inline fab makes an auto ejector for it. There's also a tube based bullet feeder made for it. If they'd make an auto primer feed I'd be all in to get another one. It's great for pistol and 223.

If I could have only one press, it would be the Lee Classic Turret.  I shoot a bunch of .38 wadcutters.  I keep that press set up with the .38 dies and bullseye powder.  It just plain works.  It isn't pretty, and nobody will drool over the setup but who cares if it works?

I'll second those who say Dillon progressive and a single stage with quality dies for precision rounds.

I started with a Lee Turret and used it as a single stage for straight walled pistol cases to get my feet wet, then learned that I hated loading rounds on it in full 'automated turret' mode as it was four pulls of the handle for a single round.

Went to a 550B for everything done in bulk (straight walled pistol, bottle neck resizing and loading) and added a Lee Challenger single stage for load dev and precision rounds which use stick powders that require individual metering from my Chargemaster.

Sold the LeeTurret and now have the Lee single stage and an XL650 I use most often with the 550B saved for 5.7x28 with aftermarket shell plate and locator buttons. The Lee and 550 are on Inline Fabrication quick change plates.

TLDR: get a single stage and do 100rds of 9mm to learn the process. If the reloading bug bites get a 550 or 650 to compliment the single stage. Only way I'd do a turret press these days is a Redding T7, which is a single stage that has room to keep 7 dies set up. Hornady lock rings or a Lee quick change collet single stage negate this and have smaller footprints.

Agree with the above. While I love my 650 with case feeder, I have no ill feelings towards the thousands of manually indexed rounds I loaded on my 550B

You can easily make a 650 manually index too.  Just saying, if you miss turning the plate by hand.

Everything.

Decapping brass.
Resizing brass.
Seating bullets.

A turret press offers no real advantage over a single stage (assuming it doesn't auto-index) other than the time it takes to swap out the dies.

Haha, certainly don't miss it as I get to return to the days of manually indexing when I resize and then load 5.7x28 on it. I also use it to crimp 7.62x54R as I use IMR4064 in those on the single stage and wouldn't want loaded rounds tumbling down the case feeder chute. Can see an FMJ acting as a firing pin with that far of a fall.

IMHO you have to look at what you really want to do...and that is hard not having done it before....or really knowing where this road is going to take you....I can offer you this from my experience.

I have a lee turret and a single stage, just redid the reloading area and did not even bother mounting the single stage.

I really don't shoot that much "normal" stuff.  Everything I reload for is odd ball old military calibers that are very expensive IF you can find them....some well over $2 per bang.  30-40 Krag, 7.7 Jap, 6.5 carcano, 7.5 French just to name a few.  And I load pretty much all rifle on the lee turret and have had zero issues.


For all rifle stuff I don't use the "turret" part of it...it is really a 4 part single stage....one good part is it is a little like having a bunch of single stage presses....you can buy the discs pretty cheap I think around $30-ish and just leave the dies in there....it is real handy if you bounce around calibers a bit.

For me this is really the perfect press, I load at most 100 rounds at a time, and change calibers quite often, from my research this makes things like the progressive presses just not work that well, they do not just setup in a snap, and they don't like being changed around....you have to tinker with them to get everything working correctly.

I would say for the price of the lee turret press it is a great way to get your feet wet.

Sometimes having the ability to load a complete round without removing it from the press is handy.  

But I tend to agree with your assessment, I sold my RCBS turret and have not missed it. 

Op question you should ask yourself is how much do you plan on shooting?

If your doing 2000 rds per month go with a Dillion 550.

Under 2000 I'd go with a turret press.

And if your only shooting rifles or revolvers I'd go single stage.

I never saw the attraction to a single stage....just why?

The turret even with no indexing does the same thing and you don't have to swap dies....I see it as a no brainer unless I am missing something somewhere.

I love the ability to have a dozen different calibers ready to go...I can swap in less then 1 min.  no setup, no nothing.

And it just works.  I have not used it on anything larger then 338 win mag, and doubt I ever will...and I do have a die for 25acp but have not used it yet.  I think it is really the best step for the first step into reloading.

Press mounted bullet pullers don't work well (if at all) on anything but a single stage press.

I found my progressive (a Hornady LnL AP) gave me issues with sizing consistency with .223 and larger cases, so I do rifle sizing on my Rock Chucker.

This applies to case forming as well.  I form 300 Blackout with my Rock Chucker - and I can honestly say that this task would be a royal pain on any progressive short of a Dillon 1050.

There's another thread with a poll about how many presses you have.  I have my Rock Chucker and my LnL AP, but if I had the room, I'd probably also have a Square Deal B with tool heads for several pistol calibers.  Wait, who am I kidding?  I'd go with a 650 for the case feeder, ability to use a bullet feeder, and so on.

I use my single stage for depriming brass , small batches of ammo I do not load a lot of like 45-70. I use it with a seating die and load odd stuff like Mexican match 54r

I seriously don’t know, does the turret give you the leverage the single stage can?

I'm only using the Lee single stage press for 308 now. 5.56 is so cheap it's not worth reloading to me anymore.

I use my single stage for resizing .223 brass.  Then do the rest of the case prep then it's a quick run through the turret to finish.  I'll also use the single stage if I ever get around to reloading for my .243 bolt gun (or any other low-volume round I may end up having a gun for).