Reloading

CalvinScott

New member
Just looking for some opinions on reloading your own ammo. I'd primarily be reloading 12 gauge shotgun rounds for bird hunting.
 
Best way to go.... I tailor my reloads to the birds I hunt and even the time of year (heavier shot payloads with larger diameter shot for late season pheasants).. You get a bit of satisfaction knocking down birds with shotshells you have put together yourself. Start out with a good single stage press like a MEC Sizemaster and you'll never regret handloading....
 
Been wondering more about the cost effectiveness of a progressive type reloader. Me and a friend are going to split the cost and finished product. We shoot about 2,000 rounds a year.
 
It is cost effective without a doubt. The intial start up is where the cost comes in but after you start buying in bulk and reusing hulls it starts getting cheaper.
If you can find a good deal on a MEC 9000 you'll do alright. There are too many of them out there and most are in good to great condition for a portion of the price to buy a new one. Parts are easy to get if something is worn out or broken. First thing you do is get rid of the bottles because they are way too small for any worthwhile production. Need to get a bottle support because the bottles will break and make a mess. It will take a few times of reloading to get everything right and know what is going on. There is a ton of activity and you have to pay attention to every stroke. Something gets missed and you'll either have powder and shot all over or shells that are minus a few items. I can tell you tons of stories about running shells and humming along the looking up at the bottles and noticing one of them is out of powder or shot and looking in my five gallon bucket that catches the shells wondering when that happened.... I have baking pan bolted underneath my 9000 so when I skip a beat and don't have a shell ready under the shot tube it really only dumps 1-1/8 oz of shot in to the pan.
Once you get cranking you can easily load 500 shells an hour.
You can get pretty quick with a single stage too. You can load about 250 an hour.
The only draw back to a progressive over a single stage is that the progressive is really designed to load one load. What I mean is it can be set up to do all types of different loads but it takes time to adjust it to the new settings then back to the old settings afterwards.
I do use my 9000 as a single stage from time to time. You just have to disconnect all the springs..... I prime all the shells in one step then put powder and wads in the next step and the last step is to run one at a time for shot and crimping.
I love my MEC 9000. It has loaded thousand of rounds and has thousands to go.......
 

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