Progressive Reloaders ?

[JagerDog]

Mostly what Beetle said, although I think there's been some upgrades (shot/powder cut-off and possible the shell plate) to the 366 mitigating the bushing change/testing problems.

The PW and Spolar shine if you want one machine for multiple gauges.

I don't find the Mec difficult to adjust, but some adjustments on one part of the sequence affects adjustments on another and aren't all that intuitive. Go slow and follow the instructions, tutorials and very experienced operators.

If sticking to one gauge, the MEC beats the others by far in price. Parts are cheap and available too. Though it's not as robust as Spolar, PW or 366 that's seldom if ever a real issue. There's a few spares worth having on hand so you don't get caught with a dead machine for a cheap part.

[ceh383]

There's a few spares worth having on hand so you don't get caught with a dead machine for a cheap part.

Which parts would these be?

[JagerDog]

Which parts would these be?

Off hand:

the little spring detent ball, pre-crimp, wad guide, rubber grommets and brass shim for shot/powder (actually the red PC baffle works better for the powder for most).

[Tom-ADC]

In order to not have to mess with removing the powder & shot bottles, here's what I do.
I keep the powder/shot tilted back until I'm ready to seat the primer and drop the powder. When I'm at that stage I insert an empty hull (that still has the primer in it) in the shot drop station, to keep the shot from spilling.
If you do one shell at a time, you would have to do this and remember to put an empty hull in the powder drop station to catch the powder, when you are dropping the shot.

How do you guys do it? Is there a better process?

Read pages 12,13, & 14 it tells you have to load one at a time if there isn't a shell at station two it won't reset the charge bar. You also need to disconnect the spring on the primer feed.
Try it with both bottles empty but in proper position.

https://www.mecshootingsports.com/Content/documents/9000.pdf

[ceh383]

Off hand:

the little spring detent ball, pre-crimp, wad guide, rubber grommets and brass shim for shot/powder (actually the red PC baffle works better for the powder for most).

I agree with most, but why the highlighted? They seem to be solid non issues.

[PoorRichRichard]

I load 12 & 410, both on old single stage Mecs. I save a ton of $ on the 410, I build an amazing hunting load in 12:

AA or STS hulls
WAA12 wad
Old Fed 209 or Win 209 primer
34.4 grains of LongShot powder
Ounce-and-an-eighth of new 7.5 shot for Collard Eurasian Dove (and Mornings my Dove when they are in season), and sometimes I load copper coated #6 sized shot for pigeons and/or super windy days. I routinely drop Collard Eurasian Dove at 40+ yards

This load is fast as hell at 1500+ FPS!!!

Disclaimer:

[littlewing6283]

Well, you could lock the charge bar, then neither powder or shot will drop. Otherwise both powder and shot will drop on each pull.

Empty hulls of a different color is the answer, easy to see and control.

[JagerDog]

I agree with most, but why the highlighted? They seem to be solid non issues.

The pre-crimp is well known to have the hole the little ball snaps into egg out. Then it remains on the shell. The wad guide fingers CAN be damaged. But Murphy says if you have a $3 spare they won't.

I too color-code my 12g hulls. I know what the basic recipe/intent in an instant.

20g doesn't have such an assortment of colors (mostly yellow), but I use a variety of hulls for a similar instant recognition.

[ceh383]

The pre-crimp is well known to have the hole the little ball snaps into egg out. Then it remains on the shell.

You just had to mention it...
I sat down to do some loading, and guess what happened
Just ordered 2 more, and a wad guide.

[ceh383]

On the bright side, I did get the bench done...

[littlewing6283]

On the bright side, I did get the bench done...

Seems to be a sweet setup. My bench is a mess hahahhaha. Decided on the 9000 so hopefully it will be here this week. I guess I should look into some spare parts as well

Pretty much ready to load the Remington hulls now. I was able to shoot some of my gun clubs and thanks to whutsup for letting me try some of the sts to reload.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Deedle]

I have a simple question on this topic.

I've done a lot of reloading for a long time, including a few progressives, and I've always found it useful to borderline necessary to also have a single stage press around for certain little tasks.

I reloaded SHOTSHELLS a little way back in my youth with my dad, but we only used a simple press, and I didn't do a lot of reloading of shotshells.

Is it possible to just get a good shotshell progressive, or is it much like metallic cart reloading, where ia decent SS press is very useful?

[ceh383]

When I used to load pistol/rifle I had a progressive and single stage presses, and I found it useful to have both. So far I have not found a need for anything other than the progressive for shot shells.

[littlewing6283]

[fecalguns]

Very cool setup you have.

Side note: Broke Tree as Shovelon calls them still has the quirky high house issue with the birds being too low and almost hitting the ground as they cross past the low house. Apparently their "fix" didn't work.

On the bright side, I did get the bench done...