doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Reloading truths learned the hard way.

Don't forget when running a progressive press, that 100% of the time you look at the primer feed there will be a primer there. If you don't look 80% of the time there won't be a primer there ! :-) ymmv

All good thoughts gained from many years making your own.

I have two MEC Sizemasters, a 12 gauge and a 20. I load 1/2 and 3/4 ounce lead loads in both 12 and 20 gauge and two hull lengths: 2 1/2 and 2 3/4 inch. Both MEC's are mounted on a 3/4" wood base and I do all my loading with the press sitting in a 18" by 18" by 2 inch high box. Limits how far spilled shot and the occasional loose one goes. But once in a while, one still gets away.

I load 12 & 16.
The 12's are Winchester compression formed hulls & I have thousands. They come in red, black Hi brass & black low brass, gold & orange.
I have enough of the colours to load low pressure 7/8 oz, 7 1/2 in red, low pressure 1 oz, 4's in low brass black. Hi pressure 1 1/8 oz in hi brass black & so on. I do not put some colour shells in some guns, while other guns can be fed any colour.

The 16's are shot size by colour, purple, red, green & blue & all the same 3/4 oz load other wise.
O.M

I reload 12, 20 and .410 ...........at the current time. All of my presses are out in my shop, but only one is bolted down, a 3" .410 MEC. I load at it from a seated position. All the others I load standing, and they are held in a woodworkers vise mounted to the front of my workbench. I designed a platform with bins that the presses are bolted to, then the whole affair is gripped in the vise. Thought someone might like to see it. Works especially well with the 9000G. Because it is all out front of the bench I later came up with a little attachment that catches the finished shell as it slides off the "trough", turns it, and drops it into a plastic bucket which is hanging on the front of the bench under the left side of the press. It helped speed up my loading on the progressive, when I used to load all my regular sporting clays shells. Any press in the shop can be used with the set-up.



SRH

Stan I do the same thing. Clamp the press in a big woodworkers vise. Can�t give away valuable bench space with permanent mounts. This in a 24x26 shop with 4 workbenches. 4 shotgun presses 2 rifle and one pistol all portable mounts working on one dedicated loading bench.

Boats

Stan I still have four MEC 9000HN's, hydraulic machines, which I used for several years. With them you don 't need to bolt them to the bench. They will sit there just fine as you load on them. I bought a Spolar Gold with four gauge die sets about two years ago. My second Spolar Gold machine. First was a 12 gauge, which is on permanent loan to my oldest son. I had stopped loading 12 much and was happy to see him use it and shoot more. Instead of getting it back, and sharing long distance, I just waited until a nice one came along.

If you buy a good machine like a MEC or PW 800 or Spolar and take good care of it, you wont loose money when you sell it. Age is nothing to a well maintained machine. And when you get them properly adjusted you can load buckets of shells without much effort. Heck I still have a few 600JR, old style around and will load a few shells on them if needed. Speed is nice but a 600Jr. takes me back to my early days.

Very good advice. Re #9 and #14: I buy plain white labels--the kind you put on file folders--and use them on both powder and shot bottles, and on the shotshell boxes I use for my reloads. They're sticky-backed and aren't likely to come off. But you can put a new one over the top of the previous one with no problem.

There's something satisfying about clacking that bar back and forth on a single stage MEC. I still have a 16 ga. Sizemaster for those short runs of hunting ammo.

I have 7 different presses all stored on shelves in my shop. Each press is bolted to a base board. The base board has 2 holes that allows me to bolt a base board with press to my loading bench and secure the press with wing nuts.

I use a magic marker to put a line on the rim face of each shotshell when it is reloaded. Helps me know often that hull was reloaded. I discard if they have eight marks.

Lately I can pick up a lot of quality once-fired 12 ga. hulls at the Sporting Clay range (AA's and Rem Nitro's). Some 20's also...