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Best loader for shotgun ammo


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How long is a ball of string?

To the man who wants to load a hundred a day, the LeeLoadAll is an inexpensive tool that comes with all the bits.... you can also buy an inexpensive 20 gauge conversion kit....but buy some weighing scales and a Gaep spinner! The Lee is a great little press on which to practise the art.

To a man who wants to load 'thousands' very quickly, and is ham-fisted, he will make a mess, make scrap and waste his money....a progressive, at first, is a mistake ....and I and a few others will pick up his stuff at a bargain price when he advertises it on here or on Shopfront. I have done this many times!

Home loading is a passion; I have said this ad nauseum. You ain't gonna save much if you think you can load run of the mill clay shells for next to nowt. However, if you make your own shot, as I have done for over forty years you will save a bit. Shotmaking seems to be a 'new' thing to you young 'uns.....it ain't! It has just been streamlined by Littleton....and the design has been copied so many times! It is not rocket science. Even the crudest shot breaks clays and brings game to the pot. Bright, shiny, uniform shot is necessary for commercial loading to ensure accurate volumetric loading.

So, to start off, buy a LoadAll and marvel when you reload your first shell, break that first clay or bag your first woodie!

Just WALK before you RUN.

Edited by Floating Chamber
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Can you reload slugs (preferably with a roll crimp) on a Lee Loadall?

Hi Mark

 

Not quite, but sort of

 

You'd do the resize, deprime, reprime, add powder, etc. on the Lee Loadall

 

The roll-crimp part you'd need a drill press with one of the special turn-over heads fitted, or one of the old fashioned turn over tool.

The roll-crimp can be awkward to do with cases that originally had a star-crimp, in some cases they'll need trimming first...

 

Have a word with Jeff to see how he does his.

 

Next shoot I will bring that small Lee Loader I told you about so you can have a go with that. Ideal for slugs & for testing out powder charges & load development..plus it's extra time for you to play with your hammer :lol:

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Guest cookoff013

How long is a ball of string?

To the man who wants to load a hundred a day, the LeeLoadAll is an inexpensive tool that comes with all the bits.... you can also buy an inexpensive 20 gauge conversion kit....but buy some weighing scales and a Gaep spinner! The Lee is a great little press on which to practise the art.

To a man who wants to load 'thousands' very quickly, and is ham-fisted, he will make a mess, make scrap and waste his money....a progressive, at first, is a mistake ....and I and a few others will pick up his stuff at a bargain price when he advertises it on here or on Shopfront. I have done this many times!

Home loading is a passion; I have said this ad nauseum. You ain't gonna save much if you think you can load run of the mill clay shells for next to nowt. However, if you make your own shot, as I have done for over forty years you will save a bit. Shotmaking seems to be a 'new' thing to you young 'uns.....it ain't! It has just been streamlined by Littleton....and the design has been copied so many times! It is not rocket science. Even the crudest shot breaks clays and brings game to the pot. Bright, shiny, uniform shot is necessary for commercial loading to ensure accurate volumetric loading.

So, to start off, buy a LoadAll and marvel when you reload your first shell, break that first clay or bag your first woodie!

Just WALK before you RUN.

 

the lee is probly the best value reloader there is. there is no question, it is for reloading about 200 a week at most. but my mec is like that, same throughput. i got the mec because it can volumetricley measure steel shot. it does 3" without batting an eyelid, and its actually nice quality piece of kit.

FC is right, homeloading is a passion, thats it, i have total control over the shells as in recoil- patterns -shotsize,-payload, crimp, primer, PK1 pressure, steel, tungsten, etc.

i shoot factory to, i cannot compete with the likes of RC, HULL, etc. but what i dont compromise on is shotsize.

i can load shells about £40 within factory prices, once or twice i have beaten it, one thing the reloader can do is shoot equivalent shells.

pigeon loads and 1oz game loads are not that dissimilar technically, but load 1oz #6 for £220/k and you have a decent pigeon game load. 32g minimum loadings, usually cost slighly more but then again you can load 9s through to 3s if you like,

same for 36g loads, its about £250/k but in the shops they are 300+. (going by just cartridges)

 

42g+ loads make money.

 

the best value and largest impact reloader is the lee 20gauge, you can probly buy a new reloader every 1000 shells and not loose money, the 20gauge will recoup money faster.

average game shells are 250/k, you would recoup the reloader cost within the first 1000 shells. ! thats madness. that is manic ! when reloading is relatively expensive.

with some careful loading, you probly could squeeze 180/k. but wouldnt be the best loads.

this is using factory shot too.

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I think you have heard from some of the most schooled regarding reloading shotshells! For myself handloading isn't so much about money saved as it is getting precisely what I am after WHEN I need it. It is hard to find 24 gram or less loads locally, but they are a pleasure to shoot or I can build a 1 1/4 oz. Pheasant load that will smoke em at 50yds(#5 lead American), the payback is probably more in enjoyment than in the monetary sense.

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Hi what's the best loader 12 and 20g

MEC or lee or others

Speed best crimp easy to use?

What do you all think

The mec press I found a little hard to set up from the box but once you have worked it out then its quite easy to adjust to different size cartridges. The thing I found was adjusting one thing would effect something else so don't chande two things at a time. There are lots of people on here that can give you sound advice on all different types of presses. So it depends on your budget and how many cartridges you want to load.
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Can you reload slugs (preferably with a roll crimp) on a Lee Loadall?

 

Hi Mark

 

Only just seen the video today, but there is a new MEC - the 600 Slugger. Designed purely as a slug machine...so not as versatile if you also wanted a machine that could be used for buckshot/birdshot

 

The good thing about the 600 Slugger is the crimp - it gives the cases a roll type crimp...which COULD possibly be modified by trimming the case, to allow roll-crimped buckshot loads to be made.

Edited by saddler
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best ponsness warren 900 or 800

 

P/W 375C is single stage, more people have given up reloading due to time taken on single stage machines.

 

That said all have there uses.

 

True - the 375C is single stage...but for specialist loads where we'll not be shooting 250+ every week, they get the job done - as does any other single stage

 

The main uses I have for a shotshell press are

 

1. slug loads

&

2. buckshot loads

 

Both for competition use.

 

It's not quite at the stage where the birdshot needed for the comps is worth making at home, though this may change with prices of ammo/components...as the main ground I shoot comps at is fibre-wad/felt-wad only.

Local supplies to me of suitable ammo are not good...Breastman has a better choice locally to himself & possibly pays a good third less than the prices in my area...

 

For trap/clay shooters, then YES, a progressive is better - turn out a weekends worth of ammo in about an hour or so - no settings to change once a satisfactory load has been developed.

 

Even if I needed to load felt/fibre birdshot, the low monthly round count would make using a single stage viable...plus breaking down the tasks as per a rifle press also makes some sense, as has been pointed out on other forums (i.e. in the case of an MEC, for example, stick to the right hand side of the press to resize/de-prime/re-prime - in a batch of 50 to 100 or so - THEN move the prepared batch to the next stage. Shortens the overall time needed to make a batch)

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I started out with a lee loadall, then a member on here offered me his pacific single stage for a little more than the lee cost me, it was obviously better quality and could be adjusted easily so I bought that and got on much better with it. I sold the lee.

 

However, despite only getting through about 500 cartridges a year, I got fed up with loading individual cartridges and bought a MEC 9000gn progressive press. It cost me £530 and with some supplies I spent heading for £700 when I collected it! I really enjoy using it, it took me a while to get used to it as it's pretty unforgiving (almost seems to want to chuck shot and powder all over itself!!) once I got it all set though I couldn't help myself and must have loaded 500 28g 5s up and a good 300 28g 7s within about a week! Sooo - the mec's not seen much use since :lol: Luckily, we've gained a decent sized new permission so maybe I'll need to do some more loading soon.

 

I started off naive and hoping to save money but although I quickly found that was wrong, I enjoy it! And, as an example, I could knock up 34g 7s if I wanted - I certainly can't remember ever seeing any of them for sale B)

 

 

As a side note, I bought 30kg of reclaimed shot from a clay ground (so nearly all 7 or 7.5) and my 300ish cartridges were made from it, I noticed some small scratches in a chrome lined barrel and then found that this shot contains a small amount of steel, rusty steel at that, and now I have 300 cartridges to strip and recycle the components, and hours of playing with magnets...................... I did say I enjoy this malarkey didn't I? :/:rolleyes:

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