MEC Loader

B

Bill Gass

Active member
What would this be worth?

MEC Shotshell reloader. MEC 650 Jr. 12 Ga. Shot, powder, primers, and a bunch of wads

Is reloading your own shells something that you can pick up on your own?

Bill G.
 
What would this be worth?

MEC Shotshell reloader. MEC 650 Jr. 12 Ga. Shot, powder, primers, and a bunch of wads

Is reloading your own shells something that you can pick up on your own?

Bill G.
Click to expand...

Reloading your own shells is definitely worth it and pretty easy to learn. When I was shooting league and competition, I loaded about 20,000 rounds a year. It's fun to reload, gives you the loads you want and makes it financially feasible to shoot. At the time, I used a MEC Grabber and now have a Pondsness Warren though don't load nearly as much as before.
What it's worth?............check with MEC on-line. http://www.mecreloaders.com/
Lou
 
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2/3 of it is learning how to adjust the machine to get a good crimp. A good scale is necessary to make sure you are throwing the amount of powder and shot the recipe calls for.

You must test fire each load to see how it performs on paper. Back in the "good ole days" i used to load 1 3/8 oz of nickel plated # 5 shot at around 1330 fps. Winchester AA hull.

I never did load steel but understand it can take some getting used to.

I'd still like to buy your rig.
best,
Harry
 

Like everyone has said,"loading is easy to leard and saves on shooting"but the main reason for the hunter is you can taylor your loads to the type of hunting or game you are after.Mec has great Tesh support and parts as well as other supply houses.Get a good shotshell loading book such as Lymans and a copy of Hodgen loading book.If you know someone that is loading near you,go see his set up and pick his brain.Many new cases ,ie winchester HS can be a pain to load if the press was set up for the old AA case.Same with the 20ga HS cases.
 
Reloading is in getting the recipe that works for you. That is, hull, primer, powder, wad, shot. The rest is in how the machine performs in resizing, priming, dropping powder, wad and shot then crimping. Progressive reloaders perform steps on several shells at each pull of the lever.

I'm not sure if the economics are there for target shooting reloads or not, but you can make custom loads. All of my reloading was only ever used for target shooting. I never reloaded any steel even though there are recipes and addon equipment for the MEC to reload steel.

The toughest piece was getting ahold of hulls in good shape. Back then I was reloading the Activ brand hulls because noone else did and it was easier to resize without the brass and they crimped real nice for me.

I'll have to consider the offers to purchase cause I have a bunch of stuff that isn't getting used.
 
After talking to the owner of the reloading press I have decided not to purchase it. The way he explained it to me was reloading for trap shooting or reloading lead shells was worth it but not for reloading steel. Plus after researching the MEC reloading press I see that I would have to buy conversion kit, dyes or a universal charge bar for the specific load. On top of that I'm told that a scale is good to confirm that you accurate, and I'm thinking this isn't a money saving venture anymore. Then I look into the price of steel shot in Canada it is around $30 for ten pounds. When I add up all the supplies it was going to come to well over $100 to reload a qty of shells that I could buy for well under $100. He told me that it's like flytying you think that you are going to save money but end up spending way more than you planned, but in the end you will have a way better selection than from the store. So I guess it's out for now.

Bill Gass
NB

PS - I'm still waiting patiently for my new shotgun to arrive, ordered it on 22 Feb
 
After talking to the owner of the reloading press I have decided not to purchase it. The way he explained it to me was reloading for trap shooting or reloading lead shells was worth it but not for reloading steel. Plus after researching the MEC reloading press I see that I would have to buy conversion kit, dyes or a universal charge bar for the specific load. On top of that I'm told that a scale is good to confirm that you accurate, and I'm thinking this isn't a money saving venture anymore. Then I look into the price of steel shot in Canada it is around $30 for ten pounds. When I add up all the supplies it was going to come to well over $100 to reload a qty of shells that I could buy for well under $100. He told me that it's like flytying you think that you are going to save money but end up spending way more than you planned, but in the end you will have a way better selection than from the store. So I guess it's out for now.

Bill Gass
NB

PS - I'm still waiting patiently for my new shotgun to arrive, ordered it on 22 Feb
Click to expand...


Good move on NOT reloading the steel. We were a dealer for RSI reloading supplies and I still chose NOT to reload steel. It wasn't financially feasible (in my book anyhow) and I had 20,000 lbs of steel shot in stock. :)
I still had 6500 lbs. of it and off'd it all on ebay. Lou
 
his "worth it" assesment...I used to shoot a lot of skeet and reloaded...I quit when good lead target loads became so cheap that the only reason you'd reload was for the sheer mindless pleasure of it....steel shot approaches that these days but if you shooot the premium stuff you can save money....assuming you don't try to account for your time...

So I say you reload these days if you want to shoot premium stuff but don't want to pay premium prices...you're into going to save a house payment but you can save a few bucks over athe long run. Given the slim differences in lead loads it would take much longer to realize any savings...

Steve
 
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