anyone have experience with.....

Maj. Boom Boom

Maj. Boom Boom

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the Lee load all 2?

i am thinking about starting to reload my 12 ga shells and would like to know if this setup is any good. looked OK in ads and on you tube, but i know nothing about reloading.

which brings me to another question, what would be your choice in reloading books? Also how many times can you safely reload a shell? I assume this would be covered in the books but would like to know now as opposed to waiting till i get a book.

thanks guys
 
I had a load all 20 something years ago and wasn't particularly fond of it. You can usually find a used mec 600 for under $50. It'll load for a lifetime with little frustration.

Depending on how hot you load your shells, you'll load till it won't hold a crimp. I've run AA hulls 8-10 times with light trap loads until the crimps got sloppy. I've run a bunch of black remington hulls with a hotter load with about the same life. I didn't have as much case life with 20ga as I did with the 12ga. I tried some purple federal 12ga hulls but they only lasted a few loads til the crimp sections were too brittle to keep together.

I'm totally drawing a blank on which loadbooks I have that cover shotshells. I typically use the IMR loadbook for the powder charge and a claybuster wad and either 1 or 1 1/8oz of shot...I think its 1 1/8 oz Its been a while since I loaded shotshells! The presses are just set up for the trap loads and I leave them that way.
 
The only down side of a MEC is the fingers in the sizer,any crap falls into them and sizing goes away.

I will shoot you a pm with some names of the books my fahter has. Loads of info into the worlds of shootgunning.

I use to load hulls until the crimp failed or split. Most of the time I was able to get 6-8 loads before signs of failure. This was with once fired hulls.
Also not all shotgun hulls are reloadable. Many of the load books talk of this.
 
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ABC's of Reloading has 2-3 good chapters on reloading shells with some really good stuff on the principles of what you're doing, which is helpful if you're a "tweaking" kind of person, as well as samples that they provide as demonstration. For those who have yet to acquire any reading material on the subject, it is, by observed consensus, the best first book to get.

Be safe, [shocked] good luck [thumbsup] and have fun!! [banana]
 
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I actually took a shotshell reloading class on Wednesday at my club. We were using a MEC 650 (i think). 20 ounces of green dot, 1.125 ounces of 7.5 shot, AA hulls, CCI primers. It was lots of fun. The guy running it told me he gets anywhere fron 3-8 loads out of each hull depending on brand, and its usually the crimp that fails due to melting (hot loads), or just getting brittle. He also mentioned that he just uses the information on the Alliant website to get his load recipes.

I started looking at the Load All also in the recent days. When I go back to shoot skeet on Sunday I will ask for some opinions on it.
 
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SEE! This is how people get injured, by following "accidental" mis-typed info.
Larry, I know that you are new at loading shot shells. But, make sure you have the numbers right before posting something that someone else MIGHT try and duplicate.
20 ounces ( 1 1/4 POUNDS!) of any kind of powder would be:
1) Impossible to fit in any shot shell hull that I know of
2) Would be quite a BOMB if you could get it to fit.

I'm just saying.....

Larry Legend said:
I actually took a shotshell reloading class on Wednesday at my club. We were using a MEC 650 (i think). 20 ounces of green dot, 1.125 ounces of 7.5 shot, AA hulls, CCI primers. It was lots of fun. The guy running it told me he gets anywhere fron 3-8 loads out of each hull depending on brand, and its usually the crimp that fails due to melting (hot loads), or just getting brittle. He also mentioned that he just uses the information on the Alliant website to get his load recipes.

I started looking at the Load All also in the recent days. When I go back to shoot skeet on Sunday I will ask for some opinions on it.
Click to expand...
 
yeah i read 20 ounces and thought how did they do that or was 20 ounces the amount they used in the whole class. I need to sit down and actually figure out what the cost is - buying versus reloading. i tried the other night but only had price off the web and not from where i would have to go to get the stuff. the other night i think it came out to be $35 cheaper per 1,000 shells to reload. does that sound about right to you guys?
 
The break even cost factor is with the lead shot.

It's so damned expensive these days, that it's just about cheaper to buy factory. That is, unless you can get in on a ten ton group buy with your local trap shooting club. The group buy prices (on lead shot) make it economical.
 
Have mac1911 make the shot for you. He has the tooling, just make it worth his while and I bet you are good to go.

If you plan on doing volume shooting then reloading is the way to go. (Trap & Skeet, etc.)
 
I have a couple older used presses that are of no use to me. A Pacific DL-105 and a Texan Loader; both 20 ga., I believe. They're hardly worth driving to New Haven for, but you can take them both for $20. (I've never reloaded shotshell and these simply were acquired with some other items from an estate. They appear to be complete.)
 
DukeInMaine said:
The break even cost factor is with the lead shot.

It's so damned expensive these days, that it's just about cheaper to buy factory. That is, unless you can get in on a ten ton group buy with your local trap shooting club. The group buy prices (on lead shot) make it economical.
Click to expand...

Or you could join Duke on his next venture of raising the Titanic in order to salvage the lead. All the other artifacts will be sold off to pay for the project... but the lead will be free [rofl]
 
Hahaha I though that my secret project was a secret...... Who blabbed???

Mr.T said:
Or you could join Duke on his next venture of raising the Titanic in order to salvage the lead. All the other artifacts will be sold off to pay for the project... but the lead will be free [rofl]
Click to expand...


The fishing weights MIGHT be ok. Depends on who made them, and from what.
Here's a simple and fast check:

If you can easily scratch them with your thumb nail, then they are soft lead, probably something close to pure lead. If you can't scratch the lead easily, they might be "home made" weights, made from wheel weight alloy, a harder alloy. You want the harder alloy since they won't smush together so bad during firing. Some reloaders throw some cushioning plastic powder in with the pellets to help avoid deforming the lead.

I wanna know who spilled the beans with the Titanic lead! [rofl]
 

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