Shotshell Reloading

Disclaimer:

Reloading is safe if you are safe! Remember you are dealing with gunpowder and primers, Yes Explosives!. Your mind must be focused, unaltered by drugs and alcohol and you must be here reloading not somewhere else thinking about other things. This is important. Have fun Reloading.

  Put on your safety glasses before you start!

There are many tutorials on reloading shotgun shells. This is how I do it. At first it is intimidating mostly because we are flooded with marketing information from companies trying to sell us the latest and greatest machines. If you just take a step back, especially if you are a beginner and start with just a single stage reloading press you will be happy for quite sometime. 

I found a used MEC Jr. and can load both 2 3/4" and 3" shells. It was used but clean and felt solid. In fact this may be the way to go for you. I know for me and what I shoot this is all I need and possibly all I will ever need. With my current set up I can load all the waterfowl loads I need and can really shoot in a day or week or even a month sometimes. It only takes me a few hours to load these. I'm talking about steel or tungsten or heavy shot, etc, etc any non-tox load. For upland and target loads I may use a box in a month, maybe unless it's the dove opener.

I have found that with my setup I need to weigh loads depending on the powder and shot I'm using maybe every 5 loads but my target and upland loads I can usually load a box and then use the scale to check and see if something has changed. 

A good tip is get a small accurate electronic scale with a calibration weight, important! like the one at Ballistic products(Ballistic Products Scale). I learned about this because I buy some of my reloading supplies and books from them. You can learn a lot about reloading just from their site. Don't be afraid to call them or powder manufacturers like Hodgdon or Alliant for your reloading questions. They are extremely friendly and helpful and are shooters like you and I. 

Usually with certain powders nothing changes and with smaller shot nothing changes. The issues arise when I load waterfowl loads that are #2 steel and the magnum powders like longshot and steel but that is due to my setup and equipment. There are better presses and if that is the route you wish to go you can spend more and have a smoother setup but how many rounds do you shoot in the field when you go hunting? You may shoot a lot opening day of dove season but for waterfowl and upland not many in a day. Even a box or 2 is really hammering them and that you can do in an hour or so when you are set up. 

Also the big plus is that you will learn so much about shooting doing this and how your gun shoots that it is worth all the time and money just for the education, You will become a better shot. 

If you shoot thousands of rounds for trap and skeet after you learn how to load for your gun you will want a machine that is more automated but that is another topic and so is patterning and shooting your shotgun. This is just a basic shotshell reloading tutorial. Call it the first step to learning how to reload shotshells.

Mec 600 Jr.

 De-prime and re-size shell

At the same time you flip a lever and the primer drops into the priming station.

Move shell over to the priming station and prime shell. You can inspect your shell from station to station and make sure you did what was supposed to be done. Here you can take a look and make sure your shell is de-primed and sized and then that the primer is seated correctly.

When all is well drop the powder by sliding over the charge bar you have selected or in my case I'm using a multi-charge bar which I can use for many different powders and shot. Setting this up for your recipe is another topic which I will cover at a later time.

Powder in shell primed! Make sure you are wearing safety glasses!

Weigh the charge to see what you dropped. On these lighter loads I will do the first and maybe the 10th or 20th load to make sure nothing has changed.

Insert the wad and seat it with a pull of the handle. Not much force is needed here. You develop a feel for this quickly. If you make a mistake at this point you can go back and correct it easily. Make sure you reload without interruptions and when you don't have pressing engagements, responsibilities etc, etc. In other words your mind has to be there!

Wad seated

Slide the charge bar to the other side and drop the shot.

Weigh the shot to make sure you are accurate. Accurate is different for everybody. Sometimes very close is good enough. It may be a matter of 1 or 2 balls depending on the shot size and material.

Adjust the charge bar if that is what you are using else you may have other adjustments to make.

Move the shell over to the crimp starting station now that your load is correct.Start the crimp at this station. You should have room left to crimp your shell. If you don't check your recipe again for shell, wad, powder and shot. Now is when you can easily fix things. Later is harder but you can always take apart your shell and re-do it. The worst I've had happen is the shell bulged so I cut it apart, de-primed it and threw away the bulged shell. That is another topic for discussion later.

Move the shell over to the crimping station and crimp. I have used these shells in my auto loader with no problems cycling. The shells come out well formed if you do things correctly and follow your recipe.

Easy loader makes loading shells into a shell box a snap.