An old former competitive skeet shooter told me that he didn't believe in 410's for starting kids out. He said it just frustrated them because it was too hard to hit anything unless you were standing on top of it. He said he waited till his kids could handle a 20 or 12 before starting them on shotguns. I have to agree. My father gave me a 410, but after a couple weeks sold it and gave me a 12 gauge.
Thinking of getting into reloading shotshells, cheap and easy method?
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An old former competitive skeet shooter told me that he didn't believe in 410's for starting kids out. He said it just frustrated them because it was too hard to hit anything unless you were standing on top of it. He said he waited till his kids could handle a 20 or 12 before starting them on shotguns. I have to agree. My father gave me a 410, but after a couple weeks sold it and gave me a 12 gauge.
I started my kids with 20 ga shotguns. Gkids too...and I love to shoot the 410 competitively. To be very honest though...the 410 can be frustrating. Even in registered skeet there are relatively few consistent 410 shooters. Believe me...I always wanted to be one...and I was a 4 gun AA class shooter. Another gun that is a good starter for young'uns is the 28 ga. but ammo is too expensive and harder to find. I set up a 12 yr old gal with a 28 ga load in her 12 ga and she made her father look a bit bad! She has shot so well he bought her a high grade K-80 with tubes.
About any gauge, 12,16 or 20 can be an excellent choice for a starting shotgun for a younger person if you reload.
That's the great thing about reloading. Make the loads up to your needs.
I have been shooting 5/8oz in 12ga for nearly 25yrs.
I shoot it at Skeet and SC.
I use a low pressure recipe right out of the Lyman book. It's orig loading uses a 7/8oz payload. I just reduce that to what I want and use a filler on top of the shot to fill the empty space and get a nice crimp.
I started reducing the load to 3/4oz at first then went further.
I see no difference in performance.
Using #8 shot and for the filler I use a Cheerio or 2 on top of the shot then crimp.
.
Very low recoil, low pressure for elderly guns if you use them.
Cheap(er) to reload that the heavier payload shot loads. Lead is expensive these days.
My 20ga loads are 'Cowboy Loads' as listed on the Alliant Powder site.
These are 3/4oz loads and GreenDot powder.
Nice easy on the shoulder loads as well.
They will operate a recoil op semiauto Rem 48 and an Ithaca 51 as well.
16ga when I do load them has a similar load to the 20.
These get loaded on a
LeeLoadall and have never had a problem with it.
I was given a 410 to use as a youngster.
Nice gun , bad choice.
Very frustrating, no confidence in yourself at all.
That's the great thing about reloading. Make the loads up to your needs.
I have been shooting 5/8oz in 12ga for nearly 25yrs.
I shoot it at Skeet and SC.
I use a low pressure recipe right out of the Lyman book. It's orig loading uses a 7/8oz payload. I just reduce that to what I want and use a filler on top of the shot to fill the empty space and get a nice crimp.
I started reducing the load to 3/4oz at first then went further.
I see no difference in performance.
Using #8 shot and for the filler I use a Cheerio or 2 on top of the shot then crimp.
.
Very low recoil, low pressure for elderly guns if you use them.
Cheap(er) to reload that the heavier payload shot loads. Lead is expensive these days.
My 20ga loads are 'Cowboy Loads' as listed on the Alliant Powder site.
These are 3/4oz loads and GreenDot powder.
Nice easy on the shoulder loads as well.
They will operate a recoil op semiauto Rem 48 and an Ithaca 51 as well.
16ga when I do load them has a similar load to the 20.
These get loaded on a
LeeLoadall and have never had a problem with it.
I was given a 410 to use as a youngster.
Nice gun , bad choice.
Very frustrating, no confidence in yourself at all.
I'm a big 28 ga fan (I have 3 of them). The price differential for them makes reloading a great option.
Cirrusly, when it comes to skeet, 28 will do the job. No heavier gauge required.
As for hunting, I do consider it a shorter range gun. With some choke, say 25 yards.
Great for opening day of dove season, but that's it.
Cirrusly, when it comes to skeet, 28 will do the job. No heavier gauge required.
As for hunting, I do consider it a shorter range gun. With some choke, say 25 yards.
Great for opening day of dove season, but that's it.
Actually the 28 is a good gauge for more than the dove field .Back when lead was legal I used my ol M-12 28 for ducks(teal and woodies)out to about 35 yds. Doves all season long and a great quail and late season grouse shooter(no leaves). I shot an awful lot of doves with it. Doves with the 410...that is a 25 to 30 yd early season combo. At one time Federal had 28 ga 3/4 ounce premiums in 7 1/2 and 8s. I loaded my own 28 ga copper/nickle plated 5s and 6s for ducks. I have an early Ithaca double skeet gun that shot doves very well. Choked Skeet out skeet in. About skeet/ IC
All this shotshell reloading talk got me motivated to dust off my Mec 9000 and crank out a couple of flats.
Haven’t used it in a couple of years. A little lubricant in the right places and away it went. They really are good machines.
Now you just have to shoot enough to use all that new ammo.
Like you , I got a little motivated with this thread.
A year ago, a friend of my brother in law gave me this press. It was covered in years of dirt and dust. I got it out, cleaned it up and down loaded the manual for it. It obviously was missing the priming station, so I got that ordered. I have very few shotshell components, but managed to find some 7 1/2 shot, some Red Dot, AA12 wads and lastly, only 39 primers. Managed to get it up and running with minimal problems. I loaded up 5 rounds for a test run and took them to the range. All went bang the way they were supposed to, so I loaded the rest up. Now, to find more primers.
I now have reloaded a bunch of 12 gauge based on my initial loads, and components I have. I have loaded a bunch of 1 0z lee Key Drive slugs as well, and those shot very well.
I loaded up a bunch of target loads in 20 gauge over the weekend, and it took a little more work to get my 20 gauge press set up- the pre crimp was too high, and my crimps were TERRIBLE> Dropped it about 1/4" and they look like factory crimps now.
I loaded a bunch of .410 shells as well, with 1/2 oz #6 shot (just what I had open at the time) and I bought some 000 buck shot to replicate the .410 defensive handgun loads that Federal made with the 4 balls of 000 buckshot
I am loving this as a hobby and good skill to know. And thank you all for steering me away from the Lee Loadall and towards the Mec presses. the Lee's seem to be cheap **** from everything I have seen, not at all made to last a long time.
The Mec presses are imPRESSive and work very smoothly
I loaded up a bunch of target loads in 20 gauge over the weekend, and it took a little more work to get my 20 gauge press set up- the pre crimp was too high, and my crimps were TERRIBLE> Dropped it about 1/4" and they look like factory crimps now.
I loaded a bunch of .410 shells as well, with 1/2 oz #6 shot (just what I had open at the time) and I bought some 000 buck shot to replicate the .410 defensive handgun loads that Federal made with the 4 balls of 000 buckshot
I am loving this as a hobby and good skill to know. And thank you all for steering me away from the Lee Loadall and towards the Mec presses. the Lee's seem to be cheap **** from everything I have seen, not at all made to last a long time.
The Mec presses are imPRESSive and work very smoothly
I’ll offer a bit of advice learned the hard way.
Don’t reload a huge surplus of shells or cartridges. Only reload what you’ll use in a few outings. Things happen!
My first shotshell reloader was a MEC 600 that I got in the 70’s. It worked fine for 12 gauge when I only shot occasionally. When I got serious about shooting skeet and trap in the late 90’s, I bought MEC 9000H’s for 12, 20 and 28. I got a Grabber for .410. Back then, I could reload a box of shells for $3 or less.
I burned through a lot of 700X and 296 powder. Here are just some of the empty 12# kegs of 700X I recently cleared out of my reloading area. I’m in the process of making room and throwing out junk.
Yup, that represents 120 lbs of powder! I went through a lot more than that.
Back to my original point…
When I was shooting 4 days a week and firing about 200 shells per day (some for score and others for practice), I thought it was a good idea to build up a large surplus of shell in my off time. I had about 10 flats of 12 GA stocked up. At some point, I developed an intermittent problem where the powder charge didn’t throw consistently. Many of the shells were fine, but others were “poofers”. I missed some birds because of the issue and would only use the rest of that large batch for practice.
If you’re shooting a lot, you’ll probably buy previously owned powder and primers when you find a good deal. You can occasionally run into problems there too. Even factory new components sometimes come under recall.
Store your components in a cool, dry place and only load what you need.
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The powder bar sticking is one of the problems with the progressive Mecs. The shot doesn't throw light generally. Powder doesn't flow like shot. And some powders are not conducive to good precise charges. . I once loaded 200 410s on a P-W 800. none had powder. I was using 296 and the fine powder locked the powder GEAR and the powder shutoff together. I wired the powder shutoff in the open position after that debacle. I use a Spolar for the 410(20,28 also) now and it is good with the 410. I always load a bunch at one time and have no problems. I think I have 14 1/2 cases of Remington 410s loaded right now and probably 30 1/2s of 20 ga. During this shortage I have had quite a few people ask me for my 410 reloads. Last gun show 2 1/2 in 410s(new) were 30 bucks a box. With the costs I have in 410 reloading supplies I can load them for about 3.00-3.25 a box
Very good points! I only loaded about 200 rounds of 12 gauge, and only 100 of 20 gauge (about all I had in 20 gauge)
I will shoot that in one outing when I get back out to sporting clays again. Been too long since I went... Have to go with a buddy from work, and prices went up- used to cost between $50-60 an outing, now its over $100
Thats an expensive day...
