First Time To Reload Shotgun

[EliteGeek91]

Hey all, my dad and me have been reloading rifle and pistol ammo for 5+ years now.

I have a 1930's shotgun passed down to me from my great-grandpa. It means alot to me.

BUT darn .410 ammo is expensive as crap. I'm ready to invest in reloading my old 3" shells.

I am gonna buy this press

Also for now, I wanna reload #6 shot.

I know NOTHING about the shot and powder charge bars.. Do I need extra ones of those?

Basically my powder preference is open, I just want something that is fairly normal priced, and performs great.

Remember I have 3" shells, and wanna load them with #6 shot.

I found this #6 shot on Midway, because I don't need 25lbs. BUT it's steel (I like steel alot!), but the press says the shot charge that comes with it is only for lead... So then I'd have to buy a steel one correct? So it might just be better for me to just buy 25lbs of lead shot, and keep it how it is.


Anyways, sorry I'm so new to shotgun stuff, just tell me which powder to get, primers, and if I need anything extra reloading them.

[Sevens]

Why do you like steel shot a lot? Steel shot is something we are forced to work with, and if most shooters had their way--wouldn't even exist. If I've missed something in steel shot in the last 25 years, please bring me up to speed! (anyone!)

Especially for an aged shotgun, it's not at all friendly to a bore.

Also, if your whole goal here is to save dough over buying factory shotshells, I suggest you get on board with buying as much as you can in bulk. Buying in bulk is BY FAR the best way to reduce your per-shot cost, all the way across the board.

[EliteGeek91]

Oh darn my bad, man. I meant lead of course!

Yes alot easier on the bore, and especially since the gun means alot to me.

And yeah I understand bulk.. I buy about 1k bullets and such at a time for pistols, etc.

BUT right now money is alittle tight, I just wanna get the press along with 10lbs or so of lead shot, powder, and whatever else I need.

Then next month I can buy bulk to really save.

Anyways, I changed my mind, I prefer #4 lead shot.

So can you tell me what I need to purchase extra for the press to load my 3" shells with #4 lead shot rounds?

Also whats the best powder for me?

I'll order the powder and primers at my local gun store, since Midway hits me with that HAZMAT fee.

But for the press and other accessories, I'll get those on Midway.

[Sevens]

I'd love to help you further -- but the last time I loaded shotshell was the summer of 1990 on a Mec-650. 20 gauge skeet loads. All worked great, but I had very little idea of what I was doing.

I don't load shotshell any more because I rarely shoot any shotgun. A 25-lb bag of Lawrence chilled #9 shot cost me around $9 a bag, IIRC.

Sorry I can't help.

[EliteGeek91]

Thanks so much for the help.

I'm 99% sure it will come with the correct charge bars and such for normal .410 loads ya know, BUT if I need any other accessories, I'd like to buy now, to save on shipping.

So thanks!

Maybe someone else can weigh in, and let me know for sure.

I'm really excited about getting into shotgun reloading. I love my .410, but just too darn expensive to go out and shoot up the woods with it lol.

[Doyle]

I don't know about .410 specifically but in other gauges you need to know the number of "points" the particular hull has for crimping. I.E. some brands of shells may be crimped with 6 points, others with 8, etc. If you try to reload a hull that originally had 8 points and you are using a 6 point crimping die, it won't fold right and might not stay closed and vice versa. Therefore, shotshell reloaders will sort their hulls by the number of points needed and then swap out their crimping die to match the hulls they are reloading at that time.

All this is to tell you that one crimping die probably isn't going to be enough.

[EliteGeek91]

Gotcha thanks for that info. All I'll be reloading for now is the green Remington shells. Ill have to see how many points they have..

Now i just need to know what I need to purchase extra for the press, so I can reload #4 lead shot.

[BigJimP]

I prefer Hodgdon powders on all my shotshells ( I use MEC presses on 12ga, 20ga, 28ga and .410's ) ....although I use the 9000 HN press ....bushings are the same.

In a .410 ....I primarily use H 110 powder..../ for 3" Remington SP hulls you're probably loading 11/16 oz of shot ...and around 14.5gr of H110 ...with WIN 209 primer and WAA41 wads...for a shell at 1135 fps.

The link for the press you're looking at does have :

a. charge bar at 11/16 oz so you're ok there...

b. looks like you have powder bushings included of # 10, #11 and #12....and what you do is look at the MEC powder bushing chart ( online ) or wherever....and pick your powder....and you'll see that a # 10 will drop about 13.5gr of H110, #11 will drop about 14.4gr of H110 and a #12 will drop about 15.4gr of H110.....of course if you go to another powder ...you might need other bushings....( but they're cheap - and you can pick them up at a lot of places usually ). But as an example if you choose to use "LilGun " Hodgdon powder...you'll probably need to have another bushing like a #8 or a #9 because if you use LilGun in that recipe you'll only be looking to drop 12.7 gr....( and every powder you select is different - because the formulation of the grains in the powder is different).

c. Wads ....Winchester WAA41 or some of the equivalents ...like Yellow Duster... I prefer Duster wads ...or Winchester...but buy a 500 qty bag of whatever wad you can get and like.

http://www.dusterwads.com/

d. I would try and stick to Hodgdon H110 powder if you can ....a 1lb can is 7000 grains....so if you're dropping 14.4 a 1 lb can will yield about 480 shells ( or about 19 boxes )....so I'd start with a 1 lb can and see if you like it or not.

e. the crimp started that's on the press is probably ok ....but look at your hulls and see what they are.

In expert hands ...a single stage press might give you 150 - 200 shells an hour / but don't be surprised if it takes you an hour to get 75 shells or so. But it depends on how much you're going to shoot ...if you want a progressive press or not....if you want to upgrade - consider the Grabber model ( still manually operated - but its progressive ) and it'll easily do 10 boxes an hour. My 9000 HN's produce a high qty of shells...but you don't need anything like that for hunting.../ like we do in sporting clays and skeet...( and honestly, I don't shoot .410's that much either )...so buying a full blown hydraulic press for the .410 was probably stupid...

f. Shot Bridging ....is a common problem on .410 shotshell presses....the only way you're going to find out if its a problem ( as the shot falls out of the bottle - into the charge bar - and as the charge bar drops it into the down tube to go into the shell ...if it bridges, it'll jam in the tube...and its a pain in the butt...( you'll need to fish a flex length of tubing or something up into the tube to un-stick it ...) and hopefully not kick it all over the floor. But the bigger the pellet ...the worse the potential "bridging" problem. Some of my buddies ...keep a mallet ...or a screw driver ( use the handle to rap the tube ) when it jams ...but sometimes smacking it makes it worse - not better....

The only thing I load in .410 is 9's ....so its rarely an issue for me....but I suspect it'll be a problem with 4's or 6's....so be patient...

drop me a private message - if I can give you more details.

Download the manual for that press....form the MEC website...so you can hit the floor running with the press ...to get it setup / and crimping shells properly.

Note: make darn sure that gun has a 3" chamber...and remember the length of shotshells is the fired length ....not the crimped length. A lot of .410's out there are 2 1/2" chambers and I don't know what was common in the 1930's. A crimped 3" shell ...will fit into a gun with a 2 1/2" chamber when its unfired.....but because there isn't room for the crimp to unfold properly in a 2 1/2" chamber ...you will get dangerous pressures from firing a shell the gun was not made for ...and it may be really dangerous to both you and the gun !! So check it first....

[EliteGeek91]

Yessir it's definitely a 3" .410 shotgun.

I appreciate you so much! I'm getting it right now online. Along with those Duster wads.

Also it's great, because we have about 4lbs of H110 powder in the house.

And yeah that'll work great since it has the 11/16oz, and the powder charge thing which will drop right at 14.4gr of H110.

Again, thanks so much!

I might PM you once I receive it, and update you on how I like it.

[BigJimP]

You're welcome...

Powder bushings are approximate...so you need to test weigh the drops..and see what you get. You can alter them a little ...open them up by spinning them on a drill press or a lathe...and a little touch of some emery cloth ( they're soft aluminum ).....and in theory you can tighten them up a little by putting a little smear of "Hot Stuff" glue - super glue or cryocyoanulate (sp??) glue - let it harden ..then smooth it out a little to tighten them up ....

humidity, etc affect powder drops... / and how well the bushing fits into the charge bar....( it needs to be "flush" ) so sometimes taking a little burr off the edge helps ....

all that little stuff....makes a difference....

You do have to be careful with H110 .....because you can double charge a shell using that powder.../ so watch your procedures carefully !

But it should all be a piece of cake.../ sure drop me a note and I'll give you a hand...

[EliteGeek91]

Cool, great thanks yet again.

Yeah I will definitely weigh it with my RCBS scale, and double-check every load.

I prefer quality over quantity, especially since I'm all about super accuracy on my rifles.

[BigJimP]

Progressive machines will give you a very high quality ...so don't disregard them solely on that level.

A MEC Grabber is their lower end Progressive machine ...manually indexed ...but every time you pull the handle, you get a finished shell off of the last station. Its a solid machine / and not that much more money. But the 650 is popular as well - especially among hunters / or shooters that only shoot 15 or 20 boxes a year ...where most us into the clay target games...shoot at least 10 boxes a week.

[EliteGeek91]

Ahh gotcha, thanks for that info. But yeah I prolly only shoot 1-2 boxes per week, and enjoy reloading. So yeah this will suit me fine.

But yeah I understand it'd be alot different if I was reloading more than 100 per week or so lol.