The American Beagler Forum

who here reloads there own shells and what are the advantages

I load my own. The advantage I find is you can load shells that you may not be able to get in factory loads. You can pick the size and type of shot you want, load the speed you want . Load spreader loads or loads for distance. And through trial and error find the load that works best in your gun. I am not sure if you save money, but if you shoot enough you may.

300 -400 boxes a year. What do you want to know?

I am not the original poster, but how about .410 shells. I would love to shoot my .410 more but $17 a box just doesn't seem reasonable. How hard is it to get a good crimp on these little shells? Is it economical to try to reload .410 if you have to start without any equipment? Thanks


Jamey

is it worth the start up costs? what equipment is best? what about the lee loaders? old style and the load all? i will be loading 28 and 20 gauge

I load all my own .410 and 28Ga shot gun shells. They take such little material to produce the load you actually come out ahead money wise. Start with a shell with a good hull like AAs and a good loader. I have a mec 650 Jr for 410 which are relativly cheap. Take your time, read the directions, and go slow on your initial set up. Once you get the crimp to look correct don't touch anything and start loading.

I get good crimps unles the shot is too high up in the hull. You can tap nit to drop the height or use less shot. If starting with all new equipment it may take awhile to see a savings. I am now working on using 9.3x74r brass cases formed into 3inch 410 cases to try to improve performance in my 410 contender. If your shooting 410 shells in guns with 45 long chambers reloads may get you better patterns.

How many reloads can you get out of the AA's. Been saving all my 28 gauge hulls, just crazy what there getting for a box.

I bought a 12ga reloader about a month ago, ive run about 1400 rounds through it already. I bought a mec 9000 progressive loader. I like it makes great loads and instead of $60 bucks a flat im reloading them for around $38 a flat. The loader cost me $375 so id say im gonna be saving alot of money every year. Ive shot 2000 rounds since september of last year. if you wanna load a box or two a year of 28ga i would recommend buying a mec 650 jr. not going to set any speed records with it but it will make some great loads for you. And its fun when its 90 degrees outside I go down to the basement and load a few boxes.