quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
Currently I have 6 MEC Shotshell presses on my loading bench. I have 4 single stage presses in 12, 20, 28, & 410 and progressive presses in 28 gauge and 410. BTW, I shoot 4 gun Skeet and practice mainly with the 410 and 30% of the time with the 28. This summer I'll just be taking my 28/410 combo to matches because I've hit the point where I shoot the 28 better than either my 20 or 12 gauge. Note the reason for this is my 28/410 fits me perfectly and the 12 is pretty close but the 20 not so good.

Anyhow you are at a decent starting point but the Lee Load All is notorious for being cheap and for being very difficult to get consistent results with. I would suggest that you keep your eyes open for a used MEC 600 Jr. While getting the crimp tuned can be frustrating you will get it right sooner or later.

Speaking of Hulls, every different hull will require a crimp setup tuned to that hull. As a result most shotshell reloaders prefer to stick with just one Hull. For 80% of the 12 gauge loaders that means the Remington Gun Club. It will last through 30 or 40 reload cycles, is very forgiving for crimps and just plain works. Downside is that Cheddite primers will be very tight in Remington hulls until you've reloaded them at least 5 times. Times are tough in the shotgun world right now and Remington hulls have been difficult to find. One decent alternative is to go to Ballistic Products and pick up some Cheddite pre-primed hulls. They won't last as long as Gun Clubs and the crimps may be a bit ugly but they will work and should last for at least 10 reloads.

Wads. These are also a difficult to find if you want to use name brand wads such as Winchester or Remington. Good news is that clones are available under the Claybuster brand and they work as well as the name brands at 1/2 the price. Currently nearly all competitors in Trap, Skeet, or Sporting Clays are shooting with Claybuster wads or some other clone to a small degree. Note in the 12 gauge you can have shot charges ranging from 3/4 ounce all the way up to 2 ounces. If your only planning to load 2 3/4 inch shells the charge weight range is more limited to 3/4 ounce to 1 1/4 ounce. At each weight point will need a wad specific to that charge weight. So if you want to load 7/8 ounce shells you'll need 7/8 ounce wads. As a result before you order any wads you will need to decide on what you will be loading. One very typical load for 12 gauge is a 1 1/8 ounce charge in a 2 3/4 inch shell. Finally, using the wrong wad isn't going to cause your gun to blow up, worst case you could be a bit over pressure but modern guns are really over built. More typically the selection of an inappropriate wad will result in a very poor crimp that leaks shot.

Powders. Red Dot is a good choice for 12 gauge Shotshells. Unique not so much but it's a fantastic powder for 20 and 28 gauge. So hang onto the Unique in the event you pick up a 20 gauge shotgun.

Primers, I use Cheddite and nothing but Cheddite. CCI and Winchester lost me as a customer when they abandoned the reloading market.

Load Recipes. The Lyman manual is a good one. Hodgdon also has a very good source for data in their online reloading center. If you decide to go with Cheddite hulls Balistic Products has a Cheddite specific manual that you can download for about 20 bucks. I'll also note that Hodgdon has been adding cheddite based load data recently. Finally Alliant also has load data available for free downloads.