Anyone wanna help me build a shotshell reloader set up?

T

Trapper Luke

New member
After talking to a few on here and reading articles I’m want to start reloading for my predator shot shells. I’ve reloaded for all my rifles ever since I started hunting but never have for shot shells. I know nothing about which hulls are best, wads etc. so far from what I’ve read seems like NP F shot is the way to go with predator shotshells. Will be for a 12ga so not sure the pros or cons of reloading 2 3/4” vs 3”? What shot ounce. How much powder what kind of powder etc? Have been looking into the presses and it seems like MEC seems to be the leader. I don’t mind spending money for a good one but the $1200+ ones little out of my price range. Anyways any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Luke
 
I just load for skeet so my loads are light. I won't even begin to help with loads, but I bought a Mec 9000 and love it. Its fast and makes great shells. I had a Mec 600 single stage and while slower and cheaper, it worked really well to.
 
Starting out and your serious about putting together decent loads I'd look at a PW 375, some day I'll have one, maybe. Back when we were shooting 500 rounds a week I ran a PW-800B.

That said I load a lot of strange stuff and use 3 Mec 600s a 12ga with a 2.5" short kit, a 16ga with 2.5" short kit and a 20ga 2 3/4" that I converted to 10ga 2 3/4" for my old hammer gun (tight 2 7/8" chamber). The Mec's were cheap when I bought them, most at yard sales for $25. I have an original Lee Load All that I use occasionally to load one-off stuff and a Pacific press that I have set up for 2 3/4" coyote loads 1 1/4 oz NP BB's over 800X for my 12ga combo guns, it was cheaper to buy an old 2 3/4 press(it only loads one load) than convert a Mec back and forth.. Roll crimpers in 10ga, 12ga, and 16ga.

If you aren't careful you can really get into this, trash cans at the trap and skeet fields are a source of hulls, it's amazing what kind of shells get tossed.
 
True AWS, I have never bought a single shotgun hull. All I load is AAA and it came free off the shotgun range and most was new. I still have a trash bag almost full that I haven't used...but I will one day.
 
Double AA hull, Long shot powder,1 1/4 oz wad, buffer, thin over card, count out your Fshot. Play with tubes, should get you 35+ yards killing range. Ballistic products has items on hand.
 
For big shot after you've counted your load the first time, you can use an old primer tray and tape off the holes you don't need. Something I heard a while ago that works.

I kind of like Cheddite/Rio/Fiocchi hulls, they are cheap and easy to find, they roll crimp great for waterfowl load as I toss them after one loading. There are a great selection of colors so I can color code shot sizes.

Rio target hulls cut to 2.5" and loaded with ITX 6's

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For coyote loads, the only thing I use a press for is crimping. And if I roll crimped like the pic above I wouldn't even need it for that.

Everything else I do pretty much just like rifle reloading. I weigh the powder and shot and assemble the shells by hand. Only the last step, the crimp, do I use the press.

I just have a Mec Sizemaster. Bought it used, locally, for something like $60.

I only use new, unfired hulls for my coyote loads too. One more reason I don't really use the press. For the NP F load I use, it's Fiocchi 3" hulls that come already primed.

I use the 2-3/4 for TSS.

- DAA
 
Never owned a shotgun press & haven't loaded shotshells since I finally retired my dad's old Remington 1900 sxs. Great old gun, pointed naturally and had split ejectors, unfortunately it also sported damascus barrels which required BP or what was then referred to as "Bulk Smokeless" powder. When paper shells became scarce, I retired the old gun, but recently found that the loading setup below makes a beautiful crimp on plastic as well.

50776042912_0fbe965ba6_c.jpg


Modern equivalent crimper still available here

Regards,
hm
 
Dad did a lot of goose hunting with the old shotgun using factory shells and I shot my first duck with it when I was 9 or so. Then we learned about damascus. Later I was given the loading set by a friend and pulled it out of retirement; have never found a shotgun that fit me as well as that old Remington.

Not much of a shotgun shooter, but that old Remington and the loading kit always brings a smile on my face even though neither has been used in many years.

Regards,
hm
 
For loading predator shotgun loads a used Mec 600 Junior or a Mec Sizemaster is all you need. You should be able to find one for under $100.00.

Like DAA said about the only thing you need the loader for on predator loads is crimping the shell. It's good to use the powder and shot drop tube to firmly seat the shot wad and powder into the hull. Don't use a lot of force just firmly push down on the shot to make sure the shot and wad are sitting on the powder.

AWS mentioned the primer tray trick for counting out the pellets you need quickly. I have used shotgun primer trays and rifle primer trays. Just scoop the primer tray into a big plastic bowl with shot in it and then tilt the tray so the excess shot runs off the tray back into the bowl.
IMG_9295 by [/url], on Flickr
[url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/156463377@N08/682r31X164 t=_blank]IMG_7132 - Copy by [/url], on Flickr
Above are large rifle primer trays with one pellet per hole.

[url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/156463377@N08/992P88zARm t=_blank]IMG_8231 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/156463377@N08/, on Flickr
This is a shotgun primer tray with 2 BB pellets per hole.

Just weigh out how much shot you want and count the pellets 3 or 4 times so you know how many pellets you need to get the count right. When using big shot you may have to use a few less pellets to get the stack neight right for a good crimp. Big pellet loads take up more space than small pellet loads that weigh the same.
 
Sounds like a MEC will do me just fine. If I’m shootings 3” shells with NP F shot what oz of shot would you guys recommend I use or pattern out? What about best powder and wad?

That empty primer tray trick is pretty handy definitely have to use that method.

Thank you!

Luke
 
I am pretty sure the NP F stands for Mickel Plated size F buck shot. THe lead Super Buck Shot that BPI has also comes in sizes BBB and T shot. Lead BBB and T shot both have good pellet counts and out penetrated lead BB shot by quite a bit.

All of my coyote and waterfowl loads I used the BPI TPS 3" wads. On some 2-3/4" and 3" loads you may have to trim a small amount off of the petals so the tip of the wad petals don't fold over into the crimp. I would get some 1/2" 24 ga fiber wads to use as filler wads under your shot and some thin 24 ga Over Shot card wads to put over the fiber filler wads.

24 ga fiber and card wads fit down inside the 12 ga TPS wads much easier than 29 ga wads do. I put the thin over shot card wads on top of any filler wads to keep pellets from sticking in the filler wads.

The 1/2" fiber 24 ga wads can easily be sliced in two or into thirds to make them as thick as you need them to be.

Below is some data from KPY Shotshell Ballistics comparing some shot sizes and types for coyote lodas. I came up with wanting 3.70" of gel penetration for killing the 20 to 35 pound coyotes that we have around here. I based that off of seeing at least 150 coyotes being killed with copper coated lead BB shot.

Hornady's Heavy Magnum Coyote BB load is a 1-1/2 oz load, it will be the first load on the below list. Look at the pellet counts and the yardage that 3.70" of gel penetration is achived.

1300 fps lead BB shot gets 3.70" of gel penetration at 46.1 yards and has about 77 pellets in 1-1/2 oz.
1300 fps lead BBB shot gets 3.70" of gel penetration at 55.8 yards and has about 65 pellets in 1-1/2 oz.
1300 fps lead "T" shot gets 3.70" of gel penetration at 66.0 yards and has about 56 pellets in 1-1/2 oz.
1300 fps lead "F" buck shot gets 3.70" of gel penetration at 86.8 yards and has about 42 pellets in 1-1/2 oz.
1300 fps lead #4 buck shot gets 3.70" of gel penetration at 109.2 yards and has about 33 pellets in 1-1/2 oz.

1300 fps TSS #4 shot gets 3.70" of gel penetration at 78.9 yards and has about 124 pellets in 1-1/2 oz.
1300 fps TSS #3 shot gets 3.70" of gel penetration at 96.8 yards and has about 100 pellets in 1-1/2 oz.
1300 fps TSS #2 shot gets 3.70" of gel penetration at 115.5 yards and has about 81 pellets in 1-1/2 oz.

Look at how much more penetration yardage the lead BBB and lead T shot get over the lead BB shot. I would rather use lead BBB and lead T shot than use lead number 4 buck because of the much higher pellet counts.

On most of these coyote loads the patterns will fail way before the penetration yardage is reached.

For lead loads on coyotes I would much rather have the 65 pellet and 56 pellet counts of lead BBB and lead "T" shot for shooting coyotes at 50 yards and less than the factory 1-7/8 oz 41 pellet load of Number 4 buck.

When I could legally shoot lead shot at coyotes I killed a bunch of coyotes with a 44 pellet "T" shot load in a 2-3/4" hull.

Lead BB shot is the smallest lead shot size I would use on coyotes. If you want to shoot lead BB and lead Number 4 buck at coyotes you can just buy those loads for just a little more than you can reload them.

The TSS shot works WAY BETTER than lead shot for penetration and breaking bones. A 1-1/4 oz load of TSS #4 shot has about 100 pellets in it and would be a little cheaper to reload than 1-1/2 ounces or more of TSS #3 or #2 shot.

DAA has some great information on TSS #2 shot loads.

 
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That’s some amazing information thank you! Far as shot from what I’ve read I was gonna try the F shot cause it seemed very popular for predator hunting. Far as F shot vs TSS shot where do you stand on that? By TSS I’m assuming you’re talking about SpheroTungsten correct? Looking at the different shots on BP the cost difference between the two is quite significant. Two pounds of 18gr TSS is $105. The F shot is 11 lbs for $63. Price is the main reason I ask how how the two stack up?

Thank you,
Luke
 
SpheroTungsten shot is only 15g/cc shot which is about 35% denser than lead shot. TSS shot is 18g/cc shot and it about 50% denser than lead shot. The TSS shot out performs lead shot and lead buckshot by quite a bit.

1300 fps lead "F" buck shot gets 3.70" of gel penetration at 86.8 yards and has about 42 pellets in 1-1/2 oz
1300 fps TSS #3 shot gets 3.70" of gel penetration at 96.8 yards and has about 100 pellets in 1-1/2 oz.

More penetration and 58 more pellets per shell makes a very big
difference.

If you are going to be shooting coyotes at 50 yards and under I would choose lead BBB shot with 65 pellets per shell instead of "F" buck with only 42 pellets per shell. 23 more pellets per shell makes a big difference on how dense your pattern is.

Trapper Luke I am sending you a PM.
 
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