With Dillon Precision 550 and 650 metallic cartridge presses, my experience is that I load at a little slower rate per full hour than Dillon advertises, but it still produces a lot of complete shells in a short time. I can get their advertised rates for a ten minute burst, but not for a whole hour by the time I refill powder hoppers, primer tubes, relax my pace a little, maybe have an ut-oh to recover from, etc.


Am now looking at MEC shotshell loaders. The single stage presses like the 600 Junior look appealing. A 100 shells a week in a given gauge would fill my needs. The progressive Grabber would do it faster if there is not a lot of stoppage to fix ut-ohs on my part.

After the first thousand shells so you have the hang of it, what are reasonable expectations for the loading rate of the MEC single stage presses ?

For the progressive Grabber ?


Appreciate your thoughts.

.

IMHO...The MEC Grabber is BY FAR the best value for the money of all 12 ga. loaders currently available. I run a box every 3 minutes without working up a sweat. Going to hydraulic power will slow it down...but make it physically easier. I love MECs...for 12,20,and 28 they can't be beat.

I have a MEC Sizemaster 20 ga. loader.

I can reload a box at a relaxed pace every 15-20 minutes. If I get after it, every 10 minutes.

This reloader has an auto primes feed and a cam resizer.

I agree with Don on the Grabber. I once owned one and it will reload a box in 3 minutes. Excellent reloader!

The 600 Jr is an excellent reloader. I used to have one myself. For me, the thing that I know speeds things up is the auto primer feed.

Hope this helps!

Paul

I have 4 600 Jr's and my experience is similar to smokepole paul's. I don't shoot competitively, but I shoot quite a bit. I'm just nearly through loading ~3000 rounds of assorted 12, 16, and 28 gauge ammo and have been working at it a bit here and there since December. I won't need to load any more for a year or so when I get finished. That's good, 'cuz I have a bunch of stock work that's languishing while I load shotshells.

Although I mostly used other single stages, their loading speeds are about all the same. The fastest and easiest for me was an old Pacific (forgotten the model #) that has the stages in a straight line across in front of you. Even so, just kind of loading without being on a mission or in a rush, about 4 boxes an hour is all you can load. I never really tried to time it but I'd suspect for most people 6 boxes would be about max. Compare that to a PW 800 which would easily load about 15 boxes and hour and pushed could load about 20. 2 people, who knew what they were doing could load 700 shells or so an hour. Whether it's a Grabber or other progressive, if you shoot a lot then you'll wind up with one. Even 100 rounds a week starts to get old pretty quick on a single stage.

That said, I recommend that everyone start their shotshell reloading with a single stage so they can understand the process. It helps when you have to work on a progressive.

The single stage ones are better for load development, too.

On a Mec 600jr with a primer feed, four to five boxes an hour is cruising speed for me. That includes periodic refilling the bottles and primer tray. I spent a lot of years crunching a 600jr. and still have 4 of them in three gauges.

I kick out about 10-12 boxes an hour on the Grabber. It does take some learning to fix screw-ups on a progressive reloader.

Like Gatogordo I think everyone should spend some time on a single stage to learn the process. If you can find a good used one, it's hard to loose money when you upgrade to a progressive. 600s with primer drops are always fairly easy to sell.

If you can find a clay target shooter who is a reloader to help you out with setup, that is always a big help. The setup of wad pressures, pre-crimp and crimp stations are just a bit of a black art and an experienced reloader can save a lot of headaches.

quote:

Originally posted by Hammer:

A 100 shells a week in a given gauge would fill my needs.

If that's the extent of your needs, I'd recommend a single-stage MEC. You can load that 100 loads in an hour or less on one of those single-stage presses.

I also like MEC loading tools. They are relatively uncomplicated, simple, relatively inexpensive, and widespread, so parts and accessories for them are readily available.

What others say above about the advantages of single-stage presses is correct.

When I'm reloading 12ga target shells on my mec600
(W/Primer feed) I can EASILY crank through 8-10 boxes
(200-250shells) an hour

That presumes I have prefilled shot bottles.
and am loading atleast 500 shells in a given session

Those two things aren't necissarily great presumptions
considering how I load shells....

I keep fired hulls in 17gallon civil defense cans.
I have them segregated by hull type.

AD

I think I must hold the world's record for the 600 Jr....I have actually loaded a 25 round box in exactly five minutes!....Can't do it all day....or can't make 12 boxes per hour....but to get 150 rounds per hour is easily achievable if you get the motions down.

I just loaded 200 the other night on a 9000G and I would venture to guess that I was averaging about 4 minutes for 25 shells.

I own 4 mec press's the times all of you are reporting are very in the ball park.

My out of my Poncess loader my son and I did a box in a min and 20 secs.

I've used all but the most progressives of the MEC's. Right now I have three MEC Grabbers (12, 20, 28) and a MEC 700 in .410 at home (am currently a contractor in Iraq). Although no longer shooting competitivly, the Grabbers help on 'night before hunting' loading to ensure there are enough shells...especially for grandsons. Good luck.

I have a grabber for loading 12 gauge and I would be hard pressed to load 400 an hour and more likely I am getting 375. I don't know how I could load on a single stage but I have an old Pacific that was given to me. I would load 4 or 5 boxes an hour tops on it.

I have a spolar for 28, 28 and 410 and can get close to 600 with the 20 and 28 and near 500 with the 410. The primer tray on it also holds 400 so that helps.

The advertised loading rates are for a short sprint out put multiplied to get a rate per hour.
Basically they are bogus numbers because no one can sustain those rates for long.
I can't pay attention to shot shell loading more than 10 minutes before I am bored.

With a single stage I load in batches.
I deprime and resize a printer paper box of hulls.
Then I prime them when I get around to it.
Finally I charge with powder, wad and shot and close the crimp.

I have no mishaps and it is a little less boring done in this manner.

I think there are others that do this too. I notice that the MEC case conditioners still bring good prices. They are good for the depriming and resizing operations. However the collet versions do not deprime.