Changing reloading dies on a Dillon Precision 550 press is quick and easy. Once setup in a die plate, takes less than a minute to change from the 243 Win to the 308 Win.


How much pain and time is it to change gauges with a MEC 600 Junior shotshell press, e.g., to change from a 12 gauge to 16 gauge ?

How much does this answer change if one has the Sizemaster press instead of the 600 Junior ?


To change from a 20 gauge 2 3/4 inch to a 20 gauge 3 inch shell ?


Some friends have a different shotshell press for every gauge shotgun they own. Is this a reasonable approach ?

One has a different shotshell press for every different load he shoots, i.e., one press for his 1 1/8 ounce 12 gauge trap loads and another for his 1 ounce 12 gauge trap loads. He tells me that once you get a shotshell press running without troubles, don't ever adjust it again. Reasonable ?


Appreciate your thoughts.

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While my experience is mostly with other brands, it takes quite a while to change gauges on Mecs. You have to screw each stage out, screw the other one back in and then almost certainly fiddle with it's height above the table for a while to adjust. Most reloaders don't change often. If you've got to change often, the reloaders are cheap enough that you'll pay for your time shortly by buying another one. Used Mecs are VERY commonly available around gun clubs at very reasonable prices.

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Some friends have a different shotshell press for every gauge shotgun they own. Is this a reasonable approach ?

That would depend on how much he reloaded other gauges and how often. If he reloads say 20s for hunting once a year, then changing for that might be worthwhile but if he goes back and forth it becomes a pain in the rear. I'd say it is not uncommon to have multiple shotshell loades and is VERY common for skeet shooters who have to load at least 3 gauges.

As far as multiple loaders for one gauge goes that would again depend on how much he shoots. PWs, for instance, are fairly easy to change for different loads, just have to remove the top and change out 2 bushings. Most serious loaders that I know that use them for trap shooting load a few thousand of one load and then a few thousand of the other.

BTW, you'll really have to be humping to load 8 boxes an hour on a sizemaster Jr like they claim.

I have helped switch a 12ga. 600jr. to a 20ga. because a buddy got a deal on the conversion kit and he picked up a very cheap old 600jr. I would not do this on a regular basis. There are simply too many adjustments and tweeking to do every time you change. You have to scatter quite a bit of the machine and then reassemble it with the replacement parts.

I do know some P/W and Spolar users who regular change over but those companies have gone to lengths to make the switch easy and the settings fairly repeatable. All of the Mec users I know have a machine for each gauge they load.

I have the older Versamec, a single-stage press. I load 12, 20, 28, and 410 on it. You do need a set of dies and parts for each gauge. At first, it took maybe 20 minutes to half an hour to change from one gauge to another. Now that I've done it many times I can do it in 10 minutes or less.

The first loading machine I ever bought, even before I owned a shotgun to load for with it, was a Mec 600 that I bought alng with some other stuff at a garage sale...

Years later I found a 20ga conversion kit at a sporting goods store that was closing it's doors and going out of buisness (Leslie Edelman, Wayne NJ).

Just for amusement on a rainy afternoon I decided to swap that conversion kit onto my 12Ga MEC tool
and load some 20ga hulls I had laying around
(I did not at the time even own a 20Ga shotgun)

Now before I tell you how long it took me
I should point out that I am VERY mechanically inclined
and have no problems not only disassembling thigs that are riveted and/or welded to gether repairing and often improving them then reassembling them and having them work and this includes big things (like a 4x4 pickup truck)
or actuall dissassembling and fixing the mechanical mechanism of a CD-changer.

And that includes the electronic bits.

It took me several hours to get it assembled
and adjusted... in truth almost 4-1/2 hours.

It was so "inconvenient" to do that when I needed
my 12ga machine "Back" I simply went down to Ray's
Sport shop and bought a new one..... but I bought a sizemaster.

I do stuff on occasion that is less than "convenient"
to do on a progressivbe shotshell loader
and I already have a huge supply of 12ga target shells
so I'm unlikely to need to load any in the next decade or so....

Can you convert it? Yep.

Is it worth doing? HELL NO!

And this comming from someone who has spent most of his life "converting stuff", like the pickup truck I drive every day... it started life as a 2wd truck. it's a 4x4 now.
And that required replacing the welded-in-place engine crossmember, which the front suspension is mounted to.

IF you NEED a shotshell loader in a different caliber buy one
a "Basic" loader like a MEC600 with a primer feed is all 99% of people will ever need. and they are only about $100 new
and you can often find used ones for far less.

AD

let me put it this way--- I have a mec for 10 ga 3 1/2 and changed it ti 12 ga 2 3/4. I'll wait until I am all out of 10's before changing back. Next time-- I'll just purchase a new press.

My background is similar to Allan's. Everything in my life is mechanical.
I once went a decade without another mechanic touching one of my old cars.
I hate to spend money on cars when it can be used to buy something lasting or shooting related. I grew up on a famr. I was a machinist 5 years, went to school at night and eventually became a manufacturing engineer. I have done that for 29 years all the while I have been reloading.

I spent days tinkering with the crimp setting on my 20 gauge MEC before I figured that the height of all the components affected the crimp quality.
This includes the volume of powder, the height of the wad, compression of the wad and the volume of shot and the settings of the crimping die itself.
After a lot of shooting and loading I found that Unique's volume gave a better crimp than the favored Green Dot, even though Green Dot required less powder. Once set on Unique I have changed nothing in 20 years. My set up produces the best, most fool proof and slickest feeding crimps you ever saw.

My version of a hellish nightmare would be to contemplate changing that 700 MEC over to 12 GA just because I wanted to load a different gauge. Changing shot charges is bad enough but changing the dies will never happen.

A few years ago I bought a near new 20 ga Sizemaster at a garage sale. So far all I have done is stare at it wondering how long it will take me to get it set.
I like the Sizemaster better than the 700 but my 700 is set up.....

My 12 ga is a Sizemaster and is still set as it came out of the box in 1982.
It is not going to change either.

While I wouldn't do it for the fun of it, changing gauges isn't nearly as difficult as some in here make it sound. Geesh.

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I spent days tinkering with the crimp setting on my 20 gauge MEC before I figured that the height of all the components affected the crimp quality.
This includes the volume of powder, the height of the wad, compression of the wad and the volume of shot and the settings of the crimping die itself.

Not to make fun of you, but, I mean, , anyone who's loaded more than one load on a single stage should know that if one couldn't figure it out intuitively.