Progressive loaders

[William Davis]

Loading low pressure 7/8 12 for my Parker's on a MEC 76 grabber. Works fine once you figure out the quirks. Friend of mine has a real clean PW 600. Old but in great shape, used very little, wants to sell at a buddy to buddy price.

Only complaint I have on the grabber is balky primer feed, gave up on it, single feed the primers. Lot of handle pressure to cycle too.

Is it worthwhile switching MEC to the PW ?

Bill

[Kensal Rise]

No matter what level of MEC you move up to, there is a host of "quirks" to learn about each one. Some are more... let's say dismaying... than others. I've never heard anything bad about PW loaders.

Then again, like 'em or not, MEC is the "standard."

(of course I say this with the admission that I've used MEC for decades.)

[Pa SxS]

Bill, do you have the new style primer feed assembly? Set up properly, mine functions without any problems.

[William Davis]

No it's the old primer feed jams so often faster to single load primers. Not to mention broken spring chains.

Bill

[Double Lab]

Originally Posted by William Davis

No it's the old primer feed jams so often faster to single load primers. Not to mention broken spring chains.

Bill

Sounds like an adjustment problem. Call MEC. They have great customer service. 800-797-4632. Good luck.

[William Davis]

The MEC Grabber works fine and upgrade to the new feed would be a improvement. MEC is the press everybody I know uses. CS is great, bought several parts from MEC good guys to deal with.

Only thing here is a chance to pick up a nice shape Ponsness Warren 600. Looking at it compared to the MEC it's 870 compared to Parker. Both hit targets fine, using one vs other world of difference. Was looking for some PW experience, particularly the much older 600. Everything on the internet is about the newer machines

Think I will buy it and see.

Bill

[Paul Harm]

You can buy chains for " lamp pull chains " very cheap at any of the big stores like Home Depot. I got tired of the chain style primer feed and went to the newer 200 primer set up. No chains and doesn't come out of adjustment. If you're not using the wooden handle with a Mec, it is hard to cycle - cut off the red rubber one, they're useless. You can get even more leverage by making your own handle longer than the Mec wooden one. Mec's are fine, I have four progressives and three single stages.

[Pa SxS]

I don't have any experience with the PW 600 but I used to have a PW 800B. Talk about primer feed problems!!! I used Fed 209A primers and the rims of the primers were very thin and would overlap in the shoot causing them not to feed properly especially when the shoot was not full. Different primers may feed OK in the PW but the new style MEC primer feed works great if it's set up properly.

[Mike of the Mountain]

For quantity and quality reloading at a lightning pace I use my Spolar Gold. We can crank out 1000/hour when my son would place the wad in the wad guide. Best thing about the Spolar is ZERO primer feeding problems. It's worth the $$.

[Dean Romig]

I know Larry Frey uses a Posness Warren but I don't know the model number. He tells about the virtues of the PW whenever he discuses reloading. Larry showed me the PW a week ago and I wish I had one. I'll be using a MEC 600 as soon as I get my reloading bench set up (soon I hope).