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

[John Campbell]

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.)

[Chuck Bishop]

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

[Daryl Corona]

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.

[Chuck Bishop]

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 Koneski]

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).

[Bill Murphy]

The P-W 600 was never a popular loader, even when it was being manufactured. P-W no longer has all parts for the 800B, so I assume the same problem exists with the 600. I have used five 800Bs for more than 40 years, have no problems that I could not solve myself. I finally found I needed a part for my .410 800B that was quite expensive, so I broke out my backup .410 machine and retired the old one. Primer feed is not a problem, but some occasional tweeking needs to be done to keep them flowing. My 12 gauge 800B is on its second 100,000 on the counter. I would not recommend that anyone purchase an 800B today, because of the parts problem, even though I have never really needed any parts. On the other hand, the full length sizing dies on the 800B have always been its best feature. No other loader except the P-W 375 has this feature.

[Billy Gross]

To follow up on the Bill's comments above, I would recommend the 800+ if you want to go to PW. I load about 10,000 rounds per year on mine. The two big advantages are the removable dies (that is a big deal) and exchangeable tool heads for loading the different gauges. A used 800+ should ran between $500-$600. Bill is also correct about occasional tweaking. I think you need to be mechanically inclined to deal with any reloader. They come up on Trapshooters.com and eBay now and then. Billy

[CraigThompson]

The first loaders I ever had were 800B's , got them used . Later on I switched to 800C's for all four gauges . While on the 800C you could change dies I opted for 4 seperate loaders as I didn't want to take the time to switch dies etc and had an old oak conference table to bolt them all down at the same time . Having dedicated loaders can be a good thing , however is a little cost and space prohibitive .

When I shot the shotgun games the PW's were worthwhile . And without a doubt PW makes the best loader on the market . I still wouldn't mind another PW 800 in 16 gauge !

FWIW , when I bought the 800C's I got the 20 and 410 from Jim Cunnigham first at a skeet shoot in Fredricksburg VA for if memory serves $500 each BRAND NEW granted this was about 1986 . The following year I upgraded the 12 and 28 from B's to C's and I got those two from Jim Tyrell that used to run the Pro Shop at Fairfax R&G for about $525 each . By my figures those four loaders paid for themselves in one year by cost savings of my reloads to the cost of factory shells .

[Bill Murphy]

Jim Cunningham and Jim Tyrell are an important part of clay target and reloader history. Cunningham is a P-W guru and Tyrell is now the manager of Dallas Gun Club, a position about equal to running Augusta National. I don't know how he does it. Both are friends of long standing.

[Mike Koneski]

PW makes a fine press. Can't go wrong with PW or Spolar if you want a high volume progressive.

[Paul Harm]

Man, 1000/hour is a shell every 3.6 seconds not counting refilling the primer tray or anything else. My Mec 9000H probably will cycle every 6 seconds which is plenty fast enough for me. I've used Mecs for 40 years and have no complaints. Can someone tell me why you'd want full length resizing dies - never found a use for them. I have PW 900 in 20ga sitting on a table and will sell it for $200 to anyone who likes PW.

[Dean Romig]

Paul, please send me a PM. I think I'd like that PW 900.

Dean

[William Davis]

Dean gets first crack. Give me 2nd chance on that 20 G PW at 200 bucks.

Got the PW 600 home. I don't think it has ever been used, came with primers and shot equal to half the purchase price. Am going to set it up beside my Grabber run both see which I like best. I am a fair shade tree mechanic have kept the grabber running fine with few problems, other than the chain primer feed, easy to upgrade if I wanted to. Have a length of lamp pull chain I fixed it with every time it broke.

Bill

[wayne goerres]

Can the 12ga grabber be set up to load 2 1/2" shells.

[Bill Murphy]

Paul, it would be hard to explain the advantages of the full length resizing dies without demonstrating them. All I can tell you is that I have loaded probably a quarter of a million shells on my 800B machines with virtually no problems. The wobble of shells in a small bore MEC machine is not a problem in the 800B. Enough said. No wobble, no crushing of hulls, no wad seating problems, no accidental hitting of the crimp area with the crimper as the handle is pulled, you name it. Initial price of the 800B is or was high, but few of us bought them new.

[William Davis]

I don't know if a grabber will load 2 1/2 inch. 600 Mec's will. Main column has holes to adjust how high it rides, my 20 Mec 600 does anyway. I may set up a 600 to load 2 1/2 inch Black powder 12s for my Lifter. Seems to me single stage dedicated to special shells, Progressive for volume is the way to go.

Bill

[John Farrell]

Whenever you get into one of the older discontinued models you have to expect problems of one sort or another. One of the reasons the old ones are out of the catalog is the maker got tired of trying to correct design problems.

FWIW, back when those oldies were sold as part of the inventory, we weren't concerned with running 500-1000 reloads an hour. Everything was done at a leisurely pace and if we got 100 shells loaded while listening to Jack Armstrong, the All American boy on the radio, it was a good thing. Now we want to fill a wooden ammo box full of reloads between gin and tonics, and the oldies just can't keep up with that demand.

Speaking of old reloaders, without any kind of primer feed. Here's an old home made reloader able of doing 12 and 16 gauge on the same platform without changing any of the tooling parts. I found it at an estate sale. The builder was 93 when he passed and this was in his garage under a pile of old starters and generators. This design gives new meaning to progressive. Load some 12s for Grampa and then the boy can reload some 16s for his rabbit or pheasant gun.

Some of the parts look like those currently available from Lee Loaders. Haven't tried to reload anything on it, but one of these days . . .

[charlie cleveland]

john thats a fine looking loader there you got.. charlie

[Eric Grims]

A grabber really cannot be converted to 2 1/2". A fair number of folks have wrestled with this to no practical success that I know of. MEC will make a 2 1/2" for you.

[wayne goerres]

I came across this grabber with three bags of shot and about four pounds of solo powder for $80.00. Couldn't pass it up. It looks pretty decent shape. Was actually looking for a 650jr.

[CraigThompson]

I came across this grabber with three bags of shot and about four pounds of solo powder for $80.00. Couldn't pass it up. It looks pretty decent shape. Was actually looking for a 650jr.

Three bags of shot wholesale are a touch over $120 . Four pounds of Solo 1000 I would think were about $90 wholesale .

[William Davis]

Got the PW 600 home and set up. Been running it beside my old 76 Grabber. Either one does the job and both loaders have there quiks. The PW seems to require less effort on the handle, and turn out a more consistent shell. Way it supports the case as they go around I suppose.

It does have the disavantage of not being able to remove a shell until it's finished. My Grabber when loading spreaders remove after I charge with shot stick the spreader in with my thumb then put the shell back in for crimping. Going to have to figure out how to do it on the 600

Ablity to cut off the shot and powder hoppers on the PW seperate is a nice feature, as is the hopper dump ablity.

Think I am going to keep the Ponseness sell off the Grabber. Keep my eyes open for a PW 375 for one off jobs like the spreader shells.

Bill

[Paul Harm]

Gee Bill, never had or have any of the problems you listed - guess I'm just lucky. What I don't like with the PW 900 is if a mistake is made you ain't getting the shell out unless you take the press apart. With a Mec you just pull it out, no problem. My 900 is still for sale.

[Bill Murphy]

Bill, use the PC Post wad eliminates the problem of inserting spreader thingys.

[William Davis]

Could be just my Grabber it’s real old. That lack of shell removal is a disadvantage for the PW. Get a problem you have to let the shell cycle through to eject while remembering which one it was so you don't throw powder or shot in it.

Thanks for the offer on the 900 but will pass. Now that I have the 600 running for volume loads found a nice PW 375 set up for 12 & 20 . I don't load much 20 so it will serve. Will use the 12 side when I am doing special jobs like Spreaders or trying new powders and loads. Like to try ¾ oz for my Damascus 1 Frame GH without changing over the progressive

Found a quick sale for my two MEC's yesterday am committed to PW now

Bill