Feel the same about 9's, Stan. Have several cases of old AA's in 9's. They are fine for quick, close shots at sporting clays. One year I shot them on grouse, and I had to throw away too many breasts, they were just shredded. Straight #7's make a really effective killing load.

I like to simplify things as much as possible in life. I shoot nothing but 7 1/2's and tight chokes. 9's to me are cripplers on game and targets. Putting more pellets in a load doesn't make it a more lethal load . Putting the shot charge slightly ahead of the bird is what makes X's.

How many use 9's for 1: Sporting Clays, 2: Trap, 3: Skeet? I imagine more on skeet than anything else. I've been an 8's guy for any clay discipline, and don't shoot trap or skeet so take that for what it's worth : ) But I'm reading that Performance Clays reloading manual from BP and they talk about all sorts of different loads for different targets. I'm lucky if I can find my shells when I show up let alone have multiple loads at my fingertips.

I use 8’s for all clays games and all of my grouse and woodcock hunting except late season grouse when I switch to 7’s. For turkeys and pothole ducks I use 6’s.





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I use #9 shot for 410 skeet and woodcock. For most hunting I use 6 - 7 - 7 1/2. #7 work for most if you can get it. RST loads it and I reload with it.For clays #8 works for most shots.

no 9 s are being the new turkey load...I got me a box of 5 shells hope to use them this spring....charlie

Andy, next time you are here I’ll show you my set up. 650 Jr presses for specialty length shells in 10, 12,16,20,28 and .410 along with a Lee press for black powder and a Spolar progressive for standard length 12,20,28 and .410 if I need volume. I can load anything from large ITX and TSS non-tox right up through #10 and #12 lead. Spreaders in every gauge. I am set up to roll crimp too. If that’s not enough take three steps over and we load metallic cartridges too. 😁😎

I want to see it Mike! Holy cow, you act like you own a clays course or something. :p

I have that je ne sais quoi, just ask Jeff Stegmeier !! :rotf:

Is that what they call it these days? :rotf:

I bought a MEC 600 Jr. when I was sixteen. Cheaper shells had nothing to do with my decision to reload. Back in the early 60’s it was getting hard to find shells without shot protectors. The shots I took at paper indicated that they tightened patterns in my VH 20 bore. The only way I could get enough shells without shot protectors was to load my own. The coverts I hunted were especially thick with fox grapes, overgrown apple orchards and bayberry bushes. I needed as open a pattern as I could get.

I’ve reloaded ever since. I’ve moved on from the MEC 600 Jr. because I went to progressive machines for volume loading. But it is one great loader for someone beginning to reload. The biggest plus to reloading is that you can get exactly the load you want. Try finding the 12 bore old pigeon and trap load of 1 ¼ oz. of shot at 1200 fps. The 12 bore shines with this load for turkeys, late season pheasants, ducks and geese. I now use 12 bore load of 1 1/8 oz. at 1200 fps with Bismuth for ducks and it does a wonderful job. I would be lost if I didn’t reload.

For years, I hadn't loaded a shell because I was buying 12 and 20 for about four bucks a box and had enough .410s and 28 loaded to last a lifetime. However, when I relocated (only four miles), four years ago, rather than store my loaders, I lined them up in my new loading room and I've been reloading ever since. I have PW 800Bs in 2 3/4" 12, 20, and 28, a 2 1/2" PW 375 12, and PW 375s in 16 and 10 and a MEC Versamec in ten. I load 8 gauge without a press. Not a bad setup for a guy who doesn't reload and is almost out of shot anyway.

If I've got 9's on hand when I start loading something I load 9's for skeet in all gauges . Also 9's for early dove but then again I go dove shooting so little anymore thats a kinda moot point .

In my mid period when I wasn't shooting competitively and had started loading and shooting again I loaded almost nothing but 8's and to be honest I'd have no issue with 8's for all the games dove and quail .

In recent years I've slowly grown a regard for 7 1/2's at the excercise in futiity (sporting and 5 stand) .

Also been using 7 1/2's and 6's for the tower euro shoot stuff .

Don't ask me why but in the last month or so I got a bag of 7's when I ordered shot . Not exactly sure why but what the hell I can try them on targets and or pheasents .

Your infection with this disease may be worse than my own :rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf:

I've not been the Spolar route but I was and still am eaten up with the PW is the Rolls Royce of loaders . Sadly my only PW loader anymore is my main rifle loader .

I kinda did this ass backwards from most folks ! I started with PW 800's then sold them when I quit competing . Later when i wanted to get back into shotgun loading I started buying MEC stuff . A lot was used but some was new it's kinda hard finding a used 9000 in 16 gauge LOL's !

I'm no great admirer of MEC products !

However I have MEC single stage loaders for 8 , 10 , 12 , 16 , 20 , 28 and 410 . Obviousley for the 8 and 10 they used for everything . Nut in the other gauges they're used for buckshot , slugs and punkin balls .

For the 12 , 16 , 20 , 28 and 410 I have atleast one 9000 in each gauge . In a couple I have duplicates . If they come in the shop at the right price or with components I want they get purchased . Worse come to worse they can be spare parts .

Kind of a moot point, there's nothing out there to buy. And it won't get any better if HR127 gets any traction.

I never drink while reloading or twenty four hours before I fly. But I do have the ever present pipe in my mouth when reloading. I know it’s probably foolish, but I've been doing it for many years without a problem. Which isn't to say that tomorrow I might get into trouble.

I had a friend, now deceased, that used to take a flask with him when he flew his J-5 cub. We all tried to talk him out of it but to no avail. He was a second lieutenant and the Captain of a bomber in WWII. He was shot down over Germany on his 47th mission during the war and spent two years in a prisoner of war camp in Bavaria. I guess he still thought he was invincible.

Your post brought back an old memory. A good friend of mine who passed away a few years ago, he was the man who introduced me to Parker shotguns, was at one time a cigarette smoker. He smoked while he was reloading, until, he had a one pound can of FFg black powder go up. A full fire department response, a ride in ambulance but only minor injuries. He was lucky.

An Air force pilot who showed up in our deer camp one year claimed "I never smoke within 24 hours, or drink within 25 feet of the airplane". He didn't draw a sober breath the whole camp.
The only worthwhile thing he did was give us an outstanding recipe for a sweet hot mustard which I still use today

I, too, regularly have a pipe in my mouth while loading, but my 600jr spills powder each time I drop the shot and the powder keeps landing in my glass, so I don’t drink and load anymore. In 45 years of using 600jrs, I’ve never double dropped a powder charge. The old Lyman press was not a safe press because they used separate charge bars.

Did you consider moving the glass?

Brilliant! See, This is why you're management. I would, however, have to learn how to sip a whisky with my left hand, and that's never worked in the past.

But you shoot left handed!:banghead:

Someday I aspire to be as witty and clever!! :bowdown:

You are thinking of Edgar, i am playing the straight man to him.

I vividly remember shooting trap at National Capitol when it was still in Damascus and at Carroll County , there was an older gentleman that I saw at both . Never knew his name or if I did I don’t now as this was thirty plus ago . But he kept a small flask in his offside shirt pocket . If you were on the same squad he’d offer a taste to everyone before each field . I never partook or saw anyone other than him take a sip . Do that now and you’d be told DO NOT COME BACK :whistle:

If one grew up in “The South” in the 60’ or 70’s one was rather adept at drinking two handed ! And that was while driving a vehicle . Fifth of Jack in one hand and a bottle of chaser in the other :bigbye:

Better be prepared for "elevens" when you are participating in a driven bird shoot in Britain. After one or two rotations, you'll stop for a little snack and tilt back the flask, then back to shooting

Looking at the MEC600 Jr, I don't see a short kit for 12g. Is that able to load 2 1/2" shells? My VHE is 2 5/8" chambers, plus you never know when I might pick up an English gun. Handled a Thomas Wilde a month ago and damn nearly bought it except I didn't have an extra 6 grand laying around. I think i'm just going to order 1 or 2 600's off the MEC website and wait.

I believe I got my short kit from Precision Reloading for about $30. I ordered one for a 16--and it also works on my 12 and 20 Mec 600 jr.
Now, just my opinion mind you--thru a Parker fluid steel 12 ga, I dont shoot short shells, I have loaded some, then gave all my 2 1/2" hulls away. Most of my 12 ga are 7/8 oz mild pressure about 1150 fps--shoot those also in my Greener sidelever damascus also, I use green Rem Gun Club hulls. I have a few cases of 12 ga game loads with 1 oz shot, I shoot those also in fluid steel guns.
In 20's, I used to load 2 1/2", but now just shhoot a mild 3/4 oz load using 20/28 powder in AA's and Gun Clubs. Makes life simpler. In between guitar playing this morning, I loaded 2 boxes of that 20 ga load--I dont hesitate to hunt grouse with it either.

Interesting Harold. I suppose I could do that as well. This is all new to me, I've only loaded handgun loads before. Still waiting on the Lyman book, EVERTHING is hard to get these days. Thanks for the insight. I like simple.

Lots of reloading data on line with Hogdons and Alliant reloading sites. There used to be a "LOw pressure 16 ga group, I down loade all their info to my computer, its pretty slick

Just a thought, if you're likely to be loading for multiple guns in a given gauge you might consider spending the extra scratch for a Sizemaster that's equipped a sizing collet as on the MEC 9000. Hulls that were fired in different chambers will vary in diameter and should be resized to fit the minimum chamber. Same with good hulls picked from buckets or off the ground at shooting places. The Sizemaster also comes with an auto primer feed.

The principal component of the short kit is the 1/4” spacer plate, so I just move it over to the 12ga. press when I load 12s. If I recall, the kit also has a spacer ring for the primer seating cup, and, there again, I just swap that over. I roll crimp all my 28ga. so, not using the final two stages, I don’t need the short kit on that press. I only load 2 1/2” now.

Got it Edgar and Frank. Good advice I clearly didn't think about, but doesn't the 600 resize as well? Thank you.

I was able to make some good scores over the past two days to include another brick of Cheddites, 4 pounds (partial jug) of 20/28 powder, a barely used MEC 9000 Progressive in 20-gauge, and all those once-fired Remington hulls shown in 32 gallon containers. Two right places at the right time and everything bought at very good pricings. The hulls were almost free. I really don't need the 20 press but just couldn't pass it up at the price; I'll probably move it on to a friend once the 12/20 Ponsness I've had on order is delivered. :)

Nice score Frank, I PICKED up a few lbs of 20/28, 3 bags shot, anda brick of primers last week , at normal, not inflated prices. Good score on the hulls also. Wish I could shoot more often. Closest SC is Hunting Hills, a great venue, but 70 miles away. Best friend just bought a wobble trap this fall and that sure is fun. Perfect for light 3/4 and 7/8 loads.

I'm never in the right place at the right time : (

I have been reloading for 60+ years. I have had many different presses, all got the job done, some better than others. If you don’t need volume, it is hard to beat the Mec 600 jr. I currently have mec 600’s and 650’s in every gauge and a PW 900 with gauge change kits for 12, 20, 28 and .410. Short kits for 2 1/2 and 2 inch shells I made myself which were simple to make. I also have RCBS rockchucker and a Dillon 450 for rifle and pistol. Reloading supplies are hard to come by now, however I did get 15 bags of shot yesterday. $45.00 per bag, a far cry from the $5.00 I use to pay when I first started reloading. Hopefully things will become more available soon. Who knows.
Carvel

I bought a MEC Super Sizer about 20 years ago, when I began loading for a "short ten". I didn't load many and didn't even buy a press. Over the years I have added the other gauge collets for it. Now, when I load in any of my presses without a collet sizer I just run all the shells through that Super Sizer first. Quick and easy.

I love it, and would do the same thing all over again.

Andy, the 600s resize, but with much more effort, IMO. They force the base of the hull through a die (ring), then back out. Takes much more effort when the hulls were previously fired in a gun with large chambers. The collet sizers are effortless.