To rub salt in the wound .... After 15-20,000 shells, I just sent my 800 Plus loader back to PW for a tune up. $75 shipping. Will be another $75 shipping coming back, plus PW's charges. Suddenly, $50 shot doesn't seem so bad

My Mec 9000 had 100k on it before I made the first repair. The stage advance cylinder leaked. It is now at about 150k and has needed a few more tweaks but what really amazes me is that it still has the original wad fingers. All of the repairs did not exceed $75

Kittery Trading Post got some West Coast shot in last week, only $76.99 a bag :eek:

I’d much rather have PW progressives for everything from the 10 to the 410 , however I can’t find them on the used market as economically as the Rube Goldberg 9000’s of which I have them for all gauges 12 to 410 and hence the reason I have backup 9000’s in 12 and 28 . As well as back up Grabbers in 20, 28 and 410 as well as a back up 650 in 16 . It goes without saying I have way way more than even the advanced shooter/Reloader needs . However when you get them reasonably it’s a rather inexpensive insurance policy for someone that quite often gets in a hurry and doesn’t like breaking down in the middle and needing to work on something. This way if one gives me a problem two thumb screws pick it up and change for another .

MEC 9000's have worked just fine for me (12 and 20 gauge) though my 12 is tired having loaded > 60 thousand rounds since I bought that one about 12 years ago. A friend kept tellin me how P-W's are the Cadillac (his term) and I tried to buy one earlier this year direct from P-W but found that company to be all promises but ongoing excuses on its delivery commitment. Cancelled that order and ordered another MEC 9000/12 direct from MEC, which beat its shipment promise by a week or so. Now that 12 year old 9000 is my backup, not that I should need it. Just an aside, my friend with P-W's in several gauges has many duds and bloopers; no doubt "operator error" as I'm sure the P-W's are properly designed. Not sure how that happens to a gent who's shot trap and loaded shotshells for over four decades. Weird.

Stopped by a small shop today just to snoop. Nobel Sport primers for $150 per thousand. Yea, right!

We had a good customer bring to sleeves of Nobel 209’s in about three weeks ago . Asked us to start them at $200 a 5,000 sleeve . Put them on GB and the two sleeves brought a few dollars shy of a grand . That’s just about $100@1000 and I thought that was crazy .

I paid $62/box for 2000 shotshell 209 primers. Outback Arms in Plympton, Mass. just received a very large shipment of lead shot (#8 and 9's I believe).

Thanks to a PGCA member I was able to purchase a 8 pounder of Unique at retail. Now I'm set on supplies for a couple of years or more. A sincere thanks to all that PM`d me over the last year with tips on in stock items and others that traded needed items for my surplus items. Great brotherhood looking out to assist each other. Craig Larter