10 gauge reload Issues
 

Hoping someone can tell me what I’m doing wrong here,

I’m reloading short 10’s on a Mec with the short kit and I started having some shells turn out like you see in the pictures. It started as a few here and there and I’m now at the point where 90% are coming out like this:cuss:

These are fired RST Cheddite hulls, I thought maybe I’ve passed the lifespan of these shells, but it makes no difference if they’re fired once or 5 times. I’m starting to think there’s a problem with my final crimp station but I haven’t taken it apart yet. Has anyone had this problem?

your wad height is not high enough you will have to add abean or paper wads or some thing under the shot to bring up the height of the lead...there is nothing to stop your crimp from going down to far..adjustment of higher wad column will fix your problem...charlie

Yup more filler wad

The RST hulls are not that great to reload but if that’s all you have….I place a 1/8” 20 gauge card wad in the bottom of the shot cup. A thin card wad in 12 or 16 gauge goes on top of the shot for the crimp. This is with 1 1/8” of shot.

Short 10
 

With all respect, I don’t think that’s the issue.

I have some that are turning out perfectly, do you see how the shell appears to be squirting out the one side past the crimping stem?

I know when you do not have enough filler, it will close, but not tightly because the load is not up against the end of the crimp.

Stan

I used to use an overshot card in the tops to keep my folded crimp flat in the 10 gauge . It works well but anymore the red beans are easier than a spacer wad and an overshot card .

If you think your shot column height is correct I would try adjusting the cam and see if makes an improvement.

https://www.ballisticproducts.com/bp...ust/mecadj.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhvArXPDo6M

Stan is the crimp die cracked?

Stan,
Check the crimps of the fired shells that you are loading. If you find any that have even a minor crack, or deformity, where the crimps are those will be the ones that come out like those you've pictured. In case you miss any visually, you should be able to see which ones will be bad as soon as you pre-crimp them. If you want to shoot the deformed shells anyway Craig's suggestion about an overshot card is a good one.

I use REM and Cheddite/RST 10 gauge hulls , I’ve not had anything like that even with hulls that are past their best in reloading efficiency .