Bruce, I enjoyed seeing your pictures and hearing how you reload brass shotshells. I always enjoy doing this and have had fun experimenting with loads and wad to find the best pattern. While I usually just shoot clay targets, I do like hunting with brass shells as well. Very easy to make a bismuth shell for waterfowl hunting too. Thanks for the pictures and starting this thread!
Jeff, I saw the Parker loading tool on Ebay as well. I thought about as well, but thought it was a little to pricy just like you. You really don’t “need” any of those(though I like collecting them), you can get by with a wooden dowel and a small nail to knock out the used primers. There are few ways to prime the shells and you can find cappers on Ebay. For the 12 gauge I like the shells from Track of the Wolf, but use Magtechs too. For 10s I used the Track of the Wolf ones. Here is a great video from Midway on loading 10 gauge brass shells. I will note, I have found I get better patterns with felt wads or I will split a ½ inch fiber wad in two and just use half of it. I also use Duco Cement to glue the overshot cards. Here the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI47bl2h0cU
I would love to put together a Parker hammer gun, brass shell black powder hunt this fall…