MEC Issue

[David Weber]

I just purchased a MEC progressive loader and I'm having a hellish time deprimming the Winchester AA hulls on my first reload attempt. Any suggestions?

[ch]

What is it doing? Not getting them clear out?

[Pa SxS]

Are you sure they are Winchester AA hulls and not the cheepie Winchester Super Target shells? Does the hull have AA on it or a W?

The Super Target shells have a steel base. If the hulls get wet, the primer rusts in the steel base and are very hard for the MEC to punch out. If you examine the primer once you get it out, is there evidence of rust?

I reload Federal Top Gun and Estates quite a bit. They also have steel bases. My MEC hydraulic will not always punch those primers out. The hulls jams in the collet and will not rotate on the turret. It's a real problem getting the hull out.

[Twice Shooter]

Call MEC and talk to Dave. He has helped me a number of times. Cheers, Tom

[David Weber]

Thanks for the responses. After examining the hulls are AA hulls. About 4 out of 10 hulls, the primer will punch out very easy. The others, no way. As you stated they will partially punch out, then not rotate. I've applied enough pressure to distort the bottom of the hulls outward. Does anyone have just a de-primer and then you could let the MEC progressive do the rest of the work?

[Pa SxS]

I'm assuming this is a MEC 9000 or Grabber, not a hydraulic 9000H.

If your MEC fails on 4x10 hulls, try just depriming/resizing in the first station only. Don't let the turret fill up with hulls. Do each one at at time. Does it still fail to take out the primer? If it still fails, it's due to some problem with the depriming station and not the other stations. If it works find that way, then the problem could be caused by other shells further along in the turret.

Check to see that there is no shot wedged between the fingers of the collet and that the primer drop tube drops completely when being deprimed.

If all else fails, call MEC. Their customer service is great.

[Blind Dog]

Drill a 3/8-1/2" hole in a board, file the point of a good sized nail flat, place the primer over the hole, put the flat pointed nail inside the hull over the primer and whack it out.
I had that problem with purple Federal paper base wad 16s.

[David Weber]

Any suggestions down the road on a good hull/primer mix that you dont have to blast out?

[J.B. Books]

My first thought is you need to adjust the depriming station and lengthen the deprime pin so it goes completely through the primer socket. However you said you have exerted so much pressure on some that you have distorted the bottom of the hulls, this suggests the primers are somehow fused to the hulls beyond their normal friction fit. How old are the hulls, did they get wet? Perhaps they were fired with excessive chamber pressure. Does this happen with any other type of hull? If not I am guessing the problem is the particular group of AA hulls you have and if so I would pitch them and start with some fresh clean ones. There is nothing inherently wrong with AA's for reloading, I prefer the old one's and I think the Remington STS/Nitro 27 is superior but you should not be having any problem depriming them under normal circumstances.

[Pa SxS]

Are these hulls from AA's that you personally fired brand new and kept to reload or did you buy them from somebody else? What model MEC do you have and did you buy it new?

What Fred suggested will work on a hull on the bench if your only loading a few.It's a step that you shouldn't have to do. The reloader should do that properly for you. The problem is that if the primer is half out in the depriming station, you can't remove it from the reloader with that primer sticking partially down, there isn't enough clearance without bending something, probably the turret. What I do is cut the hull as close to the base as possible with a knife, then use something like a nail set or wooden dowl sharpened to a flat point and hammer the primer out. Problem with that is it drives the primer drop tube down into the fork below the base of the reloader. All in all, when this happens it's a real PITA.

You need to find the source of the problem and fix it. In my case reloading Top Guns and Estates I can look inside the hull and see evidence of rust before I put them in the reloader. I'm lazy and don't want to take the time to inspect hundreds of hulls while reloading. It's that 1 in a few hundreds that gets you.