Busyhands94
Member
Howdy guys! I recently got a new shotgun in a new-to-me gauge as far as reloading goes. I don't have any smokeless gunpowder suitable for loading .410's, but I do have 8 pounds of Green Dot, some Bullseye, and a pound of Pyrodex and BP. So for now I'm going to load all my .410 with the proper powder, the smokey and dirty stuff.
As most of you know, I'm a huge proponent of loading shotgun shells with blackpowder. It seems to enhance the performance by not deforming the shot as bad and make the loads more fun to shoot. Up until this point I was loading my non-12 gauge shells nail and dowel, a technique I learned from one of Mike Beleview's videos. But I wanted to have a crimp and a neater looking shotshell, so I decided to take a look at what options I had. The Mec loaders were all too pricey for my taste, being that I'm not going to be loading a high volume of shells. Lee loaders were too rare and hard to find.
I stumbled upon a site selling Lee loader style handloading tools for $30 a set. My order came out to $38 dollars shipped, not bad. The loaders come in 12, 16, 20, 28 gauge and .410 bore.
http://lane371.dotster.com/410.html
Yesterday the tool arrived in the morning. I came back from school and loaded a box of .410 with it. It took me about half a dozen shells to figure out how it worked, but once I figured it out I was loading shells like nobody's business! Not a bad little tool, it fits in the palm of my hand but it isn't too hard to use at all.
Here's what the setup looks like. You have a de-capping/recapping dye, a wad/primer seating rod, a de-burring tool, the body of the tool starts the crimp and the "T" shaped tool finishes the crimp. It's a pretty basic but effective little setup. All the parts are made of aluminum.
As I mentioned, very compact.
I made a box of shells in about a half hour. My standard load for the .410 right now is 1 dram of BP and a half ounce of #7 1/2 shot.
The crimps even turned out fairly nice looking. I'm diggin' this neat little tool. I think it's worth every penny.
After my testing of different hulls I've concluded AA Winchesters are the best to load. They crimp easily and it's not hard to start the crimp. The low-brass Fiocci's aren't easy to crimp, I suspect since the hull doesn't retain the crimp from the first time it was loaded as well as others. Remington Nitro's work well too. The Nitro Gold's work well with my loader as well. My only complaint is the loader didn't like the low-brass Fiocci hulls that I've got a few hundred of. But that's okay, I'll probably just trade them with my friend who's got a real press for some Winchester hulls.
I'll probably make a video of this tool in action as well as some BP cartridges being unraveled.
Have a nice day y'all.
~Levi
As most of you know, I'm a huge proponent of loading shotgun shells with blackpowder. It seems to enhance the performance by not deforming the shot as bad and make the loads more fun to shoot. Up until this point I was loading my non-12 gauge shells nail and dowel, a technique I learned from one of Mike Beleview's videos. But I wanted to have a crimp and a neater looking shotshell, so I decided to take a look at what options I had. The Mec loaders were all too pricey for my taste, being that I'm not going to be loading a high volume of shells. Lee loaders were too rare and hard to find.
I stumbled upon a site selling Lee loader style handloading tools for $30 a set. My order came out to $38 dollars shipped, not bad. The loaders come in 12, 16, 20, 28 gauge and .410 bore.
http://lane371.dotster.com/410.html
Yesterday the tool arrived in the morning. I came back from school and loaded a box of .410 with it. It took me about half a dozen shells to figure out how it worked, but once I figured it out I was loading shells like nobody's business! Not a bad little tool, it fits in the palm of my hand but it isn't too hard to use at all.
Here's what the setup looks like. You have a de-capping/recapping dye, a wad/primer seating rod, a de-burring tool, the body of the tool starts the crimp and the "T" shaped tool finishes the crimp. It's a pretty basic but effective little setup. All the parts are made of aluminum.
As I mentioned, very compact.
I made a box of shells in about a half hour. My standard load for the .410 right now is 1 dram of BP and a half ounce of #7 1/2 shot.
The crimps even turned out fairly nice looking. I'm diggin' this neat little tool. I think it's worth every penny.
After my testing of different hulls I've concluded AA Winchesters are the best to load. They crimp easily and it's not hard to start the crimp. The low-brass Fiocci's aren't easy to crimp, I suspect since the hull doesn't retain the crimp from the first time it was loaded as well as others. Remington Nitro's work well too. The Nitro Gold's work well with my loader as well. My only complaint is the loader didn't like the low-brass Fiocci hulls that I've got a few hundred of. But that's okay, I'll probably just trade them with my friend who's got a real press for some Winchester hulls.
I'll probably make a video of this tool in action as well as some BP cartridges being unraveled.
Have a nice day y'all.
~Levi
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