Poper
Member
Well, I am taking my first dive into loading 16 ga. Please excuse the mini-rant.
I was able to get 200 primed Cheddite hulls, wads and 16 gauge loading manual from BPI. I have / had an unopened bottle of green dot and 30 lbs of #5 lead shot. Because I was unable to find a conversion kit for my old Versa MEC 700 (I have 10 and 12 gauge dies), I bought a LEE Loadall II in 16 gauge. It was about 1/2 the price of the MEC conversion kit, but it is a not-so-good piece of equipment, IMHO.
The bushing called for in the Lee guide to drop 20 gr. of Green Dot dropped slightly less than 1/3 of the amount - 7.2 gr. - according to my electronic scale. Changing the bushing spilled about 1/2 an ounce of powder all over everything. What a mess!! And it STILL was dropping 4.5 grains light with the bushing 2 sizes larger! Enough of that nonsense!!!
So I set up my RCBS powder measure and set it to drop 18 gr. of Green Dot (the minimum according to the BPI Loading manual).
Dropping 1 oz of #5 shot was another adventure in frustration! Not only would the shot hang up in the drop tube, when I could get all of it out by tapping on the tube with the handle of a screwdriver, it was always 6-9 shot short of a weighed 1 oz!
With all of this fussing and putzing around, it took me an hour and 45 minutes to load 10 shells from start of Cluster F to finishing vacuuming the spilled powder and shutting off the light.
Guess I will wait until I can get a conversion kit for the MEC. The Lee just ain't worth the hassle, even if it does do a nice crimp.
I was able to get 200 primed Cheddite hulls, wads and 16 gauge loading manual from BPI. I have / had an unopened bottle of green dot and 30 lbs of #5 lead shot. Because I was unable to find a conversion kit for my old Versa MEC 700 (I have 10 and 12 gauge dies), I bought a LEE Loadall II in 16 gauge. It was about 1/2 the price of the MEC conversion kit, but it is a not-so-good piece of equipment, IMHO.
The bushing called for in the Lee guide to drop 20 gr. of Green Dot dropped slightly less than 1/3 of the amount - 7.2 gr. - according to my electronic scale. Changing the bushing spilled about 1/2 an ounce of powder all over everything. What a mess!! And it STILL was dropping 4.5 grains light with the bushing 2 sizes larger! Enough of that nonsense!!!
So I set up my RCBS powder measure and set it to drop 18 gr. of Green Dot (the minimum according to the BPI Loading manual).
Dropping 1 oz of #5 shot was another adventure in frustration! Not only would the shot hang up in the drop tube, when I could get all of it out by tapping on the tube with the handle of a screwdriver, it was always 6-9 shot short of a weighed 1 oz!
With all of this fussing and putzing around, it took me an hour and 45 minutes to load 10 shells from start of Cluster F to finishing vacuuming the spilled powder and shutting off the light.
Guess I will wait until I can get a conversion kit for the MEC. The Lee just ain't worth the hassle, even if it does do a nice crimp.
