[Jet setter]

Great looking shells. It appears you hand load each hull. What do you use to set the wad and crimp?

 

[VegasJordan]

I have a MEC Jr, my shop doesn’t have the greatest light and currently it’s about 90* out there. I did hand load the powder and shot but everything else was on the press. If I like the load I will set the powder and shot up on the press

 

[ezz555]

Do yourself a favor and use the press for all the steps of reloading. Millions and millions of shells have been loaded on a 600 jr. press. You have yourself a nice setup there. Good job.

 

[marbax]

I have a MEC Jr, my shop doesn’t have the greatest light and currently it’s about 90* out there. I did hand load the powder and shot but everything else was on the press. If I like the load I will set the powder and shot up on the press

Why?

 

[10at6]

Around 19 grains of GM-3 made nice loads with 1 or 1.12 oz loads in AA HS or any of the Remington hulls. And CD AA clones. Also shot a lot at 18 grains with the 1oz loads.

 

[10at6]

CB 1100 or CB 1118 wads

 

[colonel klink]

I liked the 1 ounce, GM3 load but right now I am not aware of anyone selling it. Mine came from Graf's but out of stock last time I looked. Good powder in my opinion.

 

[hollywood5150]

Good looking shells. Wish I could find more AS, A1 and GM3.

 

[birdk9]

I love Vectan AS and A1 wish I could find more. GM3, not so much. I used it for 1 ounce loads. The drops were changing all the time. I was measuring at least every 25 loads sometimes every ten loads. I have a Universal Charge Bar so I can keep up with the fluctuations.
The GM3 powder I had was very gritty with a mix of pebbles and then a more powdery blend. The pebbles would drop a certain weight. When the particles became smaller it would drop a different weight. I had to keep adjusting for a plus or minus .5 grain fluctuation.
As far as going bang, it works fine.

 

[Abolt243]

Do yourself a favor and use the press for all the steps of reloading. Millions and millions of shells have been loaded on a 600 jr. press. You have yourself a nice setup there. Good job.

Yes, by all means, use the press. Wish I had snapped a picture of my first setup with a 600 Jr. (It would have been on an old Polaroid 600 camera or an Instamatic, this was in 1970!) Much like yours, mounted on a board but I then put it on the floor or on a large footstool in our first "married folks" apartment. Was more stable than you would think. Moved then to our first home in a tenant house on the farm. Set up the Jr. in an old smoke house just outside the back door. You could throw a cat through the walls in several different places and the bench had been used for cutting meat and later as a mechanic's bench. Lots of 700X in AACF hulls. If you get everything set just right, you can have 5 shells at a time on the machine rather than run one through all the stations individually. Still have an old steel 700X empty powder keg in my reloading shed. AA shells were way less than $40 per 20 box case. I was probably loading for less than $1 per box. Good times.