Home Forums Reloading Shotshells Reloading the .410

I would like to get setup to reload (12, 20, and .410) but I'd like to start out with just the .410.

I know almost nothing about reloading and would like to keep it simple and effective where I could turn out a box or two a night for my weekend shoots.

What do I need and Where do I begin?

A Mec 600 jr is about 140 dollars new and will do a fine job. From the factory I believe they come set up to load 2 1/2" shells. They do make a kit and are adjustable to load the 3".Skeet shooters all use the 2 1/2". Rem, WW,Fed and Claybuster all make plastic shot cups for the 410. Lil Gun,296,H-110,4227 are most often used. Get several good powder company loads manuals to get load recipes from and go from there. Ballistic Products from Corcorran Mn is also a 410 source.410 hulls don't last long.You could do alot worse than to shoot up a couple of flats of WW AA skeet loads for your hull source. the feds and RP hulls don't last even as long as the AA's. Magnum Man

PS the 600 JR will load 100 rds an hr easy and you look around,probably find a used one for half that.Don't think about other gauge sets just get a different 600 to do the 12 and the 20.

I don't shoot a 410 much. I bought a box of 410 brass cases and use them. they will last me for the rest of my life and are easy to load. if your 410 is a single or double barrel they will work , may be more difficult to make then work in a repeater.

Like Hubert, I've reloaded .410 shells on brass cases. But I used .444 Marlin cases and 9.3x74R cases. Now that I've found a .410 Lee Loader, I use regular plastic .410 3" cases.

But good luck finding one of those; it too me 4 years of looking! And the instruction manual was for paper cases, so I've had to use a powder scale to weigh powder and a modern loading manual and components. But it works fine if you only need about 100 rds. per season.

I think that if Lee made .410 3" dies for its "Hand Press," they would sell very well. Lots of guys like the .410 but just don't need cases of shells.

Thanks for the information fellas. I'll do some looking around on the products ya'll mentioned.

I'm mainly going to be loading for my Bond Arms Derringer and a single shot H&R shotgun.

I've been mainly shooting Federal and Remington loads for a while now and saving the hulls. I'll start picking up some Winchester AA loads for future use.

ive got the mec jr in 12ga.very simple to use,at 9 years old my son was a very compitant reloader.i bought several charge bars and powder bushings for a real good price on e-bay.i bought a 20ga set of dies but it was a real pain switching them around.i suggest buying a seperate loader for each gauge you want to reload.i was able to get a reloading manual from federal free of charge at the grand america a few years ago.you might be able to get some load data from them free of charge.

I haven't bought it yet but I found a Lee Load All II that seems to be priced reasonably.

Is the Mec Jr. a better press or will the Lee work just as good?

i have never used the lee so i cant comment on it but i have had my mec jr several years and have probably reloaded 5 or 6 thousand shells with it without any problems.short of routine cleaning and the occassional collet grease it has performed flawless for me.

Like Hubert, I've reloaded .410 shells on brass cases. But I used .444 Marlin cases and 9.3x74R cases. Now that I've found a .410 Lee Loader, I use regular plastic .410 3" cases.
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What do you do fire form the 9.3x74R brass ?
Where did you get 410 brass ?

Could you relate how/commercial wads?/2 1/2" or 3" charges?/
crimp info. I have a Mec. for 20 Ga., but was wondering how
you loaded using .444 cases for .410. I buy 12's for waterfowl,
but, use 20's for skeet, upland and non-serious trap. I have
a Contender I would be using the .410's in.

I bought Brazilian-made "Magtech".410 2 1/2" cases from Midway USA and reloaded them with black powder, cardboard wads made by sharpening a steel .45 case for a punch, and a card overshot wad held in by silicon caulking goop. Worked pretty well, although I quickly got tired of cleaning the gun after shooting. Patterns were good enough for bunnies or vaporizing a snake (something I only do when I find one near people). One good thing about these loads is that they open up a full choke at close range, compared to "modern" .410 shells.

I used cut-down 2 1/2" Remington .410 plastic wads in the .444 case (which is shorter than 2 1/2") and the same card overshot wad, with a very slight roll crimp on the case mouth, but no silicon goop. I used Trail Boss for powder and a regular large rifle primer. 3/8 oz. shot, the same as the original 2" .410 shells the Brits called "FourTens." Mainly a snake and bunny load, although it's good for rats and inside-the-barn pigeons if you can get hold of some #12s.

The .410s I used these home-brews in were a Winchester M37 single shot with a full-choke 28" barrel and a factory 23" .410 barrel on my G2 Contender Carbine, which has a choke tube that the previous owner opened up to cylinder or very close. With heavier shot (6,5,4) it shoots tighter patterns than the full choke Winchester does! It's only more open with 8s, and 7 1/2s (I've never tried 8 1/2s or 7s in a .410, but I suspect hard 7s might surprise you).