Home Forums Reloading Shotshells Could use some sage advice

I forgot to ask you have you ever seen the Todd Bender skeet tape?
It is worth getting imo

I sure haven't. Thanks for the tip.

The tape is great for getting the basics and I watch it 4 or 5 time a year or when I'm having trouble.

Cas

I pulled out my old reloading log book and see that I paid $9.00 for a 25 lb. bag of shot and $8.00 per pound of red dot when I bought my loader. At the time a box of 12 ga. AA's (1-1/8 oz.) cost $4.00. and I could load them for $2.60 per box. Today I pay $4.90 for the same AA loads and my loader is sitting un-used.

I suspose my problem is I like to practice with the same load I hunt with. I haven't shot skeet regularly in several years but I think I will want to start up again when I retire. I'll be looking for a nice little 28 double before then. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Meanwhile I have about 10,000 red AA's hulls stashed away in the attic because I might start bird hunting again. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

PDS,
I'd love to see those prices again.

I tend to agree with you about practicing with your hunting load. In fact, I've shot AA Sporting Clays loads with 7 1/2's for all of my preserve hunting for pheasants, and all of my dove, quail and chukar hunting. I hope to duplicate the performance of that load for this upcoming season.

I've got a pretty nice Beretta 20/28 combo, and I love shooting that little 28. I also checked out the new CZ 28ga SxS the toher day, and there is a strong possibility that one of them will be coming home with me. They seem to be a great gun for the money, and one that I can have a lot of fun with until my daughter is old enough to tote a gun afield with me (although she insists that she wants a pink shotgun).

pullit,

Well, one of the guys I shoot with was watching me pretty closely the other day and thinks that my eye dominance changes depending on the station. I know that my left eye is normally dominant, so I keep both eyes open until right before I break the trigger most times.

On stations 3,4, and 5 I generally shoot with both eyes open all the time. My buddy said he could tell which eye I was sighting with by where the shot went. I was shooting ahead of the high house birds on the middle stations, but dusting the low house birds. Maybe I was picking up the low house with my right eye first, and the high house with my left eye.

I'm all screwed up, and am tempted to go back to shooting one-eyed.

An easy fix or to tell if this is ture or not is to put a peice of scotch tape on your non shooting eye ( on the lens of you glasses) The peice of tape needs to be about the size of a postage stamp. Place it right in front of your eye. It will alow you to shoot with both eyes open and make the uncovered eye be your dominate eye. you can try this for a while and if you do not like it just remove the tape. (no harm to your glasses).
You will have to get use to it, but it is not that hard, I did the same thing only to find I did not need the tape I just needed to KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BIRD. ( I wish I could remember that).
I have been known to see the bird but not look and focus on the bird. Like looking at your watch and a little later having to look at it again because you did not notice the time. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
Todd Bender's tape tells you to look at the bird hard enough to see the rings on the target and to watch it spin.
Hope this helps, let me know how its going.

I shot 4 rounds this morning and did pretty well for me. I didn't tape my glasses yet (though I will), but instead slightly closed my left eye just enough to obscure the vision and force my right eye to take over. I did this each time just before I broke the bird.

My first round I ran all the way until my 24th shot, and missed it. I then busted the option to make my first 24 (my best yet). The next round I missed the high at #5 and the low at #9 again for a 23. My next two rounds were both 22, missing random shots.

I did have my 12ga out today, so that made hitting a bit easier.

One of the guys let me shoot a box of handloads using anly 7/8oz of shot at 1325fps. The recoil was barely noticeable, though the shot got to the target quite a bit quicker. I shot in front of one bird on 4 (I'll just blame it on the loads).

I gave the 28ga loader a workout last night for the first time, and it was so buggered up that I ruined about 15 hulls trying to get it right. The pre-crimp was set too high, and caused the crimp rod to crush the hull instad of closing it. The charge bar lock was bent and wouldn't lock the bar, so it spilled shot and powder all over. The shell lifter was set too low, and had some crud in it so it hung up. The primer drop tube was bent and dropped the primer next to the center spring every time. It was a mess, but I got it working great after about an hour.

Question for you though, the MEC bushing chart called for a #14 to drop 15.1gr of Longshot. The recipe called for 15.5, so I started with the #14 and tried to ream it out a little since it was dropping even lower than 15.1. I ended up using a #15 that dropped 15.5gr on the nose without modification. Is this normal to have them off that much? I checked my 20 with Universal, and it was just a hair light.

Great shooting, until I have several years of shooting any score with a 9* on the front of it looked good to me.

Let me know when you try the tape if it helpes.

Yes the powder bushing can be off alot. Even bushings with the same # can be off alot from bushing to bushing. I did use a univeral charge bar for years for two reasons, 1) to dial in the correct powder weight, 2) because I lived out in the country (still do) and nobody had bushing, so if I changed powder or wanted to try a new powder I had to order the bushing and wait.
I went to fix bushings about 2 years ago and really like them but I did some honing on them.
If I was just a little light I would rap sand paper around a wooden dowel and chuck it in a drill, if I was way off ( I have a Lablond lathe) I would chuck it in that and drill the next bigger drill size about 1/4 of the depth of the bushing, and try it. And repeat until I got it right. I have done several bushing for friends loader and even made bushing for sizes I did not have. It can be a pain.
One thing, the powder can be alot like a rifle powder dump in you will see varance in weight by the way you shake the press. I don't worry about .1 +/- wither way (maybe even .2)
The differance in vel. is so small that you will never see it and you will drive yourself crazy tring to make it hit the mark every time. ( hyd. unit that I added to my loaders helped it more than you would think. Most are dead nuts).
Just remember when you miss you had a 30 inch pattern not a bullet. The point is 15 maybe even 50 fps will not change your sight picture. It may mean you shoot the bird in the head or maybe the butt depends on your load, but broke is broke.

by the way I have a box of 7/8 oz 12 gage shell, have not tried them yet but I like the idea. I do shoot 1 oz alot (2 3/4 dram) and like them alot. If I shoot 1 1/8 oz I go for the lightest dram I can find. I don't need 3 or 3 3/4 dram to break clay birds at skeet.
just my 2 cents.

I have had a Mec Grabber for 25 years and it has been a great high Volume loader, my son and I shoot over 20,000 rounds a season. Mostly trap, also skeet ,sporting and hunting. I do my skeet shooting with a 20 guage low gun, More fun, better practise for hunting and sporting. So I bought a new grabber in 20 Gauge and have 2000 AA hulls, when ever I get low I load up 2 or 3 flats, keeps me going for a few months this is way less hassle than changing dies sets. if you put an adjustable charge bar on the mec loaders you will never have to buy bushings and will always be able to match any recipe. The bushing are always a compromise, even the mec bars are not accurate when you change shot sizes. The mecs are easy to operate, wear well, and if you need parts mec has them to you in days and always have great customer service. a lot of my trap shooting friends have Ponsness warren loaders which look like better machines but they cost 3 or 4 times as much make no better reloads and when they need repairs you had better count on sending it to the plant unless you are a machinist.

Am I glad that I found this thread! I currently have a 600JR in 28 ga. and since I recently got into skeet shooting I find that I need a progressive press to crank out all that extra ammo. I'm seriously looking at the MEC 9000 and will probably go that route. However, I have a question about adjustable charge bars. I have one on the 600. Will an adjustable bar work on the 9000 since the shot bottle is on the right instead of the left as on the 600?

Doug

Never mind, guys. Just answered my own question. I found the literature on the charge bar and I see that they make a separate model for the 9000.

Doug

I ended up buying the MEC 9000 and an adjustable charge bar to go with it. It took me a while to set it up and I had trouble with the charge bar failing to lock but I finally figured it out. I'm loading single shells at present to get the hang of it and will try loading multiple shells later today. The charge bar MEC supplied with the loader wasn't even close to 3/4 oz. of shot. The adjustable bar works great. I got the shot charge right with only one minor adjustment and the powder charge right on the first time.

Doug