Consider this scenario and renewed availability of Cheddite primers: Recently found love for all things 16g and picked up a few shotguns and a case of Fiocchi’s Wants to reload for 16g (and 20) Press on the way Has zero supplies Won’t hunt again until next dove season but enjoys shooting and has a new target thrower to use on his land What does his first shopping list need to contain so that as soon as he gets his reloading press he can start making shells to use for clays? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good hulls( not fiocchi), primers, wads, powder and shot. The best hulls to reload are going to be Winchester, federal, Remington and cheddite. Some say the Rio hulls are good also. Haven’t used them yet. I pay a little more for Winchester or Remington factory ammo so I can get the hulls. There will be various wads also. Best bet is to get the load he wants to reload and then buy those components. Powder/ primers are through the roof right now. If you haven’t got your order in already expect to pay double or even triple. If your not already into reloading, I would just buy all the factory ammo I could find.
Ok makes sense. I was referring to myself, confused things using third person. I guess for now I should just buy factory ammo until things calm down and save all my hulls. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That would be best in my opinion. If you already had most of the stuff then it would be wise to get what you don’t have. If your like me and Justin you stay stocked up. I just ordered 5000 primers from BP. Should last me for a little while.
Are there any differences in hulls from the same manufacturer? I’ve located some Remington Game Loads in 7.5 shot. Once I shoot them are they good for reloading? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes the game loads are good. You will need to select the correct load depending on hull and base wad. Plastic/ fiber
I’ve had some luck here recently. From your advice last week I picked up a couple cases of Remington ad today I was looking again and picked up a couple cases of Federal. None here yet but I’m ready. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good deal. The Remington are good shells. The federal hulls will be good reloaders, I really don’t care for their shells from the factory, but they will get the job done.
Scored again today. 3 boxes of Federal 7 1/2’s and 1 box of 7 1/2 Remingtons from Walmart! Bonus that they were $7.xx and $8.xx vs the $10-something I’ve been finding online. The Federal box was different but inside the shells look just alike. I guess they make different boxes for Walmart. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I make the walk to back of local Walmart here, where the ammo is every week. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes not. More not here lately.
I think I’m about ready to start reloading. The press I ordered way back in November finally got here a month or two back. I’ve not unboxed it yet. I looked at the loads on the Alliant site for Federal hulls. I’ll need shot, powder, and primers. I’ll need a scale. Any suggestions on a good one so once I buy it I’ll not be looking to upgrade immediately? Also, what other handy supplies and gizmos should I get? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well that depends on how much work you wanna do. If you don’t mind dropping the powder and checking it then hornady makes one for about 160 bucks. I have one and works great. It’s the lock n load bench scale. If you want it to trickle the load while you sip whiskey then the rcbs charge master works great and I have one of those. They were over 400 when I bought mine. I’m gonna order the new hornady G3 next. I also have a really expensive scale that I use to use in my riffle loads, but over kill for shotgun. What ever scale you buy, just make sure it comes with calibration weights and you will be fine for shotgun. If your going to use the bushings to drop shot and powder, you really only need to measure about every 5 drops until you get use to the feel and look of the shot and powder, then you can go to every ten drops. As you get some experience you may check first one or two and then maybe not for another 100 or so. From my experience the bushings won’t be correct. If mec you will need 2 sizes higher then what the chart calls for. So if your gonna get into it on a regular basis with different loads you will end up with a whole set of bushings, but to start out I would pick the load you want and get what the bushing chart calls for, say # 23. Then buy 23-24-25. As far as the shot you will need to know what weight of shot your load calls for. Mec has special skeet bars that are pretty accurate. You can always add finger nail polish to close the hole or use dremel to open it up. One more thing on the scale. You need one that measures in grains and oz at a min. Most should read grain, grams, oz and ct. The hornady above will hold zero and is accurate to .001 grain. Good enough for shotgun. Make sure you let it warm up and Calibrate with each use. After that you need to decide if you wanna roll crimp or not. I use mostly gaep crimpers. They are expensive, but work for factory looking shells. See my post on the tools. I have reviewed about every tool out there and what works and what don’t. I will be adding more in the next couple weeks. And the sky is the limit with reloading. There are tools for everything. You will have a bunch before you know it.
The green dot, herco and unique are good loads. I would stay away from blue dot, way to much powder. I like green dot and even red dot in 16 gauge. Red dot is a 12 gauge powder, but works great in 1 oz 16 gauge. Hopefully you have primers if not expect to pay a premium. Wads may even be a challenge now.
I don’t have any supplies so far, just the empty hulls and the never-used reloader. Your post was exactly what I was hoping for. I know which scales to look at. now. The press I bought is a Ponsness Warren Du-O-Matic 375 and I got it in 16 and 20g. I’ll look around and see what supplies I can find, if things are still too crazy I can keep waiting to start reloading but start getting all my tools. Would the Gaep crimper replace the crimper that is on the press or is it an additional step once the new shell is taken off the press? Oh, and I’m most likely looking at finding one load that works good and stick with it. The only things I shoot at are dove and clay pigeons. I was intending to choose one of the midrange loads up there in that picture. Figured I’d pass on the slowest ones but didn’t need the fastest ones. What pressure would be too much for an Auto 5? I still have lots of factory 16 and even more factory 20, all in game (dove) load. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Not sure about the gaep and your loader, as I load on a mec. Win7stw is your man for those questions. Most of the gaep crimpers are spun in a drill. I have a drill press on my loading bench. As far as the auto 5 it’s steel and any load isn’t gonna hurt it. It usually takes about 8-8500 psi to cycle mine. If your stock is loose or old the more pressure the more abuse on the wood, and will contribute to cracking, and of course more abuse on your shoulder, so I stay in the 8-9000 psi range.
