I have been pretty involved in league level trap shooting, Sporting clays and regulation skeet. Trust me, the Shotgun reloaders are having the same primer problems as the metallic cartridge reloaders. Power has been pretty sketchy for a long time and expensive. Lead shot is iffy also, and when you do find it, the shipping is tough to absorb.
I have MEC progressive reloaders for 12 & 20 gauge and Jrs. for sub gauge. I have not pulled a handle in a few years. I am not going to reload for $9 a box when just watching sales gets me new for the same money.
The modern AA hulls are 3 piece straight wall plastic and do not hold up as well as the old once piece compression formed hulls. Some do choose to reload them.
Federal Gold Medal hulls have always been decent when using a Federal design wad. The common trap club grade shells are called Top Gun. I have reloaded buckets full of top guns one time and tossed them because deterioration of the paper base wad is a variable I don't bother with. The cheapest Federal hulls have different base wads for different production runs, even though they look the same outside. Sort them all with a marked stick if you are going to mess with them
The Remington hulls from the Gun Clubs all the way to Nitro 27 premium hulls are great. I do use either Remington TGT wads or a claybuster clone. Remington primers are a tiny bit smaller than CCI or Winchester primers, and the bigger ones are tighter to press in the first time. Of course once you use the bigger primers once, the holes are too loose for Remington primers. Since I have not found Remington shotshell primers for sale in about 8 years, that is a non issue.
It is pretty hard to find an ideal target shotshell powder that works in both 12 gauge and 20 gauge. I used a lot of "CLAYS" power for 12 gauge and "INTERNATIONAL CLAYS" for 20 gauge. They do not interchange. Before you buy powder, do a lot of checking in the online reloading manuals
Like any reloading, use safe, careful practices, not fast practices.
I would clean up those old MEC Jrs. They are not complicated, parts easy to find, and when kept cleaned and lubricated, will last longer than you. I bought my first one at Turnstyle Department store on 61st and Broadway for $29 in the early 70's. Wad fingers ($4) and plastic bottles and maybe a spring are all that is not original .
I have MEC progressive reloaders for 12 & 20 gauge and Jrs. for sub gauge. I have not pulled a handle in a few years. I am not going to reload for $9 a box when just watching sales gets me new for the same money.
The modern AA hulls are 3 piece straight wall plastic and do not hold up as well as the old once piece compression formed hulls. Some do choose to reload them.
Federal Gold Medal hulls have always been decent when using a Federal design wad. The common trap club grade shells are called Top Gun. I have reloaded buckets full of top guns one time and tossed them because deterioration of the paper base wad is a variable I don't bother with. The cheapest Federal hulls have different base wads for different production runs, even though they look the same outside. Sort them all with a marked stick if you are going to mess with them
The Remington hulls from the Gun Clubs all the way to Nitro 27 premium hulls are great. I do use either Remington TGT wads or a claybuster clone. Remington primers are a tiny bit smaller than CCI or Winchester primers, and the bigger ones are tighter to press in the first time. Of course once you use the bigger primers once, the holes are too loose for Remington primers. Since I have not found Remington shotshell primers for sale in about 8 years, that is a non issue.
It is pretty hard to find an ideal target shotshell powder that works in both 12 gauge and 20 gauge. I used a lot of "CLAYS" power for 12 gauge and "INTERNATIONAL CLAYS" for 20 gauge. They do not interchange. Before you buy powder, do a lot of checking in the online reloading manuals
Like any reloading, use safe, careful practices, not fast practices.
I would clean up those old MEC Jrs. They are not complicated, parts easy to find, and when kept cleaned and lubricated, will last longer than you. I bought my first one at Turnstyle Department store on 61st and Broadway for $29 in the early 70's. Wad fingers ($4) and plastic bottles and maybe a spring are all that is not original .
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