doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Open center in crimp.

The above adjustments usually work.

I reload mostly Remingtons, some STS but mostly Gun Clubs, in both 12 and 20. Once adjustments are made, I don't have any problem with holes in the center. And I can't remember the last time I had to tinker with either the cam or crimp depth settings. That's one reason I like reloading Gun Clubs!

Thanks guys I assume that will be spot on for my MEC.
As far as the hulls, you know your run of the mill 2 oz skeet loads:

Mark21,
In your "run of the mill 2 oz skeet loads" are you using black or nitro powder?

Where did you find Win Industrial shells ? I've never seen a color combination of yellow/red/clear. Your first pic shows shells that look like they've been reloaded before, your second pic shows a shell with a fired primer yet the mouth of the shell looks unfired or new. Anyways, my load stack height is .300 from the top of the shell. With that I get a .060 crimp depth - factory for 12ga is .055. Once you get the proper, or close to proper crimp depth, with a single stage Mec you can do this
When adjusting the crimp station, the CAM is the LAST thing you adjust. Adjust the crimp starter first, then adjust the seating stem to get the proper depth. When you are getting a correct fold of the crimp petals, and the correct depth set, THEN adjust the cam to eliminate the flare. NOTE The cam adjustment should be set at least 2/3 of the way up, while the other adjustments are being made. Then, and only then, lower the cam enough to eliminate the flare.



The roller will not touch the cam (or at least not have any force put on it by the cam) at the very bottom of the stroke. BUT, more cam means the cam will touch the roller and apply force to it longer (further down) in the stroke. The cam has a fairly sharp shoulder or lobe on it. When you start down with the press the roller rolls on the cam (because this part of the cam is circular) and the outer (plastic) part of the die is pushed down by the cam and roller. Until you get around 1/2-3/4 of the way down, everything I have said so far remains true regardless of where the cam is set. However, the cam is rotating as you come down. Eventually the cam rotates to the point when the roller goes past the shoulder on the cam. Past this point the cam is no longer circular. As you come on down the cam puts less and less pressure on the roller. But, the center punch will come on down because it is fastened solidly to the top of the press. If the roller gets past the shoulder of the cam too early in the stroke you will end up with the punch coming on down on the center of the crimp and this tending to squeeze the top of the shell outward. But the plastic part of the die is not coming on down, which means it cannot prevent the top of the shell from flaring outward. It takes a lot of fine tuning to get this just right. There is a reason why Mec adds the final taper die to the Grabber and 9000. Having a separate die that is used strictly to get some taper makes things a lot simpler.


Most people do NOT have straight in their minds what the CAM actually does. There are all kinds of convoluted beliefs as to what it actually does.

Adding more cam, (Lowering it at the adjustment slot), causes the crimp die to lower slightly at the near bottom of the stroke. The die has a taper at the top of the die, that when pushed lower, will in fact push the flare at the end of the hull inward, closing the hole in the center tighter, and usually will eliminate the flare and in fact may leave the end of the hull slightly rounded.

SO, in most cases, a properly adjusted CAM will reduce or eliminate the flare on the end of the hull, and probably leave it slightly rounded.
With a progressive press the very last crimp station can be carefully adjusted down so you get a slight round [ making it easier when using autos ] on the top of the shell. Either one will also close the crimp a little. I also reload just Remington hulls and never had a problem with crimps.
I don't think you meant 2oz skeet loads - 2oz wouldn't fit in a 2 3/4" shell unless you were using fiber wads and skeet loads are 1 1/8oz max.

These are 2oz -- 8 ga. Nitro loads.

I smiled when I saw the hulls. I have a similar stack next to my 8 gauge reloader and have had the similar problem of getting the crimp to fully closed. The field-expediant fix was drip on some wax to fully seal the hull. The more permanent solution was to adjust the final crimp station.

Mmmm: 8g! I'm working through filling my first lot of 8g, some BP loads in yellow rem hulls at the moment - all by hand though, no machines. It's a tad tedious, but those finished cartridges have very satisfying heft to them!

Perhaps we should start a thread to consolidate 8g hand loading knowledge and resources? I've found info pretty scant.

Happy New Year everyone.
I could not agree more about broadening our collective knowledge of 8 bore reloading.

OK - I
ll cop to a level of ignorance here since I've not loaded on a MEC for 20+yrs. But I did load about a bazillion carts on a Grabber before I sent it down the road and moved to a Hornady - which of course sets up way different.
My only comment, obviously not relative to any 8ga things, is that I've forever been puzzled by the anality of some people in that they will NOT discard a case. And then often complain about the quality of the reload. I may not be the soul of thrift, but the love affair with the absolutely cheapest component in a load speaks to me of some problem that should be treated by a professional. Even when I was loading a few hundred/week and was scrimping with every bargain the $.05 case got loaded five times max and that was it. Now I pick them up for free and once is it. Actually I don't even do that right now the prices being that it costs me about $.01/bang shooting Wally's stuff compared to the cheapest load I could put together.
But that might just be me

have another day
Dr.WtS

I really don't understand the case comments - photos show brand new cases and 3-4 once fired. How are you to load - test- adjust without firing 1-2 or two eventually? Geez- if you want them newer than that ...