My press is a MEC 600 jr,and my short chambered guns are in 12, 16 and 20 gauges. For those I load 2-1/2" shells.
All of my shells are cut down from fired 2-3/4" factory ammo. At first I tried using a 1/4" spacer under the crimp
stations. They looked pretty good and there was no hole in the crimp; but given a short period of time and most of
the crimps started to open up because the new crimp shoulder had moved down below where the original crimp
memory had been. This caused some shells to be bloopers and others to allow the shot charges to be loose in the
shell box, quite frustrating. Then I learned of the "Hartin crimp". It was both simple and brilliant. I haven't had any
problems using this method to load short shells.
Jack Kuzepski
