doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Reloading 410

I am currently using a Mec single stage press. I have the adapter to switch from 2 1/2" to 3" easily. Would there be a downside to buying a used P W progressive?

How many 3" shells will you shoot in a year?

maybe 1000 or more. I find them less recoil than 20 ga and will often put in a 3" load when shooting a clay out past 30 yards

You could set up one loader to 2 1/2” and the second to 3”. I bought a set of dies for .40 3” for one of my Spolars. I just leave it on that machine as I have two other Spolars set up on the same loading bench. At the current rate my 3” machine might last me several lifetimes. But I hate wasting half an hour changing machine and getting everything ready to load. Being set up I can be loading in under a minute. Load for about 10 minutes and have a hundred shells loaded.

I have been reloading shotshells for about 67 years and have never switched dies, except one time switching a .410 PW 375 to 16 gauge, and I left it that way for 40 years, and loaded tens of thousands of .410 on an 800B, and thousands of 16s on the 375. Like KY Jon, I like to walk up to my bench and start to pull handles, not change dies.

PW makes an impressive reloader but the motions are different and can cause issues. I sold my 410 800b as the repriming required overcentering the handle to prime the case. I could not get used to it and many messes resulted. A second 600jr or sizemaster for the volume you shoot may be easier and more cost effective. You can keep the process the same and the components separate. Good luck with it. tmc

I loaded tens of thousands of .410s on a pair of PW 800Bs without a problem. Now, they have broken parts that are about impossible to fix. I now load my 2 1/2" .410s on a single stage PW 375 and my 3" .410s on a single stage MEC 600. At the rate I'm shooting lately, these single stage loaders are sufficient.

Thanks all for feedback. The terrible guy that infected me with the 410 syndrome has all MEC reloaders, so whenever I have an issue he has the answer, so it's best to stay using my MEC.

Frankly, I’d stay with a single stage press. I load 28 on a PW 375 and 410 on a Mec Sizemaster. Motions are different but it is single stage so it’s not complicated. The 410 can be fiddly to load so I like the simplicity of a single stage.

I also prefer single stage for 410.

Tip: When loading on a single stage MEC 410 (mine is a Sizemaster), after seating the wad lift the handle up until the handle is about parallel with the floor before throwing the shot.

This all but eliminates shot bridging in the drop tube. I am embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure that technique out.

Also, the Sizemaster benefits from collet adjustment so your shells are resized the minimum you need to chamber. The collet cycles 6 times for each loaded shell and is the most expensive part of the loader. The 410 collet is prone to failure even more so than the larger gauges. Short of disconnecting the damn thing after sizing a batch of shells, this is the best way to get a reasonable service life out of it.

MEC makes a good machine, even if not the most robust things in the world. At least parts are available and the design is simple enough that most guys can keep them running.