If you belong to a Trap or Skeet club post a wtb note on their bulletin board for a MEC 600JR. Chances are there are several sitting in members closets doing nothing. Most will sell them for very little money, some will just give you the thing. Then get the MEC short kit to crimp 2 1/2” shells. MEC loaders are easy to adjust, esay to repair and parts are cheap.
I’d do a bit of dumpster diving and stock up on free empties, mostly a Remington or AA but Euro type hulls in large numbers are ok. Go to Hodgdon website and figure out what components you need and start scanning the web to build up your supplies. Also get a hull trimmer to shorten all those free hulls.
Sometimes an old member will have tons of stuff they have but no longer use like wads for hunting, hulls they don’t need, size 4, 5 or6 lead shot they don’t need, or even empty boxes. Shot they paid $20.00 a bag for is a steal for you at $30.00/bag. I use 2 3/4” boxes with a price of cardboard spacer to fill in the void with the shorter loaded shells. Anything free is worth accepting because you can often find a way to use it later.
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