Those here who reload might have learned many of the same truths I have. Over nearly 50 years of loading I have loaded on almost every type machine made with just a few exceptions. MEC 600, 650, 76, grabbers, 9000HN, Ponsness Warren 800 and 900, Pacific 366 and Spolar Gold. They all will load a nice shell, if you do your part. Owned both hydraulic and electric drive systems. Both work well and never seem to get tired.

Now for the truths I have learned over the years.

1.The more valuable the empty in cost, or having just a precious few on hand, the more likely one or more will get ruined in reloading. Split mouth, cocked wad, ruined rim, poor crimp. If you have a ton on hand they never seem to get ruined. Also a new shells will always get ruined more frequently than a twice fired hull.

2.Never trust a powder "chart" to tell you what weight of powder bushing or your machine is dropping. Buy a set of scales and use them. Also be aware that if your surface is not level your scales can be off. Flat is not enough.

3.Of all the re-loaders I have used or owned I find the Spolar Gold to be my favorite. A PW800 is a good machine as are the MEC loaders. I will never own another 900 PW. The 800 is a better machine in my experience. I just finished loading 24,000 shells, in four gauges on my Spolar and had less than a box of rejects in total. All my fault I am sure. Few bad crimps, bad or cocked wads, three I ran out of shot on, that type of rejects.

4.I save a little money on 12 gauge shells for basic clay target shooting. I save a lot on low pressure loads, so it does still pay to reload for the 12, for most of what I shoot.

5.Loading in 28 and .410 saves me so much money it is like shooting for half price. Plus a bag of shot seems to last forever.

6.Never watch the shot level when loading 12 gauge shells, it falls too fast. OK to watch it when loading .410, it seems to last for ever.

7.Loading in a unheated and non AC garage is much less fun than in the house.

8.Shot once spilled, will never be 100% picked up.

9.Never put powder in a reloader without placing a paper label in the powder container, on top of the powder, that tells you what type of powder it is. I can not tell you the number of partial bottles of powder I have not had to throw out, because I would have forgotten what it was and you can not tell with most of them what they are by just looking at them. If you take a bottle off a machine and store it you must have some way to figure out which type of powder it is. A small piece of paper tells you everything and it takes five seconds to make. I keep over a dozen types of powder on hand so there are too many choices to ever guess at. You know or you throw it out and $20 bucks a pound is too costly to waste.

10.If you have a hydraulic or electric drive on your loader you will load longer than if you have to pull the handle. It just never seems to get tired. You still will put off reloading if you can. But once you get started you can load a lot of shells.

11.When you have the chance to buy large numbers of basic components and have the money to buy them, you will never regret it. I bought enough shot to last for multiple years. My stock of Remington primers lasted five years. Wads are easy to find most times so I do not load up on them that much, maybe a case each of the basic ones. But when your favorite low pressure powder, like PB get discontinued, you are not crazy to buy 20+ pounds of it.

12.Never start reloading without checking everything. Check load required, check that the weight of powder being dropped is correct. I keep everything written down in a reloading journal that is specific for each gauge.

13.When in doubt about your loads send a sample out for pressure testing. It does not cost that much to be positive you are safe. Cost will be less than the deductible for your first physical therapy session if you get hurt because you screwed up loading. Fingers do not grow back.

14.When you load more than one load, in the same type shell, put a slip of paper with the basic information in every box. I print them on the computer so a page has about 40 copies of the information and cut them into small strips. Place it around the middle shell on the top of the box. From that I can tell you powder, weight, shot size, you name it. I laugh at people shaking shells,, next to their ear, to figure out what size shot is in them.

15.If you load for a new shooter, remember to load light loads to keep recoil down. The number of new shooter I see getting stomped by WallyWorld shells is sad. I have seen more than a few that were one and done. I often give them a box of my loads, if they will shoot another round. The look on their faces when the first shot does not stomp them is priceless.

16.Speaking of new shooters, give them a light 12, a light 20 or a 28 load. You can load a 3/4 ounce load in all three of them and they will hit just as many birds with that load that they will with full loads. The reduced recoil will make it much more pleasant for them.

17.If you like putting reloads in boxes, like I do, don't be ashamed to pick up free boxes at your club. Free is the best price you will get. I pass up free shells all the time but will take a dozen free boxes out of the trash when I can. I have several hundred empty boxes for 12 and 20's but never seem to have too many for 28 and .410.

18.Never reload with distractions. No TV, no beer and no smoking. I never will forget shooting the Great Eastern Skeet shoot with a fellow who was smoking his pipe, when a single spark from his pipe set off a 15 pound keg of Red Dot. His house was three doors down from the fire department, which was having a meeting at the time. They got there in less than three minutes he said. They were able to drag him out of the house but the house burned down to the ground. The amount of skin grafting he went through was scary. Not having a functioning eyelid on his left eye was worse I am sure.

19.Do not use old reloading information without checking if it is still valid. Powders have been changed over the years. When in doubt just pickup the phone and call Alliant or Hodgdon directly.

20.You can never have too many different choices in hulls, wads, powders, shot or primers. My inventory is larger or more choices than most gun shops around me and I always feel I need a little more stuff.

21.Never give reloading information from memory. Show them the information in writing. Show them the guide or show them it on line. Print it out for them.

22.If you get a call to help someone fix their relaoder, after you fix it for them take their wrenches and screwdrivers away from them. Some people should not be allowed to turn a wrench and these people will not leave it alone after you fix it for them. Once set up very few adjustments will ever be needed. They still wont leave them alone.

Please feel free to add your points as well. Maybe I forgot a few or never learned them in the first place.

KY Jon -- I would also add that if you load for the 16 gauge you will actually be able to create a lot of variations of ammo that simply cannot be purchased. I would be SOL shooting my Fox and Harkom 16s if I did not reload for them. My usual game load is 1 oz. of no. 7 shot at 1175 fps.

It also helps if you hoard 16 gauge reloading components.

Good points for sure.
I can add one.
When initially testing your powder throw weights on a scale, never remove the top of the powder bottle on the loader to dump the weighed charges in.
Always dump back into the powder can. Forgetting the cap of the powder bottle is off is a mess waiting to happen. Damn I've done it more than once.

Very good piece, ought to be required reading

Boats

Great! And how truth your statements are. As Boats said "ought to be required reading".

Thanks for putting a smile on my face this morning!

Greg

Excellent list, Jon. Some profound truths there.

I don't have a basement, nor any other room suitable for reloading, in my house. But, when I first started I had my old Texan single-stage mounted on a desk in my office, and would reload there. Well, those were the days of shag carpet being popular. Know where this is headed? When the inevitable shot charge spill occurred those 461 little lead balls just disappeared into that deep pile carpet. Or so I thought. Next time wife ran the big Electrolux over my office she thought she was at the center of the Apocalypse. I soon had to hunt for a better place, and turned an outbuilding into my shop and reloading headquarters. There's been much more marital harmony in the house since, and the vacuums work smoother, too.

I would add this one.

#23 - Never start out shotshell reloading with a .410. You need to successfully load some shot shells so that you have begun to accumulate all the thousands of dollars worth of paraphernalia and junk that inevitably gathers in the loading shed, before buying a .410 loader. If you don't, you won't have enough skin in the game and you will throw the .410 in the dumpster and start preaching how shooters who reload are just fooling theirselves into believing there is a real savings.

SRH

Stan none of my friends who tried loading in the dining room are still married to the same wife. Such narrow minded females. You discovered number 8. Shot once spilled will never be all recovered.

Here is another one I just remembered. Call it #24

24.Nevet try to vacuum up spilled powder and shot with you wife’s good vacuum cleaner. If the powder gets sucked into the electric motor it will burn, the shot will be rattling around in the vacuum forever and if you suck in a live primer it can detonate which will require a clean set of underwear. A friend had this happen in just about the same order. Cost him a new vacuum and that cold fish look from his wife. He also had to relocate his loading into a shed out back.

I've got an old walnut table made with pegs and the wood was pit sawn. I've been custodian of it for over 4 decades. It's a small table that now sits in the living room with a lamp and various knick knacks on it. It has been a kitchen table, a breakfast table and general utility table before being granted living room status. I've cleaned fish on it (newspaper on top), gutted small game, and reloaded shells on it. There are a few shot wedged between the three boards the top is made out of. If you can run a MEC progressive without screwing up a pellet drop on occasion, you are a better man than I, Kemo Sabe. I take comfort in knowing about the shot being still there. Gil

When I first started reloading shot shells,(35 or more years ago) and was loading four gauges (OK not many 410's) and seven shot sizes, I had to come up with some way to distinquish loads. I assigned a different color to each shot size: black for 4's, yellow for 5s, blue for 6's etc. I would then take the tray of primers and spray them the appropriate color for the size shot I was about to load. A couple of light sprays with time to try in between was all it took. When I pick up a shell, years or decades after it was loaded, I still know what it contains and a quick breech of your double and they are looking you in the face.

Tyler that’s a good tip. I used a permanent magic marker to color the primers in the tray. When duck hunting I would put a V on the shell head face for 5 shot, a 0 for 6 shot and two lines for 2’s for geese. Could tell them apart in the near dark. Knew which of my three go to loads they were instantly. Never wanted to be shooting sixes at geese given time to switch or worse twos at a teal. Talk about overkill. Remington RXPs were my favorite hunting shell for years and those were saved for hunting loads only. What ever system you find is an aid. Shaking shells does not tell you much.

Don't forget when running a progressive press, that 100% of the time you look at the primer feed there will be a primer there. If you don't look 80% of the time there won't be a primer there ! :-) ymmv

All good thoughts gained from many years making your own.

I have two MEC Sizemasters, a 12 gauge and a 20. I load 1/2 and 3/4 ounce lead loads in both 12 and 20 gauge and two hull lengths: 2 1/2 and 2 3/4 inch. Both MEC's are mounted on a 3/4" wood base and I do all my loading with the press sitting in a 18" by 18" by 2 inch high box. Limits how far spilled shot and the occasional loose one goes. But once in a while, one still gets away.

I load 12 & 16.
The 12's are Winchester compression formed hulls & I have thousands. They come in red, black Hi brass & black low brass, gold & orange.
I have enough of the colours to load low pressure 7/8 oz, 7 1/2 in red, low pressure 1 oz, 4's in low brass black. Hi pressure 1 1/8 oz in hi brass black & so on. I do not put some colour shells in some guns, while other guns can be fed any colour.

The 16's are shot size by colour, purple, red, green & blue & all the same 3/4 oz load other wise.
O.M

I reload 12, 20 and .410 ...........at the current time. All of my presses are out in my shop, but only one is bolted down, a 3" .410 MEC. I load at it from a seated position. All the others I load standing, and they are held in a woodworkers vise mounted to the front of my workbench. I designed a platform with bins that the presses are bolted to, then the whole affair is gripped in the vise. Thought someone might like to see it. Works especially well with the 9000G. Because it is all out front of the bench I later came up with a little attachment that catches the finished shell as it slides off the "trough", turns it, and drops it into a plastic bucket which is hanging on the front of the bench under the left side of the press. It helped speed up my loading on the progressive, when I used to load all my regular sporting clays shells. Any press in the shop can be used with the set-up.



SRH

Stan I do the same thing. Clamp the press in a big woodworkers vise. Can’t give away valuable bench space with permanent mounts. This in a 24x26 shop with 4 workbenches. 4 shotgun presses 2 rifle and one pistol all portable mounts working on one dedicated loading bench.

Boats

Stan I still have four MEC 9000HN's, hydraulic machines, which I used for several years. With them you don 't need to bolt them to the bench. They will sit there just fine as you load on them. I bought a Spolar Gold with four gauge die sets about two years ago. My second Spolar Gold machine. First was a 12 gauge, which is on permanent loan to my oldest son. I had stopped loading 12 much and was happy to see him use it and shoot more. Instead of getting it back, and sharing long distance, I just waited until a nice one came along.

If you buy a good machine like a MEC or PW 800 or Spolar and take good care of it, you wont loose money when you sell it. Age is nothing to a well maintained machine. And when you get them properly adjusted you can load buckets of shells without much effort. Heck I still have a few 600JR, old style around and will load a few shells on them if needed. Speed is nice but a 600Jr. takes me back to my early days.

Very good advice. Re #9 and #14: I buy plain white labels--the kind you put on file folders--and use them on both powder and shot bottles, and on the shotshell boxes I use for my reloads. They're sticky-backed and aren't likely to come off. But you can put a new one over the top of the previous one with no problem.

There's something satisfying about clacking that bar back and forth on a single stage MEC. I still have a 16 ga. Sizemaster for those short runs of hunting ammo.

I have 7 different presses all stored on shelves in my shop. Each press is bolted to a base board. The base board has 2 holes that allows me to bolt a base board with press to my loading bench and secure the press with wing nuts.

I use a magic marker to put a line on the rim face of each shotshell when it is reloaded. Helps me know often that hull was reloaded. I discard if they have eight marks.

Lately I can pick up a lot of quality once-fired 12 ga. hulls at the Sporting Clay range (AA's and Rem Nitro's). Some 20's also...

A good friend, when I told him I was going to start loading shot shells, told me to take a pound of powder and a pound of shot and pour them on the floor. He said they'd end up there anyway and that way I'd have got by that phase of the process and could move on to some kind of success.

I've found that using a strip of 1.5" wide masking tape makes for a very quick and easily replaced label for both powder & shot sizes on the bottles as well as a note on the weight of powder being thrown & bushing installed in the charge bar.

A piece of the same tape across the box top will give you an instant label for the hull, powder & weight, shot size & type, primer & wad. Just run a strip across and trim w/a razor blade or box cutter for clean edges. Its fast & inexpensive & it helps to prevent errors. I go through periodic loading binges, boxing hulls so labeled and placing them in flats that are also marked on the end facing outward when stacked. Makes life easier for me doing it that way.

I've also found that it is expedient to replace MEC bottles when they become clouded by graphite or start to show any sign of yellowing. The plastic degrades over time and becomes brittle. No fun if one finally cracks w/shot or powder in it. MEC service has always been top notch in my experience. New bottles are inexpensive in the greater scheme of things.

Many years ago we were having our basement carpet cleaned and my gun/reloading was in the basement. The carpet cleaner came upstairs and showed me a handful of #9 shot that he had pulled from our carpet while vacuuming.

Lots of good ideas and advice here! I especially like Jolly Bills idea of mounting the press in a shallow box in order to catch most powder and shot spills. I load in my basement in a room with a smooth concrete floor, but getting all of the shot, powder, or spent primers that spills is still a PITA. I also like Stan's idea of mounting his presses in a woodworkers vise. I made a tapered dovetail mount along with matching tapered dovetail bases to install on the base of each of my presses. It only takes seconds to switch to a different press. But Stan's idea leaves him with a clean bench top if he removes his press.

I partially disagree with no.20 in KY Jon's list concerning stocking up on supplies. I used to stock up on everything when I could buy components cheap, and still do with one exception. I have learned that it is not a good idea to buy more plastic wads than you can use in a couple years because the plastic becomes brittle with time and this can change pressures and performance. But then again, the same aging would also occur in loaded ammunition that is kept for years, so how big of a problem is this? I'm still slowly shooting up a bunch of ammo I bought during a going out of business sale at a local gunshop years ago because it is too hot for my old vintage doubles.

Load more, shoot more, save more.

Shoot enough and you'll save enough to be able to afford that new gun.

Chuck;
You'd make a good add writer. Sounds like all those ads "The More You Buy the More You Save". Funny but it always seemed to me the more I bought the more I spent.

I have one Mec loader, 600 Jr, that's pretty old. (The final crimp station is metal.) A few weeks ago, I tipped it up to start reloading . . . shot spilling out. I thought it was the bottle that broke. Nope. It was the grommet that holds the bottle. The grommets holding the bottles on the older reloaders look like Mec used screw on metal bottle caps--definitely on the flimsy side. The grommets on the new ones are a significant improvement.

Agree that Mec customer service is great. They get you to someone who both speaks English and also speaks reloading. And they get you parts pretty quickly.

That's a nice list and covers the major points.

It took me decades to learn that with regard to reloading 20 ga. Winchester hulls, you will get the nicest results using Winchester powder and a Winchester(like) wad.