How to Reload a Box of 25 Perfect Shotshells in 2 Minutes

If you want to spend less time using your MEC reloader and more time shooting, then this will be the most important letter you will ever read.

Why? Because I've put together some materials that will do the following for you:

• Embarrassing dud reloads will be a thing of the past. There'll be no more laughs and remarks from your shooting buddies about your reloading. Only envy.
• You'll smile at the outrageous prices charged for a new box of shotshells, knowing that you're paying a fraction of that amount for shells that shoot the way you like them.
• Your reloading sessions will go quickly and uneventfully, allowing you to relax and get into the rhythm as you run your own personal ammo factory.
• 30–60 minutes per week is all you need to reload all you can shoot. (Unless you're Rambo; then you should go 90 minutes.) If you know the right techniques, you can make your reloading sessions productive and enjoyable, so you can spend more of your time and money out there shooting — whether your passion is trap, skeet, sporting clays, or hunting.

The MEC Owner's Manual is Not Enough

Why not just read the MEC Owner's Manual? That's a good place to start. It explains how to reload, fix some common problems, and maintain your reloader. But it doesn't help you through all the problems you're likely to encounter. And it doesn't discuss getting your speed up without sacrificing quality. That's what I do in my reloading guides.

I've Made Countless Shotshell Reloading Mistakes. Why Make the Same Mistakes Yourself?

I'm not associated with the MEC Company. I'm a competitive shooter who got into reloading to save some dough, so I could shoot more and buy nicer guns.

I've been there and done that. You should take the easy route and avoid most of the mistakes I experienced.

I soon learned that reloading was not as easy as the ads made it seem. Yes, you can load six shells at one time. But at first, it looked to me more like "you can have six problems going on at one time."

So I studied, experimented, and listened to other shooters. I also took notes of things I found out — improvements I could make that would save me time, or improve my reloads.

Because I'm just that kind of guy, I decided to organize my notes into some kind of systematic approach to reloading shotshells. What resulted was my first guide, MEC Shotshell Reloading Secrets.

In the 23 years since I've been on the Web selling that guide, I've sold literally thousands of them to people in all 50 states and in many countries around the world. I've also received lots of emails from shooters who found the guide helpful. Often they would have another question and I would write them with my answer.

Because I frequently got the same questions over and over, I decided to publish the mainstream ones in my next guide, called MEC Shotshell Reloading Mail Call.

After all, your goal is to break that target or bag that bird. This is not the Olympics, where you get extra points for "degree of difficulty." Lousy reloads don't build character.

Reloading should help your shooting and not harm it. Reloading should not only save you money but give you the ability to customize loads just the way you like them.

What's in "MEC Shotshell Reloading Secrets"?

Secrets to make your MEC purr like a kitten

• Do some of your loads feel like Mattel loaded them for Barbie to shoot, and others feel like Terminator shells? You have a consistency issue, my friend. We fix that.
• Don't believe the conventional wisdom about which MEC reloader to buy first! Take my advice, and save money.
• Should you take the plunge and buy the top-of-the-line hydraulic? The answer is here.
• The one bakery item that will help keep lead shot from migrating all over your house. Your honey will kiss you passionately for adopting just this one trick.
• This one-time preparation step with your reloader will mean faster reloads for as long as you use your machine.
• Be really careful when using those low-cost promotional shotshells from discount stores! Here's why.
• Which hulls last the longest.
• How to get a free replacement owner's manual.
• Your shooting buddy may give you this advice about caring for used hulls. Don't take it! It could be disastrous for you.
• An easier way to refill powder.
• The single most important thing to watch for in the whole reloading process. This takes far less time than pulling out ruined shells, cleaning spilled shot and powder, drop-kicking the dog, and restarting the whole process.

Here is the entire Table of Contents, which lists everything in the guide. It is 76 pages, with lots of photographs of key things that are hard to put into words alone.

• Be sure to do this when you resume reloading after taking a break.
• During the upstroke, listen for this.
• How to save time when removing finished shells.
• The right and wrong types of handle resistance.
• The exact make and model of powder scale to buy. (Hint: It's one of the less expensive ones.)
• Take this advice on where to set up your MEC, and your reloads will be more accurate.
• The one part of the MEC machine most likely to cause you migraines, and how to kill the problem dead.
• One speed-increasing adjustment that should be made to many MECs that come incorrectly set, right out of the box.
• Tons of shooters have written to me, agreeing with my take on which 28 gauge shell to buy. They and I found out the hard way. You don't have to.
• When is it OK to use wet hulls, and when you are potentially risking blindness or worse.
• New to reloading? Take these 18 exact steps, in this order, and you'll be reloading smoothly in your very first session.
• Make this assumption about bushings at your own risk! If you don't know what a bushing is, then you're in real trouble (unless you read all about it in my guide).
• The fastest way to remove crooked primers.
• Get this tool for taking apart bad shotshells, so you can reclaim the shot and powder. One tool works for all gauges. (Not those wooden things you have to buy several of.)
• The skinny on when you need to weigh your powder drops.
• Making sense of the confusing primer designations.

Some of What You Get in "MEC Shotshell Reloading Mail Call"

Dozens more tips for confident reloading

After all, your goal is to break that target or bag that bird. This is not the Olympics, where you get extra points for degree of difficulty. Crummy reloads also don't build character.

Reloading should help your shooting, and not harm it. Reloading should not only save you money but give you the ability to customize loads just the way you like them.

• One tool you should not do without at your reloading bench. (Hint: It's not bought at a gun store.)
• When you can and cannot swap out powder, primers, and other components safely.
• Solving sub-gauge powder drop problems once and for all.
• Sick of paying big bucks for popper loads to train your hunting dog? Make your own dang popper loads with this recipe.
• An absolutely critical adjustment to make when loading sub-gauge shotshells, to ensure you are getting a full powder charge.
• What to do when your reloader jams on the upstroke.
• What do the markings mean on your old charge bars.
• A surprising fact about .410 hulls, and how it directly affects the quality of your crimps.
• "Shot bridging": What it is and how to prevent it.
• The pros and cons of making your own shot.
• The best places to buy MEC equipment, and sell it.
• How old of a MEC reloader is too old? Answer here.
• The cheapest places to buy components.
• The $1.49 popular lubricant that can rot your $5,000 barrels.
• Is there an ideal recipe for shotshells? Find out here.

I Also Have a "Troubleshooter" Poster That Delivers

An instant-reference guide to keep at your bench

The Troubleshooter is a laminated, 11 x 17 inch, double-sided poster. It contains 37 different common problems you might encounter while reloading, and specific things to do to fix each of those problems.

The poster is divided into sections that correspond to the process of reloading a shotshell — not organized haphazardly, but relating to what stage of the stroke you're having problems:

• Top Half of Downstroke: 9 problems identified here.
• Near or at Bottom of Downstroke: 10 problems discussed.
• Upstroke: 3 problems listed.
• After Upstroke: 15 problems with either what your shells look like after the upstroke, or with what the reloader is doing (or not doing) after the stroke is finished.

I Even Have a Better Ball Chain

These babies won't bust

The primer chain that ships with MEC is a standard ball chain — the kind you find on key rings. The problem is that the constant action of the primer mechanism means that just as you get going, the chain sometimes snaps.

I got really tired of the chain snapping, so I did some investigation. I came up with a supplier of heavy-duty chain and it has not snapped on me yet. It fits into a MEC reloader just fine. In fact, what I'll send you works better than the original in two ways:

First, the chain is noticeably thicker. Second, the clip that attaches to one end of the chain is better. The clip that ships from MEC is OK, as long as the chain doesn't snap. But if you need to replace the chain, the clip must be pulled apart, and I never could get it to close up completely. The new clips I will send you are already attached to the chain, and they never splay open.

Is this a big deal? No. Is it one more thing I take care of, so you don't have to? Yup.

My Information Is Not for Everyone

As I said, I'm not the MEC factory. I don't sell wad guides, replacement springs, etc. If you salvaged a bent MEC because somebody threw it out the window in frustration, then I'm not the guy to help you repair it.

If you only have a single-stage machine, and it's worked well for you over the last 40 years, and you stick to one recipe, then you certainly don't need my help. You don't have any questions in that case.

If your dad or some buddy set you up with a flawless reloading system — or you did it yourself — then congratulations! You don't have questions in that case, either.

But if you are trying to reload faster, and find yourself swearing like a sailor in the process, you might want to take an easy step to make your life simpler and more pleasant. You should get my stuff.

OK, So if I Buy Your Stuff, What Do I Get, and What Will it Run Me?

I sell the four items above, all in one package for a discounted price. Here's how it breaks down:

• MEC Shotshell Reloading Secrets — 76 pages stuffed with the knowledge you need to save money on your very next reloading session.
• MEC Shotshell Reloading Mail Call — 100 pages of real-life questions from shooters, and practical answers.
• The laminated Troubleshooter poster — goes right next to your reloader and helps you out on the spot.
• The heavy-duty Ball Chain — two chains and two clips. Eliminates one annoyance if you reload a lot.

The price for all of this is $49.95. I eat the shipping cost. I have kept my price the same since before the year 2000, and I'm keeping it steady now because I know how you're whacked by higher lead-shot costs. I could try to rip you off by charging the typical "handling" fee — that's just a way of playing games with people, a way of raising prices without coming out and saying so. I won't do that to a fellow shooter.

"I'm Used to Buying Much Larger Books for That Price!"

I could easily have added 150 pages to the guide by including thousands of reloading recipes, the way other reloading books do. Gee, I could show nice pictures of bags of wads and different powders, to bulk up my guide. (As if real shooters don't know what wads look like.) I could even show thrilling pictures of clay targets breaking. Would you get any more value from a fat book with this fluff in it? I don't think so.

I respect your time. You want straight answers to problems, and tips for better reloading. That's what these guides do. They give you the essence of what to change and what to remember, in order to start saving you money right now. Not only will you save money, but you will save time and lots of frustration.

When you prevent just a few boxes of bad reloads, you'll easily cover the cost of this guide. Especially for clay target shooters, those few boxes will be saved pretty quickly. And as you get even better at reloading, you will drop your average cost per shell down even further. This is not a "cost," but instead an investment that will repay you again and again.