.410 shotgun dies for a regular press?

LUTNIT said:
I've only used a Lee Loadall in 12ga and have reloaded about 1500 shells on it over about 4 years (mostly buckshot and slugs). It performs well enough and considering the price difference ($60 vs $300 new) I would buy a Lee again over a MEC considering I don't reload shotshells all that much. I get about 1 in 100 with a wrinkled or messed up crimp which is only about twice the rate I get with my MEC in 410. I got the MEC for only $100 with a couple hundred hulls and 500+ wads so it was a great deal and I'm glad I did it. I wasn't going to buy a press for 410 at all because at $300 and shooting less than a case a year of 410 it would take a few years to break even.

If you had more messed up crimps than functional shells with a Lee I have no idea what went wrong. Either you where doing something wrong, the loader was messed up, or there was something wrong with your hulls. It's far from perfect but incredibly good value for your money in my experience. Did you make sure to orient the crimp before running the press down? The Lee doesn't have a rotating crimp die/head to automatically orient itself with the hull so you need to manually index the crimp before running the press down or else it'll mess it up. It's in the instruction manual.
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It was a # of years ago that I tried the Load-All. I don't remember what all I tried to remedy the results I was getting ( me being me I know I would have tried every trick I knew to get the "cheap" machine to work). I know I tried an assortment of different hulls with the same results. I suppose it could just have been a "lemon" press but it sure soured me for shotshell reloading until recently.

I probably would have never bought another shotshell reloader but like you, I was offered what I thought was a good enough deal to give it another try, a Mec Hyd. 9000 with a lot of components for $300...very happy that I did.
 
Herters used to make a tooling/die set for shotshell reloading in a C press. Not sure if there was one for the .410 or not tho. I have one of the 12 gage kits that my dad owned but he must have hade the same results I did with the Load-All, as I can't remember him using it much. Any loading he did do with it was with paper hulls & felt wads.
 
I have used a Lee LoadAll for 12 guage with good success. They worked the best with Winchester AA, but Deaner and I tried a bunch of different hulls. Some of the real odd off brands types didn't work. I found that the AA hulls, when warmed up a wee bit at the open end, even by just holding them in your closed hand for a few seconds, crimped like a charm. We loaded some of the el cheapo Winchester hulls, but it was long enough ago that I can't recall any real difficulties.

LUTNIT: Thanks for the link. I will be ordering a 2 1/2 & 3" set for .410 tomorrow!
 
wasrupzuk said:
Is 444 better than the 9.3x74R brass to start out with?
Are both 3" in the end?
Thanks
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444 is straight walled and will drop right in, 9.3 needs annealing and fire forming for a 3 inch case, 444 will give you a 2.5 inch case right out of the box.
 
Tagged for interest. I find it odd that given the 410's small dimensions being closer to a rifle then almost any other shot shell that there isn't a more readily available set up for use on a standard 7/8-14 press, especially considering how costly factory ammo has become
 
kevin.303 said:
Tagged for interest. I find it odd that given the 410's small dimensions being closer to a rifle then almost any other shot shell that there isn't a more readily available set up for use on a standard 7/8-14 press, especially considering how costly factory ammo has become
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this is exactly what I was thinking....
 
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