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leomat

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hi Gang:

Has anybody used on of these and if so,what are your impressions?

Are they easy to use?

Are they efficient?

I was always intrigued by these things and thought that they would produce a great product. At times however, they look like there would be a lot of motion required to produce a loaded round.

Thoughts and/or opinions?

TIA,

Leomat
 
creeker said:
They are a station to station reloader and a good machine,if you want to go that way.
Rock solid single stage press with full hull retention sizing, and if you get one, you want the C model with taper crimping.

As for using one for roll crimping, kind of a pain since the hull is retained in a sizer until the knock out station, and doing roll crimp sizing would be better with a Mec Jr instead (or even a lee). since at some point you need to pull the hull out of the sizer before the knock out station, hand load buckshot and over card wad, then move over to the drill press to finish the roll press process.

If the price is right and you want a single stage press that you can covert to cover you in all the gauges, then not a bad deal. It's just a progressive machine will knock out finished shells at so much a faster rate, your head would spin. Plus, you can pick up a good used PW 800 CVT for around $350 instead.

Bottom line, the 375C machine is a single stage press, has full hull retention sizing, and can be gauge converted very easily/quickly into all the other gauges.
 
I got two of these and a box full of dies at a garage sale cheap. It was a box of shotgun reloader stuff, I'd used a MEC in the past, and had never even heard of PW. Turns out it was a pretty good buy, about 150 pounds of PW 375 presses, dies, toolheads, spares, and stuff I still dont know what it is.

From what I can tell, they are as efficient as any single stage reloader gets. My Dad, who has a fleet of single stage machines of different makes thinks the PW 375 is the best he's ever seen.

I can make *perfect* reloads in this machine. I've fed them to a variety of autoloaders in 28, 20, 12 ga, and out of thousands of loads haven't had a single problem yet Some of the brass I've picked up is so oversize I can't get it into my O/U and the 375 swages it back down to size. I dont think you could double charge a shell with this machine.

I'm planning on packing all of my own shells for hunting this year. I typically go through about 2 boxes of 10, 15 boxes of 12 and 20, and about 5-10 boxes of 28 ga shells a year. The fact that I can load all of these, in any flavor of shot that suits me is very appealing.

Having said that, with a production of about 100 shells an hour combined with my newly discovered trap/skeet addiction, a progressive press is on the shopping list.

My dislikes are that Titewad powder, although metering very consistently, seems to make it's way out of the charging ring much more than the others. (Green/Red/Blue dot, Unique, Clays, HS-6. Longshot)
The finished shell pusher mushrooms out the mouth of the shell and makes it hard to eject from the sizing die on those shells that were really tight to begin with. (Hulls from the range that were fired in oversize well used guns)

Handling primers one at a time gets old too.

I've loaded about 3000 shells on this machine since Dec. I like it a lot, and I'm getting a progressive because it's just too slow for me to keep this going and my new trap/skeet hobby at the same time.
 
I have two, one set up for 20 gauge, and one set up for 12 gauge. Easy to change bushings, and puts out a great looking shell. I use my PW900 for high speed production. Mark
 
I have a 12/20 gauge and use it for all my hunting loads. In my opinion it's the best single stage press you can buy. But it is a single stage and should not be compared to a progressive....which it is comparable priced

If your looking for inexpensive and fast buy an MEC progressive
 
Hi,
Well..It's a single stage but a very fine one. It has a lot of "rythum" and you can load a box pretty fast. One of the neat things is you start a cycle by putting a primer,wad and hull in their spot and start the cycle never having to stop and pick up or move anything around until you are done with that shell. The shot and powder knob and hull is worked with one hand as the other moves the lever ! Somebody had their thinking cap on when they came up with the lay out! The only other machine to compare would be the Pacific 266!
 
tbullit said:
How can I convert my 375 PW to 2-1/2" low pressure loads
Buy the shorter die, the factory offers them, $35....easy & quick to change over, then you just lower the pre-crimp to suit & you'll be good to go...
 
Awesome reloader and can usually be had at a much better price/value ratio than MEC just due to lower name recognition and understanding.

Have mine setup for 12/16 and changeover is less than 5 minutes.

The nice thing I see in them is that out of the box (actually mine was well used) they are ready to load steel shot, lead shot, 3", 2 3/4" etc.

They can be tiresome to run 1,000's of shells on, that is better suited to a progressive.

But if you are looking for a loader that can run 5-6 boxes/hr and can readily change to available hulls with a few tweeks this is your loader. The settings are more varied than a MEC and definitely built much much much heavier duty than a new MEC. Like comparing an older SM77 MEC to a new one....more steel and thick powder coating.

Converters are made to use MEC bushings as they are cheaper and more readily available.

Rocked
 
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