[William R Wood]

Thanks BP. I am not worried about the Nobel's fit or performance in the actual shells thanks to your recommendations, but I am worried about how they will work in the Spolar. The Spolar (and PW) has the wierd, gravity fed primer track you can see in my pictures. The primers must fall from the primer tray into the track, slide down the track and then fall into a primer insertion cup right before getting pushed into the hull. Since gravity plays such a prominent role and since the primer track was developed using Win primers which are much heavier than Fios or Nobels and have a thicker lip on the base, I am a little leery about buying 20K of the Nobels (my min order to beat the effect of the Hazmat fee) without testing them in my loader. So far I can't find a way to get a small amount like one pack of 100.

Seems incredible to me but there is no gun shop in the Phx metro area (I think we are the 5th or 6th largest city in the US) like Connies or Recob that caters to reloaders. We do have a Sportsman's Warehouse and we just got a Cabelas but they are thieves and usually don't have what I want anyway (such as Fio or NS primers). Our gun club does sell reloading stuff but they never heard of Fiocchi or NobelSport either and their eyes glaze over when I suggest getting them. Right now the club has zero shot for sale and has not had a single pellet in stock for months. Weird.

By the way, I am not sure about primer terminology. Is a sleeve a single pack of 100 primers? What are we supposed to call a box of 1000 primers (10 packs of 100) - a box? I call 5000 primers a case - but I think I heard some guys call that a sleeve too?

Gordon,

Just saw your post so I edited mine:

I finally got an invoice from Crow on the Fio primers. The price was $15.90 p/1000 or $79.50 p/case. They charged $58 shipping from IA to AZ and $40 for two Hazmat fees. There were 2 boxes (4 cases each) delivered by FedEx Ground and they were only semi-beat up. Crow's packaging was minimal, they just put the primer cases in a box with no padding whatsoever so Fiocchi's outer primer case packaging got smashed in a little but the primers themselves were all ok.

 

[William R Wood]

Yep, and that's just one more excellent reason to stick with the more sensibly priced MEC reloaders.

What's the "quality reward" of paying three or four times the price of a MEC for a "Cadillac?"

None. All you get is a reloader that dictates to you what primers must be on its menu.

I do a lot of load development and do use a lot of different cases and components in doing so. Bottom line is that the "Cadillacs" do not adapt to this type of usage well, and therefore are not suited well for my use.

Case and DLM,

Well, I do have to set the record straight on these points, at least as to the Spolar.

Let me first say that I am not knocking MEC tools - I used my Grabber and 600Jr for 30+ years with perfect results. They are without any doubt the best bang for the buck reloaders of all time.

Now that I have had the time to test my tool more thoroughly with the new Fiocchi primers (700 loaded so far in various hulls) I can see that the Spolar will not have problems feeding them (or other import brands) in spite of the weight and shape differences compared to Win209s.

I can now see that the primer track is long enough that it only needs to be about 2/3rds full of primers for the Fios to feed reliably. Obvioulsy, NobelSports and other light weight primers will work too since the track is always full during normal operation which provides plenty of weight for gravity to feed them positively. Also I noted no tendency for the Fio primers to tip sideways as they drop into the primer insertion cup. In short they work just as well as Win209s.

My original concern about using off brand primers arose from a very long thread on Trapshooters.com where many Spolar users complained about primer feed problems with Rem and Fed primers. Spolar strongly recommends Win primers for their tool so I assumed that there might be something to the primer brand issue. I need not have been concerned and it is now clear that the Spolar does not dictate what brand of primers can be used.

I remain convinced that most loading tool problems are caused by the user rather than the machine. In the hands of a capable user all of the tools I have tried (MEC, Dillon & Spolar) will produce perfect results. There are differences between the various tool brands in build quality, ease of use, adjustability, speed, reliability, consistency, flexibility, etc but they all work fine.

As to flexibility and adaptability for tasks such as load development, the Spolar is witihout doubt the best I have seen. I use many different hull types, powders, wads and now new primers in my load development process. The Spolar absolutely excels at this process because it is so versatile, so easy to adjust and able to handle wide variations in hull design and components without tweaking. I can feed the Spolar 10 different hulls [WinAA (old), WinAAHS, Rem (STS, GunClub, Game Load, etc), Fed (any type), or any cheap import] using the same components (or even randomly changing wads) and the tool will produce perfect crimps in all of them even though there is a significant difference in hull volume and hull length.

My MEC and Dillon tools both required substantial adjustment and tweaking to handle this variety of hulls and components.

Plus, and this is my favorite part, the Spolar's die adjustments are super easy, fast and positive. There is plenty of room for your tools and fingers. Wad insertion depth (wad pressure) and precrimp depth do not require any tools, just fingers. Die adjustments produce an immediate, obvious change in results.
The main crimp die is separate from the radius crimp die so it is easy to get the final profile of the finished shell perfect.

It is super easy to load one shell at a time during load development and super easy to remove any hull from the loader at any station for inspection/adjustment. It is also super easy to repeat a handle stroke without auto-advancing all of the hulls to the next station. This permits you to repeatedly test your die adjustments or your powder/shot throws during load development.

It is super easy to see what you are doing at every station. The tool is big and open and your view of the shells in process is never obstructed. You can easily watch the tool at every critical step and avoid mistakes:

1) The primer tray and track are easy to see to be sure you are not about to run out. (Spolar does make a low primer warning light but I regard it as useless because it does not grab your attention.)

2) Primers are easily visible at the front of the tool just before they are pushed into the hull so you can be certain that every shell has a primer and that it is not tipped over. I no longer worry about missing a primer and dropping powder into an empty hull thereby spilling powder out the primer hole since getting the Spolar.

3) Primers are seated on the back stroke of the operating handle which provides amazing "feel". You know positively that a primer has seated and that it is seated fully strictly by this feel.

4) Because the wad guide automatically pivots out of the way, you can easily look into the hull after the powder, wad and shot are loaded to see the height of your wad column and confirm that you have not double charged or undercharged any hull. This feature is indispensible in my view.

5) The hulls are still easy to see at the precrimp, main crimp and final crimp stations, making it easy to confirm that every shell is perfect.

6) The Spolar is so smooth and the operating handle is so easy to move and so sensitive in its "feel" that any problem is immediately evident. The tool is not jerky like the Dillon and does not require significant handle force like the MEC which allows you to reload in complete confidence that all is well.

Bottom line is that the "quality reward" from the Spolar is a tool that is easier and more fun to use. Is it worth the vast price premium?? For tool nuts like me it is, but that is a matter of opinion. As to the results, I can't tell a Spolar reload from a MEC reload as long as both tools are operated properly. As to versatility and load development work, the Spolar definitely excels. If either of you guys ever get to the Phx area, you are welcome to try my Spolar. Load a couple of boxes and I bet you will have a big smile on your face.

 

[William R Wood]

Shoot2reload,

Hope I don't sound argumentative, but the analogy about a problematic, overpriced high-end auto does not apply here.

The Spolar is too expensive (but probably not overpriced, meaning I doubt anybody could make it cheaper and still make a profit) but it is definitely not problematic.

I have run over 11K of virtually every type of hull and most wads avail in 12ga and some 20ga stuff through the Spolar along with Win, Rem and Fiocchi primers with absolutely zero problems. The Spolar is almost idiot-proof and it is definitely easier to operate and more reliable than MEC or Dillon even for a complete novice. So in this case you are buying added reliability, versatility and ease of use for the money, not style.