You won't find speed a virtue of any single stage reloader, including the PW 375. If the MEC 9000 caused you frustration, I suggest you look at different brand progressive reloaders, such as the Hornady 366, the Dillon, the RCBS an the PW 800+.

 

You won't find speed a virtue of any single stage reloader, including the PW 375. If the MEC 9000 caused you frustration, I suggest you look at different brand progressive reloaders, such as the Hornady 366, the Dillon, the RCBS an the PW 800+.

Thanks. I've considered the Hornady 366, but have gotten conflicting information about whether it is still being produced/sold?

 

You won't find speed a virtue of any single stage reloader, including the PW 375. If the MEC 9000 caused you frustration, I suggest you look at different brand progressive reloaders, such as the Hornady 366, the Dillon, the RCBS an the PW 800+.

Thanks. I've considered the Hornady 366, but have gotten conflicting information about whether it is still being produced/sold?

We have heard reports that it may be coming back into production soon. But they are very durable machines, hard (but not impossible) to wear out and easy to adjust. Best place to get one is on eBay. And lots of expertise here to help you with it.

 

I'm buying the RCBS grand. Extremely impressed with this machine.

 

I get 5 boxes an hour in 20ga with PW375C using Rem GC hulls.
If using Win hulls, productivity goes down as there are random crimp crushes with those.

 

I get 5 boxes an hour in 20ga with PW375C using Rem GC hulls.
If using Win hulls, productivity goes down as there are random crimp crushes with those.

Could you better describe what you mean by "crimp crushes?"

 

I can usually get 100 to 125 shells in an hour using different hulls, with the Duo-Matic 375 if you have the right components all the shells are close to perfect.

 

375 will be slower than your Sizemaster and more burdensome loading steel rimmed hulls.

 

375 will be slower than your Sizemaster and more burdensome loading steel rimmed hulls.

Thanks, that was my assumption. As long as I'm shooting around 8-10 boxes/week, max, I'll probably stay with the Sizemaster.

I've also considered the MEC Grabber, because it is manual advance.

 

Most folks troubles with any progressive press is their lack of understanding and lack of knowledge of the proper adjustments. Being satisfied with " Close enough" is a recipe for trouble.
I usually load in batches of 500 plus rounds and only get a spill when I have done something profoundly stupid during a lapse of awareness of what I should do.

For example, If I cycle the press one more time than the amount of primers that I loaded, I will probably get a powder leakage situation. This is why folks are advised to check for a primer drop every cycle. I don't think there are any presses that check for primers in place. Anybody know of one that isn't in an ammo factory. See opening statement above.

Also, I try to start loading with the bar locked to the left.
Your bar lock isn't working? That is your fault, fix it.
See opening statement above.

 

I haven't found my way to the classified section yet, but if anyone has a 375C die set in 16 ga for sale, I'd like a chance to buy it.

 

Yepp,there are ton's of folks that do,exactly as Curly has stated,they simply want to pull the handle
and get a shell delivered at the end of the pull.They don't want to get into the machine to have to
adjust anything as they might have a problem to solve?You would be surprised at how many people
have Mec and other loader's that will go way out of there way to pay somebody to clean and adjust
their machine's functions.I realize,that not everybody is not capable of doing so,for one reason,or another.

 

For example, If I cycle the press one more time than the amount of primers that I loaded, I will probably get a powder leakage situation. This is why folks are advised to check for a primer drop every cycle. I don't think there are any presses that check for primers in place. Anybody know of one that isn't in an ammo factory.

So true. 9 times out of 10, which I have a problem, it's because I see powder dropping out of the bottom of my 366, because the hull had no primer. It's the main reason I had a slot milled into the bottom of the primer drop tube, so I could better monitor the number of primers left in the tube (I don't know why Hornady doesn't mill that slot at the factory). And I also keep my eye on whether a primer dropped with each pull of the handle, it really slows things down when you have to stop and fix the glitch. And didn't the Hornady Apex (long out of production) check for primers?

 

And didn't the Hornady Apex (long out of production) check for primers?

I had one of those here in the dungeon, and I don't remember that being the case, but Burnt Powder should know. I think he still has one that he nurses along.

 

The Apex does not "check for primers" before advancing. The drop is visible much like the 9000. They are dropped individually from the primer tray. No stacked tube of primers.

Properly adjusted the 9000 shouldn't be dumping components when in operation. However if you pull a hull out of sequence for one reason or another, you can "confuse" the machine and end up with a mess.

 

Most folks troubles with any progressive press is their lack of understanding and lack of knowledge of the proper adjustments. Being satisfied with " Close enough" is a recipe for trouble.
I usually load in batches of 500 plus rounds and only get a spill when I have done something profoundly stupid during a lapse of awareness of what I should do.

For example, If I cycle the press one more time than the amount of primers that I loaded, I will probably get a powder leakage situation. This is why folks are advised to check for a primer drop every cycle. I don't think there are any presses that check for primers in place. Anybody know of one that isn't in an ammo factory. See opening statement above.

Also, I try to start loading with the bar locked to the left.
Your bar lock isn't working? That is your fault, fix it. QUOTE]

No, that is MEC's fault, if the press doesn't operate in way it was designed to do. Also MEC's fault that the primer drop system on my unlamented 9000G failed to drop, or sideways-dropped, primers about 20% of the time DESPITE all my attempts to fix the problem, per their instructions.

MEC doesn't exactly give their presses away -- their prices are (IMO) on the high side for what is basically a machine comprised of stamped-steel parts. I spent north of $500 for my 9000G and didn't expect a "do-it-yourself" start kit for a progressive reloader, any more than I would expect or accept a new $2500 or $3000 shotgun that "needed fixing" out of the box.

I'm no mechanic but I'm reasonably inclined toward fixing things and making adjustments to my equipment -- yet the 9000G exceeded my patience level. YMMV.

 

My brother had a MEC (9000G?) he is an engineer and an exquist mechanic...he liked his MEC a lot. He came to visit me one weekend when we were going on a shooting binge and we had to load over 1500 shells in a short period of time on my Honady 366...he said he loved my 366. I am an ex-scientist nerd with a modicum mechanical ability and the 366 is easy for me to keep running. I don't think any reloader is completely trouble free out of the box. So the question is how much time, patience and capitol do you have available to reload. I save ~$1.70 a box over my Herters and club bulk buys so I reload when the time and inclination is available. If you don't have fun reloading or the time to reload I suggest you put some serious time into finding good deals on new shells. When I retire I will probably buy a Spolar just to have a fancy reloader my son can inherit. http://www.spolargold.com/spolar.htm May you break all the targets you hit.

 

Most folks troubles with any progressive press is their lack of understanding and lack of knowledge of the proper adjustments. Being satisfied with " Close enough" is a recipe for trouble.
I usually load in batches of 500 plus rounds and only get a spill when I have done something profoundly stupid during a lapse of awareness of what I should do.

For example, If I cycle the press one more time than the amount of primers that I loaded, I will probably get a powder leakage situation. This is why folks are advised to check for a primer drop every cycle. I don't think there are any presses that check for primers in place. Anybody know of one that isn't in an ammo factory. See opening statement above.

Also, I try to start loading with the bar locked to the left.
Your bar lock isn't working? That is your fault, fix it. QUOTE]

No, that is MEC's fault, if the press doesn't operate in way it was designed to do. Also MEC's fault that the primer drop system on my unlamented 9000G failed to drop, or sideways-dropped, primers about 20% of the time DESPITE all my attempts to fix the problem, per their instructions.

MEC doesn't exactly give their presses away -- their prices are (IMO) on the high side for what is basically a machine comprised of stamped-steel parts. I spent north of $500 for my 9000G and didn't expect a "do-it-yourself" start kit for a progressive reloader, any more than I would expect or accept a new $2500 or $3000 shotgun that "needed fixing" out of the box.

I'm no mechanic but I'm reasonably inclined toward fixing things and making adjustments to my equipment -- yet the 9000G exceeded my patience level. YMMV.

My comments still apply. By your own admission, you are no mechanic, but you could be a reasonable semblance of one. You gave up too easily or you simply didn't glean all the facts that you needed to get it running fine.

 

Because of its manual index (versus auto-index) design, is the MEC Grabber somewhat more intuitive or less prone to shot/powder spills than the 9000G? I guess that's a leading question, but I'm wondering what Curly thinks about the Grabber?

 

Understand the roles of the 375 and the 800, and things will start to make more sense.

The 375 shines for when you are reloading a lot of different types of the load, or just working up loads to begin with, and it a matter of having plenty of time to do so. Lets say that you are just loading a few boxes of 10g target loads, then some lead pheasant loads, then going to end up loading up some steel goose loads. The machine is easy enough to readjust, including changing bushings as well. Add in the fast that it has room for a second tool set on the tool carrier as well, swapping out to a different tool set is just a mater of spinning the tool carrier. The one thing that that the 375 will not do is crank out flats of ammo my the hour isntead.

On the 800, since it does take more time to set the machine up for a specific load, then once the machine is tuned and adjusted correctly, then you start cranking out loads by the flats quickly instead.

So if you have say a two different calibers that you are only going to load a few boxes of ammo per load types, the 375 makes sense since it can wear two different caliber tooling and was designed for such. If you are target shooting and just loading the same load over and over again, then this is where the 800 machine makes more sense isntead. The 800 can still be caliber changed via a complete loaded tool head, or just swapping out the tools in the head, but it will take longer to change one out instead.

So, 375 when you are loading two's and few's of boxes of loads at a time and will be changing the machine out to load another type of load or caliber. The 800 for when you just want to sit down and load 3-5 flats of the same load by the hour instead.

 

Because of its manual index (versus auto-index) design, is the MEC Grabber somewhat more intuitive or less prone to shot/powder spills than the 9000G? I guess that's a leading question, but I'm wondering what Curly thinks about the Grabber?

Well, I have 4 9000 presses, but I am in the process of preparing several newer Grabbers for sale for friends. I see nothing wrong with them, but I do prefer the 9000 because I mount them on an Automate and I can load 12, 20, 28 and 410's as fast as I can stuff parts into the loader. That foot switch that Republican sells really helps keep that hummer hummin'. I simply could not do that with a Grabber. I have a pipe system that drops the shells into a 5 gallon bucket and when it fills up, I box them. Yes I know, why box? I like boxes, nuff said on that. I am set in my ways.
Other than the auto index and the drop ramp (and related base), they are all the same parts. The set up processes for the thing is the same, setting aside the indexing unit.

I will tell you that I cannot foresee me ever loading on anything that requires pulling a handle.

 

I have a 12/20 ga PW 375. I love it!! I have had progressive and single stage MEC loaders. MEC loaders are good BUT I prefer my P/W. Since I shoot so much 20ga, I found a used PW 800 that I am updating for volume loading. I agree with claims of 100 to 150 rds/hr for the 375. I really enjoy the rhythmic sequence for loading with my 375. If you decide to get one you will not regret it. Furthermore, the folks at PW are awesome to work with.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

How easy is it to adjust the 20ga between 2 3/4 and 3in? Also, will the 12ga adjust to load 3 1/2? PW 375

 

How easy is it to adjust the 20ga between 2 3/4 and 3in? Also, will the 12ga adjust to load 3 1/2? PW 375

PW sells this for 3" conversion

http://reloaders.com/375-conversion-kit-3/

And this for 3-1/2"

http://reloaders.com/375-conversion-kit-3-1-2/

I have two 375's (12/20 & 16) and IMO you don't need the crimp starter just the taller die. Once you get a felling for loading on the 375 you'll learn that you do it by feel more than pulling the handle through the entire stroke. I set my crimp starter a little low and crimp by feel because some hulls are longer than others and papers load different than plastic. I could adjust the machine for each hull but I'm lazy

 

I have a 366 and 2-375s.
I load 410/28 on one PW, 16/12 on the other. And since my daughter dove hunts, shoots skeet and SC with a 20 ga. And I mostly shoot 20 now. The 355 is set up for 20 ga.
I also enjoy light loads in 16 ga.
The PW with the shell holder isn't the best machine to use for light loads. I load the DR 16 wad for 3/4 oz loads in the PW. Sometimes I get crushed crimps using the P/W. The shell holder and tight steel rimmed cases can crush crimps when ejecting them fro the shell holder on the P/W.