mike1 said:
I have 4 Mec reloaders and with the exception of the jr's they drive me crazy. Shot & powder everywhere at least once a nite and I have used them for years. The 8567 grabber 20 ga is a real pain in the sitter. Adjust, adjust and more adjust. Thats it.
I recently bought a Grabber 8567. New to shotshell reloading, but many years of experience with metallic. I have to say the Grabber is giving me lots of aggravation. Some really stupid design elements. Today's session problems: 1. Spring for lock bar slid off--result, spilled powder (now I've taped it down to the lock bar tab; fixed for now, but what a stupid design). 2. Lock failed to release, cause still a mystery--result, two cases crimped without powder or shot before I noticed it 3. Weight of shot pushed out plug in shot bottle when I flipped top back--result, lots of shot spilled 4. Powder tube clamp came loose (set by factory)--result three high primers, the last of which locked the machine up real good 5. Despite being locked in tight with set screw, universal charge bar powder throw changed ONE Full Grain after 30 shells loaded; thankfully I was under max, but this made the whole exercise of loading some low recoil shells pointless. 7. Lock bar trip rod stuck in channel--result, powder dropped despite no hull in powder station.
And we won't even go into the primer feed problems.
Now I always have a hull under the powder and shot tubes, and when I've moved the last hull to the wad station, I manually engage the shot bar lock on the downstroke just to be sure. I also weigh the powder throw every five shells to be safe.
As far as I'm concerned the bar lock mechanism is a defective design (come on, the whole thing is controlled by a piece of piano wire), as is the primer feed. There should be a better closure for the shot and powder bottles. There should be a positive hold-down for the tilt head, and the adjustment for the bar pusher rod should be more positive--seems I have to adjust it 4 or times a night to mantain full left movement of the charge bar.
Frankly, I am amazed this thing is as popular as it is. It's a finicky, Rube Goldberg device conceived by the devil. I wish I spent more money on a better machine. I have ZERO confidence in the MEC to not spill powder and/or shot do to mechanical failures. And I'm nervous as heck about squib loads--so I inspect each case after the powder drop. I'm also very skeptical now of the utility of the Univ. Charge bar. Trust me, the adjuster was locked in tight and it still changed from 16gr to 17gr. Not good.
Blow up one gun because of your MEC's design defects and you could have paid for a PW.