Lee Loadall? Or not......?

I bought a gently used Mossberg M500 20 ga. last fall, picked up a rifled barrel for it during Mossberg's Black Friday sale. I'm ordering molds & components now and am wondering about a loader. I'm looking at the Lee Loadall, I had one many years ago and it worked well. On the BPI site they caution that trying to crimp new hulls with the Loadall is problematic. Looking around at various sites I see that the Fiocchi 3" hull is a commonly found item, as are Federal 3" and Cheddite. These are all new, uncrimped hulls. My plan is to load 3" hulls primarily for deer hunting.

My question, for those who have experience with this machine, is will it handle this task or is it going to ruin a lot of hulls in the process?

I'll happily tell you what I know, but better answers will follow. I have one each 12,16 and 20 gauge Loadalls. I really like them, and have loaded several hundred hulls on each machine. But, I've never loaded slugs, and have never used previously uncrimped hulls. Honestly, I don't know why they would be much of an extra problem -- maybe because they'd be springy and have a tendency to re-open. There is a solution though, which would be to roll crimp. If you have a drill press it's very easy, and even a hand drill can be used. You need a little tool that you can get from Midway or other distributors, and the results are quite good.
[Attachment 239625

I have found that new, uncrimped hulls can be an issue, but rarely... I almost never buy new hulls, but I have used chedite hulls with little problems.. every once in a while one won’t crimp right or something, but have the same issues with my Mec, so those are the evils of Shotshell reloading.. I don’t let it stop me, and it shouldn’t stop you either... I also have brass cartridge shells that I sometimes have an issue with.. just expect to have an issue from time to time, and it is what it is...

Marko

What Der said. You can do everything but the crimp on the Loadall, Then Roll Crimp with the BPI tool in a Drill Press or Hand Drill.

I like the BPI Tool because it tapers the front end of the hull for easier feeding.

If you don't have electricity you can use one of the Russian Hand Roll Crimpers available on on Ebay. I got one and it works OK.

Lots of ways to do this and really you don't need much more than a hammer , nail, and a piece of dowel and the crimper to load new hulls. I buy the Rio Brand from BPI and they come already primed. You just dump powder in, seat the wad and slug, and then roll crimp. Pretty easy.

Good Luck

Randy

I don't have a problem with new hulls. On a rare occasion i will get one that just doesn't look pretty but still functions. All i have used is new hulls i got a deal a while back rio high brass hulls $30 per 1000. Really stocked up. Still have couple thousand before i will have to start reloading.

$30 per THOUSAND! Yikes Red Bear, you got a great deal!! Yeah, I followed along on the roll crimping thread, very good information there, eliminated some of the "willies" about 'rolling". I had a deal lined up on a MEC but the other fellow kept putting me off since last October so, no joy. The LoadAll will do 2-3/4 and 3" and the price is great (Yikes, when did MEC 600's get so expensive!)! I have a 600 for my 12 ga. and thought about buying a 20 ga. die set but it'd bea pain to switch back and forth....:groner: BPI has them for $$55, I'll pick up some hulls and wads while I'm at it! And a roll crimper!

I never loaded slugs on the LoadAll, so I can't speak to that. I have a 16 gauge at the moment and I at one time owned a 20 gauge one. They will load quite good shells( not quite as good as MEC). Stay away from new hulls and you should do just fine. I read somewhere online about some guy who had modified a LoadAll to roll crimp but that was some time ago and I don't remember where I saw it. If I were going to do slugs, I would buy one of the roll crimpers to use with Lee. my experience or lack of anyway, james

I had this word ricocheting around inside my otherwise empty cranium most of the morning, "skived". Honestly, I never knew exactly what it meant or how to pronounce the word for sure, but knew that it had something to do with crimping. Some new hulls offered by companies like BPI are skived, and some aren't. So I figured I'd better find out about it so as to maybe better answer your question, and like the song used to say, I went right to the source and asked the horse.

I phoned BPI and chatted with a knowledgeable individual who said that the word is properly pronounced "Skyed" like sky, and not ski like skis or skivvies. What it means is that near the top of the hull the walls are thinned to make crimping easier, but it's not aimed particularly at either fold or roll crimping, just crimping in general. And, like I had already observed, some are and some aren't. He agreed that it's difficult to fold crimp new hulls on a Lee LoadAll, and said that it's because the crimper is itself plastic, but also said that it can be done by repeated applications and that once it's closed one can add a dab of waterglass -- a type of glue -- in the middle of the crimp. He said that the entire idea behind the LoadAll is to reload previous fired hulls, and we agreed that it does a good job of that.

They've got a very extensive and interesting website, and seemed to have some good deals on new and used hulls.
www.ballisticproducts.com

better off with 1x hulls clubs throm them away by the barrel full

The one complaint that seemed common to the Lee Load All is dumping powder and shot is more difficult than it is with the Mec twist off bottles. The Lee the reservoir of powder and shot are attached. Makes it more of an operation to remove the shot and powder.

I have seen the occasional Mec at gun shows. Passed on a really nice 12 gauge single stage with some extras for $125 kicked myself for it later. eBay has them but shipping can tend to be very large part of the expense from eBay. Certainly more than the Load All. There was something about not being as adjustable for something like the final crimp with Load All. Maybe that mattered more if load all is being used to load round ball. IDK

I use a 12 gage load all for quite a bit of my loading , and really love the ability to load a few boxes of shell without going through a lot of trouble swapping things around on more complicated loaders . Even though the Load All doesn't form a tapered crimp , I have never had a problem with the shells not cycling in a Mossberg 500 .
I tried a 20 gage conversion on my 12 gage base but I had trouble with the 20 gage conversion , and I finally gave up on it . Make sure you get the bushings with the load all , that set of powder and shot bushings will take care of most anything you chose to load .
As mentioned above the role crimper can work right along with your Load All - if you choose to .
Check out ebay , sometimes a clean well kept Mic grabber comes up .

Fit is everything on the load all. Get the right crimp height and good to go. The six point crimp works best on new hulls. I've loaded thousands with them. The mec 600jr is more substantial and gives a more rounded crimp. As for dumping powder and shot all one must do is pull out the 2 side connectors, cover one section with your hand and pour out. Much better than mec bottles IMO. The plastic on the load all reacts with longshot powder, actually eats into the charge bar. I bought a mec 600jr recently from Academy Sports for $189 shipped but comes with only a 7/8 oz charge bar and 3 bushings wher the load all is inclusive. Also the powder bushing for the load all are generally several grains underweight so weigh powder charges to get the right throw.

Now i will admit i weigh every powder charge and load only buckshot so the powder bushings have never been used on mine. And yes $30 per 1000 was a great deal i couldn't believe it already primed hulls for that price i really stocked up.

40 years ago in high school we used a lee load all. You have to slip on the steel sizing ring to resize. That is built into a Mec. junior. Keep watching your local craigslist for a used mec for as little as $50. It’s a better made machine.

I was going to add that a gun shop owner I see at shows when I asked him about locating a used Mec for me suggested a Load All instead. He said he has a couple of Load All's mounted to wood bases that he loans out to try and most try then buy. So the Load All get his endorsement.

I still ended up with a Mec and Pacific. That choice was based on being offered those by a member for a good price, face to face sale so no shipping. Not because I didn't like the Load All. Craig's list being local might offer a similar opportunity.

I also think bushings included is a good point for the Load All. Each time I decide to investigate a new powder/load I am likely to end up spending $5 - $10 for bushings. With shipping unless I'm already ordering other items or at one of the few LGS that carry bushings. I do like the fine crimp adjustability of the Mec.

Mec is sturdy and repairable with pretty good parts availability. More compact on the shelf (with arm spring detached so arm drops) or on the bench. That bench space sort of matters since I do load in short free time blocks and bench is only around 6 ft. long. The Mec is much narrower so I can clamp it on one end of the bench without taking up as much bench space. A Load All would fit but would take up almost all the free space across one end. Matters to me because I load a few, then have to wait a bit to get out and try them. Like to leave the press set up until I get the load I want and am ready to make some boxes.

I have 2 load alls, would be one but you can't convert the old metal base ones. Bought the 12ga one in the late 80s while in the marines, came with hulls, wads, shot, primers etc. Still works fine. Had to buy a newer one to load 16ga, bought the conversion so it will do 20s. if I was making a ton of shells buy a better one, but for occasional use Lee works fine.

I loaded 12ga roll crimp then bought a LEE loadall a few years back and wondered why I wasted so much time with the roll crimp, end results work on both but the LEE loader is waaaay faster for me

I load shot, #00 buck, and 7/8 ounce LEE slugs with used hulls both cheapos and the better quality hulls, I prefer the Remington range bulk hulls.... I dont even know how many times I have reloaded them at this point
https://www.ballisticproducts.com/Re...tinfo/REMGC1F/

HOO-RAAAYY!! I just closed a deal on a nice Mec 600 Jr. 20 ga. from CB member 38splpete clear over on the west coast! Now I'm just waitin' for the big brown truck to drive across the continent............ :coffeecom

It's not popular opinion, but a 600 Jr. is not a good starter press, and will need upgrades. They can load acceptable ammo with some work though, just be prepared for some frustration. You will also need a MEC supersizer, as the "sizing ring" on the 600 Jr. is the sorriest excuse I can imagine. It tears up steel low base hulls, and will not work on high brass. The crimp starters also do not work well. You can modify them, but I've just gone to using the brass crimp starters from Ballistic Products. You can hand weigh powder and primers, but if you intend on doing more than a couple boxes, you will either need a large, expensive collection of charge bars and powder bushings. My suggestion is to buy the universal charge bar, which is adjustable. The crimp finisher does an acceptable job on most lightly loaded target ammo, but for getting a good crimp on buckshot, slugs, or other tight loads, you will need to find a way to support the hull. There is a picture on here that shows a PVC pipe cut off, and it works OK for me. The crimp finisher, especially the cam adjustment is the hardest thing to learn on this press. It's a poor design with no real solution. Just read and watch what you can on adjusting it, and be prepared to waste a number of shells getting it right. You will never get factory looking crimps with a MEC, but it can make a good tight crimp that performs well.

msm,
I have a 12 ga. 600 Jr. presently, have loaded with it for a number of years now with nary a problem. I am aware of the shortcomings you speak of, others have mentioned these traits also. I can only say that my 12 ga. loader has performed well whether fine shot, buck or slug. I have a universal bar in it and intend to purchase another for the 20 ga. I shoot a round or two of trap and skeet a couple times a month so high volume isn't a factor. I buy my target loads at Walmart, can't load them as cheap as I can buy them! Mainly, I bought the loader to make buck & slug loads for my 20's.