.410 Re- Loader

[Lucky Joe]

If it works for 3" and 2.5" and is as good as you say plus is priced so the average fellow can get one. Well you may have bitten off an awful lot to chew, nice problem though. Hope this works out for you.

[JIMinPHX]

Here's the story -

I started out intending to make this thing as reasonably priced as possible, even if it would mean that the user would be limited to using just one type of hull. I streamlined the design as much as I could, but I still could not get down to traditional Lee pricing. That's not all that surprising. They have economy of scale & I don't. I then found that for just a little bit more, I could make this thing adjustable, so that it would work with most folded hulls. Therefore, what it looks like I am going to end up offering, is a slightly more deluxe version, for more than I had originally wanted to charge.

I took the time to generate precision dimensions where they were needed. I took the time to break the sharp edges, add knurels where appropriate & make the unit functional. I did not take the time to shine it up & put a show finish on it. The basic unit will be $65 & will include the spindex crimp starter that I buy from MEC. It will not include a steel ring for resizing the brass portion of the shell. I haven't needed a steel sizing ring yet, so I don't think that it will be necessary for most people that are always loading for the same gun. If you already have a MEC 410 press with a spindex crimp starter, then you can get my little rig, less the crimp starter for $5 less. If you want a steel sizing ring for the brass section of the hull, that will be $10 extra.

I ordered 10 crimp starters from MEC last week, but they are not here yet. Hopefully, they will arrive soon. I can't ship a complete unit until they get here. I'll try to check on their arrival date tomorrow. I'll also try to get started making parts, since I know that at least several people want one of these things.

[Lucky Joe]

410's are among the costliest to buy and at the same time the most economical to reload. At least that's my take. One will have to determine how much shooting he or she will do, I think at $65.00 if you can hold that price for a while you should sell your loader especially as word gets around.

Good luck I'd like to get one someday.

[JIMinPHX]

I have instructions for these things all written up, with pictures & everything, in a MS-Word document. I'd like to post it here, but I'm not having much luck. Pictures alone post fine for me, but the Word document just doesn't show up. Does anyone have any advice on how to make that work?

[BCB]

JIMinPHX,

Maybe you could just copy and paste the document in a regular post...
(Ctrl A to select all, then Ctrl C to copy it, then Ctrl V to post it)...

If it doesn't work--heck, just delete it...

I do all of my replies on a Word document and then just copy and paste it to the thread...

Good-luck...BCB

[Mk42gunner]

Jim,

I would like one of your reloading setups; but the only .410 I have anymore is my Grandpa's old Iver Johnson Champion, with 2 1/2" chamber. Plus I might have shot half a box of shells through it in the last six years, so it really would not be cost effective for me.

Now if I could just find my old .410 Lee kit, the last time I looked on evilbay they were bringing around $100. I would sell it and buy one of yours.

Robert

[BCB]

JIMinPHX,

This is a pic of the 10 gauge handloader that I have used for—I don’t know how many years!!! A clue might be the price of $9.95…

Regardless, this set-up is the same principle as the one you have fabricated…

I continue to use it for speciality reloads for turkey as water foul hunting is long in my past...

Slow, but works very well...

(Now if I could find some Winchester paper hulls of many many years gone by!!!)...

The crimp setter is in the die at the bottom of the Styrofoam holder. It does take a whack or two to get a very tight crimp...

What an innovative set-up...

BCB

[JIMinPHX]

Well, I have some good news & some bad news. The good news is that I got my hands on a few 2-1/2" Winchester HS hulls & I was able to get a half way decent looking shell put together, even though the hull started out as a roll crimped buckshot load. The bad news is that I found out that I forgot to make up a crimp starter stop tube for 2.5". The other bad news is that I also got a Federal hull & that one gave me a few surprises.

Despite the fact that the 2.5" HS hull was originally roll crimped, was a little burnt looking when I started, & I just did the crimp start depth by eye, it still came out sort of OK. The Federal hull gave me a couple of problems. After I primed it, I tried to knock it out of the tube, like I always do. Unfortunately, the primer backed out about 1/8". It would appear that the base of the Federal hull is shorter than the primer. I may need to make a little modification to my wad starter tool to work around that. Another issue with the Fed hull is that the brass is higher & I hadn't clearanced my tube far enough up to accommodate it. That part should be easy enough to fix. My last possible issue concerns the crimp. The plastic material that these hulls are made out of is a bit thinner than the HS hulls I was using. I was able to crimp it, but I'm thinking that a crimp die with a button that is slightly bigger in diameter may make a more positive crimp. I'll have to watch the crimp that I made today & see if it opens up over time.

Anyway, here's a look at the 2.5" shells that I fooled with.

[JIMinPHX]

JIMinPHX,

This is a pic of the 10 gauge handloader that I have used for—I don’t know how many years!!! A clue might be the price of $9.95…

This pictures shows a standard variety 12 Ga. Lee Loader & a Deluxe version 20 Ga. Lee Loader. The Deluxe version looks remarkably similar to yours, right down to the custom fit box. I think that the vintage is about the same too.

I tried to use the 12Ga. version & could not get it to work right, which is why I made my first hand loader in 12Ga. I haven't tried the 20 Ga. version yet.

[JIMinPHX]

Now if I could just find my old .410 Lee kit, the last time I looked on evilbay they were bringing around $100.

I tried to buy a .410 Lee Loader a while back & ran into the same problem. I wrote a letter to Lee about 2 years ago asking them to either bring back the .410 Lee Loader or else make the Load All available in .410. I never even got a reply. That is what brings us to where we are today with this project.

[JIMinPHX]

BCB,
Thanks for the idea. The text portions came across fine, but the pictures did not. The instructions were written up kind of like a comic book, so without the pictures, too much is lost.

If anybody has another method for posting Word documents that I can try, I'm all ears.

[Mk42gunner]

Jim,

Maybe I was doing it wrong those many years ago, but I always installed the primers with the shell outside the die body. Also, it seems like the priming punch had a hollow in the end of it. I can check the one on my twenty guage tomorrow if you need me to.

Robert

[JIMinPHX]

Well I've done a little thinking since I ran into the issues with the Federal hull. This is the position that I'm going to take.

I don't have a lot of experience with shotshell reloading, so I am not familiar with all the different varieties of hulls that are out there. I don't know what the potential differences might be. This rig will work with Winchester HS hulls, either 2.5" or 3". I will include 2 different tubes for use as stops under the starter crimp in the standard kit. That will give good performance on both 2.5" & 3" HS shells. If you need to do a different length & you want me to provide a special length stop tube (like 2.75"), contact me & let me know what length you want.

With Hulls other than Winchester HS, it's going to be a bit of a gamble & I can't promise good results. It may work well. It may not. If someone has a particular hull that they want to use, they can send me a few empty hulls as samples I will evaluate them & see what modifications I need to make so that they will work properly. Those instances will be handled on a case by case basis.

Sorry that I don't have a better response to that issue,
Jim

[sargenv]

After having thought about the economical reloading of the 410.. and after buying all the components and such, I deemed ti too much if a pain in the tuckus to reload those teeny-tiny shotshells. Everything has to be "Just right" otherwise the crimp doesn't work, the brass won't size, or any number of issues with it. I was so fed up with loading the 410 that I practically gave away all the plastic components and sold the press for a small loss. For the small amount that I shoot the 410, I can practically buy a case or two, shoot it up, sell the component hulls, and have a little bonus to buy fresh factory stuff again. Back before ammo went through the roof, I picked up two cases of the stuff for $7/25 shipped. It was and still is worth it to me to just buy the dang stuff. *shrug* but that's me

I reload for everythig else (just ask anyone who knows me).. all the way down to 32 S&W long and 32 acp, and I found the 410 to be more trying than anything else I ever tried..

[JIMinPHX]

I've managed to finish making 5 of these complete kits. I tested each one & they all made good looking shells with 3" Winchester HS hulls. They are all equipped to make 2.5" or 3" shells.

2 of the 5 kits are already spoken for. I'd like to keep one myself. That leaves 2 more available. I'm probably not going to have the time to make more of these for a while, so if you're hot to get one quickly, now's the time. I'm not saying that I'll never make them again. I'm just saying that it's probably going to be a while before it happens again.

If you want one, post here that you want it & I'll PM you with details. These two are first come - first served to the people who POST HERE first.

Thanks,
Jim

[wills]

BCB,
Thanks for the idea. The text portions came across fine, but the pictures did not. The instructions were written up kind of like a comic book, so without the pictures, too much is lost.

If anybody has another method for posting Word documents that I can try, I'm all ears.

http://www.zamzar.com/

You might be able to convert the word doc to jpg, which you could post.

[SciFiJim]

Jim,
If you want to email me the Word doc, I will convert it to a .pdf for you and email it back for you to post. I will PM you my email address.



I am interested in one of these for my father-in-law. He is incredibly difficult to Christmas shop for. I have to find out whether he already has a 410 reloading setup or not.

[wills]

If you can post a PDF, open the document, go to file print and select your pdf maker as the printer.

[JIMinPHX]

OK,
I scanned the printed pages at a reasonable resolution, but the board seems to shrink them a little when I click on them to view them. I don't know why the board does that.

If you click on them to open them, then right click on the opened image & select download, the downloaded image that stores on your computer is back to the original size & can be read more clearly.

Anyway, here they are -

[JIMinPHX]

If you click on the image, then after it opens, you click on the opened image, it opens again in a separate window at better resolution.