Priming 410 shotshells on my Lee Classic Cast press

[flashhole]

I had a primer go off on me when using the hammer method of seating a new primer. Not fun. I wanted a safer way to prime 410 shells and I wanted to use equipment I already have. This is what I did, two methods.

First picture shows the Lee Ram Prime with the ram and two factory primer stems on the left. The third primer stem was fashioned from a roofing nail with a 1/8" shaft.

The shell holder is a Lee #5 that is designed for 300 Win Mag or 7mm Rem Mag or anything else in that case family. It happens to work really well for 410. I used my Dremel and a 5/16 stone to enlarge the primer hole so the shotshell primers will fit.

On the right is an RCBS ram holder that fits in the press ram. I fashioned the ram from a 1/4" hex bolt.



This is what the Lee system looks like in the press.



This is what the RCBS system looks like in the press. Both rams are using the Lee shell holder.



This is a close-up of the primer on the ram. You get the idea.



This is the seated primer. System works great.

[flashhole]

Sorry, I haven't yet figured out how to resize pictures on Imgur.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Flash: You should set up all this on your BPM Hand Press.

Randy

[MOA]

Nice work around flashhole.

Always nice not to have a flash in the face while seating primers, and the new setup will keep your face away from the mouth of the case should that happen. Of course we all know to wear our safety glasses when we do this stuff huh. Nice Job.

[flashhole]

MOA - Glasses ... always. The challenge was enlarging the primer hole in the shell holder. Too hard to drill so it had to be ground with a stone with a Dremel.

Randy - What advantage is there to the hand press? I've seen your product, very nice piece of work.

I also made a plunger with a wooden dowel and wooden ball to press the over over powder and over shot cards and wads. I will eventually figure out a way to outfit a die with a suitable plunger and do that work on the press too. As to crimp. I have a roll crimp tool I can use with my drill press but it is very picky about hulls. I just use the over shot card method with a bit of glue.

[MOA]

MOA - Glasses ... always. The challenge was enlarging the primer hole in the shell holder. Too hard to drill so it had to be ground with a stone with a Dremel.

As to crimp. I have a roll crimp tool I can use with my drill press but it is very picky about hulls. I just use the over shot card method with a bit of glue.

The dremel tool is real handy, I just got a workstation for mine for xmas, love it, use it for now to cut down my worn two and three quarter shot shells down to 2 inch or 2 and a half inch cleanly so I can continue to get more utility out of them and to increase the shell count in the shotgun magazine.


flashhole, maybe you could use some parts from MEC, their starter crimp might be modified to work with your press, it has a central thread that supports the starter die, and can be had in 6 or 8 point. Most likely your shell take a 6 point crimp.

[flashhole]

MOA, I did the reverse. I use a Lee 3-jaw chuck in my drill press to rotate the 410 shotshell hull. I screwed a single edge razor blade to a small block of wood and use the table on the drill press to set the cut height. Hull rotates, razor blade makes a really clean cut on the plastic hull.

[MOA]

MOA, I did the reverse. I use a Lee 3-jaw chuck in my drill press to rotate the 410 shotshell hull. I screwed a single edge razor blade to a small block of wood and use the table on the drill press to set the cut height. Hull rotates, razor blade makes a really clean cut on the plastic hull.

Yes, I've seen that type of tool on youtube. But, tell me this how does it work on paper hulls?????

[flashhole]

I haven't seen a paper hull in years so I don't know how it would work. Winchester Super-X used to be paper hulls, don't know if they changed to plastic or not. They were the favorite diet of my father's Ithaca Model 37 12 Ga. He passed a few years ago and I now have the gun. He bought it new, special order, in 1951. It has an extra full choke 30 inch barrel. When I was a kid he would almost always win the Turkey shoots.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Flash: the main advantage of my tool is the portability. You can do anything you can do on your bench mounted press, anywhere.

So that means you could prime your .410 hulls while watching TV in your easy chair. Or size and deprime rifle cases during lunch at work. Or fill in blank.

The possibilities are endless, and what's more it fits nicely in it's Boyd's Pistol Rug Case so it doesn't take up a whole lot of room.

Randy