Am I doing something wrong for 3” shells?

[DKG]

Both my load all 2 and my new mec presses have issues when loading 3” hulls where the hull buckles or squished down forming a ring at the bottom. For the 12 gauge I’ve tried 3/4” pvc as a support but that won’t let the final crimp come down far enough. Am I missing something? No issues with 2 3/4” shells in either gauge.


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[megasupermagnum]

Neither press offers very much support for a 3", even with the PVC trick. The MEC does have a cam adjustment, as can be seen here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apCrfKHUDGk
The Lee has no adjustment, so if it can not crimp without buckling, you simply have too much in the hull. You either need to remove a spacer if you have them, or use less shot.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I'm going to try and help, but I'm just pretty much a novice at it myself, so I know someone else will come along with some better information and better help.

I have a Lee Load All II for 12 ga., which I used a couple of years ago to load up what is probably a lifetime supply for a guy looking at age 80. They were 2 3/4ths inch hulls and were originally loaded with buckshot. It's hard to get satisfactory results changing from a roll crimp to a fold crimp, so I went with the roll crimp again, using a roll crimp tool in my drill press. The results were very good. During that session, with a lot of book reading and trial and error I learned that best results are had with a shot column that is exactly the right height for the crimp to roll down on the overshot card wad and hold everything secure. I never tried to load 3 inch hulls on the Lee, don't know if it can be changed to accommodate them or not-- but I would think so. Everything has got to be just right for a good fold crimp as well, as I just learned again a couple of weeks ago loading .410 shells. Lee does not, and never has made a .410 press, and for some reason says that they probably never will. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

So, I was looking for a new and interesting reloading project for this winter, and got lucky with obtaining 200 each Cheddite primed 2 1/2 and 3 inch hulls. Once again I re-learned the lesson that the powder/wad/amount of shot has to be just the right length to allow for good crimping. Since I already had used and liked the roll crimp on the 12 ga. I decided to go with that first. I found on my first 8 or so hulls the tool rolled them down to where they were 2 1/4 inch shells. I had to adjust the shot column by putting a fiber wad about as thick as an aspirin tablet over the powder, then the wad/shot cup filled with No. 7 shot. The next 40 or so were perfect, 2 1/2" long and a good roll crimp.

Then I decided to try the 3 inch shells. Mind you, I didn't have to resize and reprime any of these, so the 2 1/2 inch hulls I just loaded on my desk individually by weighing and pouring in the powder, inserting the wad, shot cup, weighing out the shot, pouring it in and tamping it down with a lead pencil. Then I put the overshot card on top and roll crimped. But for the 3 inch hulls I had purchased a new bottom of the line MEC Jr. (nice press despite cost) which came from the factory set up for 3 inch hulls. I've got lots of time and try to be a perfectionist, so I again weighed out the charges and shot, then fold crimped them on the press. The first couple were a bit too short and the fold pressed in a bit too far leaving a small hole in the center where you can see a shot and which might leak in field carry. So I attempted to adjust the length of the shot column again using fiber wad over the powder charge, and got a couple that were a bit too long
for the folds to close completely. I halved the thickness of the fiber wad and finally got the correct length and some nice crimps--but learned that the press is very finicky about the thickness of that wad because I bulged 5 of them just above the brass. They would always bulge if I pulled the press handle down as far as it would absolutely go, so I developed a feel for it where I can just feel the top of the hull starting to fold and cave inward a bit. After that they were all good.

So, there's the sum total of my experience, and I'd say that a major part of your problem is getting the length of the shot column right. Unfortunately, this is somewhat complicated now days with the components shortage, and finding a load recipe that uses what you are able to obtain.

Here's some photos showing the problems I encountered and the eventual acceptable results.

Roll crimps. Some to the rear are visibly shorter.


Some bulged cases.


Better.


DG

[centershot]

DKG,
The Mec has an adjustment for 3" shells, look at the back of the base section. take out that bolt, raise the column up and re-insert the bolt into the next hole in the column. Take care to keep the column centered as you tighten that bolt down. This gives you the extra 1/4" you need to crimp the longer hulls.

[Cap'n Morgan]

I fiddled with my MEC 600 for quite a while to get decent crimp on 3" shells. In the end I machined the crimp-head to accept a steel tube to give support for another 5/16" or so. If i remember correctly, I added a third hole higher up on the column, with a larger bolt, for a more solid setup. Another trick is to crimp the shells in two stages.

[DKG]

DKG,
The Mec has an adjustment for 3" shells, look at the back of the base section. take out that bolt, raise the column up and re-insert the bolt into the next hole in the column. Take care to keep the column centered as you tighten that bolt down. This gives you the extra 1/4" you need to crimp the longer hulls.

I’ll try that this weekend. I’ve taken to roll crimping new 3 inch hulls until I can get it figured out.


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[bdicki]

You don't say which MEC press you have, but all the manuals are here.
https://www.mecoutdoors.com/owners-manuals-sr

[DKG]

You don't say which MEC press you have, but all the manuals are here.
https://www.mecoutdoors.com/owners-manuals-sr

Sorry, they’re the 600 mark 5


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