LEC "SUPER JET" Shotshell Loader

[seagiant]

Hi,
I've sort of gone on a Lachmiller bing lately. It first started with a shotshell saver that punches out the primer and then resizes the shellhead. Not long after that a member here had this shotshell loader for a reasonable price (thanks Rusty!) and I decided to pick it up.

It had not been abused but looked like it hadn't been used for awhile. I not only want my loaders to look good but they must perform even if they may not be used that much. I had to do a little tweeking on this one as well as make a part for the final crimp to get it as I prefer it. A shotshell has to have a good crimp when reloaded so it performs correctly when you light it off!I have included the before pic so you can get an idea how it started out. This loader will now put out a shell as good as any other I may have, even though maybe a bit slower. For someone that enjoys reloading it is a neat little loader!

[LUBEDUDE]

That's a nice looking vintage reloader.

Good job revamping it. And thanks for sharing.

I just love looking at this old stuff!

[seagiant]

Hi,
Thought I wlould add on to this as I am still working on this loader. The Lachmiller powder and shot measures are pretty interesting as they use a bored out rotor that takes different size bushings to get the amount of powder or shot that you want. This is pretty neat for someone with a lathe or a friend that has one as you can easily make the bushings

Here are some pics I took to make a bushing for the powder measure. By trial and error you can make a bushing that will drop any amount of any powder that you want!

[LUBEDUDE]

Great idea, I sure don't see a lot of Lachmiller powder bushings on ebay.

[seagiant]

Hi LD,
Thanks for the interest,I've now got this loader so it will load with 18.0 grs. of Red Dot for a 1 1/8 oz shot load and will make a pretty nice shell. I might put some pics of the crimp it makes tomorrow. This would be a nice loader for the guy that wanted to load a couple of boxes a week or some buckshot or turkey loads. Not really a bad little loader!

[Kskybroom]

Very nice job on a nice old loader ........

[LUBEDUDE]

These old loaders still do a good job.

I picked up an old Texan single stage off of ebay for a freind who does not own or know how to work a computer. And that old press makes a very nice shell. Especially for $43.39 with shipping.

It wasn't far from the shell my $$$$$ Spolar puts out. But then it won't do 400/hr or whatever the insane output is. But then speed is not always everything.

[seagiant]

Hi LD,
I just sold my Spolar! I bought it for two reasons. One was that my sister and her boy was shooting skeet with me at the time on a pretty regular basis and the other was that I was at the start of my shotshell reloader addiction and wanted to see if it was as good as they say! It was, but at the same time for me it was boring to use as nothing ever went wrong!

I now own numerous loaders from many different makers(mostly from the 50's and 60's) and try my best to set them up or repair them so they make a good shell. Like you said a MEC 650 jr. will make as good a shell as a Spolar, it just depends on how fast you want to go!

[seagiant]

Hi,
Here is the pic I promised on how this 50-60 yr. old press crimps. As I said before there is no way to adjust the pre or final crimp,the only adjustment is on the wad seater. You also have to figure in timing as the primer seater has to go down far enough to seat the primer! This is one reason I had to make a new seat plug for the final crimp.

In the pic you can see that I used 3 different hulls and I believe that they all have an acceptable crimp. There are higher priced/newer shotshell loaders out there that will not do this good without readjusting everything!

[LUBEDUDE]

Those are some good looking shells!

I would use those in a match any day.

Much better looking than a lot of others that I see on the range that are done with "modern" presses, and by guys with "experience".

[W.R.Buchanan]

Those shells look good. Crimps are perfect. The only thing that has changed in the world of Shotshell loading in the past 30 years is there is more machines that do the same thing.

Obviously Lachmiller had it figured out 60 years ago.

The only improvement to the machines has been to increase the speed of loading.

I know where Greg's Spolar is,,,,

Still burried in work so I haven't loaded anything yet, soon though.

Randy

[LUBEDUDE]

Yeah, the Spolar spits so many out, so fast that I only load about 2-3 times a year.

I go through a case a month. So I load up about 4-6 cases within a few days in the summer and a few in the winter.