MEC Jnr, converting from 12Ga to 16Ga, how hard is it?

[Four Fingers of Death]

I am about to buy a 16Ga shotgun which i think will make a nice hunting gun. I have a MEC Jnr in 12Ga and was wondering how difficult/easy it was to change guages, or would I be better off getting a new press? Our dollar is kicking a$$ at the moment and they aren't ever going to be much cheaper than now.

[oneokie]

The actual change over is not that difficult. I converted a 12ga to 20ga. and the only difficultie I had was adjusting the final crimp station after the change over.

[vernm]

Changing out the dies is not difficult. Adjusting them can be frustrating.

I used one press with dies in 12ga and 20ga when I was young and broke.
It alway seemed I needed to try a new load combination in 20ga when the press was set up for 12ga. Chances are you will eventually decide to buy another press in 16ga. Then you will have bought an extra set of dies. So buying the whole press now will save the cost of a conversion kit.

Looked to me like you were leaning in that direction. So I thought I would help a bit.

[Patrick L]

Its easy, if you are just a little mechanincally inclined. I must have changed over 5 or 6, even progressives, which they say you can't do.

I will agree with vernm though, this is not something to do with the idea of converting back and forth between two gauges. The adjustments are too time consuming. Its something you do if you get a new gun in a gauge you don't have a press for and you happen to have a spare press you are not using.

In other words, you do it one time and leave it set. If you need to load two or more different gauges, get a dedicated press for each gauge.