MEC 600jr conversion to 410 worth it?

[ebb]

I bought a brand new MEC 600 10 -15 years ago, Ive never opened the box. I found a new one on sale, and I think it way less than $200 then. One of these days I am going to get brave enough to at least open the box and read the instructions.

[turtlezx]

be brave and open box hrs of fun in it

[W.R.Buchanan]

I have a Pacific DL266 single stage and a Hornady/Pacific dL366 progressive.

I can reload AA hulls on the Single Stage until they physically Split and can't contain the innards any more. Also it is easy to align the Precrimp die with the existing fold creases in the hull so that it closes the same way every time.

The Progressive not so much!!! It will only load hulls 2-3 times before I start having problems with the Crimps not closing properly, then the hulls must go to the Single Stage to get the rest of their life cycle out. And at the cost of OF AA hulls out there, if you can find them, you need to get every reload possible out of every hull !!!

I started with the DL266 and ran it for many years and then started shooting my .410 for Skeet more often so I wanted to reload faster. If it runs clean I can easily get 200 per hour out of it. I can only do 100 per hour out of the Single Stage, and that is if I huff and puff and keep my head down and Butt up. But I have no bad crimps or missed primers or any other problem.

.410's are Finicky Little Buggers, but the entire program of loading them perfectly lies in the Crimp Start. If the Crimp Start Die indexes with the existing folds in the hull, then the Crimp Start will look perfect, and the Finish Die will close it perfectly.

If the Crimp Start Die Doesn't align with the Existing Folds in the hull, it will crush the Mouth of the Hull and the Finish Die will jam it shut, and in every case it will look bad , but in many cases you just ruined another hull!

On a Single Stage machine you can index the Hull under the Crimp Start Die when you put the hull into that station. You can't do that on a Progressive Machine because you usually can't see it, and you are at the Mercy of Random Chance,,, Which Sucks and is very frustrating.

Here's some pics of what the Hulls need to look like so you can get the idea of how to make these things work right. Note: the Ridges on the outside of Die correspond to the Ridges inside the die.

Hope this helps a little.

Randy