After all I've written on the handloading forum about how I wouldn't reload if I didn't have to for price reasons, , I got into shotshell reloading for trap anyway. I guess I just couldn't stand the thought of tossing the hulls into the trash after just one firing.
So I'm cranking away with a new MEC 9000GN and I like it a lot. The primer mechanism is really excellent. It took me a little while to master the machine's operation because the manuals are written by engineers and they take a lot for granted and leave some important setup information out. It took a few powder and shot spills to get it figured out. Thank God for Shop Vacs!
Anyway, I'm shooting 1 ounce loads of magnum shot using Clays powder in AA hulls and so far things are going well. It takes less than 10 minutes to make up a box of ammo. I think I'll just keep it set up all the time so I can load on demand rather than making up a whole mess of shells all at once. At least until I get some pet loads.
Fortunately or unfortunately the topsy turvy world of buying promotional ammo for less than I could load it seems to have come to an end. The $17 boxes of promotional ammo at Walmart just went up to $24, so I now save a buck a box by reloading, even at $50 a bag for shot (which I haven't paid yet because I'm using shot I bought a couple of years ago.)
On the lighter side of the news, it looks like the price of lead is about 2/3 what it was at its peak, so we'll probably start seeing bags of magnum shot for about $35 a bag soon. Not as great as olden times, but better that what we're paying now.
