Anyone reload steel shot?

I have reloaded lead shotshells for many years with a MEC loader, but never needed to reload steel until now. If I have an adjustable charge bar and a scale, is there any reason I need to buy the steel reloading kit?

If you are going to load steel larger than #5 shot yes you will need the steel shot conversion. Basically what happens is the large shot will 'bridge' in the drop tube and bind up. The steel shot drop tubes are bigger and prevent bridging up to about BB IME. The steel shot bushings are also a LOT bigger for equivalent shot weights, steel is a lot less dense than lead so a much larger volume of shot is needed to make the proper charge weight.

You can dip and manually drop the large sized shot with a funnel too if you don't want to buy the kit. It isn't the best solution but it does work.

If you are loading #6 or #7 steel odds are that your press will work fine as is.

I figured there must be some reason that i just couldn't see.

Thanks!!

Steel "kits" for the mec reloaders are kinda lacking in what you need- a teflon washer would do ALL the good, the powder bottles need to be ALOT bigger than the small bottles, and should be supplied with a strong magnet to get those loose pellets the easy way. Steel has approx. 2/3 the weight of lead, but holds terrific patterns at 1500fps and up (a little ways).The sources for the components are Cabela's, Ballistic products, Reloading specialties, and Precision reloading. WATCH OUT for Precision reloadings shipping charges- $125 order had $66 extra on shipping. Ouch! The shot size you use also is touchy on bushings, but the adjustable charge bar is tempermental with #2, al least in my reloading. I reload #7 steel for dove hunting and have found some great loads but got suckered into the unslit wads a few years ago- don't do it.

More good info (especially the wads) - thanks! The gun club here doesn't allow lead, so I'll just start with some basic skeet type loads.