Found another use for my Lee Classic Cast

[Gadawg88]

I started loading 12ga shotshells again back in the spring for the first time since I was a teenager. Some target loads and #1 buck. Getting the crimp right is the most time consuming and frustrating part. After much fiddling and adjusting I was able to get it to an acceptable point for all my loads, but there was still a little flare on the end of the shell. This would occasionally cause a feeding problem in my autoloader, maybe one shell out of every box of 25. Searching for a solution I ran across mention of the RCBS 12ga taper crimp die for their Mini Grand shotshell press. Sounded like exactly what I needed, problem is I don't use an RCBS Mini Grand press. The die was only $12 so I decided to take a chance and bought it to see if I could make it work on my MEC Steelmaster. Eagerly awaiting its arrival, I opened the box up and was immediately disappointment. I could tell the bolt size was much larger than the hole on the pre-crimp station on my MEC press. Not to be deterred, I set about trying to find a way to make it work. After a little head scratching, it turned out to be real easy. With a couple of washers, I was able to attach it to the single stage. I just place the loaded she'll directly on the top of the ram and smoothly raise the shell into the die. With medium pressure it applies a nice rounded taper to the top of the shell and smooths out any small ripples. The finished rounds look a lot more like factory rounds and should feed real smooth (yet to test them though). The shell is positioned so that the primer sits over the open cavity in the ram and the primer is slightly recessed in the base of the shell anyway, so I don't think there is any concern of accidental detonation.