I have been thinking of buying a .410 shotshell reloading press. Lee no longer makes a reloader for the .410 (and Lee confirmed in an email today they have no intentions of doing so) so the next choice was a MEC JR. But the 170-190 dollar price was a bit of a put off.
I spent some time today on the web researching alternative methods of reloading the .410 and found several different means of doing so.
Afterwards was fooling around with a .45-70 310 tool and inserted a 2 1/2” fired .410 plastic hull into depriming die to see if it would deprime it. As I squeezed the handles shut, was evident it could not, as there was nowhere for it to go. But it did do one thing, It started to push out the inner primer only and not the entire 209 primer. I removed the hull, sit it on piece of a aluminum plate with a hole drilled just large enough for the inner primer to pass through. I took and pushed an old deprimer rod into the hull and felt pin go into center of the 209 primer, tapped the rod with a plastic hammer and the inner primer came out. I took a look at it, then miked it and a large pistol primer and found them to be the same .210” OD.
I then seated the LPP (anyone familiar with the old Lee reloader knows how) flush in the now empty former 209, it fit tight and looked perfect.
As the .410 rim OD was .530”, using a 1/2” mill I sunk a hole about .125” deep in the aluminum plate and with judicious use of the mill table X-Y, enlarged hole to .550”. I then drilled a 1” hole in center of the milled counter sink and on through the aluminum plate. It was then a simple matter with the depriming rod pin to remove the spent center primers from several other fired hulls and reprimed with LPP.
The wife involuntarily lent me the the use of her Taurus Judge to test with. Loaded five of the primed only hulls, and it was bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, with wife in shop grimacing at each bang. Redid the hulls and followed with about 20 more bangs without a misfire. All the LPP stayed in original position, with none moving forward or backing out.
So, my next step is to set up reloading with one of the, or, my own, alternative method of reloading .410 shot shells. Using the LPP, I will start off with light loads and if things look good, incrementally increasing until arrive at a satisfactory load as to power and shot weight.
Others no doubt have tried using the LPP as I did for paper or plastic hulls, but found nothing on the Web except about use in the brass shotshells.
I spent some time today on the web researching alternative methods of reloading the .410 and found several different means of doing so.
Afterwards was fooling around with a .45-70 310 tool and inserted a 2 1/2” fired .410 plastic hull into depriming die to see if it would deprime it. As I squeezed the handles shut, was evident it could not, as there was nowhere for it to go. But it did do one thing, It started to push out the inner primer only and not the entire 209 primer. I removed the hull, sit it on piece of a aluminum plate with a hole drilled just large enough for the inner primer to pass through. I took and pushed an old deprimer rod into the hull and felt pin go into center of the 209 primer, tapped the rod with a plastic hammer and the inner primer came out. I took a look at it, then miked it and a large pistol primer and found them to be the same .210” OD.
I then seated the LPP (anyone familiar with the old Lee reloader knows how) flush in the now empty former 209, it fit tight and looked perfect.
As the .410 rim OD was .530”, using a 1/2” mill I sunk a hole about .125” deep in the aluminum plate and with judicious use of the mill table X-Y, enlarged hole to .550”. I then drilled a 1” hole in center of the milled counter sink and on through the aluminum plate. It was then a simple matter with the depriming rod pin to remove the spent center primers from several other fired hulls and reprimed with LPP.
The wife involuntarily lent me the the use of her Taurus Judge to test with. Loaded five of the primed only hulls, and it was bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, with wife in shop grimacing at each bang. Redid the hulls and followed with about 20 more bangs without a misfire. All the LPP stayed in original position, with none moving forward or backing out.
So, my next step is to set up reloading with one of the, or, my own, alternative method of reloading .410 shot shells. Using the LPP, I will start off with light loads and if things look good, incrementally increasing until arrive at a satisfactory load as to power and shot weight.
Others no doubt have tried using the LPP as I did for paper or plastic hulls, but found nothing on the Web except about use in the brass shotshells.
