How to Load a Shotgun Shell
Bird hunters and shotgun sportsmen looking to save money on their expensive hobby can reload their own shotgun shells. This hobby-within-a-hobby also gives shooters a chance to customize their own shells to fit whatever bird or game they like to shoot.
Instructions
-
-
1
Remove the spent primer, and resize the brass at the bottom of the shell. As with all stations, it is important to pull the handle of the reloader all the way down, or else it will produce a defective shell.
-
2
Place the primer in the second station and the brass part of the shotgun shell on top of it. Pull the handle. Feel the primer with your thumb afterwards to make sure it is even with the brass and not sticking out.
-
-
3
Place the shell in station three, pull the handle, and, with your other hand, move the bar at the top of the machine to the left. This will drop the precise amount of gunpowder into the shell. Let up on the handle, and place the wad in the wad guide. Depress the handle again, and this will slide the wad to the bottom of the shell. While the wad is depressed, use your other hand to move the bar to the right. This causes the exact amount of shot to be dropped into the wad.
-
4
Move the shell to station four and depress the handle to make a starter crimp. Before making the crimp, look into the shell to make sure the shot is at the top of the wad. If not, you may have forgotten a step, such as putting the powder in. If something doesn’t look right, stop immediately, and cut the shell open to see what is amiss. Continuing with the reloading procedure will, at the least, cause you to have a defective shell which may not fire or, at worst, will blow up in your barrel.
-
5
Place the shell in the fifth station, and pull the handle to complete the crimp. You now have a fully-loaded shotgun shell.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Beginners should start with a simple machine, such as the MEC Jr. 600 single-stage reloader. The MEC can be purchased for around $120 new, and for half that price used. Single stage means every step is done with a single pull of a lever. Experienced re-loaders can load a box of 25 shotgun shells in 7-10 minutes with this reloader.
Shotgun shell components, which include lead shot, wads and gunpowder, can be ordered from businesses off the Internet or found at local sporting good stores. Reloaders can either buy once-fired hulls for around 3 cents each or pick them up off the ground at trap and skeet shoots for free. Starting reloaders should plan on spending about $150 on components to start. This amount of money will give them enough to load approximately 30-40 boxes of shells.
Reloaders need to follow instructions from the manufacturers. There are enough different combinations to give shooters a wide variety of shells for any hunting or shotgun sports occasion. Variations from these recipes can result in shells exploding in the gun’s barrel, which can cause injury and death.
