I'd buy that 3.5" conversion kit if someone made it. Loading 3.5" is kind of a bugger. I usually deprime with a screw driver and my MEC size master tool, then double up rings like you on the Lee. It's not terrible, but anything that makes our lives easier...
You'd think the people at Lee would already have these types of adapters on themarket. The out of the box limitations of the Lee load All is its Achilles heel.
I have been doing 3.5" shells on a Lee Load All for years. Get rid of the metal contraction and use a 3/4" section of 3/4" PVC Pipe and put the Sizing Ring on first and the put the PVC section on the hull next. I simply used a piece of 1-1/4" Shrink Tube to hold them together. This takes care of the Sizing modification. For the depriming pin, use a short section of 3/16" tube to use as an extended Depriming Pin. For the Wad Guide, drill another hole higher up on the press shaft and reinstall the Wad Guide higher. The Pre-crimp stages work with no modification. For the final Crimp stage, reuse the 3/4" PVC to create an extended Hull Wall retainer so the bottom of the Hull doesn't wrinkle. All you need is a 34" section of 3/4" PVC and that that Depriming Pin extension.
If you watch my 10 gauge videos, I use a converted lee load all to load them. 2.5” up to 3.5” this press will do it. I do use a pvc pipe on top the ring to resize, and I have a bolt on depriming punch a friend made for me. The hole in the beam of the press was something I figured out a long long time ago for 3.5”. Great minds think alike lol.
To remove the second sizing ring, use a needle nose plier and open it up and put it around the base of the Hull and bring the press ram back down. The bottom ring comes right off.
It didn’t recoil any harder or sound any different than the first 2 a ran through it. I just got the gun that day and tried to shoot 4 rounds as fast as possible. That was the third one.
I'm betting it was a mangled/damaged wad/gas seal that let the gas escape around just one side or focused the gas to that one spot, melting the hull before pushing the load. Just guessing tho. I've never seen that before.
@@theshotgunscientists could've been a thin spot in the plastic... Mossbergs also aren't very forgiving with high pressure loads, but you know that I'm sure.
would the $5 wad finger assembly from a mec make the whole wad feeding part go smoothly off press? i've toyed with sockets that will hold a 12g hull for a travelling reloading kit, and wonder if a deep socket would be able to kick off that sizing ring for the super high brass hulls. on the inside those sockets are concave so i've found the washers that go inside to make it a flat surface for punching out primers. there was a recent batch of remington hulls that the primers were so tight the mec bulged the base of the hull and it looked like a "puckered dog butt" and the puckered part clearly show how big the mec hole is for primers to drop through. i used socket and a nail to gently tap them out. there is also a deep 1/4 drive socket that will go inside of a 12g hull and acts as a guide for centering my particular nail. since im getting a drill press for the gaep finisher, im also pondering how to chuck spare mec parts in the drill press since the bulk of my ammo is 2.75 inch and i dont want to muck with my mec for 3 and 3.5 inch. things like the BP brass crimp starter should chuck up very easily. hopefully my over thinking all this can give others ideas for their travel kits or home kludges.
Tyler, why don’t you look on the second hand market for used mec 600 presses? I have had good luck finding them between $40 to $100 on Craigslist, FB classifieds, etc. Regardless of what people say, the 3” mec 600 presses can be converted to 3.5” by just moving one bolt.
I just don’t have the room for a mec, and I much prefer the Lee press. I’ve used mecs before, you can get them setup to load one hull perfectly but I’ve had issues going to a different hull and having to adjust it all. The Lee press is just straight feel and will load 2.5” up to 3.5” and I’m able to load all gauges on it, even 24 and 32. It’s really just a matter of preference and practicality at this point, I have conversion kits for 10, 16, and 20 gauge. I’ve got the 10 gauge kit putting out awesome crimps now.
@@theshotgunscientists oh, ok. Didn’t realize you hand that many different loads. Mecs can be a real bugger to dial in, I agree. I have a bunch of mec presses that I leave set up for certain hulls. The only mec that I had that use to be a pain to keep consistent with crimps was my 10ga 600. Since I mostly only load steel, it’s not very forgiving and mecs struggle in that department. I went to a pw375 about two years ago for the 10ga to offer more forgiveness when loading the big 10. It’s an old press from the 70’s so I got a killer deal on it. The PW presses are really nice to load on. Wish I could afford them for the other gauges. My only question with the lee presses, when do you do for the hull having a squarish end? Sometimes I have had issue feeding in semi auto and pumps, when I didn’t have at least a small taper at the end.
@@avidwaterfowler7522 I’ve only got a few semi autos, but the few I have don’t seem to mind not having a taper. I’ve got an Ak12 that just eats anything, and my 28 gauge hatfield won’t run reloads period. The manual actually says not to use reloads in it too. Weird but it’s true. Reloads just won’t work in it. Factory loads run perfect when the gun is clean and oiled. It’s a junk gun but works if you only shoot factory ammo. I do use roll crimp tools to put a taper on my handloads occasionally. The reloaders network and gaep rollers really work great.
