Shotshell Press

[andersoncn]

I'm new to reloading and wanted see what opinions people had on what type of press to buy for a beginner? I am interested in TSS and TSS/Steel duplex loads mostly for waterfowl. Thanks.

[Dave in AZ]

MEC 600jr.
MEC Sizemaster << this has the collet resizer, which is nice if you're using anyone else's fired hulls or a semi.

For TSS and steel, you're handweighing all the powder and shot anyways, so you need to be able to pull the shells out easily... so NOT PW. Since you're really just using it to deprime/size, prime, then pre/final crimp, these are the two to get. Get the Sizemaster if you can afford it, the resizing collet thing is much nicer.

Buy a roll-crimp die "RTO" (Roll Turn Over) from Precision Reloading or BPI and just hit the top of your fold crimped shells and it won't matter how good the final crimp is from any machine, you'll have nice crimps.

I have MEC600jr, Sizemaster, four MEC9000 progressives (12, 20, 28, 410), three PW375C with dies for 12,16,20,28,410, and a Lee LoadAll. Truthfully, I DO use my PW375C for 20ga, because it lets me load 3" 20ga easily, but it's a bit of a pain to put powder and shot in the hulls and I have to work one at a time instead of all at once in a load block. But it works fine also, and is a much higher quality machine. $75 or so though will get you all you need in a MEC600jr.

However-- DO get a digital scale.