r/Ausguns • u/carelessarmadillo267 • Oct 26 '23

Reloading 12g Reloading

Anyone here reload 12g? I’m looking at getting the Lee Load All 2 so I can load slugs and heavy buckshot, but if anyone has any better suggestions I’d like to hear them.

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

3

u/deathmetalmedic Industrial Effluent Agitator Oct 26 '23

I reload 12ga and have a Lee Load-All 2 and a MEC600JR. I only load slugs and buckshot because there's not much point with the price of target loads.

The MEC is a better piece of kit, but harder to come by and more expensive than the Lee.

3

u/carelessarmadillo267 Oct 26 '23

Cheers for the reply, do you cast your own slugs and buckshot?

3

u/deathmetalmedic Industrial Effluent Agitator Oct 26 '23

Yes; I've got the Lee moulds for 1 oz. slugs and 00 buck. There's a bit of shotgun reloading kit out there as it's not economical to reload for trap loads, and powder, wads and primers have been hard to come by. If you ask around, especially on FB groups, you should find a few things. I got my MEC and the moulds from someone getting out of the hobby for a fraction of what I would have paid retail. Powder is an issue, but with Vithavouri powder starting to trickle in it might be viable- or you can cannibalise a slab of trap shells by cutting them open, melting the shot into slugs or buckshot, then roll crimping them with an overshot card.

3

u/BadgerBadgerCat Queensland Oct 26 '23

There's almost no shotgun powder available so it's largely academic at this point.

If you've already got a stock of powder I'm told it's worth it for solid slug and heavy buckshot if you use the latter a lot, but not for trap/birdshot unless you're like an Olympic/Commonwealth Games level shooter who'd go through a slab of shells as a warm-up at a training session.

1

u/seventrooper Oct 26 '23

It's really not worth it unless you've already got a stock of powder.

2

u/TheOtherLeft_au Oct 26 '23

I reload black powder 12g on a Lee loadall 2 I bought last year. I didn't want to spend the $ on a MEC. It does the job if you're not in a hurry.

But yeah getting components is the hard part

1

u/carelessarmadillo267 Oct 27 '23

I’m used to scrounging for components.