My New MEC Loader - Video Added

[trippledigitss]

I just bought a MEC 9000H hydraulic 12ga shotshell loader, picked it up last weekend.  I am so pumped to get it all set up! I bought it used on CL and I got so much stuff with it!! I got it from a cool older dude who doesnt shoot or load anymore, it is in EXCELLENT shape, hardly any wear on it at all.

I got the loader & hydraulic pump
22+ bags of wads, like 10-12 bags of Claybuster White 8 wads, at least 6 bags of Remington RXP12 Power Piston Wads,  about 6 or more bags of WAA12 Winchester wads, and a bag of Remington Figure 8 wads
8# keg of Unique powder,
8# keg of American Select,
about 2200 Winchester W209 Primers (2 bricks and a pack or 2),
about 50# of shot, (but half of it is #5)
THOUSANDS of AA hulls, like 3 big boxes jacked full of them, a couple boxes of STS & Nitro hulls, in all it seems there has to be about 10k hulls and they are look like new. I think some are only once fired, & never loaded since it looks they have the original primers, all the STS hulls look like it.

And he gave me a box full of other stuff, digital and balance scales, powder cup set, new shell trays & boxes, extra powder & shot bottles and all kinds of other stuff like buffer powder, a sieve, bismuth shot - whatever that is..... All for $650! My van was so jacked full of stuff on the way home there was no place to sit or put anything else, the only open spots were the driver seat for me and one for my boy!
 
The freaking loader looks almost new, no rust & hardly any wear on it. He upgraded the charge bar to one of the Universal D/DS adjustable charge bars. His wife made a cover for it out of canvas shot bags and he kept it all covered up. I cant WAIT to get it put together and loading. All I need to get is some more lead and I'll be set up for quite a while.

Once I get it all set up I will take some video of it running and post it up here. I feel like a kid at Christmas!! 

[NW-GSP]

WOW that is really cool, cant wait to see the video of it up and working. I reload for pistol and rifle but have no idea how to reload shotgun. congrats on the amazing find!

[Biggerhammer]

Smoking deal! Looking forward to some pictures.

[trippledigitss]

Thanks guys. Yeah I really didnt want to spend that much money on a loader, I found it on whim while browsing CL. I was using a Lee Load All and shooting faster than I could load. So I was just thinking about a new one and saw that and had to have it! My buddy has one and he paid a grand for it. I think I got about 1500-1800 worth of stuff if I was to sell it all, killer deal! Plus the guy was really cool, it took me almost 2 weeks to get the dough together and he was patient and waited for me, apparently even turned a couple other guys away so I could get my shot. Very cool and very rare especially on CL when so many buyers & sellers flake! 

Got it running last night, should have taken some pics. But I still need to make some adjustments, nothing too big. I only made about 8 shells but they turned out nice. My shot & powder charges are right on, wad pressure is good. But primers are not feeding right, some shells have small hang up leaving station 1 - but the big thing was for some reason when I run one shell it still drops powder & shot when there are no shells in those stations. WHAT A FREAKING MESS! BB's & powder everywhere! My wife has a HUGE mess to clean up! There is supposed to be some lever that shuts it off if there is only one shell so I got to figure that out.

I'll take some pics of it later tonight and then some video once I have it all dialed in.

[trippledigitss]

Well I think I have it all setup, adjusted & loading properly. There are SOOO many adjustments on this darn thing it was a little overwhelming! But I loaded about 50 shells in 15min or so last night and it was working great. The guy forgot to give me the cover for the primer feed tray so he is mailing that to me so I dont have to drive to Olympia for it.

Man, I'll tell you, getting this thing set up was a bit of a chore, turn the wrong screw and you'll mess it up, run the loader to check it without having the bottles upright and you'll mess it up, etc etc. I made a huge mess, it was dropping powder & shot when there were no shells in the station and it was going everywhere! I fixed that but there was other things that needed adjustment, the re-prime tube was out of whack, the shell lifter at #1 needed to come up higher so the shells didnt catch while rotating, the bar actuator & bar lock, wad guide & pressure. Then I went to check one of my adjustments and forgot to rotate the bottles forward and when the ram came up it caught the shot bottle, broke it off at the neck and the whole bottle dumped like 5-10# of 7-1/2 shot everywhere. One turn too many can overdo it when you are adjusting things. You really have to pay attention to what is going on. WHEW!!

I tried to take some video but it was tough one handed & trying to run the machine and then I had an issue. I will make sure it is completely up & running & get things cleaned up and take some good video of it in action this weekend. But here are some pics of the loader & pump & some of the stuff I got with it. Pardon the mess!

[trippledigitss]

More wads & hulls

[CP]

Nice haul!  I’ve been loading with single stage MECs for decades.  I’ve never seen a hydraulic unit run but I bet that thing can really crank out the rounds.

[Huntbear]

Nice....

Been a long time since I ran a Mec..  Used to load 500 rounds an evening for a week, then go shoot them all for a trap tourny...

If a buddy wanted shells loaded for him, he had better show up with beer....or he might get a box with no shot, or maybe no powder in them...   

[uplandhunter870]

congrats on one heck of a deal and welcome to the world of advanced reloaders haha.  as im sure youve learned by now making adjustments in very small increments is the best way to go. it does take a little bit of time to get it running perfect.  its been a few years since ive ran a mec but they are solid reloaders.

if you dont know this already but if you got any of the winchester  AA "HS" hulls you need the AA "HS" wads regular wads wont work in them

happy reloading

[Biggerhammer]

Way cool, a guy could rip out a truck load of shells for the Dove season in a hurry with that bad boy set up!

[trippledigitss]

    

Way cool, a guy could rip out a truck load of shells for the Dove season in a hurry with
that bad boy set up!

Oh yeah, I still am surprised at how fast I can load shell. I go thru a hundred in about
10min or less. It is so cool I just sit there with a big grin!

Thanks for the heads up Upland, I didnt know that. I dont know if I have any if the AA HS
you are talking about, but I have been reloading Rem's so I will probably stick with
that. The few AA Super Handicap I've loaded before were 2 piece with a plastic base cup
in the hull so I stopped using them. It doesnt look like these red AA's have it. But he
gave me a bunch of the WAA12 wads for the hulls and that was what he mainly used so
hopefully he's got the right stuff. He kept really good notes and gave me a file with
everything, even the original invoice.

I got the primer tray lid on saturday and so I'm ready to go now. I had to work
this weekend but I still plan on taking some video of it running. Now that I have it all adjusted
I need to go thru & clean it and lube it up. I guess I should have done that first....
And you are totally right, adjustments have to be very small and one thing at a
time, I found out adjusting one thing, affects another thing, and so on. It seems to be
working great now but for some reason the first 5-6 rounds still seem to hang up just a bit
when leaving the de-prime station #1. I even adjusted it and it was working great, but it
takes a few before it smooths out. When it catches slightly it will jar the whole carrier
and 2-3 bb's fall out of the uncrimped shell. I need to figure out whats up there,
hopefully and clean & lube will help?

[C-Money]

VERY nice find! I use the fig 8 or the white 8 wads the most with 1 1/8oz.

[trippledigitss]

VERY nice find! I use the fig 8 or the white 8 wads the most with 1 1/8oz.

Yeah me too, started out with the CB Fig 8 style and changed to 1oz Lightnings but didnt like them so I went back to 1 1/8th White 8's since that is what the club carries. But I wont be needing any wads for a little while!  But I do need to stock up on some lead!

[C-Money]

Yeah, lead seems to be the tough one to find for a decent price. Does your club ever do a "power" buy, where you get a brwak on price when the club members make a purcase at the same time. Tis can save you a few bucks on reloading componants.

[trippledigitss]

Yeah, lead seems to be the tough one to find for a decent price. Does your club ever do a "power" buy, where you get a brwak on price when the club members make a purcase at the same time. Tis can save you a few bucks on reloading componants.

Yeah they do it once or twice a year I think. I didnt get in on the last one as I wasnt loading at that time. I've just been using the reclaimed lead for $19/25# and it seems to work fine. They just scraped up a new batch and it is really clean and round, looks really good. But they upped the price $2 to $21, thats not too bad.