ORIGINAL: HEAD0001
Birdman- are you looking for skeet loads? Or trap loads? They are different. It is expensive to set up shotgun loaders. You should be sure exactly what you want, before you buy a loader. With the price of shotgun shells being as cheap as they are, you do not save much money. So if saving money is your motivation, then I would wait until you are sure what type of load you want. If you just love to reload like I do-then go for it.
We use Ponness-Warren presses. I would not recommend them for starting out. If I was getting started I would buy a MEC-possibly a Grabber.As HighDesert said, the Lee would also do alright, but I prefer the MEC. The first thing you need to do is collect a whole bunch of AA hulls. Those are the only hulls I will use. Some people like the Remington-I do not. I use Winchester primers, and WW wads. I also use a clean burning powder. Some people use a cheaper, dirtier powder, and they get more loads per pound of powder. I like my Beretta too much to shoot dirty powder. If you are shooting a semi-auto then you definitely want to shoot a cleaner powder. Get a couple of good manuals, and then you are ready to go. It is actually a simple process when you get things put together. Tom.
My only warning is be careful with your bushing, or charge bars. It is easy to make a mistake, so be careful.
Thats is disputable and can be more of a matter of choice and preferance or if maybe you are shooting International trap and then the loads are way different but I dont want to confuse you so we wont even go there.
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A general trap load would be a 1 1/8 oz of 7.5 or 8 shot moving at about 1200 fps where skeet loads can very usually by preferance or if you shoot a handi cap. But from what Im guessing I think a solid trap load will work for birdman then as he progresses and starts to have ideas about what would be better for his style then he could start trying different things to suit his shooting, ofcourse you have to start somewhere and I recommend started with the basics and using a good solid trap loading to start since it will also work for skeet.
I load federal rolled paper base wad hulls because of the fact that Federal hi power, Field, Game, Dove and Squirrel,Top Gun and those federal multi purpose shells at walmart are all the same hulls and theres an abundance of hulls available on the ground at trap ranges. AA you generally have to buy because nobody throws AA hulls away. The federal hulls are actually excellent hulls and as tough as any AA hull. The only real upside to AA hulls is they are the most popular and there are hundreds of load combinations available where the federal Hi power hulls have maybe a hundred load combinations available.
For powders theres actually alot of misconception as to what powders are dirty. Faster powders will generally be cleaner because they burn up completely before your wad cup leave the barrel with the exception of alliant red dot and Unique which tend to be very dirty powder, slower powder dont always burn completely and will foul a gun. I would pick a fast powder like Alliant green dot which a fairly clean powder but is also very consistant. But if you are truly worried about shooting the cleanest powder then you will want hodgdon Clays or Clays International those are by far the cleanest burning powders.
Before I go recommending loads I need to know what hulls (shells) you plan to shoot? I also recommend picking up a couple different powder manufacturer load data brochures from your local gun store they are free and read through them so you can get an idea of what powder you want to use and of how nit picky shotshell reloading is you have use the loads in the book theres 'NO' inventing loads in reloading unless you are a Ballistics engineer and have the hundred of thousands of dollars of equimpment and know how that load developers have. You have to load by the book if the book doesnt show it then you dont do it. But first and most importantly you need to pick a brand of hull to reload. then we will start from there.