Steel Master

[bear]

I am retired with less money and more time. I was going to buy a Steel Master reloader for this season. Steel works great for me as we hunt over decoys and I can miss just as easily with steel as with expensive loads.

Please give me your opinions on reloading with steel with a steel master.

Thanks as always for the help!

[fivemile]

I always used a MEC 600 and it worked fine. I quit loading steel when it got just about as costly to load them as to buy them with all the deals you get now on steel shells.

[Bustin' Ducks]

I've got a Steel Master..it does fine..but you can't be in a hurry for a couple cases of shells....other than that..I don't mind it....what size loads are you wanting to load...You know it also does lead shells...

[MSDuckmen]

It is of my opinion unless your into loading for speed you are much better off just buying the shells.

However if your into speed as in 1600fps plus you may want to dabble in reloading.

You will not save much money at all loading and after awhile you'll grow tired of it.

I have 9 reloaders and I load around 5000 rounds a year for upland game and target shooting. Fun to sit down with your buds and load shells but a drag just to do it to have shells.

good luck howerver you decide to go.

[bear]

Busting Ducks/Duckmen

I want to load a hot/fast shell and while I would like to load 3" I imagine that 2 3/4 AA hulls are easiler to find.

I have loaded AA for Dove, and Pheasent and before steel was mandated, I loaded AA for Ducks. They were great shells and the 2 3/4 that I loaded were better than 3 " I could buy.

Any advise would be welcome

[MSDuckmen]

Well if hot shells are what you looking for I would recommend going to the Refuge Forum to the Shooting and reloading forum and do a search on steel shot reloads. There is an older guy there by the name NEIL that is really into and developing hot loads for steel shot. He posted several loads on that site and has the means to test the rounds for Vol/fb/Cp. He is into those fast fast rounds. That is where I would start.

[Wildfowler]

Hey Bear, you're right the AA are easy to find, but if you don't already have them, I think you may find more recipes for the Fed Gold Medal 2& 3/4" and I am pretty sure they are cheaper to buy.

Now please don't quote me, but I ordered 500 Fed GM's this Spring. Total cost was about $38.

Good luck to you.

[Bustin' Ducks]

bear..I'm out of town but when I get back next weekend I'd be glad to find some recipes for ya...