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I use a MEC Grabber to reload all my 16 gauge hulls. With Winchester CF, Remington Black, and Fiocchi hulls, I have no problem. When using Federal hulls, however, I can resize and deprime the hulls with no problem as long as that is the only function I am using the press for at that time. But when I try to move the hulls through the normal progressive stages, I cannot get the resizer to work (all the other hulls go through with no problems).
I tried troubleshooting the problem. The collet resizer is adjusted correctly, and works. All the stages function normally by themselves. I found that the shot drop tube is the trigger that stops the resizer from working. BUT WHY?

Does anyone have any ideas?

Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Posts: 477

The Federal hulls have a composition base wad which may be higher than the other cases. Try moving the drop tube up a little. It may be bottoming out and not letting the loader to go fully to the bottom.

Sneem is on the right track, I believe. Something to check: When you load manually, are you using full lever stroke to seat the wad, or only partial? With the Grabber one can get away with less than a full stroke when loading one shell at a time, because the Grabber is a manual advance progressive -- i.e. full stroke is technically not required since the advance is manually performed. In comparison, the MEC 9000 is an auto advance progressive and requires full stroke to make the auto advance function properly. Single loading on the Grabber could mask the problem of a "too-low" wad ram, whereas it wouldn't hide it on a 9000.

The factors involved in setting proper wad ram height are not only the hull basewad height, but also hull capacity, powder volume, and the height and stiffness of the wad -- practically every detail of a load that fits the hull! The only way to get it right is to check it for the load you are using. (Are you using those ultra stiff Federal wads in those Federal hulls?) Remember, with modern powders little or no wad pressure is required -- the crimp does most of that job, so setting the wad ram up so that at full downstroke the ram is raised against its spring no more than 1/8 inch will do the job nicely. You can/should check that when "single loading" by making sure you use the full downstroke of the machine at the wad ram/shot-drop station.

Texbilly, I have run into the exact opposite of what sneem related above with some Federal hulls. Newer Federal 16 gauge steel hulls have virtually no base wad at all in them (I've cut one apart to look; about half the primer is above the base wad). On my 600jr. the priming rod bottoms out before the new primer is all the way into the pocket on these hulls, but not other Federals. So when I first started to load some low pressure #7 steel loads (not available commercially) to hunt quail with on federal land, very old Federals with paper base wads, some newer Federals with plastic base wads and the Federal steel cases had 3 different column heights (tell that to the crimping department!). Really not a problem for me as my "progressive" loading usually involves weighing each powder charge and shot load and the cabinet is full of cheerios or thin shipping films for column spacing--if I reload 1-2 boxes an evening I've had a good evening. My solution to half-seated primers--push them down into place on top of the loading bench.

[quote="4setters"] "... Newer Federal 16 gauge steel hulls have virtually no base wad at all in them (I've cut one apart to look; about half the primer is above the base wad)...".

4setters,

I've not looked inside a freshly fired Federal 16 ga hull in quite a while. All of the once fired hulls I have are over a decade old. Would you be so kind as to tell us if Federal is still using a rolled paper base wad or have they finally gone over to a plastic base wad? Thank you.

As of yesterday Federal was still using the rolled paper basewad except in the one piece Gold Medal hulls.

Member Joined: 15 Mar 2007 Posts: 601 Location: Virginia

Federal has two plastic 2-3/4" hulls in 12 gauge that have no separate base wad. One is the Gold Medal and the other is the hunting hull. The hunting hull's integral base wad is much thinner than the Gold Medal's because it's made for 1-1/4 oz (and heavier) loads of shot. I have not seen any 16-gauge Federal hulls that employ anything other than the rolled paper base, and I have not encountered any variation in the base wad thickness, but I also have not checked out the steel shot hulls. It would make sense for the base wad to be thinner in those to make room for the shot.

Dan

16 guy, Yes, to the best of my knowledge, the 16's still use the rolled paper base wads. I may have been mistaken about the plastic basewad that I mentioned above, as I also loaded some polyformed Winchesters up with steel 7's at the same time as the Federals, and they do have plastic base wads. However, to check again, I went out and scrounged up a newer Federal steel load hull, an older steel hull and both newer and older lead load cases. I cut a newer steel Federal down again, and the base wad was quite a bit lower than the other Federals, with a good portion of the primer end showing. Whether this was by design or simply due to differences between quaility control over time, I have no idea. Maybe I just bought a few boxes of newer Federals with shorter base wads that made it through the factory. Regardless, it did give me some problems with priming and with adjusting crimps due to different wad column heights.

The Federal 16 gauge steel loads do have a lower basewad. It is also a rolled paper basewad. I think it is also used in 12 gauge and there are loads listed for that hull with the lower basewad. They are buckshot loads though.