Years ago a friend found a shotgun press in a house he bought to restore, and as a non-reloader, he gave it to me. An ancient old Texan, complete in 12ga. A week later he found the 16ga. parts/dies/ and a bag of bushing for the shot bar and sent them along. Pretty much a simple bottom of the line press like the MEC Jr.
Over the years have had other presses, but the Texan kept on working (and I don't shoot that many 16gr. loads, so it kept up with my demand fine). My gunning became less, and the fancy presses eventually went away...but I still have the old Texan and still crank out a few boxes of shells with it.
If you can donate an evening a week to reloading, you can load enough shells for the amount you state you shoot with the little MEC Jr....as she shoots as well, make it a team effort.
Would be better to have full sizing, but it's not a "must". Prefer SXS and O/U, so it's easy to test fit....but it's not all that hard to take the barrel off most pumps/semi's and check.
Over the years have had other presses, but the Texan kept on working (and I don't shoot that many 16gr. loads, so it kept up with my demand fine). My gunning became less, and the fancy presses eventually went away...but I still have the old Texan and still crank out a few boxes of shells with it.
If you can donate an evening a week to reloading, you can load enough shells for the amount you state you shoot with the little MEC Jr....as she shoots as well, make it a team effort.
Would be better to have full sizing, but it's not a "must". Prefer SXS and O/U, so it's easy to test fit....but it's not all that hard to take the barrel off most pumps/semi's and check.
