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Safe & Secure with MEC’s Slug Loader

by Shari LeGate

 A few weeks ago, I was at a local shooting range for a trap match.  This is not a small range. It’s one of the biggest ranges in the country and has a 5-star rating. There was also a sporting clays match going on as well so there were several hundred people milling around and shooting. There were two sporting courses and both were being used. One on each side of the trap fields, not on the sides of the trap fields, but in front and behind the trap line.


It was time for my squad to shoot and as I walked up to the trap line, I noticed about 300 – 350 yards out in front of this trap field was a 25ft. berm. Standing on top of the berm were several sporting clay shooters getting ready to shoot the sporting course. I pointed this out to the trapper remarking this was a huge safety issue, not to mention enormously distracting but was told it was fine. The range does this all the time when running multiple matches. I was told the berm is outside of the shot fall zone and trap and skeet loads won’t travel that far.


That berm and those shooters may be out of reach for a trap or skeet load, but they’re certainly not out of reach for a slug load. I shudder to think what would have happened if a slug load got mixed in with a trap/skeet load.  And it can happen. Who among us has not reached into our pouch and dropped a 20-ga load into a 12-ga barrel.  And the same could happen with a slug load. With most loaders, a slug load and a trap/skeet load are crimped exactly the same and you can’t tell the difference.


And that’s where the new MEC Slug Loader comes in. Not only does it make a consistent, effective load, the crimp on the MEC loader is a roll crimp, not a fold crimp. The end of the case is exposed so you can see it’s a slug load.  And that’s one of the many benefits of the new MEC Slug Loader.


Setting it up was extremely easy. Once I got my powder charge and wad column configurations in place, it was just a matter of adding the components and working my way through the last 3 stations for a complete shell.  Never having loaded a slug before, I was a little apprehensive,  but my first shell came out pretty good, one that I would not hesitate to load in my gun. It was simple and easy; just make sure you go through the step-by-step combination of components. The entire loading time process is the same as a regular trap or skeet load.   

 After my recent experience at that particular shooting range, I appreciated so much more the effort and consideration MEC took with the design of their new Slug Loader. When it comes to shooting and loading, safety is paramount and at MEC, that’s just standard operating procedures.

Shari

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