What is your oldest Reloading Set Up ?

[TEDDY]

Old Tools

I Cant Resistmodern Bond Nut Cracker In 45acp Bought In 1945.truline Jr In 32long-truline Jr In 9mm And One In 30/06.also Herter With All? Shell Holders And Universal Die (predecesor To The Modern Universal Die)i Also Use Ideal Tools Especialy The 38 Long Hollow Base Bullet Mold.

 

[PzGren]

This is my first reloading tool.

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[Art Eatman]

Whee! The old Lyman 310! Using that for an '06 will seriously give you a strong grip!

, Art

 

[sm]

Gewehr98,
Where do the tubes go?
Knowing you, that press has gotta have tubes to operate it.

PzGren,
Now that is just Neat.

I'd get a kick out of a thread showing how that works, with pictures.
Hint Hint

If Art say it is a Lyman 310, then it must be.
Art is more "seasoned" and has more wrinkles from grinning that I .

 

[Rembrandt]

Picked up this Herters turret press and powder measure at a garage sale, sometime back in the 1980's for $5. Have no idea when it was made, but it's a great press. Any ideas as to its date of birth?

 

[LHB1]

+1 on that being a Lyman 310 Tong tool. I bought one in .38/.357 during Spring of 1963 while still in college. I wasn't strong enough to use it well and replaced it in 1964 with a CH 3 station H press. Wonder what ever happened to that old tong tool? Will have to check a couple of old storage boxes in the garage to see if I still have it. The Ch press was replaced with a Bair 3 station H press in 1975 (more leverage) and that press is still on my bench for occasional use. Most current loading is done on a pair of Hornady LNL Progressive presses permanently set up for .45 ACP and .44 Mag.

Good shooting and be safe.
LB

 

[bfoster]

I shoot an old Zischang barreled Ballard 32-47.

I shoot "dirty," I don't clean the barrel after each shot. To charge the cases I use an Ideal #6 duplex measure- by volume I'm shooting about 6.5% IMR 4759 and 93.5% fg or ffg black powder. Once loaded the case is topped off with a pasteboard (or blotter) wad.

(The point of using a bit of smokeless powder is that water vapor is a normal product of combustion- to a remarkable degree this keeps the barrel free of black powder fouling). In a rifle designed to be used this way this is a safe practice. Don't try this on an ordinary flint lock, cap lock, or modern muzzle loader designed for black powder only!

The bullets are cast in old style moulds (the blocks aren't seperate from the handles). Lubrication is done on an Ideal #1 or a Pope type lubricator.

No press is used, the bullet is loaded directly into the leade of the barrel with a tool designed for this purpose. The charged case is then loaded into the chamber.

Bob

 

[44 AMP]

Lyman Spartan press

Bought new in 1973. Actually I don't use the press anymore (I still have it), but I do use the .308 Win dies that I got with it.

 

[PzGren]

Nutcracker operation

I arranged it from left to right.

1. step- case lubrication
2. step- depriming and resizing
3. step- priming
4. step- flaring of case mouth
5. step- adding powder
6. step- bullet seating

My brass was not tumbled clean in those days but I had checked every single powder charge on my scale. I replaced the nutcracker with a Rock Chucker as soon as I could afford it but ever since I had to look for something else to work out my hands.

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[farmall]

Rembrandt, I have the same Herters Super 234 turret press. Does yours have the 1" holes with 7/8"x14 bushings in them. These were for shotshell dies, the bushings were to adapt to regular dies. I see you have adopted the same lever holdup system I use.
I also have a Herters catalog from 1961, IIRC the price was around $30.
Andy

 

[sm]

PzGren,

Thank you for another great picture and sharing!

See, I never really got into reloading metallic. I mean Rockchuckers were used by Mentors and Elders, just a brat kid [me] was easier to keep tabs on messing with shotgun shell reloading.

I mean a brat can be kept busy sweeping up all them pellets he spilled with a kid sized dust pan and broom.
Putting shells into shell stackers, then into shell boxes.
3 year old and I "was helping!"

Story goes, I would get a hull and with a nail knock out the spent primer.
Then get the primer back in the hole and hammer it back in.

Dark dirt went in first, some scrap paper, a leaf, whatever handy in next, then lighter dirt.
"Young'un is going to get that thing to crimp on way or another, just watch".

<whew!>
Happy kid with a spent shotshell, ball peen hammer my size, nail, piece of wood, dirt...and we-woading shells.



Did you know a Rockchucker is great for smushing Vienna Saugage cans?
Mentor did not know that either until I showed him.

 

[Shoney]

My father was gifted the firearms of an old cowpoke at his passing. A Colt Peacemaker and Winchester Lever Rifle with double set triggers. Both were in 32WCF (32-20 today). Along with them was a very fancy holster, several boxes of turn of the century ammo, and an ?1890? vintage nutcracker, molds, ladle and pot, similar to those already shown.

At the age of 12, I harassed my father into allowing me to try and use this equipment. Since he had no idea of its use, we went to the local sporting goods store. A clerk took me under his wing, and thus began my loading career. Within 6 months I was allowed to buy a Pacific press, to load for all the firearms of the family.

 

[Rembrandt]

Rembrandt, I have the same Herters Super 234 turret press. Does yours have the 1" holes with 7/8"x14 bushings in them......I see you have adopted the same lever holdup system I use....

Pretty sure mine are 7/8" holes...no bushings.

That rubber band might be crude.....but if that heavy handle ever comes down and hits a guy in the "wrong place", well the pain would be worse than you could imagine.

 

[farmall]

Dude, I know. That thing may be the reason my wife and I have no kids.

 

[Rembrandt]

Yup, that old cast iron handle can do alot of damage......if the damage is permanent, you can always try adopting. Make sure you replace the rubberbands frequently.

 

[swmike]

Maybe they are calling the wrong press a "nutcracker"

 

[klw]

British Shotgun Tools

Got a couple 1860 vintage British 12 gauge shotgun tools. Those are really fun. When the British put the various simple tools together into one unit they did not set them out in a circular pattern like our current tools have. Instead different operations stick out in various weird angles. Weird, but fun.

 

[amamnn]

If you go out in the woods and shin up a tree once a year to shoot some unsuspecting elk or deer with a .30-30 or .30-06 at 100 yards or less, your granddad's equipment would be just fine. If you shoot a lot, you can't help noticing that there have been a few thousand improvements since then, and in fact things change for good or ill almost daily.

Although I have stopped shooting a lot of matches for physical reasons, I still like to keep up with the latest technology, while keeping in touch with old favorites. I don't have any of the stuff left from my granddad's setup that he started teaching me on in 1957, but I do have some old Lee, and RCBS dies. I even have some old Lee handloaders, though mainly as collector's items.

There is good and bad in old and new alike. In my opinion-- good old --Imperial sizing wax -- bad old---most all balance beam scales. Good new---Scale/Dispenser combos like the RCBS, PACT, Lyman systems---the Picatiny rail system --- Hoppe's Elite bore gel---quality laser bore sighters--BAD new ---meplat closing dies (although this is not really new snake oil)-- excessively long leades in newer rifles-- and any kind of liquid additive for tumbling brass.

Actually, there is so much neat new stuff to play with I'm going to have to take out a second mortgage and sign over the thing to Midway, Graff, and SInclair.