compact and portable kit

[W.R.Buchanan]

When Ben posted his thread on this subject a year or so ago I got ll worked up and decided to assemble all my stuff into one box.

I had a Craftsman Plastic tool box that I had been carrying around for years that was just begging to be used so I got it out and cleaned it up.

I already had the Lee Hand Press so that's in there along with my old first gen Lee priming tool along with another one that I bought for $5 that had a bunch of shell holders with it. Also a case mouth deburring tool and a few other doodads. It also has my Pacific scale.

There is enough space left for a die box, and a few supplies.

The beauty of this setup is that all of your stuff is in one box and all you have to do to go to the range is pick out which dies you're going to need and some boolits powder and primers.

If I needed to be completely self sufficient for a long period of time I would bring along some casting stuff too as well as some extra lead ingots.

This would require a bigger box!

I have a little 5lb lead pot made by RCBS which can sit on a fire or my Coleman backpacking stove and melt lead in 10-15 minutes. I have cast a lot of Boolits that way. If you simply keep the pot full when it is cooled you always have 5lb of lead ready to go and that would make a lot of boolits.(175ea@200gr) I have one of "the Perfessors" push thru sizing die adapters so I can size boolits with the Lee Hand Press using Lyman dies. Lubing boolits can be done with paste wax and your fingers if you're in a pinch.

Lots of ways to go here and you are only limited by your imagination and your pocket book. However this stuff is considerably cheaper than a lot of other reloading equipment so you also get a lot of bang for your buck.

If I had to downsize to a tent or small cabin or God forbid, an apartment,,, I could certainly do everything I needed to keep my guns fed, and by that I mean pretty much all of my guns. I would defiantly need a few more boxes but everything would still fit in my pickup.

Randy

[Outpost75]

In case you missed it in the Fouling Shot, here is an interesting article posted here through the kind permission of Ed Harris

“Reloading Out of Frank’s Ditty Bag”

Frank Marshall spent many pleasant afternoons plinking with his .30-30 Savage 340 or Winchester 94 rifles as he reloaded rounds at the range with his Ideal Tong Tool. Lyman’s 310 tool was THE portable reloading outfit of choice at the range or deer camp into the 1960s.

Attachment 92927

The original Ideal tong tool, patented March 11, 1884 had dies machined integral with its steel handles. The early tools featured a single-cavity bullet mold on the end and a bullet-sizer hole through the tool handle. Ideal’s No. 1 was adapted to pistol cartridges from .32 S&W through .41 Long Colt. The No. 4 was for longer cartridges from .25-20 through .44-40 and .45 Colt. The No. 6 tool was a rifle tool for .32-40 through .50-110 Winchester. Before WWI these sold for $2.25 to $3.00, depending upon caliber.

After World War II today’s familiar threaded-handle design with removable die sets was adopted and designated as the Model 310 tool. The Tru-Line Junior turret press used the same dies, which were available for most then-popular calibers. According to http://the310shop.com/ boxed sets with steel handles were sold from 1947 to 1957 under the name “Lyman Ideal”. Aluminum handles were introduced in 1958 and sold into the early 1970s. The 310 was reintroduced when Cowboy Shooting became popular.

Attachment 92928

Lyman’s Kake Cutter was a simple, threaded push-through, cast bullet sizer for the 310 tool. When pan-lubing bullets, the Kake-Cutter was used to pop bullets out of a block of solid lube poured around the bullets and allowed to solidify in a cake pan. These gadgets and the 310 tool are what Frank Marshall taught me and my school mates to use as kids in the 1960s, but I never owned one until recently. Now that I am retired and having time to tinker, I asked around and found me a steel tool set in .30-30 and am enjoying childhood memories and sharing the nostalgic experience.

Lyman "tong tools" and die sets frequently emerge from estate sales, yard sales and can be found at gun shows or on the internet. If you want to experience the nostalgia in loading for Dad’s WWII bring-back in .30-'06, 8mm Mauser, 7.7 Jap, .303 British, those dies are most common IF you know what to look for. Tong tool dies are not marked by caliber, but are identified by their part number. So, unless you locate a boxed set, you must research the compatible die parts in an old catalog and search gun shows to assemble your kit. This may require lapping out a “muzzle resizer” to best fit your particular brass and bullet. An assortment of diameter muzzle resizers for .30-30, .30-40, .30-’06 and .303 British is handy.

Neck size dies can sometimes be used to improvise in loading similar rounds of the same nominal caliber and head dimensions. The .250 Savage and .257 Roberts dies can be adapted to each other, and the Roberts dies work on .25-06. A .32 S&W die set can load .32 ACP, .32 H&R Magnum, .32-20 etc. The .30-40 Krag and .303 British dies each will load the other. There may be other possibilities.

Today’s Lyman 310 tool has aluminum handles, machined from a die casting, with dies being offered today only in the popular “Cowboy” calibers. http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/d...n-310-tool.php

The 310 Shop http://the310shop.com/ offers new dies and handles as well as complete sets in most traditional and modern calibers, including many which were never available in from Lyman. A link with practical information on using the 310 tool is http://www.lasc.us/Brennan_Lyman310Tool.htm
Lyman never produced carbide sizer dies for its tong tool. Because they only neck-size, you must use cases originally fired in your gun, unless you full-length size range pickup brass on another press first. When using plain steel dies, fired cases must be clean and well lubricated to avoid grit scratching the dies or your brass.

Mechanical advantage and extraction power of the tong tool is also very limited. While you can brute-force an over-expanded empty into a 310 tool, you probably won’t get it out, because the extractor hook will jump off the rim and the handles don’t have enough mechanical advantage to either force the case in or to pull it out! A shooting buddy from high school days recalled reloading for a .44 magnum M29, that to use the 310 without excessive cursing, it was important to load revolver cartridges conservatively. Five chambers in that M29 kicked out empties which worked fine with the 310 tool, but chamber number 6 was one which had survived an overload a mutual friend, the previous owner, used to demonstrate what Elmer’s real .44 load should be! The inability to drag stuck cases out of the muzzle resizer is why it is critical to clean brass well (both inside and out!) to avoid introducing grit which WILL make cases stick in the muzzle resizer or on the expander plug! And, don’t eat fried chicken while priming with the 310, because you are handling the primers with your fingers! Don’t ask me how I know… It is important to clean primer pockets because the priming chamber engages only half of the case rim at a time, so you must push, then rotate the case and squeeze again to seat the primer so it is fully bottomed, flush and square.

Attachment 92929

Back in the day it was common to "dip measure" powder when using the tong tool. As long as you know that your charge cup and powder combination produces a safe and useable load, this is OK. The Lee dipper set and charge tables are recommended these days. For my nostalgia trip I soldered up some home-brew charge cups from empty cartridge cases and copper wire and weighed some samples. The results are fascinating!
A dip measure made from an empty .22 LR case throws about 3 grains of Bullseye. This is a safe load for a .32-20 revolver, .32 H&R Magnum or .38 Special with standard-weight lead bullet for the caliber. It also works well to improvise "cat's sneeze" loads with single-0 buckshot in almost any .30 cal. rifle case.

A measure made from a .32 ACP case throws 6 grains of Bullseye, a full charge load for modern cowboy revolvers and lever-actions chambered in .44-40 and .45 Colt, and a nice plinker in the .44 Magnum. It also makes a great small game load with 110-120 grain cast bullets in .30 cal. rifles of .30-30 size and up.

A .32 S&W Long case throws 11.5 grains of #2400, a useful “medium-velocity” load with standard-weight lead bullets in the .357 Magnum. It is also fine for soft, plain-based bullets in the .30-30, .32 Winchester Special, .32-40, .30-40, 7.62x54R, 7.7 Jap, 7.65 Argentine or .303 British.

A 7.62x25 Tokarev case throws 14.5 grs. of #2400, a full charge .357 Magnum load and mild gas checked bullet plinker in any .30 cal. from 7.62x39 to .30-’06.

A .38 Special case throws about 21 grains of #2400, a full charge load for the .44 Magnum revolver, or a useful jacketed bullet or gas-checked cast-bullet plinker in the 7.62x54R, 8mm Mauser or .30-’06.

A 7.62x39 case throws 29 grains of RL-7, which is a full charge load with 150-grain jacketed bullets in the .30-30. This also makes a good heavy hunting load with gas-checked bullets in any .30 cal. Rifle from the .30-40 Krag through the .30-06. It also throws 28 grs. of IMR4064, which is a full-charge, gas-checked load using the #31141 bullet in the .30-30, and a good target load with gaschecks in any .30 caliber from the Krag up through the .30-’06.

Better than the tong tool, more versatile and highly recommended for modern users, not into the fire-side cowboy nostalgia, is the Lee hand Press, described here:

http://www.cabelas.com/presses-dies-...ng-kit-3.shtml
http://www.ehow.com/how_7622520_use-lee-hand-press.html
You-Tube demo here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6IoNCtFHwU

The Lee hand press uses standard 7/8-14 threaded dies and common shell holders, so that you can use dies which you already have. I recommend carbide dies in pistol and revolver calibers, whenever possible. The Lee tool has ample leverage to full-length resize pistol cases and smaller rifle cases. The 9mm, .45 ACP, .357 magnum, 5.56mm or 7.62x39 brass size relatively easily. While .30-'06 brass fired from an M1 can also be resized on the Lee hand press, doing so takes significantly more effort. However, the Lee hand press is an affordable starter-outfit, well designed for its task.
A complete portable kit with dies, primers, powder, bullets, small loading block, etc., store easily in a .30 cal. ammo can, or in Frank’s old WWII GI gas mask bag, thrown over the shoulder or attached with a snap-link onto your wilderness ruck. Frank will forgive your buying the Lee hand press and passing up that 310 tong tool at the gun show. He felt it a shame Lyman never made .223 Remington or 7.62x39 dies for it... In his later days “Bill Ruger’s Plinker” and the “Chinese Hurdy Gurdy” did strike his fancy.

Another approach for reloading “out of the box,” is to use a small arbor press with hand dies, such as those made by L.E. Wilson. This method is most popular with bench-rest competitors, using bolt-action rifles, neck-sizing, match-prepped brass for one rifle only. Setting up for a precision rifle this way is practical, but more expensive than using the Lee outfit. Descriptions and how-to articles of arbor press equipment are at:

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=3...ir-Arbor-Press
http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2011/12...son-hand-dies/ http://www.shooters-supply.com/using_wilson_dies.html
http://www.shooters-supply.com/reloa...nt.html#wilson

[Green Frog]

Super post Outpost75 and thanks for relaying Ed Harris' great article. As an old 310 tool aficionado I would agree with about all except the statement "...Lyman never made .223 Remington or 7.62x39 dies for it..." Although there was never a set made with those markings (to my knowledge) since they are neck size only dies, you could use 222 Rem dies for 223, and probably 308 Win (7.62 NATO) to do the 7.62X39. Probably the most common dies out there for the 310 tool are those for the 30-06, and they might work as well. I would suggest that with a little imaginative finagling one could load just about anything from 45-70 down on the 310 tool. BTW, looking at the poll, I see we 310-ophiles are in the minority, which just goes to show that the majority is not always right!

Froggie

[Outpost75]

.300 Savage works for 7.62x39 if you shorten the die bodies a bit.

[Green Frog]

Oh yeah, I went back to the lists, and it looks like you'd be able to use a #3 shell holder/priming chamber to do the 7.62X39. If I were building a 7.62X39 upper for my AR instead of a 300 BO I might try that... in fact, I could probably cobble together a 300 BO set with a little thought. I do have a set of purple iron handles in .222 sitting unused in the basement along with a lot of odd 30 cal stuff and a priming chamber die for a 222. HMMMMM

Froggie

[Juan Jose]

I like my Lee Hand Loader, but the annoying thing about it is when de priming. I have to take off the shell holder and shake the spent primers out all too frequently---the ram just doesn't hold that much, maybe 10 or 15 LPPs before jamming up and making removing of the shell holder a pita. For small lots, no biggie but if you want load a box of 50, don't forget to empty out the ram more often than you'd think and it's a piece of cake. If you've got the space in your box, a de capping pin and base would be a nice upgrade IMHO.

[gunoil]

Hehehe, yea. Below is how i started loading my 380acp:

[jmort]

One of my favorite threads. Love my hand presses.

[DeanWinchester]

Funny, since starting this thread, I've taken to using my hand presses more and more.

[geargnasher]

Heck yeah, Gunoil, that's the way to roll if you're tight on money and space. That Lee hand press totally eliminates the need for a bench and isn't all that slow, either. I use mine at the range and sometimes, when I'm feeling lazy, I do prep operations with it sitting in my recliner. If I had one of those neato Dillon electric case trimmers I might just use it with the hand press while kicked back watching TV.

Gear

[xman777]

Heck yeah, Gunoil, that's the way to roll if you're tight on money and space. That Lee hand press totally eliminates the need for a bench and isn't all that slow, either. I use mine at the range and sometimes, when I'm feeling lazy, I do prep operations with it sitting in my recliner. If I had one of those neato Dillon electric case trimmers I might just use it with the hand press while kicked back watching TV.

Gear

This is exactly how I trim when I don't want to do it on the bench or I don't feel like uber prepping my plinking brass.

[Wilson]

This thread inspired me to get a Lee hand press. I've got six other presses, but I think I'm going to like this one too!
I didn't order the priming unit with it, so I'm waiting for that to come in.
Those of you with the Lee hand press, do you use the priming unit? Or do you prime with another priming tool?

[DeanWinchester]

I actually DO use the primer. Not for volume mind you, but you get a lot of leverage and a lot of control over it. I get the same feel as my hand primer but its a lot more rigid.

[vacek]

The primer for the hand press works quite well. It has a good feel to it. I enjoy the hand press, Lee Loaders, the Lyman Resizing Dies and I really like the old Wilson Full Length resizing dies. It's all very relaxing and fun!!!

[jmort]

The Ram Prime works real good with the Lee Hand Press. Simple, inexpensive, and excellent "feel."
$10.00 and well worth it.
http://www.titanreloading.com/primin...ders/ram-prime

[W.R.Buchanan]

Outpost 75: Thanks for posting that article. It was very informative and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

I really like it when people post this type of stuff on the forum. It makes us all smarter, Er,,, at least I think it does?

Randy

[hickfu]

I voted for the Lee Breech Lock Hand Press... I have one and it goes well with my BL bench press. I can take my dies right from the BL on the bench and go to the range with them and the hand press.

Now if this thread was a SHTF scenario and I was only able to carry 1 rifle, primers, powder, and projectiles.... I think I would go with the lee loader because its smaller, light weight and easy to store away until needed... put it in its box and into your jacket pocket.

Doc

[SSGOldfart]

I saw the dipper and knew it was Ben's before reading the post I'm a fan of the Old 310 tool myself

[Pavogrande]

Missed this the first go round -- added my vote for the tong tool -
My first venture into reloading in 1957 was a 25/20 tool, ink pad with ch lube,
pacific scale, some homemade dippers and a rag moistened with lighter fluid
to wipe down the finished cartridge -- And components of course --
Still using it !!
I have a lee hand press and find it OK but not quite as easy to manipulate -
Age may be a factor here

[44 mag nut]

Funny I started reading this and foundmyself looking for my Lee loader dies. I do not know how many hours Ispent at the range loading with the Lee loader shooting with one or 2peaces of brass developing loads. Personally, I have not see the 310and I have not used the Lee hand press. I think the most fun at therange has been with my Lee loader and shooting nice groups. Maybe itis time to get them back out and start looking for a few more setsthat I do not have.


Thank you for the trip down memorylane.