Winchester loading tool from long ago

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I have had this old Winchester loading tool for several years and today I gave it a try. Surprise, surprise, surprise, it actually worked. I can't see how you could deprime with it but a hammer and nail could do that. This tool both sizes and expands the case and seating the bullet only requires that you turn the base screw home and viola, you have a loaded cartridge. High tech in the 19th century.

[Green Frog]

There was a decapping spud that came with it and is frequently lost... it was essentially a pice of .316” drill rod rounded at one end to simulate the bullet and having a decapping pin at the other. You put the spud into the fired case and closed it up just as you already have to load a round.

I assume you have already figured out repriming and then bullet seating, right? IIRC, the full instruction sheet is on the inter-net some place, maybe the ARTCA website. If you can’t find it or figure it out, drop me a PM.

Froggie

PS FYI, that is called by Winchester their Model 1894 tool... they made several other models as well.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Thanks, Froggie. Yes I did see the how priming worked but I didn't bother to do it. What impressed me is how well the loaded round looks. Not fast but very compact and if it was all you had, it works. It's not easy being green.

[Pressman]

That hand tool will also full length resize cases. Not of it's competition can do that. It's a slow process of squeezing the handle and turning the die body, but it can be done.

Ken

[Bent Ramrod]

Full-length resizing was a very advanced concept back then. The blackpowder lever cartridge cases operated at relatively low pressures and could be used over and over with only a crimp around the boolit. When they finally got sticky (assuming they hadn’t cracked, expanded the primer cavities or otherwise wore out over many reloadings) a drive-in-and-out die could be used to get another round of use out of the survivors, slow and tedious though the operation might be.

All that changed with the new smokeless loadings in the rear-locking leverguns like the Winchester 94. Reloaded, unsized shells might well stick going into the chamber or fail to extract with the leverage available, ruining one’s hunting trip. That compact 94 tool, which, on every reloading, would gradually fully resize the loaded cartridge while seating the bullet, using only hand pressure, was a clever solution to the problem. The few presses available at the time were only for commercial or military applications, way beyond the reach of the average shooter.

Sizing loaded cartridges isn’t recommended these days. But of course, back then, there were no TV ads by law firms claiming that “You Have Rights!”