For some fun, I just bought a Ideal #6 30-30W reloading tool from a member here for an experiment. It has a removable seating/crimping chamber that is marked either 14 or 1.4 that has an open end. The tool has seen a lot of use, but the mold is in nice shape and the spruce plate fits flush and tight. First observation, boy it’s a heavy chunk of steel and it gets hot fast, so heavy leather gloves are in order. About 20-30 rejects in, it was clearly still not hot enough so into the lead pot it went so the mold and plate edge were immersed. Next bullet was perfect, but after 2 more bullets the bases were shrinking again. After some fiddling what worked was into the pot for 30 sec, cast two nice bullets, back in the pot for 30 seconds, and repeat. I stopped after getting 40 very nice bullets, which appear to be the Ideal 311241. Using wheel weights, they dropped at an average of 147.5 grains, with a band diameter of .3115 to .312. The sizer on the tool is .308, which may or may not work with my Winchester 94 which has a notoriously tight throat and has trouble closing on bullets sized .311, but shoots them well. Now to shoot some rounds through the 94 to get some fire formed brass, and then figure out a basic pan lube that would have been available at the turn of the century (I usually powder coat or use Alox). For what is probably an over 100 year old piece of kit, this tool is pretty impressive. At risk of boring everyone, I’ll update this thread as the experiment continues. Comments by others using this or a similar tool would be appreciated.Attachment 227334Attachment 227335[ATTACH=CONFIG]227336Attachment 227337Attachment 227338Attachment 227339