What is this?

[altheating]

I got this piece of equipment in a box of lube/sizer and other reloading stuff. I don't know what it is. Any ideas? The short piece that hangs down from the handle is made of brass and the bottom is concave. Could it be a tool to load black powder pistol cylinders ?

[OuchHot!]

That is the best guess I could come up with but it sure seems like overkill for that application. Is the spacing between the upright and the "ram" appropriate for typical bp revolvers?

[Gar]

OuchHot! got it.
It's for loading the cylinder of a cap & ball BP pistol.

[mdi]

"Home made" arbor press. I made one for pressing bearings into alternator frames when I was an apprentice. Can't see enough to determine what the post in the center bottom is for, but if it came with some reloading stuff, I'd say the original user used it for straight line dies...

[scb]

Gar's right
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[QIDPlb]

Cap and ball loader.

[10x]

An old timer gave me one of these and said it was a gas check seater. It worked well but it was slow.

[gwpercle]

I never knew so many black powder cylinder reloading tools existed, them black powder boys like to invent and re-invent the wheel.
I always used the lever that was on the underside if the barrel when shooting my 1851 Navy Colt reproduction revolver. Taking the barrel off every time to reload seems to be a pain.
Gary

[RogerDat]

I never knew so many black powder cylinder reloading tools existed, them black powder boys like to invent and re-invent the wheel.
I always used the lever that was on the underside if the barrel when shooting my 1851 Navy Colt reproduction revolver. Taking the barrel off every time to reload seems to be a pain.
Gary

Off the gun loading is useful when one has multiple cylinders for rapid reload via swapping in a loaded cylinder.

[fryboy]

Not all bp revolvers had loading levers ,but even then the remington didn't require barrel removal as the colt did