26Charlie
05-04-2008, 04:49 PM
My neighbor's grandfather had this Lyman 310 tong tool and, knowing I did reloading, the neighbor gave it to me. The powder is pistol #6, the primers Western 1 1/2s in a tray with wooden separators, and the bullets are lubed with the old Lyman black grease.
I've got a bench full of stuff accumulated over a period of 52 years, but I decided for nostalgia's sake to put together 100 rounds to use the primers, powder, and bullets. My brass was not fired in the S&W 4" bbl. M&P in the picture, so I did full-length size it on the bench, as it would not go in the gun with just muzzle resizing, although that die does work. I popped a couple of primers to see if they were OK. The dipper in the picture is hand made from a cutoff case and throws 3.5 gr. #6. The funnel is hand made from galvanized sheet, very nicely soldered. I did the 100 rounds in two separate sessions, but if I had set out from start to finish I could have done it in about an hour and a half.
DuPont #6 and Western primers are about 60 years out of production, but the powder smelled OK and the primers worked as designed. It didn't seem appropriate to shoot the rounds in a target gun or a big heavy .357, so I got out the old police M&P. I didn't put them on paper, either, but they would punch a tin can every time at 25 yards, as long as I could see the old fixed sights with the old eyeball.
I read the threads about the 310 tool here, and this old steel tool works fine. Long ago I had an aluminum handle 310 tool for the .32 S&W Long, which worked but not as well as this. Something about the bushing in the handle was not right and I ended up just using it to prime cases.
I've got a bench full of stuff accumulated over a period of 52 years, but I decided for nostalgia's sake to put together 100 rounds to use the primers, powder, and bullets. My brass was not fired in the S&W 4" bbl. M&P in the picture, so I did full-length size it on the bench, as it would not go in the gun with just muzzle resizing, although that die does work. I popped a couple of primers to see if they were OK. The dipper in the picture is hand made from a cutoff case and throws 3.5 gr. #6. The funnel is hand made from galvanized sheet, very nicely soldered. I did the 100 rounds in two separate sessions, but if I had set out from start to finish I could have done it in about an hour and a half.
DuPont #6 and Western primers are about 60 years out of production, but the powder smelled OK and the primers worked as designed. It didn't seem appropriate to shoot the rounds in a target gun or a big heavy .357, so I got out the old police M&P. I didn't put them on paper, either, but they would punch a tin can every time at 25 yards, as long as I could see the old fixed sights with the old eyeball.
I read the threads about the 310 tool here, and this old steel tool works fine. Long ago I had an aluminum handle 310 tool for the .32 S&W Long, which worked but not as well as this. Something about the bushing in the handle was not right and I ended up just using it to prime cases.