I know this is rare... but how rare is it?

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Ideal nickle plated nutcracker in 257 REM.
185251

[Bent Ramrod]

Try sticking a .257 Roberts or 7mm case in the hole in the handle. If it fits, it probably indeed is for the .257 Remington Roberts, not all that uncommon. If not, it is likely a badly stamped .25 Remington, much less frequently encountered. Such overstamps, corrected in order to use a handle set for another cartridge, are a fairly frequent occurrence with Ideal tong tools.

Do the handles still have the question mark shaped pivoting metal piece that engages the rim on the cartridge? Or perhaps the later sliding piece, that was harder to lose? Do you have the dies for it? All these things add to the rarity.

[jrmartin1964]

From your photo, I'm assuming this is an Ideal No.10, the early version with the swinging "?"-shaped hook used for priming. That set-up for priming was replaced in late-1936 or early-1937 with a sliding-plate. The .257 Remington cartridge (a.k.a. .25 Roberts, a.k.a. .257 Remington-Roberts, a.k.a. .257 Roberts) was commercially introduced (by Remington) in late-1934, appearing in price lists as early as January, 1935, but not in the retail catalog dated August, 1934.

So, in theory, your nickel-plated Ideal No.10 would have been made between late-1934 and late-1936/early-1937. How rare it is, I can't say; but with such a short window of opportunity, and a newly introduced cartridge, how many of them could there be?

Jim

[BrassMagnet]

Do measure the hole size and compare it to the base diameter from a loading manual.

I have found a number of handles that are not right. I bought a 22 Hornet steel handle off FleaBay. I found it had been reamed out to fit 38/357.
Today, I found two more that had been reamed out. A 300 H&H handle reamed out to fit 43 Spanish. Another is marked 7.7 Jap and is almost large enough to fit a 284 Win case. I am still trying to figure out what does fit!
Reaming them out is so common I need to compare each and every handle I have to the marked caliber.

[runfiverun]

ron try a 7.5 X 55 case.

[BrassMagnet]

ron try a 7.5 X 55 case.

I don't have any 7.5x55 cases. If the hole was truly round, the 284 win would fit.
I just might take care of the out of round, but I don't play with 284 Win, either!

[Green Frog]

Brass, the parent cartridge case for the 257 Roberts is the 7x57 rimless military case and will require the slider or hook to engage the base groove. The handles would have a hole for the pivot pin even if the hook has disappeared. IIRC, the original 25(7) Remington had the same case diameter as the 25-35 WCF (or 30-30) but was also rimless(?) Does that 7 look like it was added later?

Froggie