Hand Loading Tools Section

[beagle]

I've been following the thread on the Tru Line Junior in Swappin' and Sellin'. There appears to be a lot of interest in these little gems from the past.

It has come to mind....Is there enough interest in hand tools to create a section on hand tools?

Seems like everyone has a drawer full, E-Bay's loaded with them and the dies and they go for high prices so there must be interest.

What say Webmaster and the remainder of you?/beagle

[mike in co]

and then there are the lee loaders.....

where i started in loading!

[Phil]

I used to have a couple of 310 tools and even a small turret press for them. For some long forgotten reason I got rid of all of them. I have thought recently about getting a few but boy the prices have gone through the roof! I don't think I could afford them anymore.

Cheers,

Phil

[Swagerman]

I've got the Tru-line Jr. press as well as die sets for .44 special, .45acp, .38 special, and 9 mm.

But only keep the 310 dies around for bullet seating work in .44 and .45 Colt caliber.

Jim

[45nut]

Done as a sub-forum of Casting Equipment. Please notify me of threads that need to be moved. :

[ktw]

I've got the Tru-line Jr. press as well as die sets for .44 special, .45acp, .38 special, and 9 mm.

But only keep the 310 dies around for bullet seating work in .44 and .45 Colt caliber.

Jim

I was always primarily a rifle handloader with single stage presses. Large volume handloading wasn't a big concern. About the time I started thinking about adding a turret press to the bench I lucked into an estate deal that included a pair of Trueline Jr presses and a number of die sets.

I still do all my brass prep and priming separately as batch processes using a variety of tools but when it comes to assembling loads I really like the 310 combination of neck sizer/expander/55 powder measure/ seater/crimper in a Trueline press. The setup is handy to C-clamp anywhere and hang in the wall when not needed. Cast bullet friendly M-Type expanders are included. They do a nice roll crimp. The presses are nicely scaled for working with handgun cartridges. You can find good deals on parts and dies in the dusty corners and parts bins of mom and pop gunshops. I have a couple pair of the 310 tong handles but rarely use them.

They aren't progressive presses, but not everyone needs to crank out that kind of volume, either.

-ktw

[floodgate]

You have to watch out for them Tru-Line Jrs. and their dies; they seem to multiply in the dark. Last time I opened up the storage cabinet there were FOUR T-L Jrs. (two old-style, and two new types with the compound linkage like Swagerman's above*), ten or a dozen full die sets and a cigar box full of loose ones, and a double handful of "J" shellholders and "T" priming punches (and I just got notified more are coming in from eBay). The 310 tools are even worse; they multiply faster than I can count them.

floodgate

* I just checked again, and two more had morphed into Tru-Line SENIORS; beleeve me, you DON'T wanna know about THOSE turkeys!