What in the Sam Hell have I bought now?

[JDHasty]

It came with the Pacific Super Deluxe press and a Vickerman Seating die. I wanted one of these presses if I could find one with both downstroke and upstroke hinge block. The Vickerman seater was a bonus, I have a half dozen already, might as well have one in 30 caliber. What I am not familiar with is the other item. It appears it has a nose punch on it and the extra ram has what could be a bullet sizing die threaded into it?

[JimB..]

Hard to tell from your text which part you’re talking about, but the die next to the Vickerman Seating die looks a lot like a black powder compression die.

[Rcmaveric]

Almost appears to be a bullet feeding apparatus of some kind.

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[Harter66]

The ram is probably for a bullet swaging kit . Nothing to offer for the odd die guts .

[JDHasty]

Upon further examination that 7/8-14 threaded apparatus with the plunger that looks like a top punch goes down into the die that is screwed into the extra ram which has an ejector rod that an RCBS rockchucker priming arm w/o punch will shove back up on. It is marked 357 and I think it was used to size bullets that were then lubed in a pan by pouring melted lube over then cutting them out.

I’ve seen a lot of stuff in 60 years of pursuing this hobby, but this is the first one of these setups I’ve come across.

[JDHasty]

The ram is probably for a bullet swaging kit . Nothing to offer for the odd die guts .

By God that is exactly what it is. It is a complete 357 bullet swaging kit. That also explains the oversized pin in the second toggle link. Swaging 357 bullets would put a lot of stress on that pivot. I was wondering why that pivot would need to be so robust for something as low stress as sizing a cast bullet. It never crossed my mind it was an actual 38 caliber bullet swage.

It is obvious that the lever block and ram itself are Pacific parts. I was fiddling around with it in the press and if you take the priming punch out of the priming arm it would shove the finished bullet out on the down stroke. It is beyond obvious the swage assembly is extremely well made.

I don’t have a pivot pin for it but I’ll measure it up by sizing the hole in the lever block with my drills and see if I can find a high grade bolt to fit it. If not we will turn up a pin out of heat treatable steel on the lathe and see if we can get it working.

[JDHasty]

It is a genuine Pacific bullet swage, almost complete. And here are the instructions for it. We have a few Model 14s kicking around here that haven't been shot in a while this looks like fun.

[Kraschenbirn]

Until your post, I'd never seen one of those but, this morning, I noticed there's one just like yours listed on an online auction of ammo, gun parts, and tools at Mattoon, IL.

Bill

[JDHasty]

Until your post, I'd never seen one of those but, this morning, I noticed there's one just like yours listed on an online auction of ammo, gun parts, and tools at Matoon, IL.

Bill

All it takes to make bullets is .340 lead wire, half jackets or gas checks, lubricant and a lead cutter. I spoke with Corbin this morning. Super Deluxe presses are not all that scarce either.

My understanding is that “preppers” will snatch these kits up for a tidy sum. I think we are going to keep it though.

[tward]

God, I love this forum , not only identified but complete instructions! Tim