Pacific press...x2

[Rusty Goose]

I picked up a couple of heavy boxes of reloading stuff recently. Among the treasures were these two Pacific single stage presses.

Both have rams for .38 Special, one is complete with a Pacific seating die. The other is missing the priming arm.

Any idea how old these fellas are?

Rusty

[Bent Ramrod]

Since they don’t have the bosses on the die holder for the primer magazine, they are mid- to late 1930s; pre WWII. They used a clamp-on aluminum holder for the primer tubes that is difficult to find now.

The very earliest ones have “Patent Pending” on the offside of the frame; later ones have the patent number.

The ram shell holders were standard back then, but the change to a different one was not difficult. Rams can still be found, and I believe RCBS sells a ram that will fit modern snap-in shell holders.

That press was revolutionary when it came out. Previously, any setup capable of full-length resizing was either very slow or very large and expensive. When Pacific debuted that “C” Press, 90% of the older loading tool designs were on their way to the rubbish heap of history.

[ascast]

Nice snag ! That was the first "standard" press I think. I think the only true survivor was the Ideal 310 line up. Rams can be had from RCBS, Lyman, or CH4D (I think) about $30. Lots of companys used that shell holders system. The primer attachment is hard to find. Most got trashed apparently. Also, RCBS at least made a wedge to mount under to make it a true vertical ram. They resize on the upstroke so mount n a good solid heavy table. My gramps had his cabled to the floor. It was on an old sewing machine stand. Enjoy!

[Rusty Goose]

Thanks for the input. I'm afraid I just don't have the room to keep them, I picked up the boxes of stuff for the components included. These presses and some other similar vintage (and earlier) treasures will be finding a new home. I hope someone will be able to put them to good use.

Included in the horde was a lot of similar era boxes of boolits, some .38sp, .30-30, .348, .280 Ross, and quite a bit of .30-06 brass. It was all piled in old wooden Velveta cheese boxes and old wooden cigar boxes.