Ever notice how many .300 H&H 310 dies you find?

[trooperdan]

I admit that I am a nut for collecting 310 items; I just tried to win a large lot of about 30 dies on "that place' but was outbid darn it. That after I supposedly resolved to stop buying 310 dies but I actually greatly enjoy the anticipation of seeing what I get in a large unknown lot and I really enjoy cleaning them up in my hard working ultrasonic cleaner. Then comes the fun of assembling complete sets, hours of entertainment!
But I have been surprised by the number of dies for .300 H&H I seem to come across! I cannot believe it was ever that popular a caliber but I guess it makes sense that those that chose it would be reloaders and likely looking to load a more sedate round!

[Mk42gunner]

I've never seen one for the .300 H&H. Not surprising I came to the 310 dies late.

I do have a question though; with the 310 being primarily set up for neck sizing, is it possible to neck size and load say a .300 Win Mag with the .300 H&H die set?

Robert

[square butte]

It's gonna depend on whether or not the Priming Chamber for the 300 H&H will work with the 300 Win Mag case - The two case are different rim thicknes's. If the Priming Chamber works for both cases, then all the other dies should work for loading the 300 Win Mag

[Mk42gunner]

It's gonna depend on whether or not the Priming Chamber for the 300 H&H will work with the 300 Win Mag case - The two case are different rim thicknes's. If the Priming Chamber works for both cases, then all the other dies should work for loading the 300 Win Mag

Okay now I'm really scratching my head, because the .375 or .300 H&H is the basic case for most of the belted magnums with the exception of the very short lived .450 Marlin.

I'm not all that thrilled with the 310 priming system anyway. I tend to use the RCBS hand priming tool.

Robert

[Green Frog]

I'm not all that thrilled with the 310 priming system anyway. I tend to use the RCBS hand priming tool.

Robert

As we used to say back in the Sixties, “Everybody to his own kick.” I learned off press priming with the 310 tool and used it pretty exclusively until I got my Pope style re- and decapper from Jake Simmons, and then for pistols the original Lee Auto Prime, the one with the screw in shell holders. I never could warm up to the RCBS priming tools even though I like a lot of their other tools. If you forced an RCBS priming tool on me, I’d probably go dig out a 310 tool. Another Sixties phrase, “Different strokes for different folks!”
Regards,
the Frog

[Bent Ramrod]

My experience is that around 85% of loose 310 dies or attachments are either for .30-06 or .38 Spl/.357 Magnum.

Other calibers in the remaining 15% occur as they occur. The bins and boxes of random .310 stuff are much less common these days; generally I see more-or-less complete sets more frequently, packaged in baggies, or homemade or original boxes, with or without handles.

They must have become “collectible,” since the orphan and loose 7/8” x 14 dies are as commonly found as ever. They are frequently in Magnum rifle and pistol calibers.

[Mk42gunner]

As we used to say back in the Sixties, “Everybody to his own kick.” I learned off press priming with the 310 tool and used it pretty exclusively until I got my Pope style re- and decapper from Jake Simmons, and then for pistols the original Lee Auto Prime, the one with the screw in shell holders. I never could warm up to the RCBS priming tools even though I like a lot of their other tools. If you forced an RCBS priming tool on me, I’d probably go dig out a 310 tool. Another Sixties phrase, “Different strokes for different folks!”
Regards,
the Frog

Sir Green one, I agree. The reason I went with the RCBS Hand Priming tool is that is the early to mid nineties I was living in the barracks (No reloading there) and loading at three or four different friends houses. Thus I got a bit of experience with a widish variety of tools and found what worked for me and what didn't work so well.

I didn't like the feel of the Lee unit plus having to buy special shell holders for it. Kind of funny because I ended up buying two sets of regular shellholders so I don't have to stop and switch them when I am loading in a straight run instead of batches as I usually do. The RCBS tool just seems to fit my hand better. Mine has a price tag still on it of IIRC $22.95.

I'm not knocking Lee products, most of my .223 loading has been done a set of Lee RGB dies bought decades ago. Price $10.95.

Most of my loading these days is done in batches on a variety of single stage machines or the 310 tool. If I were to start loading pistol rounds in quantity, a Dillon Square Deal B or current series would more than likely live here.

Robert

[Eddie Southgate]

There are a number of bits and pieces of .300 H&H 310 stuff on ebay right now. Every now and then you see a whole set .

[country gent]

In the era when the 310 tool was popular there were no winchester magnums. The Holland and Hollands were the big medicine. The winchester magnums werent being introduced into the market until the mid 50s.

[rintinglen]

Remember that then as now, most shooters bought their ammunition, save maybe the high-volume trap and skeet shooters. Hunters and the like bought their ammo from Sears or the local hardware, save for a very few.

Back in the day, the 300 H&H was the epitome of high power and accuracy. After Ben Comfort won the Wimbledon Cup in 1935 with a 300 H&H, the wealthy, long-distance, shooters fell all over themselves to get in line to buy one. Now the nation was still for the most part mired in depression, so there weren't that many, but like today, most long distance shooters were reloaders. And unlike today, there was not a plethora of manufacturers making reloading gear. There was no internet to go to look for stuff when you thought you needed it, so new makers had a hard time finding a Market. But one company that was still making their then 60 year-old reloader, and one who most shooters had heard of, was Lyman. Consequently, though the total number of 300's sold between 1935 and 1950 was probably not more than ten or 15,000, just about all of them bought a 310 to help them load the expensive and exotic Magnum. Now, after WWII companies like Pacific and RCBS began manufacturing bench loading presses (There were some before WWII---where's pressman when you need him--but they were few and rare.) Because of this, the number of purchasers of the 300 H&H 310's decreased--if you had enough money to buy a 300, you could do better than a 310. But there were still quite a few who for reasons of frugality, nostalgia, or habit hung onto the 310 well into the 60's.

All of which is to explain that while the 30-30 outsold the 300 H&H 500 to one, the vast majority of 30-30 users didn't reload, where as many, if not most of the 300 users did. So now, 70 years later, we find a comparative large number of 300 H&H 310 sets, despite the scarcity of the rifles that use them.

[Dom]

Don't you love those complete sets??

[trooperdan]

Dom. a lovely sight that makes my heart beat faster!

[Mk42gunner]

I had a boxed set like that for the .22 Hornet, unfortunately a puppy got to the box. The caliber designation wasn't nearly as neat as on those.

Robert