This article from Ed Harris', "Tales from the Back Creek Diary", was published in the Jan/Feb 2013 #221 issue of the Fouling Shot.
Frank Marshall spent many pleasant afternoons plinking with his Savage 340 or Winchester 94 rifles in .30-30 as he reloaded rounds with an Ideal Tong Tool. Until the late 1960s Lymans 310 tool was the portable reloading outfit of choice at the range or deer camp.
The original Ideal tong tool which was patented March 11, 1884 had its dies machined integral with the steel handles. These tools featured a single-cavity bullet mold on the end and a bullet-sizer hole in the tool handle. Ideals No. 1 was adapted to pistol cartridges from .32 S&W through .41 Long Colt. The No. 4 was for longer cartridges from .25-20 through .44-40 and .45 Colt. The No. 6 tool was a rifle tool for .32-40 through .50-110 Winchester. Before WWI they sold for $2.25 to $3.00, depending upon caliber.
After World War II todays familiar threaded-handle design with removable die sets was adopted and desig-nated as the New Model 310 tool. The Tru-Line Junior press used the same dies, which were available for most then-popular calibers. According to http://the310shop. com/ boxed sets with steel handles were sold from 1947 to 1957 under the same Lyman Ideal. Aluminum han-dles were introduced in 1958 and sold into the early 1970s. The 310 was reintroduced when Cowboy Shooting became popular.
Frank Marshall spent many pleasant afternoons plinking with his Savage 340 or Winchester 94 rifles in .30-30 as he reloaded rounds with an Ideal Tong Tool. Until the late 1960s Lymans 310 tool was the portable reloading outfit of choice at the range or deer camp.
The original Ideal tong tool which was patented March 11, 1884 had its dies machined integral with the steel handles. These tools featured a single-cavity bullet mold on the end and a bullet-sizer hole in the tool handle. Ideals No. 1 was adapted to pistol cartridges from .32 S&W through .41 Long Colt. The No. 4 was for longer cartridges from .25-20 through .44-40 and .45 Colt. The No. 6 tool was a rifle tool for .32-40 through .50-110 Winchester. Before WWI they sold for $2.25 to $3.00, depending upon caliber.
After World War II todays familiar threaded-handle design with removable die sets was adopted and desig-nated as the New Model 310 tool. The Tru-Line Junior press used the same dies, which were available for most then-popular calibers. According to http://the310shop. com/ boxed sets with steel handles were sold from 1947 to 1957 under the same Lyman Ideal. Aluminum han-dles were introduced in 1958 and sold into the early 1970s. The 310 was reintroduced when Cowboy Shooting became popular.
There was a simple, threaded, push-through cast bullet sizer made for the 310 tool. When pan-lubing bul-lets Lymans Kake-Cutter was useful to pop bullets out of a block of solid lube in the cake pan. These gadgets and the 310 tool are what Frank Marshall taught me and my school mates to use as kids in the 1960s. I never owned one until recently. Now that I am retired and have time to tinker, I asked around and Denny Lundmark found me a steel set in .30-30. I am enjoying my childhood memories and like sharing this experience.
Decapping on the 310 tool.
For best results, seat primers twice, rotating the case 180°.
Lyman tong tools and die sets frequently emerge from estate sales, yard sales and can be found periodi-cally at gun shows or on the internet. If you want to expe-rience some nostalgia in loading for your Dads WWII bring-back in .30-06, 8mm Mauser, 7.7 Jap, .303 British, those dies are most common if you know what to look for. Tong tool dies are not marked by caliber, but are identi-fied by part number. So, unless you locate a boxed set, you must research compatible die parts in a pre-1968 catalog and search gun shows to assemble yours. This might require lapping out a muzzle resizer to best fit your particular brass and bullet. A collection of various diameter muzzle resizers for .30-30, .30-40, .30-06 and .303 British is very handy.
Neck size dies can sometimes be used to improvise in loading similar rounds of the same nominal caliber and head dimensions. The .250 Savage and .257 Roberts dies can be adapted to each other, and the Roberts dies work on .25-06. A .32 S&W die set can also load .32 ACP, .32 H&R Magnum, .32-20 etc. The .30-40 Krag and .303 British dies each will load the other. There may be other possibilities.
.Mouth resizing.
Powder dippers can be made from fired cases.
Todays Lyman 310 tool has aluminum handles machined from a die casting, with dies being offered only in the popular Cowboy calibers. http://www.lyman products.com/lyman/dies/lyman-310-tool.php. The 310 Shop http://the310shop.com/ offers new dies and han-dles as well as complete sets in most traditional and modern calibers, including many never available from Lyman. A link with more practical information on using the 310 tool is http://www.lasc.us/Brennan_Lyman 310Tool.htm.
Lyman never produced carbide sizer dies for its tong tool. Because they only neck-size, you must use cases originally fired in your gun, unless you full-length size range pickup brass on another press first. When using plain steel dies, fired cases must be clean and lubricated to avoid grit scratching the dies or your brass. Mechanical advantage and extraction power of the tong tool is very limited.
While you can brute-force an over-expanded empty into a 310 tool, you probably wont get it out, because the extractor hook will jump off the rim and the handles dont have enough mechanical advantage to either force the case in or to pull it out! A shooting buddy from high school days recalled in his reloading for a .44 magnum M29, that to use the 310 without excessive cursing, it was important to load revolver cartridges conservatively.
Five chambers in that M29 kicked out empties which worked fine with the 310 tool, but chamber number 6 was the one which had survived an overload a mutual friend, the previous owner, tried to demonstrate what Elmers real .44 magnum load should be! The inability to drag stuck cases out of the muzzle resizer is why it is critical to clean brass well (both inside and out!) to avoid intro-ducing grit which will make cases stick in the muzzle resizer or on the expander plug!
And, dont eat fried chicken while priming with the 310, because you are handling the primers with your fin-gers! Dont ask me how I know It is important to clean primer pockets because the priming chamber engages only half of the case rim at a time, so you must push, then rotate the case and squeeze again to seat the primer so it is fully bottomed, flush and square.
While you can brute-force an over-expanded empty into a 310 tool, you probably wont get it out, because the extractor hook will jump off the rim and the handles dont have enough mechanical advantage to either force the case in or to pull it out! A shooting buddy from high school days recalled in his reloading for a .44 magnum M29, that to use the 310 without excessive cursing, it was important to load revolver cartridges conservatively.
Five chambers in that M29 kicked out empties which worked fine with the 310 tool, but chamber number 6 was the one which had survived an overload a mutual friend, the previous owner, tried to demonstrate what Elmers real .44 magnum load should be! The inability to drag stuck cases out of the muzzle resizer is why it is critical to clean brass well (both inside and out!) to avoid intro-ducing grit which will make cases stick in the muzzle resizer or on the expander plug!
And, dont eat fried chicken while priming with the 310, because you are handling the primers with your fin-gers! Dont ask me how I know It is important to clean primer pockets because the priming chamber engages only half of the case rim at a time, so you must push, then rotate the case and squeeze again to seat the primer so it is fully bottomed, flush and square.
In Franks day it was common to dip measure powder when using the tong tool. As long as you know that your charge cup and powder combination produces a safe and useable load, this is OK. The Lee dipper set and charge tables are recommended these days. For my nostalgia trip I soldered up some home-brew charge cups from empty cartridge cases and copper wire and weighed some samples. The results are fascinating!
Mouth expanding allows hand-starting cast bullets.
The seating chamber will also apply a nice roll crimp if desired.
An empty .22 LR case makes a dip measure which throws about 3 grains of Bullseye. This is a safe load for a .32-20 revolver, .32 H&R Magnum or .38 Special with standard-weight lead bullet for the caliber. It also works well to improvise cats sneeze loads with single-0 buck-shot in almost any .30 cal. rifle case.
A measure made from a .32 ACP case throws 6 grains of Bullseye, a full charge load for modern cowboy revolvers and lever-actions chambered in .44-40 and .45 Colt, and a nice plinker in the .44 Magnum.
A measure made from a .32 ACP case throws 6 grains of Bullseye, a full charge load for modern cowboy revolvers and lever-actions chambered in .44-40 and .45 Colt, and a nice plinker in the .44 Magnum.
It also makes a great small game load with 110-120 grain cast bullets in .30 cal. rifles of .30-30 size and up.
A .32 S&W Long case throws 11.5 grains of #2400, a very useful medium-velocity load with standard-weight lead bullets in the .357 Magnum. It is also fine for soft, plain-based bullets in the .30-30, .32 Winchester Special, .32-40, .30-40, 7.62x54R, 7.7 Jap, 7.65 Argentine or .303 British
.A 7.62x25 Tokarev case throws 14.5 grs. of #2400, a full charge .357 Magnum load and fine, mild gas checked bullet plinker in any .30 cal. from 7.62x39 to .30-06.
A .38 Special case throws about 21 grains of #2400, a full charge load for the .44 Magnum revolver, or a use-ful jacketed bullet or gas-checked cast-bullet plinker in the 7.62x54R, 8mm Mauser or .30-06.A 7.62x39 case throws 29 grains of RL-7, which is a full charge load with 150-grain jacketed bullet in the .30-30. This also makes a good heavy hunting load with gas-checked bullets in any .30 cal. rifle from the .30-40 Krag through the .30-06. It also throws 28 grs. of IMR4064, which is a full-charge, gas-checked load using the #31141 bullet in the .30-30, and a good target load with gas checks in any .30 caliber from the Krag up through the .30-06.
Far better than the old tong tool, more versatile and highly recommended for modern users, not into fire-side cowboy nostalgia, is the Lee hand Press. See:http://www.cabelas.com/presses-dies-lee-hand-press-reloading-kit-3.shtml http://www.ehow.com/how_7622520_use-lee-hand-press.html You-Tube demo here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6IoNCtFHwU .
The advantage of the Lee hand press is that it uses standard 7/8-14 thread dies and shell holders, so that you can use dies you already have. I recommend car-bide dies in pistol and revolver calibers, whenever pos-sible. The Lee tool has ample leverage to full-length resize pistol cases and smaller rifle cases. The 9mm, .45 ACP, .357 Magnum, 5.56mm or 7.62x39 brass size rela-tively easily. While .30-06 brass fired from an M1 can be sized on the Lee hand press, doing so takes significant-ly more effort. The Lee hand press is an affordable starter-outfit, well designed for its task.
A complete portable kit with dies, primers, powder, bullets, small loading block, etc., store easily in a .30 cal. ammo can, or in Franks WWII GI gas mask bag, thrown over the shoulder or attached with a snap-link onto your wilderness ruck. Frank will forgive your buying the Lee hand press and passing up the buy on that 310 tong tool at the gun show. He felt it a shame Lyman never made .223 Remington or 7.62x39 dies for it... In his later days Bill Rugers Plinker (Mini-14) and the Chinese Hurdy Gurdy (SKS) did strike his fancy.
Another approach for reloading out of the box to use Bob Sears clever term for it, is to use a small arbor press with hand dies, such as those made by L.E. Wilson. This set-up is popular with bench-rest competi-tors, and is best suited for bolt-action rifles, neck-sizing, match-prepped brass for one rifle only. Setting up for a precision rifle this way is quite practical, but more expen-sive than using the Lee outfit.
Some descriptions and how-to articles of the arbor press equipment are at these links:
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=37764/Product/Sinc lair-Arbor-Press
http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2011/12/29/sinclairwilson-hand-dies/
http://www.shooters-supply.com/using_wilson_dies.html
http://www.shooters-supply.com/reloading_equipment. html#wilson
A .32 S&W Long case throws 11.5 grains of #2400, a very useful medium-velocity load with standard-weight lead bullets in the .357 Magnum. It is also fine for soft, plain-based bullets in the .30-30, .32 Winchester Special, .32-40, .30-40, 7.62x54R, 7.7 Jap, 7.65 Argentine or .303 British
.A 7.62x25 Tokarev case throws 14.5 grs. of #2400, a full charge .357 Magnum load and fine, mild gas checked bullet plinker in any .30 cal. from 7.62x39 to .30-06.
A .38 Special case throws about 21 grains of #2400, a full charge load for the .44 Magnum revolver, or a use-ful jacketed bullet or gas-checked cast-bullet plinker in the 7.62x54R, 8mm Mauser or .30-06.A 7.62x39 case throws 29 grains of RL-7, which is a full charge load with 150-grain jacketed bullet in the .30-30. This also makes a good heavy hunting load with gas-checked bullets in any .30 cal. rifle from the .30-40 Krag through the .30-06. It also throws 28 grs. of IMR4064, which is a full-charge, gas-checked load using the #31141 bullet in the .30-30, and a good target load with gas checks in any .30 caliber from the Krag up through the .30-06.
Far better than the old tong tool, more versatile and highly recommended for modern users, not into fire-side cowboy nostalgia, is the Lee hand Press. See:http://www.cabelas.com/presses-dies-lee-hand-press-reloading-kit-3.shtml http://www.ehow.com/how_7622520_use-lee-hand-press.html You-Tube demo here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6IoNCtFHwU .
The advantage of the Lee hand press is that it uses standard 7/8-14 thread dies and shell holders, so that you can use dies you already have. I recommend car-bide dies in pistol and revolver calibers, whenever pos-sible. The Lee tool has ample leverage to full-length resize pistol cases and smaller rifle cases. The 9mm, .45 ACP, .357 Magnum, 5.56mm or 7.62x39 brass size rela-tively easily. While .30-06 brass fired from an M1 can be sized on the Lee hand press, doing so takes significant-ly more effort. The Lee hand press is an affordable starter-outfit, well designed for its task.
A complete portable kit with dies, primers, powder, bullets, small loading block, etc., store easily in a .30 cal. ammo can, or in Franks WWII GI gas mask bag, thrown over the shoulder or attached with a snap-link onto your wilderness ruck. Frank will forgive your buying the Lee hand press and passing up the buy on that 310 tong tool at the gun show. He felt it a shame Lyman never made .223 Remington or 7.62x39 dies for it... In his later days Bill Rugers Plinker (Mini-14) and the Chinese Hurdy Gurdy (SKS) did strike his fancy.
Another approach for reloading out of the box to use Bob Sears clever term for it, is to use a small arbor press with hand dies, such as those made by L.E. Wilson. This set-up is popular with bench-rest competi-tors, and is best suited for bolt-action rifles, neck-sizing, match-prepped brass for one rifle only. Setting up for a precision rifle this way is quite practical, but more expen-sive than using the Lee outfit.
Some descriptions and how-to articles of the arbor press equipment are at these links:
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=37764/Product/Sinc lair-Arbor-Press
http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2011/12/29/sinclairwilson-hand-dies/
http://www.shooters-supply.com/using_wilson_dies.html
http://www.shooters-supply.com/reloading_equipment. html#wilson