Using an old Ideal loader

Smoke & Recoil

New member
He all,
I post this question in the general reloading section earlier but recieved
no response to my question, so I thougth I'd try here too.

My question is...has any one ever primed their brass using an old Ideal No. 4
loading tool with the mold attached ? and if you did, how did you prime your cases with the old cupped primer pin that was designed for the earlier round
top primers as opposed to the new style flat top primers ?

The tool I have is a Ideal No. 4, 38-40 with the bullet mold attached.

Thank you.
 
I have absolutely no experience with these but they do look interesting for sure. So . . I'll just ask a couple of questions. Is the original primer setting pin flat on the end or concave for the old rounded primer? If there isn't enough flat surface area on the end of the pin to seat a modern primer, I would assume that you'd have to either alter or replace it with a new primer setting pin that is flat on the end?

I have looked at a number of these over the years but never really paid attention to what you are referring to. Any chance you could post a close up photo of the primer setting pin to show what the end of it looks like?

Have you tried setting a primer with the original pin? You might eve slide a spent cartridge in and apply pressure with the setting pin to see whatkind of surface bearing area there is . I would think that using the original setting pin, especially if it has a concave tip, might cause a problem on a stubborn primer trying to go in to a tight primer hole? But those are just thoughts off the top of my head.

Have you cast any slugs from the mold? If so, how did they turn out?

I recently picked up a fairly decent Winchester mold for the 38 S & W Spl. I've cast some rounds out of it and they are pretty nice for a 100 year old mold. I thought it would be nice to cast some out of an original mold to use out of my New Vaquero. I'm using range lead and they drop at about .358 - .359 and right around 160 gr. + or -. I'm running them all through the 358 sizer just to keep things consistent - they are just a tad longer than the Lee 150 gr RN and make a nice looking bullet. So far, I haven't had a chance to get out and try them though. I love the old molds and old loading tools - they might be a little more "fuss and work" . . but there is a lot of life left in some of them as well as the enjoyment of using them to load the same way our a lot of our grandparents did.

Good luck with your loading tool and I hope you'll keep us posted on how it works! Fun and interesting stuff! :)
 
I'll try one more time.
 
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Smoke & Recoil said:


You've almost got it - the pics "Direct url" gets copied & pasted between the first set of bracketed "img" & the following bracket - no spaces.


IIRC, the old tong tools were used for setting modern primers via grinding the cupped face into a flat.



.
 
38-40 Ideal

I haven't cased any bullets yet, but I did press one primer with it. As you can
see from the bottom picture, the primer has a small lump to it from the priming
pin/anvil.
 

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Smoke & Recoil - thanks for the photos! I've never really paid attention when I've looked at these loading tools - is the primer setting pin removable? If so, you might look at making a replacement with a flat face? I can't really tell from the photo if the seated primer is "domed" above the back of the cartridge or does it "set in" as normally seated ones do? I'm assuming this is a rifle primer but if you could remove the old one (and save it) and get a new flat faced one made, it might work better to keep the face of the primer flat?

I imagine the seating of the primer is "by feel" with this tool - much like a modern day hand seater. Once the primer is seated to depth, you can tell?

Another thing - you might try sliding the primed, uncharged casing in your rifle and see if the primer you seated goes off as it should. I have a feeling it will. The bottom edge of the primer, once seated in to the primer pocket is going to bottom out and stop - I wouldn't think the slight dome you put on it would make a difference as long as the primer was below the surface of the back of the casing? If it sets above, it could be a problem.

As I said, I've never paid attention to the little details of these loader s but I have to beleive the original setting pin is probably made to be removed somehow as over time, they would wear or possibly get banged up and need to be replaced. Depending on the diameter of it, possibly an old de-capping punch from a die could be altered to the correct diameter and shaped with a flat face to work better with modern primers? Just a thought. The seating pin on my Lee hand primer is just a flat faced pin. Or, if the original seating pin is removable, could the opposite end be flattened and "coned" to the right diameter (similar to what you are showing for the concave end) and the seating pin just reversed with the flat end out?
 
@ bedbugbilly and mehavey,

The primer pin is removable, but I don't care to remove it, it is held
in with just a simple pin that would have to be driven out. We, I can feel the seating process completely to the bottom of the pocket and I was gentle to
avoid the hump. What I'll do is fill the priming pin cup with hard solder, that way, I can remover the solder at anytime if I want to restore it.

I cast 100+ bullets with this loader today and the bullets dropped right out
with no problems. The only prep I had done with the mold was to smoke
black it with a candle. The bullets weigh in at 175 grains and the diameter
is .404, pushing them through the sizer...they drop out at .401.

Thank you mehavey for the Youtube link, I found it very interesting.

I'll post more pictures soon.
 
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