Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Seasoned Reloaders - Tell Me About All of This Old Stuff

I've been reloading for about 10 years and still think I'm a novice. I've been thinking of getting a press of my own so that I can do a little work when I don't feel like going to my buddy's shop. An old friend gave me a box of equipment and told me to see what I can make of it. Tell me is any of this worth putting some work into? It's not in the greatest shape. Also, there's Lyman dies stamped "7-65 mau", I assume 7.65 Arg. Mauser (Belgium)? Is the old Lachmiller Primer swage die any good? I could see using that. The primers I'd guess are mid-60s as two had a reciept dated '66. Use them? Anyway...tell me what you think? Worth some elbow grease? Thanks in advance.

WOW, that is some OLD gear...

Hell I'd use them..

the dies don't wear out...

Test the primers...

the bullets are fine...

the Old RCBS hand puller is still fine...even with the duct tape on the handle...

Seafire,
I plan to use a lot of it. The .311 bullets and 7.65 dies are going up for sale...i'll never use them.

How do you test old primers?

The RCBS? You mean Pacific? I'm concerned about the shaft having too much play in it after cleaning the gunk off as seen in this picture:

I would use them

The piece with the duct tape around the handle is an old Pacific press before being bought by Hornady. Still have my grandfather's that my dad used to reload with when he was growing up

ya test old primers by loading some up and taking them out and shooting them...

just a few out of each box will let you know if the box got contaminated in some way over the decades...

wouldn't use them for big game hunting necessarily but certain good enough for varminting...

Learn what you can by cleaning it all up, then...start over with your very own press. An RCBS Partner press is better than a junky old Pacific (if still available and you don't want a full starter kit.) Keep the Pacific as a dedicated deprimer and don't use the Pacific to prime cases. Use a Sinclair/RCBS/Lee autoprime instead.

2 cents

All that stuff served to load ammunition 50 years ago. Why wouldn't it work now? Better stuff available today? Absolutely, but so what? Clean it up, put it into service, and feel your way toward the equipment made today that will best serve your needs- you'll make better decisions in the end.

Everybody automatically starts yelling out that a newbie needs this or he needs that, when in truth said newbie needs to learn by doing and make his own mind up about what is best for him. Everybody is different, with different needs and goals- what is the cat's azz for one guy may be an albatross around the neck of the next guy.

My thanks to all. I wouldn't call me a newbie, as indicated above. I've loaded with friends Rockchucker, an old C&H, and a 550B.

I'd like to learn more about the Lachmiller primer swage. Anyone have one or used one? It has no instructions with it.

You can also just prime a few cases and shoot them as blanks.

Unless you compare performance over a C graph shooting loaded rounds won't tell you much. IMO


Jerry

I can chrono the loads i'll test the primers with. I'm not sure if that will be all that indicative of anything as I've heard others have got less velocity with a Mag vs. regular LR primer in certain instances.

Any known issues of this press having issues where it's obviously an aluminum cast/alloy of some type? I know the RCBS partner (aluminum cast) would crack at times.

First thing I'd look at on that press is the ram. My first press was a Pacific (1954) and the ram was set up for one cartridge size only. Mine was set up for the common 30-06 size case heads. When I wanted to load 30-30, oops! No go. You had to order a new ram with the proper size. That's the bad news. The good news was I was able to order a new ram the took interchangeable shell holders. Pacific had just made the change over so that cured my problem. I would imagine Hornady might have a replacement should you need one, at least possible for mine. On yours, I dunno. Based on your photo, I think you have the older style ram for one case head size. Maybe the ram for the newer press will fit.
Paul B.

Paul, thanks for the pointer...I'd already honed in on that. It is a "#1" marked ram which will do for all I reload right now except pistol stuff, but I'll continue to load that on my buddy's 550.

thanks Jerry...

I neglected to add that simple detail...

I assume people know too much or I forget.. either or...

Looks like museum material. Respectfully sir get new primers and equipment, for safety sake.

Primers are $4/box around here. Not even worth the time to attempt to see if these are any good. Keep those old CCIs as a curiosity if you like, but keep them far away from anything that might get used. Unless you have a revolver and want to use them to shoot foam ear plugs for cowboy action shooting training (there are YouTube videos)...

I agree with the idea of using the press as a depriming stand. Unless that ram cleans up to be really smooth, which it doesn't look like it will, it will just wear out the block it slides through, and you'll end up with high efforts and possible concentricity issues, etc. None of that matters for knocking primers out before you tumble your brass.

The primer pocket swager is for opening up the pockets on brass where the case is crimped around the primer. That ensures retention of the primer in the brass and may assist with environmental sealing. This is done on virtually all military rounds. If you get 5.56 or 7.62 or 9mm NATO brass mixed in with your .223, .308 or 9mm, you'll have a use for it. Swaging the pockets is generally preferable to reaming them, as it restores the material to its original form (approximately) rather than cutting it away.

The only thing I would not use are the primers.
I once bought a box of "stuff" at an auction and there were probably 500 shotshell primers. So I picked through each box and pulled 2 or 3 primers out of each. I loaded them into empty hulls and every primer went bang and sounded the same.
I proceeded to then load about 200 shotshells with them and two or three out of ten either a total dead shell or misfire/weak ignition. What a pain.
Never used old primers again except ones I have had and know they were stored properly.

Thanks for the input everyone. I've got a full case (minus a couple 100) of 210s so I'm not planning to use the primers. I understand what swager does, but it'd be nice to know how this one works. I probably ought to research it more and see if I've got all the required parts!

God only knows how many "antique" primers I used in my life. In fact, I'm working my way through a sleeve of 50 year old Alcan small pistol primers as we speak- they work fine, no duds and I don't expect any. If they have been stored reasonably well, there's no reason on god's green earth not to use them- it ain't a safety issue. The worst that can happen is you get a dud. The "hotness" of a primer doesn't increase when they go bad, just the opposite.

My 86 year old landlord keeps finding stashes of ancient primers and old cans of powder that he'd been hoarding in an out building- no heat, no AC, no nothing. Some of that stuff has been out there for decades, subjected to the climate extremes of seasons next to the Chesapeake Bay- and everything he's given me so far has performed like the day it was made.

So, when you're gifted a trove of old loading supplies don't automatically deep-six it without trying it out.