Rancher Will
Member
At first I hesitated to mention this. But since others have chimed in, you can all laugh at me and I will smile.
Back in the mid 1960's I bought 3-50 pounds kegs of powder each, in 50 pound waxed fiber material kegs, in Denver, at a very low price compared to today. I still have some that I still use.
The three were H2400, Unique and H4831. I use the first two to load our revolvers and the last to load my .270 rifle. I suspect that all three were perhaps war surplus since I bought them in Gart Brothers Surplus store.
I have reloaded since I was a kid in the early 1940's, I think I started in about 1942. I was in school those years, living on a ranch, and I had an old (very old) Colt .44-40 that was about worn out and a Winchester Model 92, 25.20 cal. The war was on and ammo almost unable to buy so I started reloading.
A good friend who was an engineer with the County Road Department taught me how to reload and supplied me with tools and my first supplies. The following is the truth so laugh all you want.
I started with some old Lyman Tong tools and a Lyman single cavity .44 mold for the Colt. I used scrap plummers lead melted in a pot on the stove in our bunkhouse. I could buy black powder so I used black powder and just filled the cases with powder.I didn't know that powder was to be weighed. I cast the .44 bullets and lubed them with pure bees wax and they worked fine in the old Colt. My friend, who was also a Gunsmith furnished me with primers.
Now here is what you may laugh at.
The .25-20 was a problem for me. So my friend got me a tool (that I still have stored away) from Wilson Machine Company in Oregon (I was living on an Idaho ranch) for the .25-20 rifle.
Here is how it worked. I used fired, empty .22 lr cases, filled the .22 cases with melted lead, then when the lead hardened I put the cases in the bottom part of the iron Wilson tool. The top part of the Wilson tool was then put into the opening of the tool, on top of the mouth of the lead filled .22 case. Then with the tool on top of our shop anvil I hit the tool a good lick with a heavy hammer. This formed the bullet, expanding the .22 case with the lead to .25 caliber with a round nose. In other words it came out of tool as a copper jacketed bullet with a round lead nose. I loaded the bullet into the .25-20 cases on top of all the black powder that would fit under the bullet
Until I enlisted in the USAF in 1949 these two, the Colt and the Winchester, were the guns that I used for everything from Squirells and to Deer and everything in between. I worked as a cowboy most of each year and ran a trapline in the winter, always carrying one or both of my guns.
When I came back from the USAF in 1954 I was flush with my Mustering Out Pay, $250. I had stored the Colt and Winchester when I enlisted in 1949 so I bought a set of Herters tools, I believe it was in 1960, dies and a bench press. I traded the Colt and Winchester for my Remington rifle and Ruger and Smith revolvers. I even bought a Lyman electric furnace and I was able buy out the Linotype Metal from our local newspaper that had converted from a flat bed press to a Goss Rotary. I still have about 50 pounds of that Linotype metal that I use as it is to cast U249421 bullets for our .44's. I did buy a two cavity Lyman mold to cast the bullets. And I still lube them with pure beeswax, loaded without sizing them for our revolvers.
I still use the Herters dies and press but I did buy and use a powder scale to measure the powder for all three caliber guns.
Mostly I load a supply of cartridges over the winter in our ranch shop where it is warm and I have spare time. Usually my wife and I have enough ammo to last until the following winter.
I'm not sorry to tell you this but I don't envy you folks with your more modern equipment. My sons, son-in-law and my Grandsons try to tell me that I am old fashioned since they laugh at the way I load ammo. You can too but I am an old codger who follows the rule, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
I am happy that there is much more modern equipment available for all of you and for my own family though. I guess that I am just too cheap and set to change.
Back in the mid 1960's I bought 3-50 pounds kegs of powder each, in 50 pound waxed fiber material kegs, in Denver, at a very low price compared to today. I still have some that I still use.
The three were H2400, Unique and H4831. I use the first two to load our revolvers and the last to load my .270 rifle. I suspect that all three were perhaps war surplus since I bought them in Gart Brothers Surplus store.
I have reloaded since I was a kid in the early 1940's, I think I started in about 1942. I was in school those years, living on a ranch, and I had an old (very old) Colt .44-40 that was about worn out and a Winchester Model 92, 25.20 cal. The war was on and ammo almost unable to buy so I started reloading.
A good friend who was an engineer with the County Road Department taught me how to reload and supplied me with tools and my first supplies. The following is the truth so laugh all you want.
I started with some old Lyman Tong tools and a Lyman single cavity .44 mold for the Colt. I used scrap plummers lead melted in a pot on the stove in our bunkhouse. I could buy black powder so I used black powder and just filled the cases with powder.I didn't know that powder was to be weighed. I cast the .44 bullets and lubed them with pure bees wax and they worked fine in the old Colt. My friend, who was also a Gunsmith furnished me with primers.
Now here is what you may laugh at.
The .25-20 was a problem for me. So my friend got me a tool (that I still have stored away) from Wilson Machine Company in Oregon (I was living on an Idaho ranch) for the .25-20 rifle.
Here is how it worked. I used fired, empty .22 lr cases, filled the .22 cases with melted lead, then when the lead hardened I put the cases in the bottom part of the iron Wilson tool. The top part of the Wilson tool was then put into the opening of the tool, on top of the mouth of the lead filled .22 case. Then with the tool on top of our shop anvil I hit the tool a good lick with a heavy hammer. This formed the bullet, expanding the .22 case with the lead to .25 caliber with a round nose. In other words it came out of tool as a copper jacketed bullet with a round lead nose. I loaded the bullet into the .25-20 cases on top of all the black powder that would fit under the bullet
Until I enlisted in the USAF in 1949 these two, the Colt and the Winchester, were the guns that I used for everything from Squirells and to Deer and everything in between. I worked as a cowboy most of each year and ran a trapline in the winter, always carrying one or both of my guns.
When I came back from the USAF in 1954 I was flush with my Mustering Out Pay, $250. I had stored the Colt and Winchester when I enlisted in 1949 so I bought a set of Herters tools, I believe it was in 1960, dies and a bench press. I traded the Colt and Winchester for my Remington rifle and Ruger and Smith revolvers. I even bought a Lyman electric furnace and I was able buy out the Linotype Metal from our local newspaper that had converted from a flat bed press to a Goss Rotary. I still have about 50 pounds of that Linotype metal that I use as it is to cast U249421 bullets for our .44's. I did buy a two cavity Lyman mold to cast the bullets. And I still lube them with pure beeswax, loaded without sizing them for our revolvers.
I still use the Herters dies and press but I did buy and use a powder scale to measure the powder for all three caliber guns.
Mostly I load a supply of cartridges over the winter in our ranch shop where it is warm and I have spare time. Usually my wife and I have enough ammo to last until the following winter.
I'm not sorry to tell you this but I don't envy you folks with your more modern equipment. My sons, son-in-law and my Grandsons try to tell me that I am old fashioned since they laugh at the way I load ammo. You can too but I am an old codger who follows the rule, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
I am happy that there is much more modern equipment available for all of you and for my own family though. I guess that I am just too cheap and set to change.
