Colt 1st Gen - 1906 - Loaded rounds from Winchester Reloading Tools

[OKDEE]

Sitting around in Houston....Wet, chilly, wife is leavin me alone   , son is testing his ears pressure    - again with loud music.  So, I got to lookin at a trade I made at the gunshow.  A Colt 1st Gen, SAA, in 38 WCF.  I thought to myself, well ,,,,,I outta just use that Winchester Reloading tool that I bought years ago and see just how good it does!

Works like a charm.  Really, the only thing I had to do with the single stage press, was to widen the mouth of the brass.  Everything else, the hand tool did it.  Measured out to a consistant 1.583"+ OAL of the finished cartridge.

Now I am not sayin that this will replace the single stage or the Dillion 650......But it is kinda neat and got a bit of romance to it.  In a pinch, like up at the farm, where I do not have any press, I could make some reloads, as long as I had either pre-measuerd packets of powder or a powder measure. 

Anyone else ever do this?

Oklahoma Dee

[Jubal Starbuck]

  Yessir, I have.  Had tools in .38WCF and .32WCF that I used to load cartridges with.  Both of them worked well for me as I recall.  Its a neat way to pass a winter evening and kind of gives you a feel for how things were done in a simpler time.  I even loaded the .38-40's for my 1906 Colt as well.

Regards,

Jubal Starbuck

[River Jordan]

When I first to moved to Montgomery TX and then back to TN I lived in a rented condo both times .
I used a Lyman 310 to load my 45 Colt cartridges during those times.

I used the Lee priming tool and their scale to measure powder. On the trail, with black powder I am sure they just filled it up.

[St. George]

On the trail - they mostly reached into saddlebags and pulled them out of a box...

Mostly - they didn't really need to, since the 'real' Old West was far different from the 'reel' version, and many revolvers stayed in bedrolls or on the back of the chuckwagon, since owners and ramrods found that young men could get testy and combative, and the smaller ones might resort to a weapon.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Jake MacReedy]

Great point, St. George!  I keep thinking of that scene from "The Sacketts" when Tye (Jeff Osterhage) shows up in the cow camp for the first time and has the run-in with Buck Taylor's character...very testy! (Hollywood may have actuially got it right that time!)

Regards,
Jake

[Fox Creek Kid]

I started out on hand tools and in my mind they are not unlike using an outhouse in today's world, i.e., emergency only. 

[Hangtown Frye]

My first reloading experience was with a Lyman 310 Tool, loading BP loads for my 1896 Colt SAA my Dad had bought me when I was 13.  (Okay, it was my second. My first was filling up Auto Rim cases with BP and stuffing a round ball in the mouth to shoot out of a Spanish break-top that someone had buzzed from .455 to .45 Auto Rim.  But the 310 Tool was my first REAL reloading experience!)  I loaded a lot of ammo that way over the years, and still have the set.  (Wish I still had that old Colt too!) 

I did get myself a nice Winchester tong tool in .44 WCF, and it does a fine job of reloading, other than as OKDEE above noted. It doesn't bell out the mouth at all to help get the bullets in.  However it DOES seat the bullet to the exact proper depth to work properly in a Winchester action!  And as long as you're only loading for one gun, it's great.  Likewise the 310's, as they don't full-length resize either.

I also recently bought myself a set of Lyman dies in .44 WCF for my old reliable 310 Tool as well.  I really find it hard to beat for just messing around when I don't feel like doing a huge run of ammo out in the garage.  BTW, my old friend Frank Leman always reloaded his .38 WCF loads with a 310 Tool as well, and he was always a top shooter.  You can load some decent ammunition with those tools, if you take your time with it.

Cheers!

Gordon