Remembering Years Ago

[JimT]

When my Dad started teaching me to reload nearly 70 years ago, there were no such thing as carbide sizing dies. No matter the cartridge, they all had to be lubed before driving them into the die. If you didn't and if you forced it too hard you may have ended up buying a new die. Some cases (I've heard) were impossible to remove once driven into the die.

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This is an old drive-in die for .222 Remington

So we tried all kinds of lube. When I was reloading .38 Specials and .357 Magnums I had a Lyman "drive-in" die that you hammered the case into and then drove it back out. If you did not use a plastic mallet you soon beat the case head so badly the lettering disappeared. The higher pressure .357's were much more work than the .38's. Most of the time with the .38's my loads were light enough that all I had to do was size the neck of the case. Firing them in the one sixgun I owned, they refit the chamber acceptably. But the .357's were another story.

Before sizing I normally rubbed each cartridge on an old candle and got the wax all over it. After the cases were sized and deprimed I cleaned them by dumping them all into a #10 can, pouring in some gasoline, sloshing it around and pouring it out on an ant hill. Then I would lay the cartridges in the Arizona sun for awhile and all the gasoline was gone.

My cartridges were burnt and blackened and not pretty but they shot just fine.

When STP came on the market it was soon discovered to be THE ideal case lube for resizing! I never used it in my car but I used a lot of it resizing cartridges. By then I was reloading .38 Special - .357 Magnum - .303 British and .44-40. Later in 1969 I added .45 ACP, .45 Colt and .30 Carbine to the mix.

I loaded most all of them with the Lyman 310 Tool and the Lyman "drive in" sizing die.

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I bought one of the first Lee Loaders that came on the market to reload the .30 Carbine. The hardest part was re-priming the cases, especially military cases with the crimped primer pocket. It was quite unsettling to put the primer on the die, set the case on top of it in the die holding it, whack it with the leather mallet and have the primer go off!

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I think it was 1969 when I finally quit using the drive-in dies and began loading using an RCBS Rock Chucker. Not long afterwards I discovered carbide sizing dies. Life has never been the same since.

[AmBraCol]

My first reloading setup that involved more than a knife and a stick was one of the Lee Loader kits for 38/357. The trouble I ran into was it only resized the neck area. So a cartridge fired in a loose chamber could not be reloaded and fired in a tight chamber. Later I picked up a Lee Speed Die and an RCBS "Junior" (I THINK that was the name) press. Made all the world of difference when it came to actually resizing. No lube and never had issues with reloads not chambering in a tighter sixgun.

[Griff]

I suppose I was one of the lucky ones. I started reloading in 1973, maybe December of 1972 after my first full WestPac, I came home with 2 new Winchesters, a mdl 94 in 44 Magnum and a mdl 64A in .30-30. I reloaded using my brother-in-law's RCBS Jr press. At Christmas I was given a Lee Loader for the .30-30, but it remains pristine. The box is a bit beat up, but the tools have never seen hammer or brass, since I had access to the RCBS, I bought a set of their dies and have never looked back. Later in 1973 before my 2nd WestPac, my B-I-L gifted me that RCBS Jr. Which I used for all my rifle ammo until I bought a used Rock Chucker Supreme around 2008 or 9. Then several years later, I boxed the Jr. up and sent off to my other B-I-L so he could reload 9mm for him & my sister. I included a brand new Lyman 50th Reloading Manual and a set of 9mm dies. He & my sister had joined a pistol league and even reloads were pinching their budget. The die set was lightly used as I'd only loaded a few hundred rounds for my Walther P38 before selling it to fund a new S&W mdl 65 duty gun in the late '80s.

[Ysabel Kid]

I started reloading in the early 80's. Was making a mere $2.75/hr, so shooting the .44 Magnum at that time was a challenge for sure. My brother went in halfsies with me for a Lee turret press. He never reloaded but I kept his pistol fed. Started with carbide dies, so I got lucky. I still have that press - and a lot of other ones.