Well, I finally got down to it. The match at Oak Ridge is coming up this weekend and I plan to shoot my 25-20 SS low wall in the Rook Rifle event.  I got out my Ideal 257283 mould and cast up a small batch of bullets… they dropped out to size, so I just pan lubed them. I only need 15 for the match but I went on and cast and lubed 30.

Then I got out my 310 dies and universal steel handles (L) and went to work. Since I was using new, freshly annealed brass (thanks Dave and Joel), I started out with the PC die and primed them, then expanded the mouths. Since the bullets are the same diameter as the expander plug, I also flared them a bit manually. I charged the cases with 7 gr of 4759 using my good old Pacific Measur-Kit powder measure. Bullets were seated, and the finished rounds look very good.  I’ve had that set of dies for over 25 years and this is the first time I’ve gotten to use them! 

Lyman 310 tools come through again. 

Froggie

PS. I tried using a Small set of tongs, because that’s what my old Ideal Handbook called for, but the Large ones worked much better, so that L set now has its own dedicated job.