Ideal hand loader

[Mezcal Charlie]

Is anyone using an Ideal hand loader for reloading black powder? I picked this up thinking about getting in touch with my inner cowboy but it’s hand intensive and hard on the arthritis. 
Still, it’s a genius piece of engineering. 

 

 

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

I load BP on my Dillon 550 

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]

I have used this Winchester reloading tool for 44-40 but only for "test" purposes.

 

[Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971]

My late father gave me a similar one made by Lyman.  It works but even slower than a single stage press.  Lack for full-length resizing limits its usefulness.  Arthritis prevents me from ever using it again.

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

 

I load BP on my Dillon 650(s).  APP too. 🤠

[Laramie]

When I was a kid that’s what my dad reloaded everything on. He had 25/20, 32/20, and 7mm Mauser dies. If I remember, there were two sizes of the tool itself. Depending on case diameter. I probably should still have them somewhere. 
Laramie

[Rye Miles #13621]

3 hours ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

I load BP on my Dillon 550 

I did also back in my BP shootin days?

[watab kid]

interesting tool , thanks for sharing it , im using more modern equipment these days yet mine is far from new like others here have 

[Joe LaFives #5481]

While loading BP using a Dillon is probably fine 999 times out of a 1000.  I do know of ONE real accident that happened way back. and although I don't know the details, I know the individual.  Probably around 2003.

[Vail Vigilante]

Use a modern tool.

If the old cowboys that used those pliers style tools were alive today they would probably tell you the same thing.

 

[watab kid]

i gotta agree with VV here , those were a PITA to use 

[Frontier Lone Rider]

I can see if one has small hands, it would be challenging to use one of these.

 

I also have progressive reloaders, but when it comes to loading black (GOEX), I do it one step at a time, by hand.  I know it is slow, but I am in  no hurry.

 

I prime using LEE's Bench Top Hand Primer.  I used to use the Hand Primer, but after a while my thumb would get sore.  I have several different powder measures, but for black I scoop.  I use a dowel rod to tamp down the powder and activated charcoal granule filler.  I then seat the bullet with a Lyman T-Mag II.  The bullets all seem to go bang and make a lot of smoke.

[Mezcal Charlie]

Thanks to everyone who commented. I think the consensus is I must be nuts😁. I just got my single stage press in the mail and will be set up shortly. I agree about the use of modern conveniences but I’m an historian having taught history as a second career and like the old ways. But then I’m not sitting in a bunkhouse without electricity or radio or tv where it’s dark by 5 PM. I don’t think I’ll advance to progressive given my shooting needs and depth of reserves in most ammo. Again thanks for the input. 

[Mezcal Charlie]

On 10/20/2025 at 2:38 PM, Vail Vigilante said:

Use a modern tool.

If the old cowboys that used those pliers style tools were alive today they would probably tell you the same thing.

 

But wouldn’t they also be shooting modern weapons, riding four wheelers and use drones and helicopters? 😉

[watab kid]

17 hours ago, Mezcal Charlie said:

But wouldn’t they also be shooting modern weapons, riding four wheelers and use drones and helicopters? 😉

maybe - they would be older than me tho , and less tech savy , so a lot of lead might get spent on electronics , ive had to refrain a number of times when frustrated by the stuff , 

[Mezcal Charlie]

On 10/19/2025 at 9:42 AM, Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L said:

I have used this Winchester reloading tool for 44-40 but only for "test" purposes.

 

Very cool. The winchesters are rare and very valuable. I’m going to make a point to load a few just for the experience and then take along for the ideal of not running out on the trail😉

[Frontier Lone Rider]

On 10/23/2025 at 9:09 AM, Mezcal Charlie said:

Thanks to everyone who commented. I think the consensus is I must be nuts😁. I just got my single stage press in the mail and will be set up shortly. I agree about the use of modern conveniences but I’m an historian having taught history as a second career and like the old ways. But then I’m not sitting in a bunkhouse without electricity or radio or tv where it’s dark by 5 PM. I don’t think I’ll advance to progressive given my shooting needs and depth of reserves in most ammo. Again thanks for the input. 

I am not a Historian, but I have lived through much of what you say.  Not that I am old, well maybe a little, but I was born in a log cabin.  The doctor came to our house for the deliveries.  We had inside water as long as you primed the pump and worked the handle.  The outhouse was just a stone throw away.  We took baths in a clothes wash tub.  We had electricity, but only two circuits.  We had an ice chest outside, rather than a refrigerator, that we put 50Lb blocks of ice in in the Summer.  We heated both floors with a wood burning stove which also doubled for cooking.

 

We did have a battery powered radio and a record player which played through the radio for entertainment when one wasn't reading a book.

 

We only had one Damascus Barreled 12ga Shotgun and a .22 Rifle for hunting.

 

Ah, the good old days.

[Mezcal Charlie]

5 minutes ago, Frontier Lone Rider said:

I am not a Historian, but I have lived through much of what you say.  Not that I am old, well maybe a little, but I was born in a log cabin.  The doctor came to our house for the deliveries.  We had inside water as long as you primed the pump and worked the handle.  The outhouse was just a stone throw away.  We took baths in a clothes wash tub.  We had electricity, but only two circuits.  We had an ice chest outside, rather than a refrigerator, that we put 50Lb blocks of ice in in the Summer.  We heated both floors with a wood burning stove which also doubled for cooking.

 

We did have a battery powered radio and a record player which played through the radio for entertainment when one wasn't reading a book.

 

We only had one Damascus Barreled 12ga Shotgun and a .22 Rifle for hunting.

 

Ah, the good old days.

You sound like my Dad and his older brothers in Baraboo WI. Dad hunted w a single shot shotgun buying shells infividually and 22’s 3 for ? The doctor was paid in cordwood for delivering him. Depression era 1930 (he wasn’t planned).  Born is a wood house his dad built in 1922 and still standing and square last I saw. Poor but he was an outdoorsman from early childhood. First time he ate three meals a day and was full was Air Force boot camp. For him KP meant snacking for hours, not punishment😉. A better generation never lived. I miss him daily. 

[watab kid]

i can relate to that story - my folks were born in 23 , stories of the outhouse and coal furnace , i was glad id been born after the war , but our home food was meager and bland - lots of fillers that detracted as well as a total lack of spices 

[Mezcal Charlie]

On 10/27/2025 at 11:12 PM, watab kid said:

i can relate to that story - my folks were born in 23 , stories of the outhouse and coal furnace , i was glad id been born after the war , but our home food was meager and bland - lots of fillers that detracted as well as a total lack of spices 

Food may have been boring then but it seems that it was a necessity of the calories not a treat for your tongue. People were leaner. This food everywhere all the time and constant barrage of this burger that chicken etal is killing our kids. I’m overweight but it took 40 years to get there. We ate KFC once a month and McDonald’s maybe twice a month. As kids we never saw the inside of a restaurant until we were old enough to behave. Now a sit down meal at home with home cooking is the rarity. 

[watab kid]

6 hours ago, Mezcal Charlie said:

Food may have been boring then but it seems that it was a necessity of the calories not a treat for your tongue. People were leaner. This food everywhere all the time and constant barrage of this burger that chicken etal is killing our kids. I’m overweight but it took 40 years to get there. We ate KFC once a month and McDonald’s maybe twice a month. As kids we never saw the inside of a restaurant until we were old enough to behave. Now a sit down meal at home with home cooking is the rarity. 

youve got all of that right , peoply ate to survive and were lean , growing up i could count on one hand the number of overweight kids in my class - very few , today its the norm , i can count the lean healthy kids i see at the trap range on that same hand - mostly the farm kids who also work 

["Big Boston"]

I've never loaded any volume of ammo with these tools, but I have reloaded quite a few calibers with them. It's more of a hobby or interest or addiction. 

 

Until you actually load with them that you realize how involved it can get. I have a set of dies and the last gen of tong tool. The issue is that the 310 tool was a neck size tool, and with 44-40, the body has to be dealt with as well, if you shoot multiple guns (chambers). I ended up sizing the body in a 30-06 sizer, the hammer in style from Lyman. I had an idea to put together a complete reloading set that was light and somewhat portable. 

 

I lost interest in the venture, but I did come up with a practicable solution. To make the concept useable, I bought a small Harrell press, and decided to use 7/8 carbide dies to size and use the tong tool to do the rest. The plan was to use a Harbor Freight Gerstner knockoff tool box and just assemble the tools I needed. 

 

They are a historic tool, but if you have a pair and spare 550 setup, it's real hard to get excited about loading ammo with them.  

 

Practical 310 tool use for the 44 WCF.pdf

 

 

BB

[Jonathan Slim Chance]

For a portable, field expedient reloading kit, the Lee Hand Press is a hard one to beat.

[Griff]

1 hour ago, Jonathan Slim Chance said:

For a portable, field expedient reloading kit, the Lee Hand Press is a hard one to beat.

I use one for all my decapping needs, prior to the wet tumbler.  After having to settle for 7th instead of better in a 10 way tie for 3rd @ Nationals for BPCRS when my shot count went over the guesstimate, I bring it, appropriate dies and extra supplies for BPCRS or other single shot events.

 

I've loaded by cowboy ammo whether BP or smokeless on a 550 since 1987 w/o incident.  I suspect there's more to any story about an accident than just a progressive press and BP.  I loaded my BP shotshells on a MEC 600 Jr until I got a Hornady 336.  Nor to I use a dipper to measure powder, run it thru the measure on the press.  

[watab kid]

12 hours ago, Jonathan Slim Chance said:

For a portable, field expedient reloading kit, the Lee Hand Press is a hard one to beat.

i have one of those , i only yse it to deprime mostly