This is why you talk to your neighbors, and I am lucky to have some great ones!  My neighbor bought a gun from a guy who asked if she wanted some reloading things.  Free.  She brought them to me at happy hour on Saturday.  I took some photos.  In the lot, there was one box of factory 30-30, the rest were reloads.  The brass had not been cleaned and was loaded with the hand loader in the photo.  I saw a post here about these loaders and they interested me greatly.  I am happy to have one now, and it is surprisingly complete right down to the trimmer.  Lee thought of everything.  You literally use a hammer with this setup, even to set the primers.  I will discuss how I am handling the reloads in a bit:

I mistakenly bought corncob instead of walnut.  I find it is slow and doesn't do the best job.  With walnut, I usually tumble 4 hours with better results than shown here at 6 hours.  This is with NuFinish and new corncob:



I am polishing first, because I will be pulling a bunch of these bullets and intend to reuse the primed cases.  The cases had a very even patina from firing and handling.   I weighed the factory loaded cases and they were extremely close to 332 grains.  The pictured reloads were all very close to that weight.

I have two smaller lots that were either around 340 grains, or 310 grains.  I plan to pull samples of each group and weigh.
You can see my tiny crack scale in the powder photo.  It is priceless to quickly weigh all of the things.

Here are some prices from times gone by, if only we had a time machine:





ETA:  out of the entire group, there was only one high primer.  Out of the ones that weighed on the lighter side, the projectiles had some odd scratches, almost like plier marks, but not so deep.  Almost like wire brush marks.  Both boxes of projectiles are full, as well as the large pistol primers and powder.  This is the the reason I hit yard sales, but I never have any luck.

This was an excellent day!

Those things are awsome . I reloaded a lot of 7.62 x 54R in Norma cases way back .
This was before the surplus stuff came along , late 70s .

Does Lee still make these?  Any guess as to how old my setup might be? I would guess 1970's?

I started with a Lee Loader when I was 16, they work good, limited but really cool.

I can't believe powder was $8 and ammo was $5 at one time. I'm thinking early 70's for that stuff, maybe even late 60's.

Great stuff.

Oh and yes, Lee still makes these.

Those wee the good ole days!
When we lived in Bismarck ND in early mid 70's. There was a Woolworths store in Kirkwood Mall and they sold reloading components.  
I bet that can says made in the USA, too?

Ever set off a primer while hammer seating?

Was lube a requirement for sizing or did you use it?

Yeah, I feel the need to try this a few times.

Yea it's a hoot.  

Yes cases need to be lubed

Yes I have set off a couple primers.

I started loading 45ACP in high school with a loader like that

I picked a standard deviation from the factory loaded rounds to keep and these were the pulls:  



Out of all of these cases, they were all stick powder, likely the IMR4064 I received with the entire package.  

Of these cases, powder weight was 26 -28 grains which is under the data sheet starting loads.  In this group, the lighter ones had 150gr bullets and the mid to heavies were 180gr.  

Some of the extremes were S&W cases, both weight light and heavy, but both had consistent powder measures.  I need to go back and weigh the cases next after this Martini.

The small pile of bullets are ones with severely scratched jackets or deformed tips.  I plan to restuff all these with the free can powder and will hand weigh.  I will even use the ugly projectiles just to see what they do on paper.  

I found nothing above 28 grains and no empties or severely under loaded rounds, so I feel pretty confident in shooting the ones I weighed that were close to on the money.  I even sampled a good group of them and they were very close to 27 grains of powder.

Good times!

No that is not a stolen hotel towel. The hotel went out of business.

Very cool!

Receipt for one of the ones i have with a similar box from gander mountain was 78 I believe.  Have to check it qhen i get home or find the thread I posted it in.

A former co-worker told me he started out with a Lee Loader reloading 9mm.  I can't imagine how long it would take to load 200 rounds.

I can't see how a bell and crimp would occur for pistol rounds.  Just use FMJ and jam them in and hope neck tension does it?

I had to dig my 9mm Lee Loader out of the "bugout reloading stuff" can.....

Here are the instructions regarding crimping 9mm

Old,

I was given a couple of boxes of 1970s Super Vel 9mm bullets by my uncle.  He collects Super Vel ammo and they were partial boxes and didn't want them.  

I loaded them up.  From what he can tell he thinks they are from the early 70s.  I believe original company tanked in 74.  Pics inbound. Attached File
Attached File
Attached File

Well you all missed one fact....

Lee does not include their little trimmer in their Loader kits.  The previous owner must have added it.  You can also see that the foam in the box is kind of just gouged out for the trimmer slot.  


Other than that- they are great it you just need to do a few rounds, or are loading for just one rifle.  Loaded lots of .30-06 and .243 using Lee Loaders, and the .243 was damned accurate with the ammo I made.  

Good catch.  I noticed that when I stared at my photo a while.  The guy cut the Styrofoam for the trimmer.  Without my glasses on, there was no way I could tell.

Do some of the kits come with a pusher that doesn't crush a sharp bullet?  The 30-30 slugs I have,  has flat points for tube mags, but some of the lead tips are a bit deformed.