My biggest fear is that when I die my wife will sell my guns for what I told her they cost me"


Never hath a truer word been spoken in jest.

A friend who has been after a second hand reloading kit for a while rang me up and said that a local old boy had passed away and he had bought all his kit from the widow at some deeply immoral price.

Seeking to recoup as much of the pittance he had used to swindle the poor old dear he wanted to know if my half-serious rumblings about casting were half-serious enough to want to buy the old boy's bullet casting stuff from him.

A cautious "what is there" and "how much" was answered with a photograph of a box of grimy and rusty stuff that at least included a sizing and lubricating press and "I don't know, 25 quid?".

Deciding that it would only be right to pay his swindling ways forward I sent him the money and picked up the box of dubious bits last week.

It turned out to be a bargain as although a few of the dies were rusted beyond salvageable and the splendidly named RCBS "Lube-A-Matic" was jammed and rusty there were half a dozen useable moulds, three set of mould handles and three sizing deis and top punches.

It is not such a bad thing in my opinion, from a karmic and meditative point of view, for a man to have a hobby that involves taking things apart, cleaning and repairing them and then putting them back together again. Some prefer classic cars or bikes, others tinker with watches or fishing reels, I take the median approach of reloading and shooting gear!

First up was the Lube-A-Matic which was in a sorry state of disrepair.

After much penetrating oil, heating, tapping, wirebrushing and fettling it operated smoothly and still accurately with the top punch centering perfectly in the die.











Ok so all I all had to test it was a 30 cal jacketed bullet but it proved it works!


Next step clean up some mould, I'm thinking to start with the 30 cal 160 grain as I don't have an underlever rifle yet, and try some subsonic 308 loads with Trailboss powder.

What other molds were in the box ? I have made some very good acquirements with old boxes of reloading stuff . And seem to remember shining on an old box of casting equipment that had a Lee electric pot, dipper and a Lyman Lubra Sizer. Along with some ingots , an ingot mold and iirc a 6 gang 45 ACP Lee mold with handles.
Kinda regret that now.