OK, some help here please. I have several sets of Lyman dies, the litle 5/8" body dies that fit the 'nut cracker' or the Lyman 'Tru-line, JR' press. And my question is this - how do you identy these things re caliber, etc.? SOme are rather obvious but others I have no clue as to what they are for. For instance, I have one die marked ".224" - obviously some .22 caliber but which - 22 Hornet, 22 Savage 'Hi-Power' - somebody help me out here and tel me how I can know exactly what I have??

If they're not marked as to specific caliber, I'm thinkin' the only way to know for sure would be to do a "chamber cast" of the sizer die.

The 224 die is a neck expander die, an early version of the Lyman 'M' die, and the number is the diameter. It will work for any 22 cal cartridge that will fit into it and all these little Lyman expander dies are made that way, that is, they will fit a great range of cartridges. Most of the rest of the older dies and some of the new ones are numbered in an obscure code that Lyman later changed to the actual cartridge name. The code key is offered for sale by a fellow in Oregon, The 310 Shop, Randy Davis I believe. I have a number of these tong tools and have been messing with them since the early '60s, I find them enjoyable at times.

I have dealt with The 310 Shop several times with very mixed results, so caveat emptor.
Regards, Joe