I recently purchased a very nice Ideal No.3 tool with all the dies..including the usually lost de-capping punch. Tool looks to be 100% nickle and hinge is nice and stiff. In addition to the dies, there was also a sizer/punch marked .311 so owner must have been a caster. This is an early one as it has capping stud & matching hole in lower handle. I do cast for a couple of military Krags,,and also have a custom Sharps Borchardt in .25 Ackley Krag...full length Krag case with body blown out with nearly no taper & 40 deg. shoulder. On a whim, I decided to try this larger dia. case in the seating die..figuring it wouldn't fit...there is quite a bit of room inside an Ideal seater die..no way could it be considered a precision fit! The Ackley case protruded 1/16" on account of sharper shoulder. I took a NOE .25 100gr. F.N.G.C. & hand seated to gas check, inserted case in die & closed handles..a perfect seated and concentric loaded round came out! These old Ideals are...well...Ideal!
I had planned on doing load workup at range with this rifle as I have several .25 cast bullets to try out....looks like this old tool will be coming along.
I had planned on doing load workup at range with this rifle as I have several .25 cast bullets to try out....looks like this old tool will be coming along.
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