Jim Taylor
A SHORT & IMPROPER HISTORY OF THE LYMAN 310 TOOL
Sunday, April 24, 2022, 16:29

The Lyman 310 Tool has it's origins in the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. In the early days Winchester made reloading tools for their rifles. These were sold with or given with the rifle at the time of purchase. The tools were of the "nutcracker" design and many of them incorporated a bullet mold on the end of the tool so a frontiersman or rancher had it all in one compact package ... bullet casting and reloading tool.

Early Winchester Loading Tool in .32 WCF

Early Winchester Tool with Bullet Mold

When Winchester quit making these tools, the man who was in charge of their Reloading Tool Department ... a Mr. John Barlow... went to work for the Ideal Tool Company. He refined the Winchester Reloading Tool and Ideal brought it out in several different configurations: the #3 Tool (for use with rimmed cartridges) the #4 Tool ( rimmed cartridges but with an attached bullet mold), the #6 Tool (rimless cartridges with an attached bullet mold) and the #10 Tool (rimless cartridges).

Ideal Reloading Tool #3 in .38 S&W

By the late 1930's the #4 and #6 were discontinued due to lagging sales and the fact that the Lyman Gun Sight Corporation had taken over Ideal. Under new management the Lyman line of bullet molds with removable handles had been introduced and these advancements made the mold/reloading tool combination obsolete.

The #3 Reloading Tool and the #10 Reloading Tool continued to be good selling items however and by 1940 were redesigned slightly to make them easier to use. They were made of steel and were very robust items. The big drawback was that you had to purchase a separate Reloading Tool for each caliber that you wanted to load for.

By the 1950's Lyman had once again redesigned the Reloading tools, incorporating a removable shell guide in the handles so one set of handles could work with many calibers. This new Tool was called the 310 Tool since you could reload both rimmed and rimless cartridges with it. Once a set of handles were purchased all you had to buy was the reloading dies and shell guide for whatever caliber you wanted to reload.

Some early handles for the 310 Tools were made of steel. By the late 1950's they were made of cast aluminum. This reduced the weight considerably. While not as strong as the steel handles, the 310 Tool did not full-length size the cases so it normally was not a factor.

Lyman Ideal 310 Tool and Dies

The Lyman Ideal 310 Tool is no longer in production. You can still find 310 Tools for sale, but the cost today is a far cry from 1940. I have several sets in .38/357 ... .44 Special, .45 ACP and .45 Colt that I still use on occasion. While not as popular as it once was the Lyman 310 Tool will still produce fine ammunition. It is a great way for those starting out to learn reloading or for someone who does not have a lot of room and needs a small compact setup to use. The 310 Tool is also useful while traveling or camping.

These days I use the depriming and priming dies more than the others, but I still keep them all close at hand. The other day I had 5 .45 Colt shells I wanted to load. I grabbed the 310 Tool and had it done in a short time. To me there is just something satisfying about loading ammo with the 310 Tool. It probably has something to do with the fact that my Daddy started me on one.
................................

Back in the 1960's I was on my Grandpa Taylor's ranch and buried in the dirt in front of the blacksmith shop I found an old reloading tool. It reminded me of a 310 Tool but it was all steel and rusted pretty badly. I took it home and cleaned it up and it turned out to be an original Winchester Loading Tool in .44 WCF. My Dad helped me get it working. He also made a priming stem for the handle and I have used it to prime .44 WCF's .. .38 WCF's .. .44 Specials and .45 Colts.

Closeups of the Marked Side

Marked: 44 WCF
PAT OCT 20 1874 NOV 7 8? (89?)

Whatever the date of this, it's been around a while and while it ain't reloading ammo any more is has sure primed quite a bit of it.