So you have some relic dies marked 123 or 153?

I've always been curious about the ancient reloading tools. The Lyman 310 tooling is unique, and many times the pieces are not marked at all, or perhaps partially, with numbers that mean nothing to the modern loader. Hopefully this chart will help a little.

https://www.castpics.net/subsite/Lyman310/DieCodeChart.html

You need to understand these tools hearkened back to a day where things were more simplistic, last century and even before. A man was to be responsible for his own actions and blame no one else. This, by nature, fostered a greater depth of understanding. A foundational knowledge or understanding of concepts. So some of the old Lyman tools or parts are universal. A ".30-06" die body can manage operations for de-capping, seating, or neck expansion for a whole list of other cartridges with the appropriate core stem installed. There may be some die body length considerations, such as from .45 ACP, .22-250, to .270 or .30-06 etc. But the shell holders are all the same! A man had to understand what his goals were and how to figure his way to getting there without lawyers writing the instructions.

The old tools can certainly still make ammunition just as well as they did over 100 yrs. ago. Are they practical today? No, not by comparison. But for some special experimental case forming they can be really helpful. Show a box of varied 310 tools to a guy wearing a Dillon cap and you will not get much reaction. Possibly bewilderment. But the knowledge is worth passing on to those who will listen.

I actually have a Lyman turret press I'm rigging up for both display (for my own amusement) and actual casual, novel use. Not since the late 1950s to early 1960's have these tools been commonplace. That's 60-70 years ago when they began to be obsolete. Time waits for no man. "The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness" Proverbs 16:31.