SavvyJack said
Hello all,

I am looking for photos, information on the original 1873-1874ish handloading tool by Winchester. The is a photo of one in their 1875 catalog that I have never seen.
The add says; “Where it is desired to have a more perfect cartridge than can be made with a simple cast bullet, the best course is, if practicable, to purchase the machine swaged bullets, having grooves to receive the lubricating compound, from the manufactures; but, where this can not be done, a very perfect bullet can be made in hand swages, furnished to order. For ordinary use, however, it is found that the cast bullet will answer.”

This tool is a tad different than the 1874 pat. tool The add also mentioned a swaging tool…has anyone seen one of those?
I have seen an original 44 “scissor” mold that cast lubegrooveless ( Thanks

You’ve probably only seen the more common 1882 Reloading Tool (Collector Term), its actually the most common Tool and produced for the longest time frame than any other Reloading Tool made by Winchester. 

The way the Catalogs read, Winchester Sold a Reloader, Bullet Mold, Wad Cutter, & Charge Cup “Per Set” for their reloading tools.

Then they also sold separately “Bullet Swages”, .38 to .44 for $3.00 and .45 to .58 for $4.00 each.

I read the “Bullet Swages” and pricing to mean as mentioned in the above paragraph on the same page of the catalog, to be Hand Swage “Tools”, furnished to order. Now that said, everyone I’ve ever talked with (avid collectors) has never seen, or ever heard of seeing, or knows someone that claims to have such a set of “Hand Swaging Tools” made by Winchester. Which that may not sound all that interesting at first, but when you take into account that those two sentences mentioning the “Swaging Tools” are in every catalog from 1875-1914 that mentions Reloading Tools throughout 30+ years of production. 

Do Winchester Bullet Swage Tools exist? I certainly believe they do, but also believe them to be quite rare. One reason for this I believe is because you could buy factory “Bullets Swaged & Grooved” per 1,000 for $6.00. The tools may not have been marked well. And I believe most customers were satisfied with buying “Factory Swaged Bullets” or felt that bullets cast from the factory Bullet Mold provided with the reloading set would suffice. Especially once the 3rd Model Mold casting grooved bullets starting being produced in/around 1877. 

So if you find what you believe to be a Winchester Factory Hand Swage Tool, I’d love to see what it looks like. Most people I’ve meet that thought they had one, turned out to simply be a Lyman or Ideal Tools.

Another rare Tool as far as Winchester Reloading Tools go is the “Shell Reducing Dies”. In the 1879 or 1880 Catalog Winchester first lists “Shell Reducing Dies” for $2.00. Same thing, every avid collector I’ve ever talked with has never seen, or ever heard of seeing, or knew someone that has one.

That was until I found one, and as far as I know I’m the only person that claims to have one. But there are other such oddities with the Tools, Molds and even the Guns, where people claim to have the only one of something. (I doubt this will be the case, time will tell.) If you take into account the 1874 Tool all by itself, I believe that there are only a few 100 or so +/- known in collections. Also take the 1888 Tool for example, only one Boxed Set is known, and they all left the factory in a box.  

 I found this 32 W.C.F. Shell Reducing Die in a Boxed 1882 Tool Set that I purchased recently. The Box is in rough shape, in collapsed condition, but all the tools are fairly minty. The Box dates from around 1901-1902 time frame or so due to only the box end label has the words Trade Mark and the box top label doesn’t. The markings and dimensions of the shell reducing die and rod in this set are distinctly different from other reloading tool manufacturers.

So also, If you find what you believe to be a Winchester Factory Shell Reducing Die & Rod, I’d love to see what you got!

Sincerely,

Maverick