I Agree with TR, unless you just want to tinker with a few rounds, it is always best to use modern equipment for reloading to be most accurate.
I have yet to come across what I would consider a true entirely outright faked Mold and/or Tool. That is to say an actual production tool and mold.
I found one random fantasy item / fake brass bullet mold. It is crudely marked and easy discerned to be a fake.
I’ve come across plenty of faked de-capping pins. Most are the wrong dimensions, made with the wrong metal, crudely stamped and not blued properly. Only less than a hand full I’ve found were well made faked pins that might actually fool someone. A few faked hollow point pin attachments have been observed. They were made by a collector that had an original pin copied.
For tools I’ve seen some faked dies for the 1888 Tool, but they’ve all been easy to spot. Here is a faked 50-110 die.
Most of time things have been merely altered / modified by someone to change a mold or tool. Why these were done is hard to say. See plenty molds with cavities drilled out or additional non-factory cavities added. Bubba gun smithed into something odd using an original mold. Even a few Winchester molds modified by Harry Pope as such. Which Winchester did sell Blank Molds for gun smiths to modify for there own use. Typically those will be unmarked or crudely marked when found. Here is a 38 WCF mold that someone turned into a hollow point mold using a modern hollow pointer pin attachment. The pin is likely from MP Molds or other modern manufacturer.
I’ve only found one completely re-blued tool, which I had bought online somewhat unknowingly that it had been re-blued. The seller didn’t have a clue it had been. The bluing job does look good on it and I somewhat suspect it could be a factory re-blue, but also doubt. That said, just like the rifles you could send your tools and mold back to the factory to be re-blued.
We’ll wait and see what the future holds regarding fakes. I imagines its only a matter of time before they show up.
Sincerely,
Maverick
WACA #8783 - Checkout my Reloading Tool Survey!
https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-research-surveys/winchester-reloading-tool-survey/
I have found reloading with the original tools enjoyable and I must say they can make ammunition that is accurate as I can make the old guns shoot . With that said I do have for the 50-95 wcf a set of CH4D and RCBS dies that I use . These are much better for things like straightening a case problem out like the gouged case created by the burr mentioned in the tong tool . I mostly shoot /load Black Powder and the original tool works fine for that because the neck tension or lack of is no problem when relying on the powder to hold the bullet in place and the slight roll at case mouth is plenty to hold OAL . When reloading with smokeless powder I use the RCBS or CH4D because I can control neck tension that is required with smokeless .Today I start a hunting trip that will end in January except for a couple of days celebrating the holidays . The 1876 50-95 that has a replacement barrel made by Winchesterbarrels.com will be one of the guns chosen for this trip . And the ammunition has been made with the tools discussed here . This combination has proven to work exceptionally well on deer and hogs in the past . So out of here for a while , enjoyed the back and forth . Thanks DT
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