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Joined: 29 Nov 2011 Posts: 55 Location: TN

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-16-Gauge-Shotgun-Reloading-Tool-/350514429402

Pretty cool eBay find.

Interesting... but um how do you use it??? What exactly is it for?

It's a roll crimper. If in proper working order, it works very well for the use intended.

Roll crimper. -----Woops too slow.

Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 1973 Location: Maine

I have one just like it, save mine has better paint.

It does a wonderful job. I use it to roll crimp my loads. It works quite well when I take factory 2 3/4 plastic shells, open them, set the shot aside, remove most or all of the fold crimp to take them down to 2 1/2 for my short-chambered sxs, reload the shot and an overshot card, and roll crimp them. These shells work at least as well as the factory originals.

If you get that for less than $40, you got a deal. They are a lot more common in 12 ga and cheaper.

Joined: 26 Apr 2010 Posts: 3178 Location: NCWa

How they work is the wing screw on the bottom is used to clamp the tool to a bench, then the loaded but uncrimped shell is placed left to right, top of shell first into the tube. The lever handle is used to push the shell into the tube, against the "crimper" which is the round thing attached to the other handle. While keeping pressure on the lever handle, turn the knob of the handle on the right- and viola, a roll crimped shell.

I just bought one with a resizing tube and the wood knockout. Tried the resizing tube with a plastic hammer and it works nicely. The wood dowel knockout drives the hull out of the tube easily. Now, I have to find a deprimer/reprimer device to make the set complete. Any suggestions? I have an old Pacific 105 I will use for the reprime operation until a genuine oldie shows up.

As to the roll crimping being too slow, at this time in my life I have plenty of time to sit and doodle around with my various toys.

Hey, Dave. When you cut the crimped end off the factory shell is the finished shell now 2" with the roll crimp? What are you using to trim the factory crimp to end up with a 2 1/2" shell?

Ah! I just answered my own question. I have a Lyman Ideal Shell Trimmer that I can adjust to let me just cut off the crimped end. John

Joined: 26 Apr 2010 Posts: 3178 Location: NCWa

Like this, plus two variations on a theme

I got lucky on ebay and bought 20, 16 and 12 gauge roll crimpers. The 20 is fairly rare and looks to be the same as AmericanMeet's crimper that has the rails for the shellholder to slide on. I use it for loading 3" turkey loads with tungsten super shot. My 16 gauge is the simpler version that is bench mounted. The 12 gauge supposedly converts from round to square edged crimps. Parts are made from German silver and it is more robust than the 16 but similar in design. I'd post photos but Hunt101 has been inaccessible for the past two days. I find it satisfying and enjoyable using technology from the 1800s that works as good as anything made today.

Earlier this year there was a thread featuring modern made Italian roll crimpers that are knock-offs on the old style. A link was posted but there were reports that it was difficult to obtain a response from the company. Don't know if that has changed. Gil

Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 1973 Location: Maine

My antique roll crimper has a plunger which pushes the shell out of the tube after crimping. Works great. Four or five turns of the handle is all it takes, maybe 4-5 seconds per roll crimp, so it is very fast. It is almost as fast as regular fold crimping.

I don't make a lot of roll crimps, but my Lee Loader will easily make a roll crimp in 2 3/4" paper hulls. In use, the sizing body is pushed down to turn the hull mouth to 90 degrees. In step two, the wad seating ram is pushed down into the sizing die until it contacts the overshot wad. That turns the hull mouth in and finishes the crimp. The ram is then used to eject the shell. I have not tried this with a plastic hull. I think it would work, but it would be harder to get the hull mouth to turn in. It would probably work better on R-P or WW compression formed hulls than Chedites and Federals. To work on 2 1/2" hulls, the bottom of the sizing body would probably have to be ground off.

Hello Jagdhund
Can you post pictures of this effort?
Sounds neat
Mike

If I can get the scanner to work, I can probably scan the illustrations from the instruction sheet and/or pics.