jeudi 26 avril 2018

Turning Saddle Bags into Reloading Pack

My family trades stuff back and forth, and when my brother decided that no longer needed a bunch of horse tack, he passed it on to me. The clothing, saddles, and gear had spent decades piled in a back room, and it was in poor condition.

But I dug out a pair of saddle bags marked Morgan's Saddlery, Ellsworth, Ne, meaning they had been sold by the Historic Spade Ranch. These had been built from well tanned leather and they cleaned up nice using water and saddle soap.

Some I'm looking to put them to work. I remember a line out of the movie Quiggly Down Under, where Selleck's character remarks that the horse he just captured is wearing his saddle, but no saddle bags, so he can't make his reloads.

Hmmmm. I'm not sure why exactly, but I thinking I could build myself a portable reloading kit, that fits within these saddle bags. I no longer own a Sharpes rifle, but I do have a couple revolvers and a Marlin lever action chambered in 44 mag.

Reloading a 44 mag is pretty straight forward, I've been loading my own since 1985. I already own a casting mold, a Lee handheld reloading press, dies, and a shell holder. I have experience loading a 275g SWC to 1,000 f/s with Aliant flake powders like Unique, Bluedot, and Herco, and two pounds of powder will produce 2,000 reloads. I am concerned about carrying around 2,000 primers in a soft leather saddle bag. Need ideas to keep my primers under control. I'm also going to need a small steel pot to melt lead, and a pouring ladle.

Not sure how much these bags will end up weighing, but I'm planning to carry 200 rds loaded brass, 300 cast bullets, and powder and primers to produce 2,000 more.

Anyone try this before? I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

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Turning Saddle Bags into Reloading Pack

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