http://www.gunco.net/forums/showthread.php?t=58430

My workshop has fairies.

TRX
11-19-2010

I've never seen them, but I know they exist. They swipe small parts, of course. But they also move things. I'll put a tool down, then reach to pick it up again, and after twenty minutes of searching, I'll find it at the other end of the shop, in some place I haven't been in days.

Shop fairies also have the power of transmutation. I can't otherwise explain how an 1/2" end mill with a 3/8" shank turned into a 1/2" end mill with a 7/16" shank. I know I've used the end mill - hell, it still has chips on it - but I don't even *own* a 7/16" collet.

I packed up my reloading stuff over 20 years ago, before I even built the workshop. Most of it has been in a metal cabinet in a spare bedroom all this time. Yesterday I dug through the cabinet and all of the stacked boxes getting my equipment back together. Either the shop fairies have migrated into the house, or they have cousins here.

I was specifically looking for my 7.65 Mauser die set. I wanted to neck size some .303 cases and seat some bullets to make some dummy rounds for the Imperial Battle Rifle, and the 7.65 dies ought to work.

There were .44 Magnum dies, of course. And .45 ACP dies. Some 9mm Parabellum dies that I'm reasonably sure came along with the .45 dies when I bought a used press. But where did the *other* set of 9mm dies come from? I have two sets of 9mm dies, and I've never in my life loaded a 9mm Parabellum.

My four-die .380 set was still there... but it says RCBS on the box. I was certain they were Lees. And a set of RCBS dies marked ".38-.357." Eh? I swapped those off with the Security Six, years ago... and *another* set of .38 dies. Now, wait a freakin' minute here! I know I only had the one set...

I finally found a round red Lee die box. It has a 7.65x53 decapping/sizing die in it. The die says RCBS. Next to it, there's a Lee 7.5 Swiss bullet seating die. And I haven't found my expensive RCBS 7.65 case forming die at all - that's the one you use to swage .30-06 down to 7.65.

7.5 Swiss? WTF? Just, WTF? I've never even *seen* a 7.5 Swiss case, much less reloaded one. And I had a 7.65 *set*, but I can't find the box, or the other die, or the freakin' forming die... I think the fairies turned them into .38 dies.

I'd set out traps for the shop fairies, but something even worse might move in then...