My New Reloader

jckeffer · December 24, 2008, 03:01 PM

Actually this is a reloader I had in the ‘60s as a kid. It’s a Panda Bair 400 Shotshell Reloader with shot and powder bushings for 2 ¾ 12ga.. I completely disassembled the reloader, cleaned and polished all the metal parts, repainted the cast parts in the original color and replaced the measure seals, hoppers and wad spring fingers. It now operates as good as new! Hornady still carries a few Pacific 155 parts that are interchangeable with the Panda Bair 400.

For those of you not familiar with the Panda Bair Reloader it is a copy of the Pacific 155.

The following is from Wikipedia, courtesy of Jeremy Tally [email protected] .
The Pacific Tool Company started off as the Pacific Gunsight Company, which opened its doors in the early 1920’s at 353 Hays St, San Francisco, Calififornia. In 1953 they moved to 2901 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, Calif. Pacific was then sold to Henkle & Joyce Hardware of Lincoln NE. R.R. Deitemeyer had convinced H&J to buy the company and he invented the Deitemeyer shotshell loaders, hence the DL in model descriptions. The tool colors changed to blue with the move from California to P.O. Box 4495 Lincoln, Nebraska in 1960. While in Lincoln, Pacific tools were made by Bair Machine Company until there was a parting of the ways in 1969. This resulted in Bair offering the identical Pacific tools under the Bair label. Legal issues were decided in court and the Bair Machine Company had to stop making the Panda Bair Reloader (my independent research). In January of 1971 H&J sold Pacific Gunsight Co. dba Pacific Tool Company to J. W. Hornady. All tools were converted to red by December of that year. Starting in 1972 a new plant was constructed next to Hornady Mfg. Co. In Grand Island NE. By 1974 the plant was fully relocated, the address was changed to P.O. Drawer 2048, Ordnance Plant Rd., Grand Island, Nebraska. In 1992 the Pacific name was dropped as all Hornady companies (Pacific and Frontier) were merged into one corporation and Hornady began offering reloading tools under its own name.

December 24, 2008, 03:01 PM	#1
jckeffer Senior Member Join Date: July 29, 2007 Posts: 185	My New Reloader Actually this is a reloader I had in the ‘60s as a kid. It’s a Panda Bair 400 Shotshell Reloader with shot and powder bushings for 2 ¾ 12ga.. I completely disassembled the reloader, cleaned and polished all the metal parts, repainted the cast parts in the original color and replaced the measure seals, hoppers and wad spring fingers. It now operates as good as new! Hornady still carries a few Pacific 155 parts that are interchangeable with the Panda Bair 400. For those of you not familiar with the Panda Bair Reloader it is a copy of the Pacific 155. The following is from Wikipedia, courtesy of Jeremy Tally [email protected] . The Pacific Tool Company started off as the Pacific Gunsight Company, which opened its doors in the early 1920’s at 353 Hays St, San Francisco, Calififornia. In 1953 they moved to 2901 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, Calif. Pacific was then sold to Henkle & Joyce Hardware of Lincoln NE. R.R. Deitemeyer had convinced H&J to buy the company and he invented the Deitemeyer shotshell loaders, hence the DL in model descriptions. The tool colors changed to blue with the move from California to P.O. Box 4495 Lincoln, Nebraska in 1960. While in Lincoln, Pacific tools were made by Bair Machine Company until there was a parting of the ways in 1969. This resulted in Bair offering the identical Pacific tools under the Bair label. Legal issues were decided in court and the Bair Machine Company had to stop making the Panda Bair Reloader (my independent research). In January of 1971 H&J sold Pacific Gunsight Co. dba Pacific Tool Company to J. W. Hornady. All tools were converted to red by December of that year. Starting in 1972 a new plant was constructed next to Hornady Mfg. Co. In Grand Island NE. By 1974 the plant was fully relocated, the address was changed to P.O. Drawer 2048, Ordnance Plant Rd., Grand Island, Nebraska. In 1992 the Pacific name was dropped as all Hornady companies (Pacific and Frontier) were merged into one corporation and Hornady began offering reloading tools under its own name.