What Lyman mould is this?

[guninhand]

A single cavity with 3118, then below it 266, on one side, and on the other side LYMAN and 266 below that. It's a plain base flatnose with one lube groove and a crimp groove. Was in real good condition at a gun show and super cheap.

What cartridge/ gun was this mould intended for.

[rugerman1]

Does it look like any of the moulds on this chart?
http://www.three-peaks.net/bullet_molds.htm

[woody1]

A single cavity with 3118, then below it 266, on one side, and on the other side LYMAN and 266 below that. It's a plain base flatnose with one lube groove and a crimp groove. Was in real good condition at a gun show and super cheap.

What cartridge/ gun was this mould intended for.

Lyman 3118/311008 designed I suppose for the 32-20 but makes a dandy plain base plinker for most 30 cals. Design wt is ~115 grains. IIRC mine casts closer to 120 gr. Regards, Woody

[ron brooks]

The 266 should refer to the Lyman Sizer top punch to use.

Ron

[woody1]

The 266 should refer to the Lyman Sizer top punch to use.

Ron

The top punch for the 3118 is a #8. Maybe floodgate will weigh in here, but I think the extra digits are just control numbers so the 2 block halves are kept together. Regards, Woody

[floodgate]

guninhand:

Woody is correct, the 266 is a "match number" to keep the blocks together after cherrying, through finishing and packaging. Bullet #3118 was one of the very early Ideal bullet designs; the number "311-8" designates sizing diameter 0.311", and the eighth "cherry number" assigned in 1896-7, when Ideal's John Barlow decided to add proper catalog numbers to keep track of the 150 or so mould designs he had in stock at that time. Earlier moulds are marked ".32 WCF" or ".32-20 W". An illustrated flyer from 1896(?) announcing bullets for the newly popular .25 and .30 caliber bullets showed this one as "No. 8 [Figure 8, which apparently is where this cherry number originated] Bullet is the standard .32-20-115 Winchester .311. It sizes down to .308 nicely [it still does!]. Price of single mould $1.10 [Ouch!, But what were you making per hour in 1896?]"

At some time in the 1980's or 1990's, the two zeros were added to make it into a standard six-digit reference number (#311-00-8 in this case) to keep the computers happy, as the cherry numbers were getting into the 600's at that time. This is, thus, one of the longest-running moulds still in production.

floodgate

[Leftoverdj]

Price of single mould $1.10 [Ouch!, But what were you making per hour in 1896?]"



Price has stayed pretty constant, allowing for inflation and taxes. A laborer would have been able to buy that mould for about a day's pay, and he still can. In 1896, he would have made a buck a day and gotten the whole buck. Today he'd make $100 a day and get about $65 after deducts. Either way, it's a day's work for a mould. Up the scale a bit, it would be two mouds for a day's work in both time periods.

[boogerred]

ive been wanting one of those for a long time for my 32 mag but every time one comes up on e-bay,its not super cheap. floodgate- i have a lyman 358432, stamped 148gr. its a button nose wc also offered in 162gr. my question -when did lyman stop making single number/dual wt moulds? from the info ive picked up, im assuming late 50,-early 60s. also the #8 top punch is very handy to have around.

[floodgate]

boogerred:

Can't really answer that, as the only dual-weight mould I have (#311241, 125/150 gr.) was gotten on special order via local gunshop & his jobber around the mid-1960's. Under ownership of the "Leisure Products Group" 1970-78, they would take special orders for discontinued moulds. Some others, such as #358242 (90/120 grs.), could be ordered at different weights/lengths as late as 1991, but I don't know if you could get both cut in the same dual-cavity mould. The #358432 was last listed as a 160 graner in 1990; the 148-gr. version was last shown in the 1978 Annual catalog. Lyman hasn't been very forthcoming as to special orders for several years.

Yes, there is actually a lot of interchangeability among the top punches, even across different calibers; look at the listings from the 1973 "Cast Bullet Handbook" on CASTPICS. Especially in view of the variability in actual nose shape from cherry to cherry, supposedly for the same bullet.

floodgate

[ron brooks]

Well, shows what I know. I always had thought that the number on the molds was the top punch number.

Thanks for the correction,

Ron

[guninhand]

Thanks everyone, especially Floodgate. I have a few guns bullets from this mold should do well in, might just keep an eye our for a nice 32-20 revolver. The cavities still have a deep blue, and it was $15 in canadian funny money OTD.:mrgreen: