What would you have Ideal make you?

[Catshooter]

In the old days, Ideal would cut a mould for you with more than one style of boolit in the blocks. I think it was about $5 per cherry extra, and they'd do whatever you wanted as long as they would all fit.

You see these moulds come up for sale from time to time. A 454424 and a 31141, a 357429 and a 457125, that sort of thing.

I suppose a lot of reasons a man would order such a thing. Economy, keeping the kit small, something like that.

So, I've been thinking. I can see that alot of the reasons that would apply in the day would still apply today.

What would I pick? And why? I think for bug out purposes, I would go with four different designs.

452424 for my .45 Colts & heavy ACP loads.
BD 45 for .45 ACP, good boolit.
457125 works for the .45-70 for medium to heavy loads
460 round ball for the ACPs, Colts and .45-70s for the lightest most economicla loads.

What four would you want in a single set of blocks?


Cat

[Jack Stanley]

I might just get the 358416 in all four or maybe a 311466 in all four . Mixing them up never much appealed to me .

Jack

[Blammer]

a .625 dia 4C round ball mould with one hollow pointed. :)

[Catshooter]

Now a hollow-pointed round ball isn't something you see every day, I must say. :)


Cat

[btroj]

I think you have that mould upside down Blammer, it's a hollow base. Truly a mini ball!

[John Boy]

... many of the Ideal molds that Lyman sold the cherries for and destroyed the schematics!
I put together a group buy for the Ideal 375166 and had to send Lyman the drawing for their CAD program

[cbrick]

Interesting thought. I would think that for a bullet you shot a lot you would want all cavities the same. For say hunting bullets where only a few of each, for different firearms, different bullets in the same mold could be an appealing idea.

Which ones? Hhmmm . . . would have to give that more thought. 308 & 7mm? 30-30 & ?? Would probably end up ordering some of the fine old designs that aren't made any more.

Rick

[ktw]

I'd generally prefer 4 sets of single cavity blocks over one set of four cavity blocks (easier to ladle pour), but given the question, I'd consider

One for the 30 caliber rifles
311008
311041
311291
311284

One for the muzzleloaders
.445 rb
.495 rb
.535 rb
.610 rb

And one for the 45 caliber handguns
454190
454190
454190
454190

-ktw

[Love Life]

Easy. a four cavity 358477. Works for anything i need to kill. I haven't seen any elephants in the U.S. yet so yep.

[onesonek]

Hmmm,,,,you mean something like these

BRP 460-350/425/465 (lighting gives the Alum. a yellow hue)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/onesonek/100_4166.jpg

or
AM 454-320 / 459-405 (brass)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/onesonek/100_4136.jpg

or
AM 454-360 / 459-470 (brass)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/onesonek/AM453-460006.jpg

[nanuk]

SK: When are you going to actually use them?

they do look nice, but just to let them gather dust on the shelf is just wrong!

time to dirty them "pretties" up some

[Piedmont]

I've got several like that and in general don't like them because you always want one of the bullets more than the other.

Maybe the coolest I have is a 4 cavity lyman with two of the .30 caliber pointed gas check Squib bullet, one .38 wadcutter with the long nose, and the .45 452423 Keith Auto Rim. So I figure the original owner, it was made back in the 1960s, had a .38 revolver, a .45 revolver and a .30-06, .308 or Krag.

Beagle wrote a good article on these moulds in the castpics portion of the board.

[Mk42gunner]

I think a mold with two or more cavities of different designs made more sense when people didn't shoot as much, and money was tight. That said, I sould see it for something that you don't shoot very often.

I would like one with one cavity for a 299153 for the .32 Short Colt and one cavity for a 257420.

Robert

[onesonek]

SK: When are you going to actually use them?

they do look nice, but just to let them gather dust on the shelf is just wrong!

time to dirty them "pretties" up some

They been getting some casting time nanuk. Albeit the AM 454-320 / 459-405 has seen the most alloy.

[littlejack]

I would like to see Lyman make a 457125 mould (520 government) , with the exception of the first grease groove being omited. They could just not groove the mould for a wider first drive band.
The reason for this boolit?
When we black powder shooters load, sometime we seat the boolit to engrave the rifling. This will sometimes leaves the first grease groove out in the open. We have to omit the lube in the groove, to keep it from picking up debris such as dirt and grit that would be dragged down the bore when fired.
I would really like to try one of these boolits.
Is there a mould that drops a boolit of this syle for me to try in my 45-70, that you'all know of?
Jack

[barrabruce]

I'd go for a adjustable 30 cal mould.
0.3015" for PP with light ribs or tumble lube grooves. Rn with adjustable hollow pointing as well a flat /rnd nose spud.
0.309.5" or 0.3 sumthing base to fit my unsized 30-30 cases with the nose same as above.
Only in the range of 115grn to mid 200's

:)
Barra

[10x]

A four cavity 311466,
A four cavity 314466
a Four cavity 311465
and
a four cavity 314465

Not to mention a 311407 and a 314407 four cavity would be nice as well.
These molds would cover most the 30 caliber and .303 caliber rifles I shoot.
Some of the 303 rifles take a 313/314 bullet. These bullets work well in the 7.62x39 as well.

Oh and a six cavity to produce the lee 120 grain 30 caliber gas check bullet. That bullet is deadly accurate in my 300 Savage model 99 with 8 grains of Unique.

The lyman 311466 bullet has taught me that it matters not what the cartridge case is - if you can shoot this bullet between 1300 and 1800 fps it will hit what you are aiming at if you do your part. I have had excellent luck with this bullet in the 300 savage, 30-30, 308 win, 30/06, 303 british (1910 Ross ) and the 7.62x39. A very forgiving design that seems to be reasonably accurate so long as I keep my loads reasonable.

[NHlever]

I've been working though small batches of slightly different alloys this past winter, and my habit is to use multiple molds to keep them all at the right temperature. My experience with multiple cavities is that you end up with lots of small piles of different boolits that really should be kept separate if they come from different pours, or even from the same pour if you are trying to build up your supply of one boolit style, and size. Actually I sometimes like using two double cavity molds for the same style at the same time better than different styles, or large capacity molds.