Lyman mold price check please

[Aaron]

Anyone have any idea what a Lyman 450229 hollow base single cavity mold should cost? What diameter should it drop?

Thanks

Aaron

[Bent Ramrod]

It's an obsolete design for .44 cap&ball revolvers. I don't know what the size as cast "should" be, but I do notice that there is a very slight rebate on the base band of the boolit as cast. If this is cut to the proper diameter, the base should be a slip fit into the revolver cylinder to a depth of maybe 0.01" which helps mightily in seating the boolit straight in the revolver cylinder with the ram lever. The rest of the boolit will then swage down slightly as it is rammed into the chamber, without cutting a ring of lead like a round ball.

If the rebate, and (likely) the rest of the boolit is oversize, there will be no end of trouble using it in C&B revolvers, although it can be sized and lubed so it will work well enough in cartridge guns like the .45 ACP. The first specimen I bought from Lyman, brand new, was oversized and I had to size the bottom band down in a .439" sizing die to make the thing seat straight in my Navy Arms 1860 Army. If I ignored this step and just squished them in, at least two shots from a cylinderful would be wildly inaccurate. That mould went with the revolver when I sold it. I have since found a used one with the proper rebate on the base, which works fine. I think it cost $25 or so at a gun show, before the current insanity, of course.

They often went for inflated prices even years back because they were out of production and they were a "little Minie" which the seller regarded as an unusual rarity. They show up, albeit infrequently, and I am the only one I know who has ever actually shot them. Nowadays, the old bromide "the price of an object is what it will fetch," is especially true for anything in the gun line.

How much does the seller want for it? How badly do you want it?

[fcvan]

I use the lee version for percussion revolvers, mine is the Lee 450-200 1R. I also have a hollow point version.It is .453 at the front band tapered to .450 at the base. Lee also makes a 456-220 1R for the Ruger Old Army percussion revolver. I don't know the exact dimensions of the larger mold. As far as shooting the conical boolit through the percussion revolver, it seats and shoots very well. I've also been using it with a plain based gas check and size to .452 for use in my 1911 and my Vaquero 45 Colt and a single shot 45 Colt carbine. Good fun!