Strange 45 cal mold??

[Remmy4477]

Been trying to identify this mold, 45 cal, steel blocks and no markings.

Cast some bullets with it today for my 45-70 RB.

They drop at 521grns. But what perplexes me is there measurments.
Length is 1.41
Base measures right at .458
But if you measure the top outer groove between the lube grooves it's .446, second one is .449, three, four and fifth outside grooves are all .452.
Top edge of the base is .454 and at the bottom of the base is .458.

Now I measured my Lymans in 405, 500 and 535grn and all cast as .458 top to bottom.

So am I missing something here?
Just looking for some input on this particular mold.
222644

[44Blam]

Wow - that is a big boolit! Don't really know anything about it, but they look really good!

[TaylorS]

Send it to me I’ll see what I can do with my 45-70!lol


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[jonp]

45-100? An old Ballard "buffalo" cartridge or maybe a mold made for the Quigley Sharps 45-110.

[country gent]

Several thoughts come to mind here with your bullet.

1) Some moulds were cut like this to enable them to be fit into the bore rifling extending overall length of the cartridge. It was thought this "centered" the bullet better. Buffalo arms has some current moulds made with reduced driving bands to do this. I believe some of the lovergin desighns were cut like this also.

2) Some breech seat desighhns were set up in this manner to allow for lighter force when seating the bullets into the rifling again it was is thought to help center the bullet in the bore better. In shutzen shooting ( where breech seating was common) some surprising scores were posted with this style bullet and breech seating.

That's a good looking bullet and loaded into the rifling snug should be a good shooter and perform admirably with a good dose of 1 1/2 F black powder under it.