Ideal Perfection Mould

It would be a treasure worth a king's ransom to find a complete and usable mould like this.

Curious? the pdf opens upside down.

Attachment 221736

I've seen a couple on the various auction sites in the last few years, always pricey, but oh so tempting!

Average eBay price of an Ideal Perfection mold starts at $200. have never seen a 45-70 mold up for sale on eBay

One just sold about two weeks ago for $270 handles were a little rough, but the mold appeared to be decent. Auction #352357110022

The Ideal series of Perfection Molds was a neat idea but:
* They were not popular with casters evidenced by the few that come up for sale
* My experience casting with the 32 & 38 variations - they are a PITA trying to set the mold for a given weight and if one gets lucky, the bases are not the quality of the single mold weights
* The reason for the high resale values IMO is (1) There were few made - have never seen or heard of the 45 caliber one (2) Folks that buy them are collectors only and (3) Folks that buy them for casting find they are really only good for bragging rights
Bottom line: Buy the single mold weight ones to produce quality bullets of which I have several

If you happen to find some of the old Ideal multi-groove moulds, you will notice base edge will have a very slight bevel. This is from setting the cherry cutter to shallower depth than the full length of cutter as in the Perfection blocks. I suppose Ideal figured this was a good place to stop.

and the custom mold was only $3!

I have and use one I inherited from my dad.

The adjustable length Ideal/Lyman .44 core mold throws a slug diameter pretty much just right for paper patching to shoot in a forty bore.
I've patched some and shot a few across the yard but not made serious study of it yet.
Might be worth it to invest in an extra threaded plug to produce a SWC nose instead of full flat wadcutter.

I've cast with 32-40 and 38-55 Perfection molds. Am not impressed with them.
* Adjusting the mold to the proper weight is a PITA
* The bases do not cast sharp edges compared to a single cavity mold

One of those ideas that look great on paper but are of limited value in real life applications.

Don’t have any Perfections, but do have a few adjustable moulds, a couple of which I’ve made myself. Also have a couple of the one-piece Cylindrical moulds for paper patch boolits.

The basic issue I notice is that the shooter finds the optimum length rather quickly and locks the adjustment there. Then he has the equivalent of a non adjustable mould with the long screw and other machinery sticking down out of the bottom of the mould. This requires extra heating and is great for catching lead blobs and interfering with manipulation in general while casting.

And, of course, if the setting loosens up with the heating and tapping, and I don’t notice it, I can get a much wider weight distribution than normal.

Still, I wouldn’t refuse one at the right price, because they are certifiably Cool. And if I had several different chamberings in the same caliber, and for some reason only wanted one mould, that would be “Perfection.”

Also, my namesake “Iron Ramrod” apparently had a hand in working up the concept with the Ideal Manufacturing Co., if I recall from the articles in Shooting and Fishing. His .32 Ideal cartridge was originally called the “.32 Ideal Perfection,” IIRC, and the adjustable mould was there to give the shooters of the new cartridge as many options as possible.