Eras Gone .36 cal "Colt Cartridge Works" C & B conical - anyone use / have mold?

[bedbugbilly]

I have been shooting .36 cal '51 Navies for a lot of years . . . tried Lee's mold for conicals and didn't have much luck with them.

I was wondering if anyone here has the "Eras Gone" mold for duplicating the Colt Cartridge Works original .36 cal conical bullet? The mold is a special run/made by Lee that
Eras Gone had made up. The conical is .380 and weighs around 126 grains.

I'd like to get twenty or so to try out in my Uberti '51 Navy before I order the mold or have one cut. It would be nice to hear what the results are with this boolit as it is supposed to shoot well. If anyone has the mold and shoots them, could you post your thoughts on how it works for you and what you're shooting it in?

The boolit design is a "heeled" style - base fits in the chamber mouth and it has a single lube groove with area on both sides of the groove that is .380 so it shears a ring when seated with the loading ram.

Thanks.

Jim

[bedbugbilly]

This is a drawing of the Eras Gone 36 conical which is a copy of the original Civil War "Colt Cartridge Works" design - they were contractors to the government for supplying combustible cartridges.

There are a couple of video reviews out there that give good reviews of the boolit but would like to hear some more first handed thoughts from those that actually use them as well Thanks.

[rodwha]

Hmmm... Not that I’ve spent much time on the historic handgun conicals, but I’ve not seen a lube groove. Interesting if this is truly a historic design.

[arcticap]

Yes, they claim that it's a relatively exact duplicate of an original.
Sorry I don't have the link to their site or their video that shows the original paper cartridges that were made with it.
Perhaps Eras Gone can be Googled and/or searched for on Youtube.
I think that they hot dip the bullet in tallow or wax after the cartridge is made.

[TheOutlawKid]

Historically .36 molds and paper cartidges came with and without a lube groove. I have the eras gone .36 colt cartridge mold..its a decent bullet mold and makes great paper cartidges. I prefer a flat nose bullet though...i use kaidos .36 and a few custom bullets i had tom at accurate molds made. I only shoot .36 cal so ive invested in quite a few custom bullet molds...i actually designed one through tom thats basicaly a .36 REAL bullet and it holds a whole lot of lube and is extremely accurate. He put it up on his site as an option a while back. But the eras gone colt .36 mold is in my opinion worth it...but thats just me. Or u can always design a mold through accurate molds and pay about 95 bux if ur not looking to spend too much. He can make u just about any bullet mold but he doesnt make pointed ones so a replica of a colt cartridge works .36 would be out of the question. I feel eras gone .36 colt bullets are much more accurate than lees current mass produced.36 round nose conical bullet.

[TheOutlawKid]

Oh btw i shoot them in my pietta and all are .36, i have different variations of 1851s 1861s. And i shoot using Old eynsford 3fff, and alliant black mz...that is when im not shooting my home made powder...which is usually all i shoot now since i get numbers a little better than swiss and OE powder. Good thing about ur uberti is that the rammer/plunger is made to press in pointed bullets just like the originals so u wont smash ur bullet points. I actually replace all my piettas bullet plungers with uberti plungers. They fit perfectly and work better on the conicals i shoot, wether the kaidos or my custom bullets.

[bedbugbilly]

For those that are interested - here's a link on the boolit.

http://erasgonebullets.webstarts.com...6_caliber.html

Thanks for the information - that was what I was looking for. I have always song .36 Navy caliber since the first time I first shot an original '51 Navy probably about 56 or 57 years ago - I knew an old gunsmith at that time who was in his mid to late 80's - he taught e how to shoot black powder. I was at his shop one day and he showed me an original '51 that had beeches grandfather's. We took it out back of his shop where he had a range and he taught me how to load 'er up - I never forgot his kindness or the experience.

Thanks for the info - I think I'll just go ahead and order one of their molds. I was thinking that maybe I could get Tom to cut a 4 or 5 cavity but I didn't realize that he doesn't do pointed molds. I had one of the Lee molds for their conicals - never had much luck with it and ended up getting rid of it and going back to RB. I really wold like to have a good shooting original style conical and the Colt Cartridge Works design looks good to me.

As you'll see in the photos on the above link, they do match the originals. I first ran across several of the originals probably 50 years ago when I bought a bunch of original Civil War items for my collection. There was an original pistol cartridge box with just a couple of loose slugs init - white with oxide - and they were the ones we are talking about.

I had one of the Euroarms brass molds that is a clone of the original Colt molds they furnished - a real PIA to mold with and the conical didn't shoot well out of my '51. It shot better out of my Remington Navy but still not great. I like the fact that the Colt Cartridge Works bullet has the lube groove.

Thanks for the input - greatly appreciated!

Jim

[rking22]

Thanks for all the info, found something else I need....
I do not see a link to purchase, are they still abailable?

[bedbugbilly]

rking22 - just sent you a PM with the link as I don't think we can post links on here to sale sites.

Eras Gone only sells them on the Bonaza site - it only takes a minute to register for that site - I did it quickly and used PP to purchase with. The molds sell for $62 - 2 cavity. Some may consider it a bit pricey but figuring it's a special run and not readily available other than from them, I decided to purchase one as I think it will be a good shooting boolit for what I want. It only took me a couple of minutes to register on the Bonanza site and the shipping was free on the mold.

It's too bad that Accurate doesn't cut pointed nose - I could see having a 4 or 6 cavity cut with a combination of designs - pointed, flat nose, etc. so you could cast what you wanted. I havented tried the Kaido design but that looks good as well.

The mold from Eras Gone should cast at around 122 grains or so - I use a 122 grain in my Uberti '51 Richards & Mason so it will be nice to have similar weights for each of them.

[Good Cheer]

Wanting to try heavier boolits in .36's my solution was to have a round ball mold with a cylindrical tail end and adjustable length base plug. The cylindrical portion slips into the chambers. The spherical front end shears on the mouth of the chambers. The idea was for changing boolit length and charge volume.

It's not a war load conical made to punch through outdoor clothing, but rather a means of changing the weight of the ball and alignment bearing length (percussion wadcutters ).

[Good Cheer]

Traffer,
If you're referring to the round ball with tail design I posted, they don't need grooves.
It's a round ball mold with an added tail.

[Traffer]

After checking this out, I'm tempted to get into cap n ball.

[Good Cheer]

Oh do it. Caseless ammo is just too much fun.
There's stuff from the manufacturers of some reproduction revolvers that will make you scratch your head though. Like making chambers of smaller diameters than the rifling groove diameters.

I went hog wild over percussion revolvers in '76 and still love 'em.
Made me a "conical" by running a 3/8" bit down in a Lee aluminum 9mm mold for a Navy Arms 1861 and I was hooked. Been a hopeless case ever since.

Still waiting for never gonna happen repro of the .577 five shot Webley.

[bedbugbilly]

Good Cheer -thanks for posting that! That's a real interesting idea you came up with and it sure gets person to thinking . . . . .

So . . . what are your results with the boolits from the mold you altered? I like the idea of the adjustable base pin and the ability to change weights. How about accuracy compared to a RB? Also, I don't know what distances you are shooting at but am wondering if you have ever had any "key hole"? Just "curious" as I like hearing what folks have as far as results. Your alteration to the mold is top notch!

As a side note, Iordered the Eras Gone mold from Bonanza and had it in just a couple of days. The mold looks great - as I have said, pricey but it is a special run and I really wanted to be able to cast this particular boolit. Unfortunately, I'm in AZ for the winter and my revolvers are back in MI along with my casting things. I'm seriously thinking about ordering a Lee magnum melter for ladle pouring and a box of lead and spending time casting this winter to lay in a good supply from the Eras Gone mold.

I also want to try making some combustible cartridges with the Eras Gone boolit - "just to say I can". Over 50 years of loose powder and balls I think it would be nice to have some cartridges to ply with. I watched a video the other night where a fellow was making them using a polymer plastic "cartridge former" - can't remember who made the former but when I checked, they were sold out. I used to rebuild and repair violins - I still have my fiddle peg taper reamer for reaming the taper on peg boxes as well as the peg cutter - the taper looks like it would be about right for combustible cartridges so when I get back to MI in the spring, I'm going to try to make a "combustible cartridge former" - use a piece of hard maple to ream a tapered hole in for the female portion of the cartridge former and an ebony fiddle peg for the male portion of the cartridge former. I like to use 18 grains of 3F in my 36s so it shouldn't take too long to determine the dimensions of the cartridge former to give me a tapered paper form with enough at the top to glue to the base of the boolit.

Good Cheer - thanks for posting what you've done - very interesting!

Traffer - if you haven't tried BP C & B revolvers - you owe it to yourself to do so. You can get as wrapped up in it as you want or just limit it to one and shoot round balls like has been done since they were invented. I've enjoyed them for over fifty years and when I was a kid, I loved to even rabbit hunt with a '51 Navy. The cottontails were no challenge at all and I also got a few squirrels with the same Navy. The only word of warning I have is that they are "addicting" . . . but oh, so much fun!

[Traffer]

Now if I could only find something in my price range. I just got a black powder cartridge revolver...the old 38 S&W. It needs some mechanism work but hasn't been fired much. Has the typical corroded barrel but the rifling looks new.... got if for $40. I may modify some 9mm cases for it and use those or make some kind of moon clip to hold them. They sit perfectly in the chambers. Very tempting. I was going to use smokeless in it just because of the expense of getting black powder stuff. I will probably run into some repro Colt army or something for cheap some day and then I can play ... Too many projects right now.

[Good Cheer]

Good Cheer -thanks for posting that! That's a real interesting idea you came up with and it sure gets person to thinking . . . . .

So . . . what are your results with the boolits from the mold you altered? I like the idea of the adjustable base pin and the ability to change weights. How about accuracy compared to a RB? Also, I don't know what distances you are shooting at but am wondering if you have ever had any "key hole"? Just "curious" as I like hearing what folks have as far as results. Your alteration to the mold is top notch!

As a side note, Iordered the Eras Gone mold from Bonanza and had it in just a couple of days. The mold looks great - as I have said, pricey but it is a special run and I really wanted to be able to cast this particular boolit. Unfortunately, I'm in AZ for the winter and my revolvers are back in MI along with my casting things. I'm seriously thinking about ordering a Lee magnum melter for ladle pouring and a box of lead and spending time casting this winter to lay in a good supply from the Eras Gone mold.

I also want to try making some combustible cartridges with the Eras Gone boolit - "just to say I can". Over 50 years of loose powder and balls I think it would be nice to have some cartridges to ply with. I watched a video the other night where a fellow was making them using a polymer plastic "cartridge former" - can't remember who made the former but when I checked, they were sold out. I used to rebuild and repair violins - I still have my fiddle peg taper reamer for reaming the taper on peg boxes as well as the peg cutter - the taper looks like it would be about right for combustible cartridges so when I get back to MI in the spring, I'm going to try to make a "combustible cartridge former" - use a piece of hard maple to ream a tapered hole in for the female portion of the cartridge former and an ebony fiddle peg for the male portion of the cartridge former. I like to use 18 grains of 3F in my 36s so it shouldn't take too long to determine the dimensions of the cartridge former to give me a tapered paper form with enough at the top to glue to the base of the boolit.

Good Cheer - thanks for posting what you've done - very interesting!

Traffer - if you haven't tried BP C & B revolvers - you owe it to yourself to do so. You can get as wrapped up in it as you want or just limit it to one and shoot round balls like has been done since they were invented. I've enjoyed them for over fifty years and when I was a kid, I loved to even rabbit hunt with a '51 Navy. The cottontails were no challenge at all and I also got a few squirrels with the same Navy. The only word of warning I have is that they are "addicting" . . . but oh, so much fun!

It was my design but the execution is all Erik's (hollowpointmold).

If I do my part accuracy has been no different from round ball. But that said, at some point in all of this getting out of the barrel sooner has to mean less deviations introduced from shot to shot.

[ndnchf]

Dredging up an old thread....

I just ordered 100 Eras Gone .36 Colt conicals to try in my Piettta 1851. I'd be interested to hear how this bullet has worked out for you guys and what load works well.

What is the exact length of the Eras Gone bullet?

Thanks,
Steve

[gwpercle]

I have a very old bullet mould that came with a brace of Manhatten 36 cal. cap and ball revolvers (family pass down) . All metal construction , two cavities ... 1 - round ball and 1 - conical bullet .
I cast a bunch of the Conicals and tested them against the round balls for accuracy at 25 yards ... shot out of a modern Italian Replica 1851 Colt Navy ( the Manhatten's look way to old to risk shooting)
At 25 yards , benched, the groups were about the same ... maybe the round balls did a little better but casting the conicals was a pain in the be-hind ... and casting round balls was much easier .
That ended my conical bullet shooting test and it's been RB's in the Navy Colt ever since .
Gary

[ButchC]

I'm of the impression having had the opportunity to tinker with hollow base conicals swaged from RB, that due to the repro manufacturers aforementioned habit of boring chambers undersized to rifling, the traditional conicals or any new versions just will not shoot that great. Then again, I have heard the original revolvers had issues with conicals too but I can't imagine it's as bad as some of the repros. In either platform, obturation has to be your friend and I don't think the conical designs lend themselves to that.

Just my observations over the years. Even then, I'll probably try another conical mold one day. And, sadly the swaging die failed.

[AntiqueSledMan]

Hello Steve,

I've never shot them but I noticed from a Mike Bellevue's videos,
the pointed bullets seem to angle off to the side when shooting into water jugs,
where the flat nosed & round balls seem to travel straighter through the jugs.

AntiqueSledMan.