Ideal 319295 ???

[midnight]

I have an old Ideal mold with the handles integral with the blocks. It is clearly stamped 319295. Everything I can find tells me it is a 174gr FNGC for the 32-40. The mold does not appear to have been messed with. The problem is this mold casts a 102gr hollow point with a plain base. The hollow point pin is nicely made but it does not have the little keeper on the bottom of the mold where you give the pin a quarter turn to lock it in so that could be an add on but you can't turn a 174gr cavity into a 102gr cavity. I have no idea how Ideal made their HP pins. The 102gr HP bullet drops at 0.322. Any ideas as to what I have and how it got the way it is.

Bob

[midnight]

I think I just figured it out. The top of the mold has been milled off so it is level with the hinge. It must have been enough to reduce the bullet weight by 72gr and get rid of the gas check. So i guess i have a really old bastardized mold. Now if I can just find a use for a 102gr 0.322 hollow point. Maybe my 310 Cadet or a 32-20 if I ever find a Savage 23 in that caliber.

Bob

[beagle]

Sounds as if that one's been heavily modified. I have a SC 319295 (separate blocks) that casts out at 184 grains. Some one way back when did a lot of serious modifications to moulds with the integral handles as I've had several. One I now have is a 311397 that has been hollow pointed with the older style pin that is attached to the mould half with the screw and a wide HP pin. It has been abused and is pitted to the point of not being useable. I cast some bullets and shot them in my 06 and they shot well despite the pits.
Wish we had a history on who did these mods as it would be an interesting study./beagle

[midnight]

Whoever modified this mold did a good job. All I did to it was clean a little rust off the outside with citric acid and refinish the hollowpoint pin knob. I should have realized it had been milled right away because the set screw hole is only half there. Put a wave washer under the sprue plate bolt and all is good.

Bob

[Mk42gunner]

Sounds to me like someone wanted a small game/ varmint boolit for a .32-40 or .32 Winchester Special. It might also be useable in an 8mm.

Robert

[Gtek]

PC'd up for an 8mm Kurz bolt/single shot?

[Gewehr-Guy]

That bullet might work in an unsized 303 or 7.62x54 for a short range plinker or varmint getter with about 6 gr of R-Dot

[DeputyDuke]

I think I just figured it out. The top of the mold has been milled off so it is level with the hinge. It must have been enough to reduce the bullet weight by 72gr and get rid of the gas check. So i guess i have a really old bastardized mold. Now if I can just find a use for a 102gr 0.322 hollow point. Maybe my 310 Cadet or a 32-20 if I ever find a Savage 23 in that caliber.

Bob

Your 310 Cadet may love that bullet. My 310 Cadet was modified for 32-20. How that was ever going to work with a .320" groove diameter I could never figure out. I have a Saeco mould for the 8 m/m Nambu. It throws a 90 gr. round nose at .322". I neck expanded a 32-20 case with a Lyman 32 M die expander until I could seat a .322" bullet in it. Then I kept trimming the case until it would chamber in the Cadet. My trim to length ended up being 1.210". I load the Nambu bullet over 4 gr of Trail Boss or Unique for a perfectly satisfactory small game load.
Duke

[Green Frog]

I was going to guess it was for an 8 mm Nambu pistol. As originally configured, that was a pretty good design for the 32-40, but finding a good bullet for the Nambu back then would have been a challenge, so I can understand someone wanting to modify what was a commonly available mould to get what they needed. I doubt a bullet that light would have much use in a 32 cal rifle unless perhaps you were making gallery loads; but then why have the hollow point?

Froggie

[Thin Man]

Green Frog and I may have had similar experiences in trying to feed a Japanese 8mm Nambu. Several years ago I started looking for a mold for these pistols when a friend bought a nice Nambu. We started with a Lyman 323062, 85 grain RN. This boolit proved to have too short of a nose for reliable feeding and the mold went down the road. Then I lucked into a NEI 100-323 mold, 2X, that makes 106 grain RN boolits. That was the answer we needed. These boolits feed perfectly and group nicely in his Nambu. This boolit could also be used in many 32 and 8mm rifles for short range fun. Your mold would serve the same rifles but is a bit too wide to be sized down for the 32-20, too much distortion I suspect. Where ever you find a way to use your mold you can expect a lot of fun.

[Green Frog]

Thin Man, I can't claim first hand experience with the Nambu... I found out about the 32-40 connection when I was actively buying up every mould for 32-40 I could find. I bought a 319323 that somebody had penciled "Nambu" onto the box. I can't imagine using that long, pointy nose bullet in a Nambu pistol, but that got me started on that obscure pathway. I do love that bullet for breech seating in my old high walls!

Froggie