Lyman / Ideal 389 531

[beezapilot]

At the bottom of a yardsale box of odds and ends- looks to be a variable cavity mold for sweaging, but I can find no information on it. That whole process is something I've not been involved in. Any suggestions? Looks much smaller than .389 in diameter... does anyone know what caliber this would be used for?

Attachment 236677

[Jack Stanley]

I got one like that I used for drawing into lead wire then making cores for .224" bullets . Since I'm out of swaging now I use it to make samples for testing hardness with the LBT lead tester .

jack

[Bent Ramrod]

It’s an adjustable core mould for use (in the old days) with a die set that makes half-jacket pistol bullets. They were made in several undersize diameters that would fit in the appropriate jacket cups and swage to .22, .30, .38 and .44 calibers.

C-H, Herter’s, Lachmiller and a few other outfits offered these dies for while in the late 50’s through the 60’s. Lyman and Herter’s made the moulds. The die sets were very cheap compared to swaging dies that formed jacketed spire-point rifle bullets. Swaging half-jacket bullets was all the rage for a while, with numerous articles in gun magazines, but the promise of blistering velocities without leading didn’t pan out with the general public that tried them, so today the equipment is mostly a historical curiosity.