Way out-of-round Lyman wadcutter mold

[PBSmith]

Here and elsewhere I've read about some strange Lyman custom molds that were made in an earlier time. I wonder if I've got one of them, or if it's simply a piece of poor workmanship?

This is an old double-cavity wadcutter, the 35891, not Ideal-era but not recent production either according to the designation lacking a "0" before the "91."

It drops bullets that mike 0.352 x 0.359. These are visibly oval in cross-section.

Did anyone ever hear of a mold being cut intentionally small across one diameter? If so, why would that have been done?

Fortunately the smaller diameter is across the parting line, and by beagling with tape I've been able to cast nice round cans that shoot reasonably well.

Maybe I should try loading up some of the unbeagled eggs and see how they shoot.

Look forward to your responses.

[1hole]

I can't be positive that no one makes or has never made adjustable molds but I've been casting and shooting with other casters since '65 and have never heard of such.

No one deliberately makes out of round bullet molds but they do happen. I have an old 6 cavity Hensley and Gibbs .44 mold, the bullets measure within 2 thou at the largest and smallest dimension but that device cost a pretty penny and they finally went out production because few casters would pay the price for that kind of precision. Given Lyman's modest prices I think they do quite well. I've been very impressed with the precision of Lee's molds.

Shoot your bullets and see how they do, after they travel about 5/8" they will precisely fit your bore. But be reasonable in your expectations....

[Conditor22]

PB, in making molds, the cherry spins and the mold halves move in to be cut by the cherry. It'd be hard to make an oval cavity mold. That being said, I've been given several Lyman molds that were off as in cavity sizes didn't match. some careful polishing evened everything up.

[gwpercle]

This mould might be for one of the rare oval bore target pistols , it lacks conventional rifling and the oval bore is twisted along it's barrel length to provide rotation. Although the concept did work the problems encountered in oval bore barrel making and oval bore boolit mould manufacture doomed the concept.
Just too hard and thus too costly to manufacture the arm and ammunition .
So it seems you have come upon one of the rare oval bore bullet moulds ...
What good fortune .

This is an example of the stuff I would tell my kids... a Dad story !
Gary

[Dragonheart]

All cast bullets are not concentric (not round) when they come out of the mold. This has nothing to do with the mold or the caster it is just the physics of the casting process. If we could cast perfectly round bullets, a powder coat would supply the jacket and full power accuracy at distance would be achieved. Why would anyone buy a commercial bullet and pay $.50 - $1.00+ for a bullet if we could make perfect bullets? But the reality is our cast bullets at full power will group pretty good up to 50 yards, but as distance increases the lopsided bullet begins to wobble like non-concentric bullets will do. Once the wobble starts it only gets worse as does the accuracy.

Since handgun bullets are fired at much shorter ranges, less than 50 yards, the lopsided bullet is much less of a problem.

Bullet design has a lot to do with getting accuracy out of a cast bullet.