As you may remember (or not) from a few of the articles I've posted here, I started a love affair with Hensley & Gibbs bullets moulds in the early 1990's when I started casting again after a hiatus of about 10 years. My first mould from Hensley & Gibbs was a loaner from a Sheriff's deputy, a 10 cavity beast, Design #50. I don't remember if it was plain base or bevel base but it cast beautiful bullets. It occupied my free time in the summers of the late 1970's while I worked at my father's service station in South Louisiana.
Fast forward to the early 90's and I started reloading again. eBay was just getting started and one of my very first purchases was a 10 cavity #50 to cast wadcutters. I later wrote an article for consumption here called "75,000 Wadcutters in a Model 27." All of those wadcutters came from that first 10 cavity mould. Since I was casting, and my equipment was lacking, I later designed and fabricated my own casting pot ("Diary of a Casting Pot Construction") with the help of many long time members here. Since I had a new casting pot that held about 100lbs of lead, I needed more moulds. So back to eBay I went. By 1995 I had a half dozen bullet moulds and also discovered that Hensley & Gibbs was still in business in Murphy, Oregon. I called the number, after spending days trying to find out what it was, only to be gruffly told that all business was via postal mail. Send in a $1 and you get the catalog. Send in the order and we will let you know when to pay and when we ship. I later discovered that Wayne Gibbs, like his father James, held faith only in the US Postal system. There was not, and never would be, a Hensley & Gibbs website. A few more years passed and I started an email dialog with Wayne, who under extreme reluctance, gave me his email and we started corresponding. Months would pass between my hitting the "send" button and a reply arriving. Wayne had his own calendar. And it was slow.
By 1999, Wayne confided in me that he was ready to retire. I pursued him relentlessly to gather as much information about the company as I could. His invaluable help led to the creation of the only list of the Hensley & Gibbs catalog that has ever existed outside of the bank ledger they used from 1932. That list is still not complete, and I plan to finish it one day. One day.
But after I gathered the factory ledger list, and published as much information as I could, life raised its head again. I moved from Texas to North Carolina, and then to Virginia, chasing work. In those years since I started I always kept an eye out for Hensley & Gibbs moulds. And bought them when I found a design I liked or wanted. After the website started to gain traction, I started to receive emails from estates looking to liquidate moulds they had found in "Dad's shed, Grandpop's attic, etc...." I always gave folks my honest opinion on value, even when I had to heart wrenchingly tell them they had ruined a $500 mould by cleaning it with a wire wheel bush "to make it look new so it would sell quick."
But, I kept buying moulds. I even bought a few non-Hensley & Gibbs moulds, two enormous eight cavity Ideal moulds for example. Made by IDEAL for the National Guard, I found them on eBay about the same time I found a Krag rifle with a good barrel. I bought them all.
But, for Hensley & Gibbs moulds, this is the first time since 1995 that I've laid them all out on a table. I have a new backyard office and today I moved the mould stockpile. This is it. Almost 30 years of collecting. And as I've said before, we are only custodians. There will never be another Hensley & Gibbs bullet mould made. That skill was in the toolmaker, not the name. It resided in the hands of George Hensley, James & Wayne Gibbs. I am happy to own some of their production from their roughly 60 year run. And I plan to eventually sell every single one of them to pass them along to other folks who can appreciate and enjoy them.
As soon as I get the big casting pot in place some of these safe queens are going to get a workout. And some of those two cavity moulds are going to Erik Ohlen at HollowPoint Bullet moulds for conversions.
Big photo (very large):
https://www.hensleygibbs.com/TCD/FIR...sMolds2021.JPG
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Originally Posted by FISH4BUGS
