Lyman RB Molds 345 and 437

[VintageRifle]

Hello,

I picked up two used single cavity lyman Round Ball Molds today. One is marked 345 and the other 437. I am guessing that the 345 is for a 36 cal muzzleloader and the 437 is for a 44 cal muzzleloader.

Thanks for any additional information.

Nick

[stubshaft]

Lyman used to make RB molds in about any diameter you could imagine. Early ML often had their bores "freshened up" and would need to shoot what is now considered oddball sizes.

[VintageRifle]

Would these be good for anything today or are these basically collector items/useless?

[beagle]

The .345 could be bumped up to make 2 ball RB loads in a .38 Special in a .358" die and the .437 could probably be sized down to .431" for the same purpose in the .44 Magnum.

Other than this, I can't think of any cast loading applications./beagle

[mooman76]

There are still BP guns out there that could use them. the 36 like you mentioned and the other could be used in a 45 rifle with a little thicker patch. That's the good thing about MLs and the roundballs that shoot out of them. You can very the patch some to fit different RB sizes. Someone is always looking an odd size. Like myself I have a .54 that had a tight barrel and the normal .530 ball works but is pretty tight so I looked and finally found an old Lee .527 ball mould.