Lyman 38-55 #37548

[MC One Shot]

I just bought a Lyman #375248 249 gr boolit mould and was wondering what boolit diameters others are dropping out of it. I am not sure what it is supposed to be unsized out of the mould. Thanks

[captaint]

MC - Funny, I bought one of those molds, used, about 2 months ago. Haven't cast with it yet. I'm hoping the boolits roll out at .379 at least. May have to fool with alloy a little. Actually, .380 would be a lot better. We'll see. enjoy Mike

[Lunarphase]

I'm also looking to pick out a 38-55 mold, but my Marlin 336CB looks like it wants .381 dia.
Let me know how they drop for you.

Thanks,
Lunar

[beagle]

The one I have drops about .376" which is all right for me as I have a .38/55 Number 1 Ruger with a .375" Douglas barrel on it./beagle

[MC One Shot]

I am finding that I am dropping boolits out of the mould at .378/.3785 and I cannot seem to get any at .389 or larger. I have tried different rates of speed to different hieghts from the spouts but all are within .001 of each other. The only thing I haven't tried is a harder alloy.

I have read that the older lyman moulds dropped boolits at .389/.380.

Has any one tried to lap the bands out a couple of thou more?

Just sent Lyman an email asking if they have any larger dia. moulds in the same bullet design. So wait and see what their reply wil be as it is for their Ideal Rifle that I recently bought the wife for her birthday.

[MtGun44]

I tried several Lyman "375" molds with dismal results since my .38-55 has a .3795 groove
diam. Lee's design did a whole lot better.

Bill

[MC One Shot]

I recieved an email response from Lyman today just a couple hours I sent mine. They said for me to send my mould back to them and that they would check it over and remachine it to proper or larger tolerances fro my wife's rifle.

[.22-10-45]

Hello, MC One Shot. When I started loading for an original Win. High-Wall .38-55, this was the mould I bought. No matter what alloy I tried, .378" dia. was the largest I could cast. And that old rifle has a .379 groove dia...but they still shot good without leading. I drilled & tapped bullet bases for 10-32 headless set-screws & proceded to lap those cavities with Clover compound..finishing up with the fine. Now they were dropping at .3785 to .379" (cavities were always out of round). But I was winning matches! Finall went the custom route & had Hoch make up a nose-pour copy of the 248..but with smaller meplat. These drop at .380"dia.
One problem still persisted..and that relates to your "undersized" bullets. In order to load a groove dia. bullet, I had to thin the case necks (and they are darn thin to begin with!)
This is not the old Ideal or Lymans mould makers fault...Winchester designed their rifles this way. You see, this was originally a black powder round..winchester didn't want their customers complaining of excess fouling jamming up their rifles..especially in their repeaters!
So, bullets were designed to be around .375 to .378" & depended on the "kick" of the black powder charge to obturate them to groove dia. They probably thought that new fangled smokeless was just a passing fad.