Is this a common mould?

[Bjornb]

Picked up this mould recently to cast the 358429 for my Model 10; it casts 2 different boolits. And while the 358429 shoots very accurately, the 357446 does not. I was wondering if this was some kind of rare mould; if so maybe I could try trading it over in the Commercial Section (for a 2-cav 358429). Anybody familiar with this kind of mould?http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_22945504a54f86fbe6.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=6590)http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_22945504a5516b80ac.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=6591)

[Tim357]

I've not seen that mould, but IME 357446 needs to be driven hard to work well. I dont know if its the wide lower band or what, but something makes that particular boolit not want to work well at low velocity/pressures.

[1Shirt]

Have shot both, and both were acceptable, however, have a preferance for the
429 as it just smacks of Elmer! I would put it on e-bay. Chances are you could pick up a two cav 429 on e-bay for about the same price as what you sold the other one for. Some mold collecters are more than happy to get a mold with 2 or more different boolit cavs, and are willing to pay for the oddities. I remember an old timmer when I was a kid who had a 4 cav lyman (special order at the time), with 4 different boolits all of a different cal. Think it was his only mold. Think he said it cost over 50.00, a lot of money when I was a kid in the 50's.
1Shirt!

[Bjornb]

Yeah, I didn't try to load very hot for either boolit. Tried 3 grains Bullseye and 4.5 grains Unique under both. The 429 shot accurately with both loads (old 4" model 10), while the 446 would never group acceptably. I'm sure I'll end up peddling it somehow. Thanks for the replies.

[Buckshot]

................I'm surprised to see the vent line in the blocks. Years ago Ideal was VERY accomodating with their moulds. They'd cut cavities deeper or more shallow. Plus they'd do what you have there in cutting 2 differet cavities into the same blocks. I'd have bet a dime that the blocks would have been from Ideal and NOT Lyman.

...............Buckshot

[shotman]

Will bet that was made for a guy that had a 38-55 by the block number that low in corner would bet it is a Ideal too

[stubshaft]

38-55 diameter would be .376"+.

[Shepherd2]

I have an Ideal 2 cavity mould that casts 2 different boolits. One cavity is 280473 and the other is 311413.

[Ben]

shotman

What use would someone have that owns a 38-55 with a mold that is throwing a pair of different .35 cal. ( .358 " dia. ) bullets ?

Ben

[largom]

Sell it on eBay! RARE & VINTAGE Worth big bucks.

Larry

[Bjornb]

Buckshot's right, it's an Ideal mould, and it may just end up as a Buckshot HP conversion (the 358429 cav); got 2 others that I'm very happy with.

[J..]

Lyman used to be happy to do moulds with different designs in each cavity. I've quite a few 2-cavity moulds where each cavity is different, and I've seen a few 4-cavity moulds that had two different styles of bullet. Very rare, but I've also seen some four-cavity moulds where each cavity was different.

Usually when people did something like this the two bullets were somewhat 'related'...like in the OP, they're two .38 bullets. I've a couple moulds here that are combinations like #311465/#311466, #452488/#452374, and that sort of thing.

Almost all these combination moulds were shipped in the old cardboard orange 'custom box'.

Here's a sample of a pretty rare combination.

http://bulletmoldblog.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/u429244-1-272x300.jpg

It's a combination mould for the same design but one of the cavities is (U)ndersized. That's a pretty rare combo.

Here's an example of a four-cavity with two completely unrelated bullets. Also note that it specifies the weight of the .270 bullet:

http://bulletmoldblog.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/IMG_0429-300x285.jpg


And, hey, congratualtions on that mould, OP....I was bidding on that one too! :)

[brghp]

I agree with largom. It's very rare and you'd be surprised what some people will pay on ebay.