311259 Lyman original intent/purpose?

[JCherry]

Does any one know the original purpose of this plain based mold?

A friend of mine has a Lyman mold 311259 which is an odd one for sure.

To see a photo of one go to;

http://www.castpics.net/RandD/Lyman_moulds/lyman07.htm

and look at the bullet on the lower right of the page.

We cast some of these bullets today and found that the forward band as cast from wheel weights has a diameter of .323, the remaining bands have a diameter of .311. The ogive has a diameter of .3005.

Have Fun,

JCherry

[floodgate]

JCherry:

This one was described and pictured only briefly, in Ideal Handbook N0. 16 (1904), where it had the older listing of #308259. The 2nd Edition Lyman "Cast Bullet Handbook" (1973), from which the CASTPICS illustrations were taken, showed bullets cast from all the moulds / cherries the Leisure Group people could dig out of the "back room", while they owned Lyman (1968-78), so this one may have been gathering dust in a corner somewhere.

Anyhow... HB #16 states: "This bullet was designed by Dr. W. G. HUDSON [a prominent shooter and experimenter of the Franklin Mann era] to take the place of the [blunter, Hudson] bullet 308256 for chambers of .30-40 Krag that are found to be a trifle larger just beyond the end of the shell [sound familiar???]. To make a sure gas check [not our "gas checks", but an obturating band at the case mouth], the band "C" [in the cut of the older bullet] was made larger (.325") and without taper. For full information, see page 40. Price of single mould.....Special List, $1.50 [*sob*]." The older Hudson design had an obturating [leed sealing] band that tapered from .319" back to the .311 of the lower bands, and had a "dirt-catcher" groove (one of Hudson's "signatures", though not present on #308259). It was normally 200 grs., with 4 grease grooves, but could be ordered "short-cherried" to 175 or 150 grs. Pages 38 - 42 have a long discussion of Hudson's design principles, alloys, etc.

Handbook No. 16 is a "landmark" issue; fortunately, you can get a good, reasonably-priced reprint from <www.cornellpubs.com> @ $14.95 plus postage.

Now, THERE is a mould I'd happily pay $125 + shipping for!!!

floodgate

[JCherry]

Floodgate,

Thanks for the information, exactly what I was hoping for.

My friend wants to use bullets from this mold in a Krag carbine. I have not seen his carbine but he says it will chamber rounds loaded with this bullet unsized. He says those rounds do not have any accuracy at all. He says his best accuracy is by sizing the bullets in a .308 Lee push through die with 10 grains or so of Unique. How he does not lead his barrel is beyond me unless he has one of the smallest bores ever in a Krag.

I loaded a dummy round with an as cast bullet in my Krag rifle and it was very hard to close the bolt. The "seal" you referred to will definately be there. I kept ten bullets from the 50 that we cast today but I sized them down to .311 which looks like I defeated the original designers intent by doing so. In the process I also expanded the ogive from .3005 up to .302 which may still chamber in my rifle but not sure yet. I'll try in the morning. I also oven heat treated the bullets so they will be pretty hard.

Sounds like what I want to do is cast up another batch and size them in a .319 Lyman die I have and that should put the forward band diameter to almost exactly what the original design was.

Does the old book you referred to have any loads listed? It sounds like a bullet from this mould with it's "gas check" band may be a great candidate for 16 grains of 2400.

Thanks again for the information,

Have Fun,

JCherry