Lyman mold collecting

[jaystuw]

Have any of you guys ever experienced the joy and frustration of collecting lyman mold blocks with rare cavities ? Like finding a 457196 and a 446187 in the boxes at the swap meet, for 5 bucks apiece! or a crisp new double cavity 338320 AND a new single 33889 at the gun show -16 bucks .Days like that make me think I have the best hobby in the world. But then there are the times on e-bay when I watch in panic and grief as the seconds count down and I loose my one and probably only shot at a full length 3113 or a 3116 Beardsley.Or seeing the only guy I know that collects molds, waving me down at the gunshow with his just bought 201 gr, double cavity 3112 saying HEY LOOK, ONLY 50 BUCKS! That is almost as fun for me as getting out bid by my rivals on e-bay. I'm just kidding though , the other collecters keep me out of trouble with my wife . Its great not hearing "do you REALLY need another one of those things"

[Bret4207]

How about when you run into a new gun shop and you ask about any old moulds. The owner says, "Yeah, I got a bunch of 'em I wanna get rid of cheap!" Your skin tingles, you break into a sweat envisioning pristine Lymans, Cramers, Yankees, Potters, B+M's, Bonds, Saecos, and Ohaus with a few H+G thrown in for good measure!!! Instead, you are handed a box with 3 T/C round ball moulds and a Lee minnie ball mould, 7 brass EMF conical replicas, and a single cav 38 WC Lyman with no handles, all filthy, are bunged up and looking like they were used to drive staples into a locust fence post. It'senough to make you weep in fustration.

[Bent Ramrod]

Or when you find a specimen of a 37585, take it home, fire up the pot and find the reason for its very good condition is that the cavity is just an eentsy off-center, and short of beating the mould to death or crowbarring the castings out, you have a one-boolit per session production rate mould.

Nice to look at, anyway.

[Nardoo]

I bought an old 358315 for $20.00 ( with sizer dies) but sold my 350 Rem Mag before I got a chance to use it. Recently an aquaintence mentioned he had just bought a 375674 for his 375 Win but it was too long to stabilise. When he mentioned he had a 35 Remington I offered the 358315 and a 1000 gas checks for his 375674 and he accepted!

It throws beautiful bullets at .377" in 30:1 and I cannot wait to try it.

And just this week I traded for a Saeco 645 by doing a little repair job. It drops them at .460" and it should be a winner in my Sharpes 45/90.

I love collecting moulds.

Nardoo

[beagle]

Yeah and then there's the dissapointment of finding an old gun shop in a small town with TWO cardboard boxes of moulds under a back shelf in a small town. Lymans but mostly H & Gs.....some never having seen lead. Two and four cavities.

AND not having the $$$.

Then coming back a year later loaded for bear and find out that the owner has died and his son moved the gun shop out to the interstate and the boxes are nowhere to be found as the son got rid of all of the old junk.

That's enough to make a grown man cry...../beagle

[jaystuw]

Well nardoo , two good finds in a row puts you in the joy/love of collecting catagory . bret 4207, bent ramrod and beagles stories are pure frustration . we all seem to be cut from the same cloth in that department. I am great for getting excited and expecting something neat-only to find the exact same type junkers bret does. And beagle not having money when needed -that happens to me all the time. Or how about having the money and not buying because I'll find a better one or I'll see it cheaper- and never do. And finally, how about finding a mold that really is a good one,having the money.realizing it doesn't come better or cheaper.buying it. and then finding it won't cast! I can only guess thats what happened to bent ramrod . I am somewhat familiar with 37585 . In my opinion the 37585 is a particulary hard mold to find. I have never seen one, only pictures in the older ideal handbooks .so if you do find one-and it doesn't work, well,thats a big deal.Sorry bent ramrod,I'm sure my opinion is not helping the matter,I can only hope you can tweek that thing into giving up some bullets!

[1Shirt]

Being an old Yankee, am fond of old Yankee sayings which include "Even a blind hog occaisionally finds an acorn". I got an old Ideal 225450 at a gun show last year for $15.00. Casts a beautiful blt that is sharp as a needle and shoots very well in 222/223. One of my best finds!
1Shirt!:coffee: :coffee:

[TAWILDCATT]

any of you from new england that remembers the gun shows when the old fellow had hundreds of moulds for sale????do they still have tables of moulds???
-----:coffee: -----[smilie=1: ----:Fire: ------:castmine:

[square butte]

He's still out there and was at the Concord NH gun show over labor day weekend. Think his name is Ed Beehler. May have the spelling wrong.

[beagle]

I've picked up some darn good moulds through a friend in VT so they still have plenty of moulds up that way.

My favorite good story happened a couple of years ago. I was in a trade for a Lyman #225438 with a fellow in Texas. He wrote back and said he ws sorry but he couldn't find the 225438 but he did find a 225107...would that do? I'd been looking for one for about 10 years so I wrote back and said, "Does a hog love slop?"

35875s are a tad scarce. I had one back in the 60s and it wasn't a great shooter as I was shooting it in a Smith & Wesson Model 10 and I was afraid to push it much. I lucked up on another one a couple of years ago and in hot .38 loads and .357 Mag loads, it's a hard hitter with a rainbow trajectory. For the reason that it wasn't much in the .38 Special as it was too heavy, I don't think many were sold. I've tried it in the .35 Rem but the bevel base doesn't allow for real good accuracy unless you swage the case for a GC./beagle

[rmb721]

Its great not hearing "do you REALLY need another one of those things"

Need has nothing to do with it.

[floodgate]

Here's another "Old Yankee" saying my wife has embroidered in lugubrious purple, framed and hung on our kitchen wall, as a reminder:

USE IT UP,

WEAR IT OUT,

MAKE IT DO, or

DO WITHOUT!

floodgate