Odd Ideal mould

[stocker]

At the local dealer the other day I saw a mould unlike any Ive ever seen before. I'm not sure if it's what is referred to as the collar button style or not.

I'll try to describe and wish I had the number but it was so grungy all I could make out was what appeared to be 299 and rest obscured.

Picture a narrow driving band of about 1/8 inch , possibly close to 30 cal. and on either side of the band two similar but not identical angled flat nose points. Almost looks like it could be loaded either way around and would still present a small extended flat point.

Not sure what it was intended to be used for but I keep thinking about it and wonder if it could be used for pouring a pure lead bullet point which would then be placed in a conventional mold and a harder base section poured onto it.

Anyone have a clue? None of my older Lyman / Ideal loading manuals refer to it that I can find.

[beagle]

Think I'd have had to invest in that rascal and clean it up just to see what it was.

The 299 cherry was for the 311/314299 (which you know anyway) and all of the 299 moulds don't look like anything you're describing./beagle

[stocker]

Beagle : Thanks for the response. I think the rest of the guys thought I was smoking ganji or something else. I believe I will try to work a deal (it was in a Baggy with a couple of other odd ball molds for calibers I've never heard of and I thought I'd heard them all. I'm going to offer 20.00 for three sets of blocks and I'm sure they've been on the shelf for forty years,

[45 2.1]

If it began with 299, Lyman made 4 molds with this prefix for the 32 Colt short and long. It sounds like one had the nose altered. All were for healed bullets and were round nosed.

[woody1]

If it began with 299, Lyman made 4 molds with this prefix for the 32 Colt short and long. It sounds like one had the nose altered. All were for healed bullets and were round nosed.
YUP! What he said. Regards, Woody

[stocker]

I don't believe the mold was altered in any manner. A casting from it would only be about 7/16" long and I doubt if weight would be 60 grains. The noses on either side of the narrow approx. 30 cal. driving band were much narrower than any conventional bullet nose, possibly 25 cal at their base and about 1/10th" at the meplat. I've got to go back Tuesday morning and get this stuff just out of curiosity. One of the other molds was for an old large caliber hollow base, possibly 577 and had a wooden handled insert for the hollow base similar to the mold insert for making a hollow point bullet but considerably bigger. That mould was cut with bullet nose to the sprue plate to accomodate the hollow base tool on the bottom side of the block. When I get the storage grease and accumulated filth off them I hope to have some numbers to post here.

[stocker]

Back to the dealer today but he doesn't want to sell any of them. In fact he had misplaced them and was happy to have them found for him. The odd mold I referred to is 1/2 of a two part set he has used for one of his personal rifles. It was for casting a soft nose which was then epoxied into a separately cast bullet base. I have a short reference to these "composite" bullets in one of my older Lyman manuals but had never seen one. He says this one is made to fit into a 30 caliber base section. Still couldn't read the number and once he said he wouldn't sell it I moved on.

[BWelch47]

At the local dealer the other day I saw a mould unlike any Ive ever seen before. I'm not sure if it's what is referred to as the collar button style or not.

I'll try to describe and wish I had the number but it was so grungy all I could make out was what appeared to be 299 and rest obscured.

Picture a narrow driving band of about 1/8 inch , possibly close to 30 cal. and on either side of the band two similar but not identical angled flat nose points. Almost looks like it could be loaded either way around and would still present a small extended flat point.

Not sure what it was intended to be used for but I keep thinking about it and wonder if it could be used for pouring a pure lead bullet point which would then be placed in a conventional mold and a harder base section poured onto it.

Anyone have a clue? None of my older Lyman / Ideal loading manuals refer to it that I can find.
The mould you described sound like a Harvey mould which used zinc washers instead of bullet lube to prevent leading of the bores in firearms. They were very accurate and were popular during the 40's and 50's. The last one I saw was owned by a friend I last saw in 1975. If you can find the zinc washers, the bullets make excellent projectals.