Ideal mold number...

[jgh4445]

Years ago Ideal or Lyman/Ideal made a round ball mold for a .648 RB. Would anyone happen to know the mold number? Anybody have one?

[floodgate]

jgh4445:

Lyman RB mould blocks are labelled with the nominal (VERY nominal; I have seen them 3 to 5 thousandths under and a couple of thou over, due to cherry wear) as-cast diameter in pure lead. The older, fixed block RB moulds made by the original Ideal Mfg. Co. and their successors at Marlin up to 1916 used full numbers just like the "regular" bullets, but this was stopped when - or soon after - Lyman took over in late 1925 and intoduced the removable block designs. Many of the old RB "cherry numbers" were then "recycled" for new bullet designs. You'll just need to look for a mould block set marked "648"; Lyman hasn't listed this one for several years, I had one some years back, but sold it to Jon Vivas at Western Bullet Co. You can try him, but I understand he's been off-line for several months.

floodgate

[jgh4445]

Thanks floodgate..most informative. I'll keep looking.