H&g X 292. 452

[zorro]

howdy , I bought this H&G bullet mould at a gun show new in the box X 292. 452
I was told this mould was for 230 gr round nose bullets only they cast approx 217 grs , any ideas ??
many thanks zorro

[theperfessor]

I'd guess its either (a) a miscut mold, or (b) your alloy composition. Knowing the quality of H & G molds I'd bet its the latter. Unless the "x" indicates some sort of variant of the basic 292. Maybe another member more knowledgeable about H & G molds would comment on this.

At standard .45 ACP velocities you don't need a high tin content alloy, which would make a lighter than specified bullet.

I find that when I use straight wheelweights in molds specced for Lyman #2 my bullets come out about 4% heavier; when I use really hard alloys they come out 3 to 6% lighter.

Check your alloy hardnes.

Just curious - how may cavities does it have? Do they all drop the same weight bullet?

[Texasflyboy]

howdy , I bought this H&G bullet mould at a gun show new in the box X 292. 452
I was told this mould was for 230 gr round nose bullets only they cast approx 217 grs , any ideas ??
many thanks zorro

X means "eXperimental". X marked moulds date from the late 1970's to mid 1980's when Wayne Gibbs was still experimenting with marking moulds that differed from the standard dimensions and weight.


In your case, as you discovered, the normal weight of a Mould #292 is indeed 230 grains with Lyman #2 mix, however, the X mark indicates that the original customer wanted to "eXperiment" with the as cast weight and Wayne cut the mould lighter to only 217 grains or so, usually by not running the cherry all the way in to the mould block. And he stamped an "X" on the block to indicate it was different from standard. In the previous years, his dad, James used an "S" to indicate special order. Which is why you sometimes see Hensley & Gibbs moulds with an S before or after the mould number.

Wayne said that over the life of Hensley & Gibbs they experimented with a few methods of marking moulds to indicate special modifications. He never told me why, but he eventually stopped marking the moulds with "S" or "X" in the mid 1980's and instead started stamping serial numbers, which was simply the customer's invoice number, and he recorded all the details on the invoice. One copy went to the customer and he kept the other. On his copy was the as cast weight, diameter, and any other information needed to identify the mould. The good was that he had all the info, the bad was that *only* Wayne had the info on his copy of the invoice. And when he closed the doors in 1999, the first time those serialized moulds sold without the customer's copy of the invoice, the details of that mould, if it was special, were lost until someone (like you) figured it out.

Tom in NC

[zorro]

howdy guys , Texasflyboy that makes sense the box it came in says 200 gr 45 fn , I thought since the seller had two sets of moulds the box were missed matched . I use reclaimed range lead and the bulets cast from this lead runs about 4 + grs for .38 , so being a expermental mould does make sense , many thanks guys , stay warm , zorro