Ideal 45 Harvey Colt

[Creepin]

Hey folks! I got a bunch of molds at an estate sale and this is one. I cant find anything like it online. Is anyone familiar with this? Any idea what it might be worth?

222973222974222975

[KenT7021]

Molds made to use a zinc washer on the base of the bullet.Info is found in older Lyman reloading manuals.Hawk Inc still has the zinc washers for sale at $42.00/1000.Do a search for Harvey ProT-X bore bullets.

[Creepin]

Sweet! Thanks, I've never seen anything like it.

[Guesser]

I've got a single cavity for that same bullet. Never used it.

[lotech]

I sold a single cavity version some years ago along with other Harvey / Lakeville Arms stuff. Lot of trouble to make the bullets, but they shoot quite accurately.

[HeavyMetal]

to much hassle to use, I've passed on plenty for just that reason!

hope you don't have a lot in it, it may be tough to sell.

HM

[midland man]

what diameter of bullet does it drop?

[RichardB]

The price of the washers adds up when figuring the cost of cast bullets. I cast for economy!

[Good Cheer]

Hmm, wonder how that rascal would drop for a Ruger Old Army!

[lotech]

I forgot to mention the mould I had was a hollow point version. Of course, that took even longer to cast. Their is more of a market for these old Harvey/ Lakeville Arms products than many would imagine and they sell quite readily.

There was an article in HANDLOADER magazine ten or so years ago regarding such moulds, etc.

[Forrest r]

You might consider casting some bullets without the zinc washers. The end result is that you will have a bullet that's a swc when loaded 1 way and a button nosed wc when loaded the other way. They are surprisingly accurate seated either way.

I had a 105gr 35cal & 170gr 44cal harvey molds. They were both h&g 6-cavity molds. The only reason I ended up selling them was I'm getting older and the molds seemed to get heavier. So I sold all my steel 6-cavity/8-cavity/10-cavity molds.

You really should give that bullet a try before you sell the mold. I may surprise you.

[HATCH]

Introduced in 1953 (Ideal Handbook #39), and described in detail in Handbook of Cast Bullets (1953, were a series of moulds designed and developed by Jim Harvey that allowed the caster to insert a zinc (Zn) washer into the mould cavity and cast the bullet metal through a hole in the center of the washer, permanently joining the two when the bullet metal solidified. The bullets were ready to shoot as-cast, with no sizing or lubrication. Harvey's motivation for designing these bullets was to be able to shoot very soft pure lead bullets that would expand while hunting, without leading problems. These moulds were marketed under the "Harvey Prot-X-Bore" name and were made by Lyman. The mould numbers were in the 500 series, which Lyman had set aside for their experimental designs. The most commonly encountered of these moulds today is the 358500 SWC for the .38 Special; note that this bullet had no provision for crimping or lubrication. The .44 Harvey SWC's, the 220 grain 429508, 170 grain 429509 and the 245 grain 429518, as well as the .45 Harvey SWC's 190 grain 452505 and the 454506 also lacked lube and crimp grooves. Interestingly, the .357" diameter 119 grain SWC (Lyman 358502) had a crimp groove and the Harvey 125 grain wadcutter (Lyman 358503) not only had a crimp groove, but 2 lube grooves as well. The absence of these features on the later, larger caliber Harvey designs indicates that Harvey felt they were not needed. In fact, wildly exaggerated claims were made about the "dry lubricating" ability of the zinc washer. The Handbook of Cast Bullets (an excellent reference published by Lyman in 1953 has a section on Jim Harvey and his bullets, and in it they admonish the shooter to seat and crimp his bullets in separate operations, as crimping during the seating step can distort the shoulder to the point of preventing the loaded round from chambering. The absence of a crimp groove means that the crimping operation must displace bullet metal and if this happens while the bullet is still going into the case a bulge is formed. The loading data for the Harvey Prot-X Bore bullets suggests that these lightweight bullets are capable of exceptional velocities in the 1600-1900 fps range. Although their accuracy at these speeds has been criticized by multiple sources, at modest velocity they seem to shoot fairly well.