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View Full Version : My first molds. 1967,68 & 69


Dom
03-18-2021, 10:05 PM
My first molds I ever bought was back in 1967, 68 & 69. Still in perfect casting condition. Paid $8.00 for each.
slim1836
03-18-2021, 10:42 PM
You want to double your investment?

Slim
cwtebay
03-18-2021, 10:54 PM
You want to double your investment?

SlimSeeing as the OP's investment is roughly $63 in 2021 dollars, that sounds about right!

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Dom
03-18-2021, 11:03 PM
I love my old molds & the original boxes with them. Think I will keep them.
cwtebay
03-18-2021, 11:18 PM
I love my old molds & the original boxes with them. Think I will keep them.Atta boy

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RustyReel
03-19-2021, 06:34 AM
My first molds I ever bought was back in 1967, 68 & 69. Still in perfect casting condition. Paid $8.00 for each.

If I remember correctly, the minimum wage back then was about a buck twenty five an hour so after taxes etc the mold cost a days work, at least for a guy like me just getting out of high school. I think you can still buy one for a days pay.
oley55
03-19-2021, 07:57 AM
If I remember correctly, the minimum wage back then was about a buck twenty five an hour so after taxes etc the mold cost a days work, at least for a guy like me just getting out of high school. I think you can still buy one for a days pay.

that puts it into the proper perspective very nicely. I guess the 'good ole days' are still with us, although somehow it seems different.
MrWolf
03-19-2021, 09:10 AM
I was 7, 8, and 9 when you bought them. You never did give them to me as birthday gifts back then. Just sayin....:mrgreen:
midnight
03-19-2021, 09:21 AM
I remember back in the mid nineties when Gander Mountain was having great financial difficulties. They sold off their mail order business to Cabelas to get cash to survive. I went to their store in Brookfield & they had an 8 foot table filled with new Lyman bullet molds for $15 each. I think I grabbed more than a dozen. It got me started til now my mold count is past 160.

Bob
Dom
03-19-2021, 11:34 PM
My 1967, 68 & 69 molds are still casting perfect bullets. Keep them oiled when not in use , treat them gentle with respect & they will supply you with bullets for a life time +.
bedbugbilly
03-20-2021, 10:16 AM
Nice Dom! You even still have the boxes@

The first "new" mold that I bought was a Lyman 575-213 .58 cal minie ball mold with a new set of handles - that was in 1964 IIRC. Still have it and it has cast tens of thousands and is still going strong - along the line though, the box got pretty shabby so it was tossed. At the same time, I bought a Lyman bottom pour ladle - still using that too!
Kraschenbirn
03-20-2021, 12:09 PM
Nice Dom! You even still have the boxes@

The first "new" mold that I bought was a Lyman 575-213 .58 cal minie ball mold with a new set of handles - that was in 1964 IIRC. Still have it and it has cast tens of thousands and is still going strong - along the line though, the box got pretty shabby so it was tossed. At the same time, I bought a Lyman bottom pour ladle - still using that too!

Bought that same mold/ladle in 1972 to feed an 1863 Remington 'Zouave' (repro) when I was involved in CW re-enactment. No longer have the mold...it left with the rifle...but do have the ladle and handles. Also, still have (and,occasionally, use) the Lyman 358156 that I acquired around the same time.

Bill
lightman
03-20-2021, 02:13 PM
Cool pictures! I have a few molds from that time frame that belonged to Grandpa. Sadly the boxes are long gone.
Dom
03-20-2021, 05:12 PM
Back when I bought these molds I was a flunky in a machine shop & poor & it was a struggle to pay the $8. I could not afford jacketed bullets & wanted to shoot. At the time I could go to any tire shop & get free used wheel weights. I gathered so many WW that today I still have over 2000 lbs. Am I glad I scrounged all those WW.
Dom
03-20-2021, 05:16 PM
Back when I bought these molds I was a flunky in a machine shop & poor, it was a struggle to pay the $8. I could not afford jacketed bullets & wanted to shoot. At the time I could go to any tire shop & get free used wheel weights. I gathered so many WW that today I still have over 2000 lbs. Am I glad I scrounged all those WW.
10x
03-22-2021, 08:43 AM
My first molds I ever bought was back in 1967, 68 & 69. Still in perfect casting condition. Paid $8.00 for each.


Back when I bought these molds I was a flunky in a machine shop & poor, it was a struggle to pay the $8. I could not afford jacketed bullets & wanted to shoot. At the time I could go to any tire shop & get free used wheel weights. I gathered so many WW that today I still have over 2000 lbs. Am I glad I scrounged all those WW.

In 1968 $8 was a days wages here.
Guys were living well on $40 a week. $60 a week was good pay.
Right now the value of a mold per hour worked has dropped considerably
Scrounge
03-22-2021, 01:08 PM
If I remember correctly, the minimum wage back then was about a buck twenty five an hour so after taxes etc the mold cost a days work, at least for a guy like me just getting out of high school. I think you can still buy one for a days pay.

Nope. It was that in the summer of 1973, when I got my first formal job, at Kmart, a few months before I enlisted in the USAF.