Old Ideal 4C Mould Help ID and Price

[jonp]

This mould came with my RCBS. It's an old Ideal mould in a box marked Lyman Gun Sight Corporation. The numbers stamped on the mould do not match the ones on the box. It has 4 different cavities as follows:
358495
311419
225438
22445

I would like any information on this mould as I can't find anything online and the cavity mix seems odd to me. Is this a custom mould? How would I price a custom made mould like this for sale if it is one? I'm going to cast with it this fall and winter and probably let it go but have no idea where to start on something I can find no info on. Would an auction be the best bet?

[rintinglen]

That is a custom mold, with as indicated by the stampings, 4 different design cavities. You have a 38 wadcutter, a light weight 32-20 boolit, a 22 Round nosed gas checked design, and one that I do not recognize, the 22445. This was a fairly common practice back in the 50's and 60's. But in my experience a darned stupid one. Nobody ever uses exactly the same number of such disparate boolits, which means a pile of boolits go to waste while the one you need slowly accumulates. They have some value as a curiosity, but I wouldn't pay 50 bucks for such a thing.

[jonp]

That is a custom mold, with as indicated by the stampings, 4 different design cavities. You have a 38 wadcutter, a light weight 32-20 boolit, a 22 Round nosed gas checked design, and one that I do not recognize, the 22445. This was a fairly common practice back in the 50's and 60's. But in my experience a darned stupid one. Nobody ever uses exactly the same number of such disparate boolits, which means a pile of boolits go to waste while the one you need slowly accumulates. They have some value as a curiosity, but I wouldn't pay 50 bucks for such a thing.

Kinda my view but it was free. The wadcutter and 22 i might use, the others only for sale

[Gewehr-Guy]

I bought one of those custom 4 cavity moulds, had three popular .30 cal cavities, and a useless to me .244 cavity. It does cast nicely, so I suppose I'll have to buy a .243

[gwpercle]

Isn't it amazing what Lyman would do for a Customer ... back in the day when a customer ment something . A 4 cavity mould ... with 4 different boolits .
I don't know what they are worth ...but I would keep it just cause it's so Dang Cool !

Got to thinking ...if you can still sell moulds on E-bay ... list it as Rare , Antique , One-of -a-Kind , custom made by special order , not another on the face of the planet ... for sell to the highest bidder, $500.00 starting bid and see where the chips fall .
Gary

[harm]

I bought one of those custom 4 cavity moulds, had three popular .30 cal cavities, and a useless to me .244 cavity. It does cast nicely, so I suppose I'll have to buy a .243

Which 243 design? I'd look into the Savage rifles, for value/cost, but I'm an enabler..

[Idaho Mule]

I bought one of those custom 4 cavity moulds, had three popular .30 cal cavities, and a useless to me .244 cavity. It does cast nicely, so I suppose I'll have to buy a .243

You and I think the same.

[jonp]

Isn't it amazing what Lyman would do for a Customer ... back in the day when a customer ment something . A 4 cavity mould ... with 4 different boolits .
I don't know what they are worth ...but I would keep it just cause it's so Dang Cool !

Got to thinking ...if you can still sell moulds on E-bay ... list it as Rare , Antique , One-of -a-Kind , custom made by special order , not another on the face of the planet ... for sell to the highest bidder, $500.00 starting bid and see where the chips fall .
Gary

I was going to ebay it but a member here expressed interest so i sold it to him for A BILLION DOLLARS! Picture Dr Evil at this point

Actually, I told him to send me what he thought it was worth. I'd much rather sell it here to someone that appreciates it no matter the price than ebay it to someone just trying to flip it for a buck

[Bent Ramrod]

An antique reloading Happy Ending! Excellent!

It’s only once in a blue moon that you find one of those multidesign moulds a really practical tool, all right. Three out of four useful cavities is pretty good odds. More often, you're always out of one cavity, while the rest pile up.

My best is a 2-cavity that casts a .45 Auto and a .45 Colt boolit. It came with a revolver with .45 AR and .45 Colt cylinders. Neither setup is superior to the other, so one can use the boolits at the same rate. A mould that needs a specialized ”weapons system” to bring out its full potential. Weird. Supposed to go in the other direction.

[rintinglen]

I am curious about the "22445." 445 was supposed to be a 32 caliber wadcutter, but that was the 313-445?

[Mk42gunner]

See that is a different take on what I thought it meant, and I do have an Ideal SC 313445.

My thought was it is a 224 diameter, cherry #45.

Absolutely no idea what it would look like though. Could be mis-stamped too.

Robert

[wwmartin]

Old Buffalo mold tables has a pdf listing of old lyman / ideal molds.
Bill

[jonp]

Old Buffalo mold tables has a pdf listing of old lyman / ideal molds.
Bill

Not that one, i looked.

[jonp]

Got off the phone with Lyman. Guy spent 20min trying to find that mould 22445 and drew a blank.

[John Boy]

The Ideal 22445 mold is not listed in any Ideal documents that I have or have seen

[smithnframe]

Any pics?

[square butte]

My take - Undersized by .001 (worn cherry ) Lyman 225450 = 22445. Sometime the earlier versions of some molds only used two numbers after the diameter. Look at the photo of a 225450 and see if it matches what that cavity looked like

[jonp]

Sorry, square butte. I have already passed the mould on so if the member I sent it to sees this and cares to chime in he can.

It looked to me like an old Colt .36 Cal conical which is an odd thing with the others but is near the same weight. Guy i got it from was elderly and a gunsmith so who knows? He may have had one of those and had Ideal add the cavity to the others

[Pressman]

I have the mould in my possession. What seemed like a great example of Lymans ability to make whatever the customer wanted is seriously damaged and it's Historical significance greatly diminished.

Bubba, or some other knuckle dragging mouth breather has taken a hand drill and bored out one cavity, slightly lopsided and rough.
There's still 3 usable cavities. What an idiot.
Yesterday was a great day till I got home and opened the box and found that. Did I say I am mad?

Ken

[jonp]

Dang, Ken. Mr Dremel strikes again. I just took the numbers off the bottom and didnt inspect it. Wish i had looked at it more closely.

Send it back and i will reimburse you the postage, i dont want you to have something like that. If I had paid for it id get angry everytime i looked at it on my shelf.

Sorry
jonp

[rintinglen]

When I saw the mold, the "22450" became clear. It was a 224-450, a 22 caliber spire-point gas check resembling a 311-413 in miniature. Now it is a ruined hole. Got to wonder why somebody would spend half a weeks pay on a mold to take a drill to it.