41 Colt mold ???

[Dom]

I received a great amount of vintage reloading equipment . Some of it is molds. This one particular mold is from the Ideal company. Not sure what year, but vintage for sure. It is a cast iron block that has been drilled our & re-poured with a brass inner. Then chambered. 307731307732307733307734Best I can tell it is a 41 cal. I guess for the 41 Colt. An help you gurus can provide would be appreciated.307735

[barkerwc4362]

Whatever it may have been, that is not currently a mold for a .41 colt. I have both a hollow-based and a heel-based mold for .41 colt and they look nothing like that.
Bill

[smkummer]

I agree with above, not 41 colt. Generally the first 3 numbers is diameter….449
Oops, I see it was remade with brass.

[deltaenterprizes]

I agree with above, not 41 colt. Generally the first 3 numbers is diameter….449

It is not a factory made mold, the original cavity was removed and a new cavity was cut.

[Dom]

Whoever cast the brass & chambered this mold knew what they were doing. Strange

[Dom]

I used my inside caliper on the back edge of the closed mold. It read .408.

[barkerwc4362]

.41 Colt does not use a regular bullet like 38-40, or 41 Mag. The original .41 Colt loading looks like an over sized 22 rimfire with a heel based bullet.307773. See the loaded cartridge and bullet on the left side of the image. Later loadings used a hollow based bullet like the one on the right.
Bill

[Bent Ramrod]

It was very common for a gunsmith or experimenter to recut or recherry an existing bullet mould to some new design he needed or thought would be the latest&greatest. If the original cavity was smaller than the new one, it would clean up to the bigger size. If it was too large, he’d drill it out and fill it with braze, insert a brass sleeve, or even braze in an iron sleeve.

This way, essentially all he’d need was to grind the cherry, spin it in a drill press and bring the blocks together around it. The mortises for handles, the holes, threads, screws and sprue plate would be there already, so he was saved that extra work.

Somebody used to advertise somewhere that the iron moulds he routinely lined with brass and recut cast better than the original iron moulds. IME, I can’t say that that was mere advertising puffery.

If that is .41 caliber, it may be for a .38-40, a Herter’s Powermag or one of those early .40 caliber wildcats Gordon Bozer and others were working on. What diameter does it cast at?