Help ID SAECO 3 holer, designer? handles?

[JBMauser]

I could use some help with a new mould I snagged on Ebay. It caught my attention and I took a gamble. I am not sure what I have but I am sure I am buggered as NONE of the handles I have will fit it!!! It is a three hole, SAECO marked Custom HB with three different .30 weights. Flat tip bullets with GC 173gr, 154gr, 132gr (WW test) Gas check design. Two .310 bands and 2 lube grooves as well as a tubular nose that is .300 which dives at a sharp angle to the flat tip similar to the nose of the SAECO 315 175gr . It is a bore rider I think as it looks more like my lees. Any info on the bullet and any help with handles – cross reference?? JB

[beagle]

No help here but it sound interesting. Post a picture if you can.

Some years ago, Saeco made a bunch of "weird" moulds that were test projects or tool room jobs.

About 3 years ago, some guy had four sets of blocks on E-Bay that were all double hollow point moulds.

I was broke at the time and the starting price was high so they slipped away. Supposedly they were made for someone at Seaco in their management chain. One was a .375 as well as I recall.

So some strange doings went on at Saeco at one time or another./beagle

[JBMauser]

The interior of this mould is the rougher than my lymans but they drop well, I added some solder to my WW and the edges still did not fill out very sharp but they don't look real sharp in the mould.

[Bent Ramrod]

JBMauser,

They look like variations in weight of the No. 290301 that I have. This has a long nose, conical ogive with flat point, two driving bands and a gas check. Looks like the weight variation is all in the nose length. I have a Lyman 150-grain copy which is the exact same bullet with the short nose. Looks like you have several weights to play with in one casting; ideal for the rifle crank. A friend of mine used this bullet design (don't remember the weight) in his Remington 788 .30-30 cast bullet rifle, winning several postal matches with it.

As far as not fitting the handles, do you mean not fitting the SAECO handles or Lyman handles or some other brand? I have had to drill an extra set of holes in a SAECO handle set to accomodate NEI molds or some other brand that won't quite close (but otherwise fit in SAECO handles), but all the SAECO (and Cramer) blocks seem to fit all the SAECO handles I have all right.

Beagle,

I found some blocks like that at the gun show at Del Mar once. Odd cavities; three or four different ones in the same block; nose pour .357or 9mm, round nose .25, one block with a .50 caliber, a .338 caliber, a .32 caliber and a .30 caliber. Had to make the sprue plate, the locating pins and the handle screws. I recall the Santa Anita Engineering Company was in the LA area at one time; maybe somebody found their junk pile (?)

Bent

[JBMauser]

I fixed the handles problem. I recently picked up a .50cal round ball and maxi mould with a set of handles, TC I think, A file to the curved claws of the yellow alloy handles made for a quick allowance for clearance to grab this long mould. Success at the right price!
Does anyone know if there is a Web site where pics of obsolete designs for SAECO moulds may be found. I know this is a custom mould for length of each bullet, I want to see if the long 175gr bullet was a standard number. JB

[Char-Gar]

SAECO handles have changed over the years and sometimes the newer ones don't fit on the older blocks.

SAECO took over Cramer and for a time the SAECO handles had the slender tines of the Cramer. Somewhere along the line, those tines got wider which moved the holes a smidgen. The new handles have tines that are also a little thicker and sometimes they don't fit on on older blocks.

The older slender handles will fit any SAECO blocks and so will Cramer handles. However, the reverse is not true.

If your blocks are older, the newer handles may not fit and you may have to modify them or hunt up an older set of SAECO or Cramer handles.

[beagle]

You're right. They definitely look like a variation of the old 301/RG-4. Maybe that was a test mould for engineering or something to see how various weights panned out.

They were in the LA area at one time. I was there for the Army for three months one time at the Hughes plant and intended to visit the place but Colorado koolaide kept getting in the way. There was a small gun shop on Pico Boulevard that carried Saeco and Lachmiller stuff. I patronized the hell out of it on paydays.

I do like those old combos though. Gives you a lot of information to speculate what the designer was thinking when he made it.

JB, you definitely got a keeper there./beagle