what might this mold be used for?

[hornsurgeon]

a while back i got this mold thinking it was a 30 cal home made mold. (yes the brass base can be removed, but no it can not be flipped over to change weight or add gas check. and no, there are no other plugs.)

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq253/hornsurgeon/IMG_4126.jpg

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq253/hornsurgeon/IMG_4125.jpg

i finally got around to casting some from it. definately not your run of the mill 30 cal boolit. boolit weighs 137gr. bearing sruface is .310, but the base band measures .320. what would this be used for?

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq253/hornsurgeon/IMG_4416.jpg

[RayinNH]

to turn a gas check boolit to plain base, 32-20?...Ray

[Frank46]

Looks like its a 32-40 mold that someone altered. notice the area where the brass plug is. The heat discoloration is different than the upper portion of the mold. Probably wanted something slightly heavier. looked to be roughly a 165grain or so origionally now heavier. Frank

[Cactus Farmer]

I LIKE IT! It looks like a breach seater type for my 32-40. Can I borrow/buy it? 32-40s are a poor mans 30 Herrett!

I can make a new plug that is a hollowbase affair. Might be a hoot for light short range target and varmit control.

[hornsurgeon]

there are no markings on the mold, and i am sure this was not a standard production mold of any type.

i'm not really asking about the mold itself so much, i guess what i meant to say in my first post was:

what might this bullet's intended use be? is there some type of military rifle that would benifit from a .310 bearing surface and a larger heel? perhaps some type of french or italian military rifle? i know i have heard of some people sizing just the nose of their boolits to get them to fit, is this a similar attempt?

[stubshaft]

I agree with the theory that it was an attempt to alter a GC boolit to PB. I AM curious to know what the dimples adjacent to the front band are for?

[hornsurgeon]

it appears that one side of the mold has the vent lines and milled vent slots. the other side has no vent lines, but the dimples corespond with the milled vent slots in the other half. i can only assume all this is for additional venting. as you can see, it does cast a beautiful boolit after warming up. this is cast from acww+2%.

[HORNET]

I bet that would work superbly for breech seating in a .310 Martini Cadet. Somebody did very nice work.

[madcaster]

Somebody did very nice work.[/QUOTE]

I second that opinion!:cbpour:

[arcticbreeze]

Maybe it originally had different brass plugs to very the bullet weight/length. Similar to an adjustable nose pour type of mold.

[largom]

Maybe for a 32 Win. Spc. Is it for sale?

Larry

[longbow]

Looks a lot like the Pope design someone just posted ~ Lyman/Ideal 308403.

That one had several different sized driving bands starting at 0.301" to 0.305" then a base band of 0.316".

Yours is larger diameter but maybe same/similar design for .32 caliber or maybe 8mm.

Longbow

[AriM]

might work well in a Finnish Mil-Surp? 7.62 x 53 rimmed....just a thought....through the right sizer that might be a nice boolit in a m38?

[HeavyMetal]

I'll second the idea that this mold had several base plugs.

The current brass plug neatly cuts off the gas check portion of the mold and yet the gas check area could easily have been removed by the same person who did this work, his skills were very good!

At 137 this might have been a 7.62 x 39 mold? A shorter base plug could convert the gas check shank into a lube groove and add more weight/length to the boolit and get it into the 150's? As stated this mold might work on everything from the 310 cadet to any of the 7.62/7.65/7.6?? rounds made for the military rifle market 1900 to 1944.

Whoever made this mold had a creative idea and I'd like to know more about what his intentions were.

Sadly we may never find out and thats to bad. Many people are not recognized for creative work and they should be.

[machinisttx]

might work well in a Finnish Mil-Surp? 7.62 x 53 rimmed....just a thought....through the right sizer that might be a nice boolit in a m38?

AFAIK, the Finns used barrels with .308" bores. Also AFAIK, the Finns never built any carbines such as the M38.

[AriM]

AFAIK, the Finns used barrels with .308" bores. Also AFAIK, the Finns never built any carbines such as the M38.

the Finn's are sized between .308 and .310.....310 should be great through one of those...the .312 base would be no bueno, but push through a sizer and it looks like a good boolit for an m38

and indeed there are Finnish mosin nagant m38's....look it up [smilie=w:

in fact heres a picture of a lovely example

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/7453/finnmn38sling.jpg

[hornsurgeon]

ok, ok, ok. i have had many pm's, emails, etc about selling this mold. i will admit, i have no use for it. i will post something in the classifieds, will title it "unusual mold".