Victory Molds for sale?

[500bfrman]

Anybody heard anything about this?

[onceabull]

FOR SALE; That's what it says on the website... Onceabull

[montana_charlie]

I have the impression a series of things is forcing the sale...if he can find a buyer.

- He started getting so many orders, his one-man shop was having trouble keeping up.
- An illness in the family put him further behind, and disgruntled customers probably got rather 'unkind'.
- He is having trouble producing moulds fast enough to keep the bills paid.

If he finds a buyer, I sure hope the new owner decides to use Steve's venting method. It sure makes it easy to pour perfect bullets.
CM

[500bfrman]

I sent him an email to see if he was still taking orders. He is but stressed itwould take a very very long time to complete. Sounds like he is working close to 100 hours a week, and not on molds.

[Wayne Smith]

Dick Trenk put a message on the BPCR board that since Pedersoli owns the PGT design he is having the molds made in Italy at the Cremona plant. (probably poor spelling throughout!) He is personally evaluating and sending back pre-production samples with suggestions for improvement and working with Dr. Gunn to slightly re-design the bullet. Expect a reasonable to good mold at a lower price sometime late this year or early next year if you want one.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I bought mine last year and there is no finer mould that I have. Easy to use and once casting temp is set, the reject rate is as low as 3%.

I'm sorry to see the "little man" struggling to make a living but I doubt the massed produced version will ever be as good! Note the venting system and the 3 alignment pins.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/PGTmold.jpg

[Buckshot]

...........I suppose those horizontal and vertical milled lines must be a form of venting, but without a doubt that is a very finely crafted cavity!

...............Buckshot

[Greg5278]

Steve will get you a fine mold, but right now you can't push him. My relatives are machinists, and praise his innovative mold designs and work very highly. His hollow base molds are the best design I have ever used, I am sending him a set of blocks to bore next week. I told him I would be patient. Greg

[montana_charlie]

I suppose those horizontal and vertical milled lines must be a form of venting,
Buckshot,
Those grooves follow a bit different line than the loaner I got to use, but they are the 'chimneys' that the venting feeds into. The actual venting of the cavity happens because the faces of the blocks don't touch each other...except at the four corners.
When I closed the loaner I used, and looked at it from any side, I could see right through.

So air, trying to get away from hot lead, isn't confined to itty-bitty grooves leading away from the cavity...it just blasts out in all directions.
If you were the near-sighted type who casts close to his nose, it would probably blow your hat off.

But there are no fins...
CM

[mazo kid]

Montana Charlie, I too got to use the "loaner mould" and cast up about 300 or so boolits. Still haven't loaded any, but they are supposed to be set up especially for the Pedersoli chamber. Sure are nice looking boolits!

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I used the Victory PGT bullet exclusively in the Creedmoor 2006 shoot in Brisbane and it performed perfectly.
We had wind blowing 20-35mph that would fair tear a cattle dog off his chain, but the Victory bullet was so consistant in its performance that several strings of 5-6 hits were achieved.
Load was 75gn Wano PP with 541gn bullet cast 1:30 in a 45/90 case.

[mazo kid]

BAW, the bullets I cast were also in the 1:30 alloy and mine dropped at 550 gr. I haven't had the opportunity to load any yet, but hope the time will come soon. I had heard from one other user of the loaner mold and he said his experience was not as good as using the heavy Lyman mold. I am optimistic of the outcome as this mold was created specifically for the Pedersoli rifling. Thanks for sharing your use of the mold. Emery

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Note that my 45/90 rifle has a chamber cut with a "match reamer" from a Pedersoli 45/70. The lead has a much shallower angle then the original factory and chamber cast indicated and allows me to seat the first groove of the PGT out of the case. This may contribute to my better result. I am certainly happy with the finished rifle.
http://bpcr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=668&highlight=

[montana_charlie]

my 45/90 rifle has a chamber cut with a "match reamer" from a Pedersoli 45/70. The lead has a much shallower angle then the original factory and chamber cast indicated and allows me to seat the first groove of the PGT out of the case.
Bad Ass,
I, too, have a Pedersoli .45-70 which has been gouged out to .45-90. Mine was done by Lee Shaver, using a reamer cut to his specifications.

Before deciding to go the 'rechamber route', I did a lot of studying of the various commonly used chambers. The biggest difference between them...and between them and the Pedersoli...is in the throat, rather than in the leade.

The chamber cut by Shaver in my rifle has a throat of one tenth of an inch. This pretty much matches the standard dimensions for a .45-90 WIN reamer. The leade angle is 1.5 degrees (per side).

The .45 2.4 Sharps Straight chamber used by Shiloh (for example) has a throat which is only half as long as mine. The leade angle for that reamer is a pretty steep 2 1/2 degrees.

I tried hard to get a chamber cast from somebody with a standard Pedersoli chamber, but was unsuccessful. The best I could get was a 'verbal picture' from Dick Trenk.

According to the dimensions sent me by Dick, the Pedersoli chamber has a (long) untapered throat (you could also call it the freebore) of .236 inches, and a leade angle of "1 degree, 11 minutes, 37 seconds per side". That is even shallower than the angle cut by a .45-90 WIN reamer.

According to email discussions with Steve (at Victory), Dick Trenk, and Dr. Gunn, the PGT bullet was designed to be a good bullet, with a good BC (so it should shoot well in any rifle)...but it's main advantage is (supposed to be) that the nose fits the Pedersoli chamber dimensions. The ogive and first band apparently lay right up into that lead angle with two points of contact, holding the bullet well-centered in the bore, and the driving bands fill the throat diameter.

I don't know how far out of the case the bullet can sit with that .236" throat, but I suspect it would allow one grease groove to be exposed. The main advantage of that is the extra powder capacity.
(I have a private suspicion that long throat existed in the original Sharps rifle which Pedersoli used for their 'pattern gun'. I wouldn't be surprised if that old timer had been used with paper patched bullets.)

You have some other Pedersoli guns, Bad Ass, with factory chambers. Can you do a chamber cast on a .45-70 to see if the front end of the chamber matches the dimensions Dick sent me?

I have this thought in the back of my head that (someday) I might get a throating reamer made to 'adjust' my chamber into the Pedersoli shape...but I would like to have more confidence that I know what that shape is.

CM

[Greg5278]

I spoke with Steve Fotou at Victory molds this morning. He will be relocating in the near future, so the backlog on orders is indefinite. I guess he will resume orders at a later date, and when he can get free time. I have bunch of ideas for molds, but I guess I have to wait. There are very few people capable of making molds larger than .50 caliber.

Greg

[montana_charlie]

I'm still hoping Bad Ass Wallace (or somebody) can do a chamber cast of a standard Pedersoli chamber...and post the throat and leade numbers.
CM