Mold question: Who designed #321232?

[Maven]

Floodgate, et al, I have an Ideal #321232 (with integral handles) in excellent condition and couldn't help but note its similarity to #311403/-08403, which is a Harry Pope design. Was #321232 also designed by him? As you know, it was designed for the .32-40, but I size it to .314" and use it and 14gr. WC 820 in my Type 56 SKS and get unexpectedly good results.

[Bent Ramrod]

Maven,

The 321232 I have listed has no designer credited, at least in the Ideal Handbook #27 or the first Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook. It was for the Win and Marlin .32 Spl. lever actions, with the first groove acting as a combination dirt scraper and crimp groove. Perhaps the land ahead of this first groove is slightly smaller than the rest of the grooves in your mold, giving it a "tapered" look, but the woodcuts and photos I have of this design looks pretty straight. There is no notation of body taper in the Ideal handbook, only that it also works in .32-40's that have worn slightly oversize in the bore.

[floodgate]

Maven:

To expand a bit on Dave's comments, #321232 first showed up in Ideal Handbook No. 15 (1903) and was carried without interruption right up to the Lyman Annual Products Catalog for 1961, switching to the removable block design some time after Lyman took over the Ideal line in the Fall of 1925. The entry in HB #15 states, "321232. This is for the Winchester Special and Marlin .32 H. P. [High Power]. The first groove is a dirt catcher, or for lubrication. When seated with the regular tools [i.e., the tong tools with integral, non-adjustable seat/crimp chamber] the shell crimps in the second groove. It is fine for such .32-40's as are worn a trifle large [.32-40 bullets of that era were listed with a "319" size-to prefix]. Price of single mould only.....REGULAR LIST $1.10 [OUCH!!!]"

There is no indication of the bands being tapered - as for the Pope .32-40 designs - and the "dirt catcher" groove is more typical of the designs by Horace Kephart, though he is not specifically named as the designer.

Doug

[Maven]

Mine is definitely tapered, from ~.319" on the front band to ~.321" on the rear (don't have a slug in front of me as I write). It looks like a cross between #311403 (or -08403) and the more modern #31141. Thanks for your help!