Ideal 375248 mold

I have a few old Ideal molds and they all seem to cast really good boolits. I'm wondering if I'm just lucky with the Ideal molds or do they just cast better? I bought this 2 cavity mold off eBay for $65.00 with free shipping and it was delivered this past Monday. Mold was in good condition with no rust or dings. So Wednesday I cast about half a pot of lead with the mold. Preheated on a hotplate and started casting and rejected a very few boolit. The results were exactly what I'd hoped for, they measured .382 & weighted 257.7 plus and minus a few tenths of grains and filled out excellent. Sized .380 and lubed them up today and loaded 30 test loads. I've been shooting the Lee 250 grain bullet in 3 of my 38-55's with good results. If the wind every stops gusting I will see if they shoot as good as they look. I would like to hear what results others have had with this mold. Thanks

wcp

Keep in mind that Lyman stopped using the IDEAL name on their molds in the 1950's. So that mold is a least 62+ years old. It's cast enough bullets that all the problems have been "cast" out of it. I have an OLD 4cav that absolutely Rains perfect bullets every time it's opened. And it's only 60 years old.

A friend who shoots a Uberti high wall in 38-55 talked me into selling him my oils SC Ideal 375248 because with soft alloy it dropped bullets at .383 or larger. The oversized Italian bore shoots those big bullets very well as cast. I couldn’t say no to him!

Froggie

Thanks for the comments guys. I had a good day yesterday to do some shooting and I am really pleased with the way this old Ideal mold works in my Browning traditional hunter. Shot 30 rounds in 10shot groups with different loads and all were winners. The best was with 10.0 grains of Unique. I may try going up just a little more on the charge to see what happens but this gun and load like each other. Here are the results.

wcp
Attachment 300216 Attachment 300217 Attachment 300218

A few years back I had JES rebore my H&R Handi-Rifle in 30-30 up to 38/55. I wanted this rifle to be solely a cast boolit project. After getting the "hunting" speed loads testing done, I worked on a milder load as a "finishing shot" project if the need ever arrived. I have a pair of Ideal molds: 375248 (255 gr. plain base) and 375296 (265 gr. GC pattern). My pre-determined load for testing was 10.0 gr. Unique. With all specs for these loads the same except for the boolits, the 375248 shot groups were always smaller than the heavier weight 375296 groups. I tested these loads at various distances from 25 yards out to 100 yards and the groups always told me the same story: the plain base boolits produced tighter groups than the GC boolit groups at all distances.

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Originally Posted by Thin Man

A few years back I had JES rebore my H&R Handi-Rifle in 30-30 up to 38/55.

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I have a H&R Target Classic 38-55 and its a fun one to shoot. I have only shot the Lee 250RNFP and it does quite well using 9.0 grains Unique. I have not tried my new to me 375248 in the Target Classic but Ill bet it will shoot good as well. Mine only get cast shot in it as well.

wcp

That is my go to mold for the 38 55. I my experience the old Ideal molds are some of the best you can get.

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Originally Posted by pworley1

That is my go to mold for the 38 55. I my experience the old Ideal molds are some of the best you can get.

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I'm coming to that conclusion and have started searching for Ideal molds during my searches on eBay. I bought 4 Ideal molds at a gun show about 6 months ago and one was a 257418 spitzer and I shoot it in a 25Bullberry contender and like it a lot.

wcp