Lyman 429337

[ranger391xt]

A few months back I picked up the subject mold on an auction. I had never seen one of these, and a search of the web did not yield any results about it. It is not listed in the various documents I have about lyman molds, so I mainly snagged it out of curiosity.

It appears to be a 44 spl/44 mag SWC with a bevel base. With my alloy it is dropping boolits at 240 gr.

Was curious if anyone else has one of these and what their experience has been loading and shooting it?






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[rintinglen]

That is quite the oddity. I went through both the Lyman 1st and 2nd Cast Bullet Manuals, as well as the 46th Edition of their Reloading Handbook, as well as the 39th and 45th editions and none of them had a #337 Cherry. The nose resembles that of the 354(7)-443 or the 40388, but this is clearly a bevel base and those were both plain based. I wonder if it was a "one-off" from back in the days when somebody with an Idea and a fist full of dollars could get custom molds from Lyman. Maybe one of the more knowledgeable collectors will chime in and enlighten us, but for me, at least for now, it's a mystery.

[405grain]

I notice that the lube grooves are squared, not rounded. It looks like it would be a really good bullet for the 44 Special, (or 44 Special level loads in 44 Mag).

[Green Frog]

From the style and number, I would guess it was produced in the period of the ‘30s to perhaps as late as the early ‘50s, probably in the earlier range. This was the time when the 44 Spl and its proponents got active, eventually leading to the development of the 44 Mag. Just looking at it, I would say it should be well lubed with that big, square groove, load easily with the bevelled base, cut a good hole in paper or seriously damage tissue. If a cowboy in Idaho hadn't designed and publicized his own version so successfully, it might have become a standard. Instead, nobody here seems to have even heard of it.

if it were mine, I'd cast up a few dozen with medium hard alloy and load them in 44 Spl cases using proven loads recommended for use withthe 429421 and see how it does. Interesting find, regardless.

Froggie

[jrmartin1964]

The cherry number 337 appears in Lyman's Handbook of Cast Bullets (1958) where it is shown (see image below) as No.338337, a flat-nose, plain-base designed for the .33 Winchester cartridge. This same bullet appears in the Cast Bullet Handbook, 2nd Edition (1973), where its weight is given as 224 grains. Lyman-Ideal chronology would indicate cherry 337 should have originated between 1911 and 1927, but other that the two instances noted, this bullet does not appear in any of the literature.

As the mould in the original post is marked "LYMAN", it must date no earlier than about 1964, when Lyman dropped the old "IDEAL" name from their product line. Just a guess on my part, but I would venture that Lyman dropped No.338337 at some forgotten date and, as with more than a few others, reassigned that number to No.429337.

As previously recommended, following published data for a .44-caliber 240-grain cast bullet, I'd load up a few and send them downrange.

Jim

[MT Gianni]

429336 is a 250 gr swc that doesn't mention a bevel base. I wonder if someone just used the wrong punch? Per manual 46 it was used in manuals 22-41. Nope 41 shows 336 is a plain based and has no pictures of 44 caliber bevel bases.

[msp2640]

I have (2) 429336 moulds, both Ideal marked. Not sure it was around long enough for Lyman to brand it. As I've read, it was the design that became the 429421. That looks like a true hybrid....nose profile of the 357443, as mentioned above, diameter/lube groove/ weight of an early 421 and base of a 45266! Great find. Doubt that the CS of Lyman will be able to help with that one, as they couldn't help with info on any of the Freedom Arms Casull moulds they made in the 80s/90s. Hope you're able to track info on it somehow. Bill in MA

[376Steyr]

The bullet in the photo, with the big bevel on the base, looks vaguely familiar. I think it might date from the 1980's, when Lyman was having its last spasms of creativity before the corporate bean-counters gutted the number of mould offerings. I think it was briefly offered at the same time as the composite bullet line, which let you cast a hard body and a soft nose, then epoxy the two together. IIRC the .44 had .357 and .45 companions which also had large bevels. As I recall, there was some excitement at the time as it was the first additions to the Lyman line in years.