Tom Acheson
posted this
25 November 2013
I suspect that would be the mindset of most of us here. Utilitarian first. But....some of us also have a collector's “mindset” and enjoy learning the history of the things we end up owning, especially gun type things.
I recently bought a Marlin 336 lever action and was interested in knowing the year of manufacture. So it was off to the library to look William Brophy's book on Marlin firearms.
This is my first lever action and .375 nominal bore rifle (.38-55 Winch.). So I needed a mould to start things off. I learned that the Saeco #571 is a tapered bullet but the newest Lyman CB handbook says it won't work well in a lever action. I bought the mould anyway.
In talking with Robin Sharpless (replaced Bruce Merkur) at Redding Saeco, I learned that Robin, while he was at H&R and worked on the development of the .38-55 Target Model derivative of the Buffalo Classic, was involved with the design of the mould because at the time no one was making a SAAMI proper bullet and Richard Beebe was good enough to work with Robin at that time to have SAECO build a really proper target bullet mold.
That knowledge won't help the bullet work or not work well, but it is interesting, at least to me.
Regards,
Tom