question on bullet mold

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  • Last Post 01 May 2021
sluggo posted this 19 April 2021

Hello to the forum: I recently picked up five .45 cal. bullet molds. This is the one I have a question about. Do any of our members know what its purpose is. Target? Hunting? I have not seen this style before. Would it be best cast of a hard alloy or soft? I do know it would not be a good choice for any of my tube magazine 45-70's!  Thanks for any help on this. 

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Hornet posted this 19 April 2021

Interesting design. I'd try running a couple dozen out of something in the 20:1 or maybe wheelweight range just to check actual as- cast dimensions and maybe tweak the alloy a bit if the size is off a bit. Might do well at a long range attempt with harder alloys, probably work for hunting if it will work with a soft alloy (.45's aren't too bad, even of they don't expand much).

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Bud Hyett posted this 19 April 2021

Reminds me somewhat of the Lyman 429303 that was designed in the 1930's for law enforcement to be able to penetrate body armor. It did not work out and quietly went away.

I found a 429303 mold at the Pomona Gun Show and cast some bullets with it. Not better than the Keith 429421 for accuracy. Then another shooter saw this mold and fell in love with it. He offered too much and soon owned it. 

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 20 April 2021

because of the sharp shoulder behind the nose, i doubt there is any aerodynamic advantage to the nose ... but perhaps it was an attempt to get a wadcutter to feed more smoothly ... but what 45 rifle came with a box magazine. ?

more likely it was the result of a stroke of genius design brought on about 20 am after a few liters of red ...

**************

that said, i would try it out ...  it looks as though the root diameter of the lube grooves is way under bore diameter, and you would think the bullet would deform erratically at 1500 fps ...  but what if it doesn't ?  many good things have been discovered from experiments that don't obey predictions ...

thanks for showing us this  .. i also like to look at the old Lyman mold designs, many of which seem a little goofy ... 

ken

 

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TRKakaCatWhisperer posted this 20 April 2021

It MIGHT be, likely not, that it was a normal pointy bullet that someone ran a drill/reamer down and enlarged the grooves.

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delmarskid posted this 20 April 2021

It may have been for a muzzleloader.

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sluggo posted this 20 April 2021

Thanks eveyone for your ideas. All of these molds were incomplete to different degrees. I have to make a sprue cutting plate for this one. When that is done i will cast some bullets with it and see how they measure up. I never heard about that lyman 429303 mold. Sounds interesting. Maybe someone spent a weekend in the bottle and came up with this as Ken suggested. At first i thought it might have been made to have a plastic or metal tip glued on it. That did seem very likely to me though. Thanks again for any ideas on it.

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Lee Guthrie posted this 20 April 2021

Ideal    429303   200gr  HyVelopen  GC

One wonders what it would do if cast from 90% linotype and 10% Lawrence magnum alloy bird shot, fully heat treated, and coated with teflon.  This bullet looks like it was ran into an old style pencil sharpener.  During the time of its creation a "bullet proof" vest consisted of several layers of tightly woven cloth fabric:  out of a hot loaded .44 Special it would probably penetrate quite a bit.

Lyman    358093    125 gr. HyVelopen  GC            The .357 Mag not to be outdone ..............

 

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RicinYakima posted this 20 April 2021

Having used both of those, they are pretty much one shot ponies. They sold moulds, but didn't do anything a round nose of the same weight would not do. 

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BigMan54 posted this 20 April 2021

Is that an old Lachmiller mold ?

Is it .458 ?

Long time Caster/Reloader, Getting back into it after almost 10yrs. Life Member NRA 40+yrs, Life S.A.S.S. #375. Does this mean a description of me as a fumble-fingered knuckle-draggin' baboon. I also drool in my sleep. I firmly believe that true happiness is a warm gun. Did I mention how much I HATE auto-correct on this blasted tablet.

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sluggo posted this 20 April 2021

I could not find any markings on the mold. The base measures .460

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Brodie posted this 21 April 2021

It looks a great deal like the bullets that were used in the Whitworth rifles during the Civil War.  Only those bullets were hexagonal to fit the Whitworth barrel and generally paper patched.The nose is the same as the ones I have seen on the internet.

B.E.Brickey

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Hunter0528 posted this 30 April 2021

actually it was developed by Carl F Hudson .  It is th the lyman handbook of cast bullet catalog from around late 50's early 60's

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sluggo posted this 01 May 2021

Do you know what he designed the bullet to be used for?

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