Kinda rare

[358156 hp]

As some of you have suspected, I have an obsession of sorts about moulds, primarily single-cavity Ideas. And although I do have great respect for Elmer Keiths work, I tend to follow Ray Thompsons work for the "classic" designs. One thing that I was never able to figure out was the apparent non-existence of unvented Thompson designs. For the longest time I've pored over the pictures on Thompson moulds on the auction sites hoping to prove or disprove their existence. And then at long last:


I hit "buy it now" and received the mould a few days later. Guess what the first this I saw when I opened the box.

This is one of the original run of moulds Ray had Ideal make for him to sell in the early 1950s. He used to put out flyers advertising his design for sale, I've seen copies of these flyers in Taffins "Book of the 44". This mould is straight from his days with the "44 Associates". I've read what little information remains about the group, those really were some wild times. If anybody has any better information on these mould I'd really appreciate any info you may have. I have other 431244s, and 429244s but they're all vented. I wonder if there are any 358156 unvented? I'll keep looking now.

 

[TXTad]

Sooooo....ya gonna cast some bullets with it?

 

[358156 hp]

I'm a little nervous about this one. It has already been used so there should be no issue there, but I have more common versions of 431244, and 429244 to cast with. Information from this era is hard to come by, but I'm beginning to suspect that the 431 prefix moulds were made for private sale (Ray Thompson), and that they were changed to the 429 prefix when Ideal/Lyman started offering them for sale through their distribution network. For contrast, Keith 429421 was never called "431429" so this wasn't just a matter of standardizing nominal dimensions. This would seem to be a fantasy except that appears to have been similarly done with Jim Harvey. We still see a number of Ideal "Harvey Protex" moulds in original Lakeville Arms packaging on auctions. Proving the exact timing on anything with Lyman seems to be a lost cause.

The best information I've found on this is in John Taffins "Book of the 44" which shows undated mould sales flyers from Ray Thompsons mould sales on page 480.

 

[JonB]

Grand Marais, Minn.
I didn't know that.

 

[JonB]

I wonder if there are any 358156 unvented? I'll keep looking now.

I have a minty old Ideal 358156 sgl cav with original box.
I just checked...it is vented.
just thought I'd share a little useless into.
I also checked my notes, it's drops a .359 bullet (using range scrap alloy)

 

[358156 hp]

I went as far as to read his obituary. IIRC, he died in 1969 at the age of 87.

I had never seen any unvented Thompson mould until I saw this one. I just thought the timing was about right, and there could have been some made. I'll keep looking, it keeps me out of the bingo parlors

 

[Bret4207]

Great line of moulds!

 

[fiver]

maybe the round lube groove gives another clue?

 

[Bazoo]

WOW that is cool as heck. I had no idea they even existed.

 

[358156 hp]

WOW that is cool as heck. I had no idea they even existed.

Neither did I until I actually found one. I've long known about the history of Ray Thompson and his designs, but finding this mould and backtracking from there led me to a segment of Ideal history I hadn't considered before. This is harder of course because of the lack of old records from Ideal/Lyman. Taffins book validated some of my assumptions, and I'm always on the lookout for more information on the subject.

 

[Bazoo]

Neither did I until I actually found one. I've long known about the history of Ray Thompson and his designs, but finding this mould and backtracking from there led me to a segment of Ideal history I hadn't considered before. This is harder of course because of the lack of old records from Ideal/Lyman. Taffins book validated some of my assumptions, and I'm always on the lookout for more information on the subject.

I appreciate your sharing. I haven't had a chance to read Taffin's book, though It's on my short list of must-haves.