.451 "Quad mold"

[Todd M]

Has been a couple months since I casted anything. It felt good to try this new-to-me mold out! I found this mold on ebay a few months ago to feed my Colt 1860 brass copy. I cast up 9 lbs of lead and had only 9 rejects: partially filled out balls. Ball weight ranged from 133.3 - 135.7gn. Diameter was NOT round, but .452 one way and up to .455 the other. Being blackpowder pistol fodder, I'm not too concerned. The mold ran very smooth, with the occasional sprue screw needing tightened. Have to put set screws in this one. I had to make my own mold to handle screws from machine screws to fit Lyman mold handles. Any info on who might have made the mold is a appreciated.

 

[Brad]

Interesting mould. I have a similar one that is a 530 round ball on one side and a 54 maxi on the other. Kind of a pain to cast both at once with all the twisting but being able to cast one or the other is nice.

 

[Todd M]

I also have a Modern Bond .224 that someone cut a air gun pellet cavity into the other side, haven't tried that one yet.

 

[fiver]

that's a lyman/ideal mold body.
it could have been cut for Dixie, or even Navy Arms back in the day.
Pedersoli also used those style of blocks to cut molds for their rifles.

if it's cut as a flip over style mold it is a custom. [I'd say cherry cut too which dates it a touch]
if it say's ideal on the side I'd say factory custom.

 

[Todd M]

The only marking whatsoever on it is a very faint electric pencil/etch that says 451.

 

[Todd M]

I'm curious fiver, what makes you say it's a Lyman/Ideal?

 

[Todd M]

Another thing. I realized about halfway thru my pot of lead that I was casting round balls for a BP revolver out of COWW lead. I figured it was ok since they aren't severely oversize. However I came across a comment that forcing a hard lead ball thru the forcing cone will be pretty stressful, plus mine is a brass frame. What do you think? Do I need to melt em down and recast out of pure or can I use these up? I have 450+

 

[fiver]

getting them in the cylinder is the hard part.
the little ram on the pistol isn't the strongest thing out there.

if you look at the mold itself the pins, sprue plate, and the vent lines give it away.
plus those are lyman handles.

 

[freebullet]

Do I need to melt em down and recast out of pure or can I use these up? I have 450+

If they fit to tight maybe you could run them in a pushthrough sizer. Would sure beat remelting.

 

[Todd M]

I loaded and shot one over 20 gn FFG this morning, didn't have time for a cylinder full before I left. But it didn't load too hard, I don't feel like it's unnecessarily stressing the loading ram. Almost NO recoil and blew up the apple I aimed at 20 ft away. With the flame, smoke, and gentle shove of BP, I see how this could get addicting!

 

[fiver]

oh it does............ until you gotta clean the thing.

 

[Todd M]

Time will tell. As a kid I hated cleaning
my muzzleloader. This looks easier, smaller and easily pulled down.

 

[fiver]

if it's like Littlegirls you just pull the wedge and it comes right apart.
I have to put it together for her but she cleans it so it's not too bad.

 

[Brad]

You quickly learn to totally strip the revolver. A toothbrush and soapy water make quick work of things.

 

[Ian]

Cleaning the cap residue is the worst. Stuff gets HARD around the nipples and inside the bottom of the chambers.

Lyman used to sell blank mould block sets, all ready to go except for the cavities, which is probably the origin of the mould, someone just bored it and bought another sprue plate and hardware kit to add. Notice the vent lines continue all the way across one side, but stop short on the other in typical Lyman/ideal two-cavity fashion (when they had any vents at all), indicating it originally was a conventional blank set.

 

[Todd M]

Thanks for the tips guys!