Old Old Ideal molds

[KHornet]

The price was right at the time, so I bought two of the very early Ideal molds. The kind where the mold and the handles are intergral. Believe these two predate Gas Checks. One is marked 3022 165. The other is marked 308241 154. They are both in very good shape considering the age. For the first time in about 6 mo, I decided to cast, and thought I would give these a try.

The 322 cast like a charm, average weight for 20 of them was right at 165, and they miked right at .309.

The 308241 was haunted I think, as I only got 2 out of 20 that were acceptable. Miked about .310. They weighed right at 155.

They are obviously plain base molds, and if I didn't know better would swear was a lee multi groove bullet. Looks sort of like in profile 311291. The other the 242 looks a bit like slightly wider groove than a Lovern (sp) bullet. I think I will try sizing the 3022 to 309, with all grooves lubed for ten of them, and do 45-45-10 on the other 10 and shoot them in 30-30, at about 1200 or so. As to the other one, think I will try graphiting the cavity and give it another try

I had forgotten what a pain it is to cast small (30 cal and under) in a single cav mold. I remembered quickly once I started with these two.

If there is anyone on this forum who might have any knowledge of these two bullets, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

 

[Pistolero]

The six cavity modern molds sure spoil you. Makes single cavity molds seem glacial.

Bill

 

[KeithB]

Good score on the molds. One and two cavity molds make a lot more sense for a rifle than a pistol. I used to cast with two molds to stave off the frustration of working for an hour and only having 100-150 good bullets.

 

[462]

One of my four, single-cavity moulds is a Lyman 452374 that is used to feed the Randall 1911. It does take a good while to amass a 100 bullet pile, but gun related endeavors seem to be the only things in life that I have patience for.

 

[Bret4207]

Those sound really early. Way, way back when they were still trying to figure out how to make cast work with smokeless and velocity above 1400 fps there were a lot of oddball designs. Somewhere in my collection there are articles from guys like Ashley Haines or out of "Shooting and Fishing" or "Outers" showing cuts of the old styles that passed by the wayside. Some did indeed resemble a Lee Tumble Lube type design.

 

[KHornet]

Bret, they are kind of fascinating to me, the one that
has the multi grooveslike the modern lee molds in particular.

Paul

 

[4060MAY]

I have a 308241, casts fine, no integral handles, drops about .310, never weighed it
doesn't shoot as good as it looks in my 30-20, 30-30, I have a 6 cav. looks like a 311008, single GG, casts at .315, was a special from a guy on boolits, catshooter maybe? shoots well in any .30 cal I have
I could not find 3022 165, could it be 3082-165 ?

 

[4060MAY]

I remember I had a 37584 was almost tumble lube grooves, tried many times never could get it to fill out, IIRC the grooves were square on the bottom and maybe .040 wide, found someone who wanted it more than me