old bullet mold

bought this off bay on a gamble that paid off in my mind even if just a historical keepsake.

measures .29 something but is oblong shape.

corrosion .31 cal or did they make a smaller mold way back when?


camo

That’s a neat one. I’ve got a bunch of old stuff, but not any old bullet molds. I like it.

TDM said:

That’s a neat one. I’ve got a bunch of old stuff, but not any old bullet molds. I like it.

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thanks

bit did they make anything smaller than .31 cal way back when ?

camo

Looks like an old antique round ball mold provided to the buyer of a rifle by the gunsmith that crafted the gun. Now-a-days , folks call these molds , "bag moulds". Somebody around the m/l universe will make one , if desired to complete the authentic ingredients in your historicaly correct shot pouch.

Nearly any size bore was made at some point, rifle, pistol and maybe even buck shot for your scatter gun!

camoloc said:

thanks

bit did they make anything smaller than .31 cal way back when ?

camo

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Yes, as @oldwood and @Phil Coffins said.

TDM said:

Yes, as @oldwood and @Phil Coffins said.

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well.....guess I'll keep her for a shadow box collection then !!!!!

camo

camoloc said:

well.....guess I'll keep her for a shadow box collection then !!!!!

camo

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Absolutely, they’re just neat to have whether you use them or not.

there is one like that in my barn but I think its a conical.

That may be a mould for buckshot, not a rifle ball. A few years ago I got a 24 caliber round ball mould off Fleabay for buck loads in my .54 caliber smoothbore. 3 .24 caliber ball fit nicely in a paper patched stack in my barrel.
Ohio Rusty ><>

I don't think the old guys used to cast a lot of balls at one time: I've got a couple of old moulds and have cast balls out of them - the handles get real hot real quick. But I agree they are delightful pieces of historical kit.

camoloc said:

thanks

bit did they make anything smaller than .31 cal way back when ?

camo

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They’ve made about any caliber you can dream up…

Reading about an eminent Indian attack on an 18th century fort in Ky. , it was noted that wives and young folk were told to cast as many rifle balls as possible to assist in defence. Would have been interesting to observe this operation. A lot of forum questions could be answered from this experience.

camoloc said:

thanks

bit did they make anything smaller than .31 cal way back when ?

camo

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I made a soap stone mould to cast for a 290 cal barrel hard to cut off the sprue neatly I expect the maker was useing drop shot. It was an old unused barrel stamped G Tyler We have no Squirrel's so I made it in the style of a flint Baltic bird gun from the Visser collection auction Catalogue takes a massive charge of a whole 15 grains .
Rudyard

camoloc said:

bought this off bay on a gamble that paid off in my mind even if just a historical keepsake.

measures .29 something but is oblong shape.

corrosion .31 cal or did they make a smaller mold way back when?

View attachment 304197View attachment 304198
camo

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Neat old mold with the sprue cutter below the hinge. I've made quite a few bullet molds lathe bored and a few conical bullet cherry's but never have taken the time to make a ball cherry as one can get about any diameter of ball mold from Lee so cheaply it didn't make any sense to go to the trouble of making a ball cherry. Vaining a ball cherry with wave pattern flutes using a file is a real job although forming the round body with a hole die of hard steel after paring it down in a lathe would be pretty straight forward.
I'm quite sure these molds were never used much for volume work as by the time the mold gets hot enough to cast good balls the short handles are to hot to hold even with heavy gloved hands. I'd bet many a wrinkled ball was produced with these short handled iron molds.
I've never seen any with wood handles adapted to them either which would make them a great deal more user friendly.

Some early Colts were .28 caliber, the pocket Pattersons. That cavity does not look that round though.

The Doc is out now.

M. De Land said:

Neat old mold with the sprue cutter below the hinge. I've made quite a few bullet molds lathe bored and a few conical bullet cherry's but never have taken the time to make a ball cherry as one can get about any diameter of ball mold from Lee so cheaply it didn't make any sense to go to the trouble of making a ball cherry. Vaining a ball cherry with wave pattern flutes using a file is a real job although forming the round body with a hole die of hard steel after paring it down in a lathe would be pretty straight forward.
I'm quite sure these molds were never used much for volume work as by the time the mold gets hot enough to cast good balls the short handles are to hot to hold even with heavy gloved hands. I'd bet many a wrinkled ball was produced with these short handled iron molds.
I've never seen any with wood handles adapted to them either which would make them a great deal more user friendly.

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Thats bit about the quality of casting makes me wonder how accurate those boys expected to be. There’s a fairly decent gain to be had by weighing balls or bullets and eliminating casting voids.

Bad Karma said:

Thats bit about the quality of casting makes me wonder how accurate those boys expected to be. There’s a fairly decent gain to be had by weighing balls or bullets and eliminating casting voids.

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I could tell that voids in bullets or improper fill out of base or grease groove making a big difference in my scores when shooting mid range competitively out to 600 yards where I had to keep the weights within +/- .75 grains in 500 grain bullets. That means the total weight spread is not more than 1.5 grains. This was with my 45-70 black powder cartridge target rifle using double aperture Soule style target sights. These are nearly the accuracy equal of a good target scope when dialed in for the individual.
Most of my long range target competition with round balls has not been over 100 yards and I never could tell a lick of difference between my cast ball accuracy and swaged ball use.
This of course using open target sights not aperture sights.
I never have weighed or segregated round balls cast or swaged so would need to test that aspect to see if I could tell a difference.
I always have cast hot enough (750 F.) of alloy and mold to show a bit of frost on ball or bullet and flux often which keeps the slag down producing less voids.
Also have found that using a good casting ladle with a spout rather than a bottom pour pot enables more consistent weights drawing alloy from the center of the melt instead of the bottom where slag tends to build up.
Cadence of the pour is also an important factor in consistent fill out weight of ball or bullet.
Ball casting is dead simple in comparison to heavy bullet casting and is an excellent platform for learning good casting protocol .