Brass bullet mold from Italy

[Ferryboatcaptain]

Gave 10 bucks for a minie ball mold marked made in Italy. Measured with my calipers it shows to be for a . 58 caliber . Anybody have good luck making bullets with one of these? Did they come with the Italian made rifles ? I recently purchased an Antonio Zoli 58 caliber rifle so I am ready to try it out. FBC

 

[Ferryboatcaptain]

More pics

 

[Ferryboatcaptain]

More pics

Anybody ????

 

[towgunner11h]

I have a Zoli- never have seen that mold. My guess is it will work great. Looks well designed/made. Curious what size ball it casts. My musket has a .581" bore.

 

[Ferryboatcaptain]

I have a Zoli- never have seen that mold. My guess is it will work great. Looks well designed/made. Curious what size ball it casts. My musket has a .581" bore.

Its supposed to be cooler next week here in North Arkansas . I'm going to get out and cast a few to see what size they fall. Brass looking mold . Guess I'll smoke it like I do my aluminum molds. FBC

 

[hanshi]

I own and have used several brass molds over the years and am/was satisfied with them. Most of mine are either aluminum or iron.

 

[Buckskinquin]

Anybody ????

Not sure of the dimensions of the minie from that mold. Appears to be a bit shorter than the 575213 Lyman mold. BE sure you have soft lead, I pour from a ladle to insure filling cavity as quickly as possible. The mold will take some time to warm up and until it does, you probably won’t be happy with the results. It’ll be interesting how thin the skirt is on finished minies. I use 50 gr of 3F to charge all my minies, at 50 and 100 yard targets. You’ll have to see what the Zoli likes. Your charge has to expand the skirt to engage rifling and then have enough force to propel it down range. Please post pics of cast minies with dimensions and weight.

 

[Ferryboatcaptain]

Not sure of the dimensions of the minie from that mold. Appears to be a bit shorter than the 575213 Lyman mold. BE sure you have soft lead, I pour from a ladle to insure filling cavity as quickly as possible. The mold will take some time to warm up and until it does, you probably won’t be happy with the results. It’ll be interesting how thin the skirt is on finished minies. I use 50 gr of 3F to charge all my minies, at 50 and 100 yard targets. You’ll have to see what the Zoli likes. Your charge has to expand the skirt to engage rifling and then have enough force to propel it down range. Please post pics of cast minies with dimensions and weight.

When I get some cast I will post measurements . I shoot Lee minies in my other rifles and like them very well. Thanks all. FBC

 

[rmark]

I looked through the 1977 and 1998 Dixie Gunworks catalogs without seeing anything that matched.

 

[kh54]

Hey @Ferryboatcaptain - have you cast those bullets so we can see pics? I’d like to know how they turned out. (Pretty please?)

 

[Ferryboatcaptain]

Hey @Ferryboatcaptain - have you cast those bullets so we can see pics? I’d like to know how they turned out. (Pretty please?)

Bullets turned out ok but certainly not great. The mold I believe came from Dixie gun works many years ago. Not impressed with it at all . Bullets measured about 584 thousandths. Probably need to be run through a lee sizer to get them down the barrel. I have good luck with the Lee improved minie ball bullets in my other muzzleloaders so May end up buy another mold .

 

[kh54]

Thanks for the reply. I've found the best Minié ball molds for me to be either the Lyman 575213-OS or a couple of Rapine molds that I use, depending on the gun I'm shooting. My Enfields (three Parker Hales and one
Armi Sport) all like the Lyman mold, sized to .575. My Miroku 1861 and 1863 Springfields (both bores are .581) like the Rapine 583-455, sized to .579. I'm still experimenting with two other Rapine molds, 577-455 and 577-460. No results yet.

If you're patient, you can find good quality used molds from online sources like eBay. I got all of my Minié molds used, except for the Lyman. And the Rapine molds have been like new and cast perfect Miniés.

Some time ago I tried to place an order with Moose Molds. The owner, (let's call him Mr. Moose) was not helpful at all. Only once did he respond to an inquiry; afterward he ignored all my emails and voice messages. I heard that Mr. Moose had some domestic difficulties that made him difficult to reach, but after four or five attempts I gave up.