Challenger Minie-ball mold

[DutchmanDick]

Has anybody heard of a "Challenger" brand bullet mold? I just bought a used (but excellent condition) Challenger brand Minie ball mold from www.thegunworks.com for my original P1853 Enfield. It is supposed to cast a 505 grain, .580 diameter "old style" Minie (I got the .580 because my musket's bore is oversized - a .575 drops right down a clean bore with no ramrod pressure). The mold blocks are aluminum and it has a permanently mounted cavity pin like a Lee or a Rapine mold does, and it came with handles. Unlike the Lee molds, the metal part of the handles appears to be cast of some sort of alloy (or maybe cast iron?) and the hinge is held together by a roll pin. It is good and tight, though, and opens and closes fairly smoothly with no slop in it. Overall is LOOKS like a well-made mold. The people at The Gun Works told me Challenger made molds in the 1970's and 1980's. I've just never heard of them.

 

[scrat]

never heard of them either you should post this in the black powder section. there are a lot of members in there that shoot enfields. Im kinda stuck on the R.E.A.L mold myself. i have had some pretty good luck.

 

[Johnny Guest]

Moving thread

A lot more members who mess with black powder arms will see this on the Black Powder Forum.

Good luck to you.
Johnny

 

[Tomb29]

the lyman mold (575213 new style 510 grain) will cast a bullet that will size to .577/.578 (at least mine does) the thinner skirt will expand easier to form in the rifling. You should have about .0015 clearance on the round and it should slide down a clean barrel with a nice air cushion sound as it goes down. Add some crisco to the cavity and dont clean or swab between shots and you will see a difference in the way it shoots. Think carbon seal AKA dirtying the barrel

 

[bonza]

D.D. Do the mold handles have some scroll work built in to the casting? If so it sounds like a Minie mold I bought from Dixie a couple of years back on clearance. The mold block casts a decent bullet, but the alloy handles didn't last long (sheared off below pivot-point). I was able to fit the blocks onto a set of RCBS handles.

 

[jfl1950]

Model # 582515

I have a model #582515 did you find what you were looking for?
Just curious what you paid for yours there are two now on ebay for sale. the other one is a model #582525.

 

[hawkeye74]

An old mould made 25 + years ago. Decent mould. Most of their moulds I have seen were over sized, wadcutter style bullets.