Old lyman bullet mold

[Isaiahjrod89]

Hello everyone, I'm new here and it sure if there is an existing forum that may cover a similar topic, but here goes. This passed weekend I found an old steel Lyman 4 cavity mold. Lyman number is 358242 95gr. Nothing too uncommon about this, but all that I've found so far is that this Lyman number is for 38 super colt. But I took a Mic to the mold and found it to be .439 and there is a 439 stamped on it. Along with "t ballard" and "567"

My question is, what cartridge/ firearm does this reload for?

 

[troy fairweather]

There is a good web page with all the info, I'll see if I can find it. Welcome to THR.

 

[Isaiahjrod89]

Thank you. Awesome, sounds good.

 

[troy fairweather]

http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/310/Lyman_Mold_Reference.html

 

[troy fairweather]

http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/Cast_Bullet/Ideal-Lyman_Molds/Ideal-Lyman_Mold_Descriptions.html

This maybe easier.

 

[Isaiahjrod89]

Thank you for the links. A lot of information, but doesn't quite help me pin point what's going on with my particular mold. I'm going to continue reading through the lists and see if I find anything. Thanks again.

 

[forrest r]

More likely then not it was a custom order mold
Lyman made a:
356242 90gr mold
356242 120gr mold

Same mold #'s different weights. Your's is a 358xxx mold, that tells you it drops a .358" bullet along with 95gr instead of 90gr for the traditional molds. The 567 stamped on both sides is the cherry # that was used to cut the mold. That's a good thing that both sides have the same #. I don't know what the T Ballard and the 429 is on the mold.

That .358" version of that bullet is a lot better then the .356 version IMHO. That .358" can be used in the .380acp/9mm/357sig/38s&w/38spl/357. These types of bullets used to be extremely common and were typically labeled either as indoor, parlor or gallery bullets. Most of the time they were paired with lite loads of fast burning powder and shot at close range hence the names above. I have a 110gr cramer version of a indoor/gallery bullet (bullets on the right).


Typical lite loads for that cramer 110gr bullet pictured above are 2.5gr of clays or bullseye powder in 38spl cases. It's a very soft shooting load that is good for young shooters, new shooters, recoil sensitive shooters, range play,etc. The other side of the coin is that these lite bullets can be driven hard and have surprisingly high velocities. I've always used these bullets for plinking loads/range play and decided to do a little testing in a snubnosed 38spl using a p+ load of unique. Only ran 10 of them over a chronograph and they all were 1100fps+. This year I plan on doing a little testing with that 110gr cramer bullet in the 357mag. I see no reason it wouldn't do 1500+fps in a 2 1/2" bbl'd revolver and 2000fps+ in a 10" bbl'd contender. The 4"/6"/8" bbl.'s will end up somewhere in between.

Anyway you have a very versatile mold that will not only be stingy with your lead supply. The 4 cavities will make a mountain of bullets in a hurry that can be used in anything from a 380acp to a 35welen rifle.