Parker Hale 58560 Minie Mold

[gjkershul]

I picked up the top half of a Parker Hale .58 Minie mold at a gun show last May.
Not having the bottom plug I tried my bottom plug from a Lyman 575611PH mold. It was too small.
I have an old 500 grain RCBS Minie mold from which I tried the bottom plug. It fit.
Also, I found the RCBS mold screws going through the mold handles and the attached RCBS plug plate plug worked. Makes nice bullets now.I found that it cast 520 grain projectiles.

One response from the N-SSA site indicated a fellow who had a 1970's Parker Hale Mold got projectiles of 550 to 560 grains.

Something was amiss!

I sent the mold to RCBS for a new center plug and got it back with a polite note telling me that they never made molds for Parker Hale but that they had fitted an RCBS deep 500 grain base plug to my mold at no charge. Aside from being nice RCBS seemed to think my mold may have been made by Lachmiller for Parker Hale before RCBS bought Lachmiller.

I note that there is an early Parker Hale Musketoon for sale on the Gun Broker site that includes the Parker Hale mold that was part of the Parker Hale package with the Parker Hale rifled muskets when originally sold.

Does anybody know what company made the Parker Hale molds?
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[Hawkeye748]

I have 2 PH moulds, one supposedly an original mould and a later Lyman. They are Identical and take RCBS handles as well as the Lyman. The "original", if it is one, doesn't have Lyman's name on it. I use the RCBS handles because it is more comfortable for my hand. It has a different base plug from standard Lyman moulds and has a very shallow cavity.

There may have been another maker but I have not seen them.