Minie ball mold question

[Sven205]

I got two old minie ball molds today and am curious if anyone has used either version that I received.

The first and the one that interests me most is an Ohaus 738 mold. On the other side it is marked 58-400-M. Not finding much on it. RCBS makes a similar 500 grain version of it currently it seems, but if this one is marked right it's 100 grains less.

The second one is a Lyman marked 575213. Looks like this is just a classic styled minie but I'm seeing there may be 2 or 3 variants of this model so a little research is due there.

Anyone used any of these or have any info on them?? Thanks!

[Muley Gil]

The first Minie balls I ever cast, back in 1970, were the Lyman 575213. It always shot well in mine and my daddy's Zoli Zouaves.

[Sven205]

Thanks for the reply.

I see a good bit of info on the Lyman. Looks like a commonly used mold, confused on the weights though. Did they use the same model number 575213 but have multiple weights? Might be a bit before I can cast any, I guess that will tell me which one I have when I'm able to weigh it.

From what I find the old style is around 460 and the one with the wider driving bands (improved?) is around 510. Then a parker hale style which from what I understand just has a flatter/shallow base plug as the only difference, the smaller void in the base making it heaviest around 560. I dont have the flat style plug so I believe I can mark that one off.

[Maillemaker]

I find you cannot generally count on the weights listed by the mold.

The only mold I've ever seen that came close to matching what the mold said was Moose Molds.

The RCBS-500M I find drops at an average of 535.51 grains using pure lead:

https://www.n-ssa.net/vbforum/showthread.php/7643-RCBS-500M-Weights

The Lyman 575213 series of molds was available in 3 styles as I recall - the Old Style (OS), New Style (NS), and a PH (Parker Hale):

https://www.lymanproducts.com/media/user/file/b/l/blackpowder.pdf

The above PDF document shows the differences in outside and cavity profiles, as well as the claimed weights.

The PH had a truncated cone base, resulting in a much shallower cavity, which increased the weight of the bullet. This was designed to work in the faster twist P58 as I recall. I tried it in my Pedersoli P58 but the mold dropped at .575 and my Pedersoli needs a .578. I ended up having a custom core pin made for a different minie ball bullet to mimic the cavity of the PH.

Ultimately I found the RCBS-500M (which will size to .578) works well in the Pedersoli P58 with 60 grains 2F. I don't shoot it much because I have other guns that requires less lead and powder to do the job.

Steve

[Sven205]

Thanks for the input Steve, the chart was quite helpful.

Have you seen a 400 grain version of the rcbs? The Ohaus one I mentioned earlier is what i'm referring to (58-400-M), RCBS bought them so I started just looking at their stuff since the old Ohaus brand mold info seems scarce.

[Maillemaker]

Have you seen a 400 grain version of the rcbs? The Ohaus one I mentioned earlier is what i'm referring to (58-400-M), RCBS bought them so I started just looking at their stuff since the old Ohaus brand mold info seems scarce.

I'm not familiar with that one, I'm afraid.

Steve

[Sven205]

I got around to casting some of these from the Ohaus mold. Not much to say on the other one, it ended up being the common old style Lyman.

The alignment pins on the Ohaus 738 were protruding a bit too much, you can see if you look close there's some finning/seams present. The out of spec pin prevented the block from closing completely. I knocked them in a bit (after casting these in the pic) and cured that issue.

Anyone use anything similar to these? Dropping around .576" and average weight was right under 415 grains using 50 to 1 lead.

http://www.dropbox.com/s/z7wtnynr66jvm6s/rps20200530_213309.jpg?dl=0