New .44 caliber Brooks mold.

[Distant Thunder]

I knew I could count on you guys to give me good input on the cupped base design. My only experience with that design was 30 years ago with an old Lyman .40 caliber mold that had a long tapered forward section and I never really got it to work. The base was uneven on about half the bullets no matter what I did. The skirt was much thinner on that mold than it is on my new Brooks mold. This one from Steve looks really good on the sample.

Kurt and Don I know both of you sent a variety of bullets 2 years ago while I waiting for my rifle and I still have a few of each left and I very much appreciate you doing that. I keep any bullets I can get my hands on just for future reference and I have quite a collection. The problem with that is I tend to lose track of what’s what, who I got it from and who made the mold. When I ordered this new mold I sent Steve several pictures of the bullets I got from each of you that were similar to what I wanted.

Steve seemed to have trouble understanding what I wanted and I may have given him way too much information. My bad. I do like what he made. If I had any complaint, and I don’t, I would say it is a little more slender at the tip, but I think that is a good thing. I can lay the bullet on a picture of an original Sharps .45 caliber long range paper patch bullet and it is damn close. I have no complaints about that. In the end I told Steve that the nose wasn’t dimensionally that important that it just had to look like the original Sharps design and that the nose should NOT be over a certain length. The old bullets tended to have noses much shorter than the ones being made today, about 37 to 43% on the Medford and the Sharps respectively. With this mold being an adjustable I did some math, which always get me in trouble, and figured out a nose length that would give me the nose length % over the range of length I am most likely to be using for long range shooting. Anything shorter would be used for shorter distances and the nose length % would probably be less important.

If the bullets I cast look as good as the sample Steve sent I will be a happy man. I really like the looks of the old designs. The ODG put a lot of time and effort into designing their bullets and shooting them, I figure the ones that were in use had to be pretty good and they look right in the old cases.

I’m going to start with the cupped base and see how that shoots. That will answer the question for me that has been in my head for some time. Why did the old designs have a cupped base? 30 years ago I didn’t know anything about getting these rifles to shoot with black powder and even less about paper patch bullets, but I’ve learned a few things since then. I hope that’s enough to make a difference.

Gavin, It’s good to know there are others who are afflicted with the compulsion to “acquire” a new or two now and then, it gives me comfort to know I’m not the only one. Every time I start to think I don’t need another mold a thought hatches in my mind that leads to another mold! It seems to feed on itself with no way out of the cycle. I would stop buying molds if I didn’t enjoy trying something different every so often. I do have it under control however, I’m only buying a new mold about every two month so I’m not really addicted. Right?

Hi, my name is Jim and I am a moldoholic.