Just for reference, here is a bullet cast from my original Winchester mold.  The reduced picture quality required to post reduces the detail, but this should give you an idea of what the Winchester molds produced.

Griff

It's a decent choice for CAS distances, but if a big lube groove bullet is needed, the Accurate 43-215C designed by the late John Kort is more accurate at longer distances. It has a single big lube groove and will carry enough lube to deal with dirty powders like Goex, Scheutzen, etc

Quote from: Lucky R. K. on December 03, 2024, 09:53:59 AM
This is very good reasonable advice. A good choice for a bullet, if you can find the mold, is Dick Dastardly's Big Lube Mav Dutchman. It is about 200 grains in 44-40 and has a lube groove that will carry enough lube for the longest barreled rifle.

Lucky   

Quote from: Little Dalton on December 03, 2024, 07:17:00 PMif a big lube groove bullet is needed, the Accurate 43-215C designed by the late John Kort is more accurate at longer distances. It has a single big lube groove and will carry enough lube to deal with dirty powders like Goex, Scheutzen, etc

This is the bullet that I use. When it's loaded, the exposed part of the bullet looks very much like an original.

Here consider the RCBS 44-200-FN or the 44-200-CM.

I choose the FN as my first 44-40 crimp-able bullet but not historically correct shape.  Then went to the Lyman 427098.  Then final bought an Original Winchester 44WCF mold.  Stuck with BP and the original for many years.
 

https://www.rcbs.com/bullet-casting/moulds/bullet-mould-.44-200-fn-595/355308.html


https://www.rcbs.com/bullet-casting/moulds/bullet-mould-.44-200-cm-636/355306.html

Quote from: Black River Smith on December 03, 2024, 03:57:20 PMGood luck trying to buy a Dick Dastardly bullet mold.  I tried about 1 1/2 years ago and nothing to be found.  I read most people state he is out of business and off the website, here.  Only chance is if someone wants to sell their used one.

Wonder why Dick D hasn't sold the rights for his 'Big Lube Bullet Molds' to anyone interested in marketing them? From time to time on the Darkside section there are posts wondering about his well being. Those who remain in contact with Dick  indicate he's OK but out of the shooting sport and also his mold business. Be great if Dick never has plans to restart if he would sell his mold rights whatever that encompasses to someone interested in getting them available again.

Quote from: Black River Smith on December 03, 2024, 12:18:19 PMHere on Ebay,

https://www.ebay.com/itm/146236850113?_skw=winchester+44-40+bullet+mold&itmmeta=01JE6VKH469T31FH4G648XCG00&hash=item220c653fc1:g:-scAAOSwWF9nL9sx&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAABAHoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnejzRWkkcNrM1BtqQxgyEmnASJsPV%2BakD1XIOLgX0TL0feUkzHcnF37ytM3t2etqiuOlQqswqwtHfaty8eFdZGWL44bM%2F6II8VxTlK17K4t282M0sqrAMeGwZFjZzXs57JfBmmWS9nVU3e3vdeIAA%2FAaOq4ar%2Bh3%2BSATMNsquawyCn%2FUNjhiMkxkpHQYsZvi%2BDgzT%2F1lfHouTvgZ%2FnVjyAOevBdRDtSu%2FwDuBtuWjONp7oyCGkABSxqflAp4RGENG%2FeDLzCEsza--E8yAf1S4s99jsxqShfqjeZaOYDeE4B9MBFmDMcEcIDWke7z0W1Vg%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5SSztvxZA


A buy now,   https://www.ebay.com/itm/156546707921?_skw=winchester+44-40+bullet+mold&itmmeta=01JE6VKH46QRG7S8RFETV6TGSR&hash=item2472e931d1:g:jdYAAOSwoc1nJVIw&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAABAHoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKmQ4t6ERWnNvhEge0qppptVdre9pcfhe2qUo8WwZuEQ2SIog3Pm93tQxtkpoJzLaqFTrDwQ3DljrH9YZVodtj1IO9gqiyXlxJW%2FJ8p2KETbQw5gL4TY9c0LmN398d6qsbYOGAo%2F9%2FIUJs79%2F1J3SKlqBV%2BpWEBVYOhCN2i33M4P2NdIO9X6HHQa4SYkiSE4MXJcbHRgnRY7j2T9s4lO9P0%2FYJOAP9RMnF6ryrC9UGQG19hoKLcaW8Hf%2BatAOpGoGzoaIWOWcz8PEJgOEJ%2BGKyyFQR08pyMXwAfAo7ay62FYfsJi0sUVbiKG5cqzVQxpdnM%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5aSztvxZ

A Real Winchester,   https://www.ebay.com/itm/205040055508?_skw=winchester+44+wcf+bullet+mold&itmmeta=01JE6VTA4PTZ0R91MC4MBCE3XQ&hash=item2fbd56f4d4:g:iP4AAOSwThNnCxtv&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKmTHRGVg%2B7DLbRPwYvViH1nCHRkG8K0s3kTYVDZScH69YOfXGxhdfRdd7gw6ujRfHSsd24oqiQttABo9aXhDREI1OUWvT13Ykqqwagod%2B0Qa0%2FQSgdNWjs7%2FIXekCi7qirEhvZ9tvULJCL%2BosJ1nW%2BSxIppe3VxAHdijd%2BNZsKMCd0ADc9%2BlAeptSan3iMfLQPldHft5Gt4%2FnTO83ebRNoT5%2BU0Q%2FFyhc8GNt364YvgdVjnogo9YixypX3oyZms%2BdBVl40hW7hNmUHO2g7gbL9a%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7ai6dvxZA

Just go to Ebay and search and BE ready to pay.

Thankyou for that.  I ordered the first one.

9245,

Please understand that on Ebay you 'do not order' the item you see.  That particular item you claim 'to have ordered' was an auction item.  You only won, because you were the only person to bid on that item.  You could have lost if someone was willing to pay more than you.  So, you won the item because you won the auction at the price the seller was starting the bidding at and no-one-else bid before the time ended.  The other option is to directly commit to a BUY NOW (normally a higher price than a starting point of an auction) sale of a particular item.  That is again you are will to outright buy the item at the sellers higher asking price, no auction bidding involved.

I hope it works out for you.  That was a very good price for a double cavity mold of that bullet design.  I noted on that mold there is lead tinning on the face.  That has to be removed in order to get a good bullet.

To me, the second one, a Buy Now at $4 dollars more, looked better.  Only grease to be cleaned off with a solvent, but that is just me.  Both having the same shipping costs, levels everything to -- chance of losing to -- buying outright at just $4 more.

Good luck.

Quote from: Black River Smith on December 06, 2024, 05:10:06 PM9245,

Please understand that on Ebay you 'do not order' the item you see.  That particular item you claim 'to have ordered' was an auction item.  You only won, because you were the only person to bid on that item.  You could have lost if someone was willing to pay more than you.  So, you won the item because you won the auction at the price the seller was starting the bidding at and no-one-else bid before the time ended.  The other option is to directly commit to a BUY NOW (normally a higher price than a starting point of an auction) sale of a particular item.  That is again you are will to outright buy the item at the sellers higher asking price, no auction bidding involved.

I hope it works out for you.  That was a very good price for a double cavity mold of that bullet design.  I noted on that mold there is lead tinning on the face.  That has to be removed in order to get a good bullet.

To me, the second one, a Buy Now at $4 dollars more, looked better.  Only grease to be cleaned off with a solvent, but that is just me.  Both having the same shipping costs, levels everything to -- chance of losing to -- buying outright at just $4 more.

Good luck.

So I misspoke.  Yes it was a very good price, most I was seeing when I tried searching myself seemed closer to $100+. I think I did pretty good.

How do you remove the lead tinning though?  Can it just be melted off by dipping it in the lead pot?

To remove the tinning, I do not have a great method.  I will have to defer to some of the other experts that have posted here.

To answer you 'sort-of' -- I do not believe your approach will work.  I do not think that just heating the mold will cause the 'mold - liquid lead' just suck off the tinning thin layer.

I thought the 2nd mold might have corrosion on the inner block faces. 2nd look, ya might be grease, think if I were interested I'd contact the seller on that one hopefully he's honest enough to say.

I normally wipe lead/tin off off mold blocks with a light wiping using 0000 steel wool or some brass wool I keep on hand. Have used light brushing with a brass brush which works also. Read once that tin likes to adhere to brass. The blocks need to be fairly hot. Read sometime back on another forum a guy advised he used bamboo sticks to rub it off.

I received the mold today and got it mounted to my Lee mold handles.  I do not see anything that looks like lead or tin stuck to the mold and it even cane with the bullet in the listing picture and everything looks good.  Maybe I'm missing something glaringly obvious?  What am I looking for?

Quote from: 9245 on November 27, 2024, 12:25:27 PMUnfortunately it seems that that mold is out of production.

Go to Accurate Molds and look at 43-210B. It's pretty much a copy of the old Lyman 427098

Quote from: 9245 on December 09, 2024, 05:13:29 PMI received the mold today and got it mounted to my Lee mold handles.  I do not see anything that looks like lead or tin stuck to the mold and it even cane with the bullet in the listing picture and everything looks good.  Maybe I'm missing something glaringly obvious?  What am I looking for?

Please post pictures of the faces of the inside area of the mold, in your possession.  Then maybe I can point out areas of suspected tinning.  Referring back to the ebay photos, to discuss what I see and you see, could cause an error, if the lighting was different or something else has happened.

Quote from: Black River Smith on December 10, 2024, 08:06:53 PMPlease post pictures of the faces of the inside area of the mold, in your possession.  Then maybe I can point out areas of suspected tinning.  Referring back to the ebay photos, to discuss what I see and you see, could cause an error, if the lighting was different or something else has happened.

Here you go.  Only thing I could find was some bullet lube that was stuck to it that I am still trying to wipe off.  The previous owner took pictures with an already lubed bullet (or with traces of lube still on it) in to the mold for the pictures.  I can feel a bunch of it still on it but a bunch got stuck to the mold too.

Quote from: Cap'n Redneck on December 01, 2024, 12:46:56 PMThe LEE molds have shallower grease-grooves than the originals, so they are more suited to smokeless type bulletlube and smokeless loads.

One way to compensate for these shallow grease-grooves when loading blackpowder, especially for Cowboy Action Shooting, is to reduce the powder charge and fill the void between powder and bullet with sesame seeds.  The sesame seeds contain up to 50% oils, and when fired will leave an oily film in the barrel that prevents powder residue from caking and thus ruining accuracy.

I predict 9245's next question on the boards is where to find historically accurate sesame seeds . . .
  

Another vote for Accurate Molds. When I was working up my loads for the Vetterli I ended up custom ordering a correct mold from them.

In your photos those whitish marks are what I believed was tinning 'as shown heavier and brighter on the ebay pics'.  IF you are now stating that cleaning the molds are now removing those whitish marks because they are just 'old lube', then keep cleaning and you will have 'perfect molds and perfect bullets'.

As a tip, I use Acetone to clean oils and organics off my molds.

Quote from: Black River Smith on December 13, 2024, 02:21:36 PMIn your photos those whitish marks are what I believed was tinning 'as shown heavier and brighter on the ebay pics'.  IF you are now stating that cleaning the molds are now removing those whitish marks because they are just 'old lube', then keep cleaning and you will have 'perfect molds and perfect bullets'.

As a tip, I use Acetone to clean oils and organics off my molds.

I will try that when I get a chance, I think I have a bottle laying around somewhere.

And yeah it's some kind of a sticky waxy gunk, sort of reminds me of a mixture of old peelable glue and wax, it is very thick and sticky, the same stuff was slathered allover the sample bullet so my best guess is bullet lube.

Looks like that mold will make nice bullets. As a beginner at casting, co far my best bullets have been made with pre-mixed ingots of 20-1.

Would one of you gentlemen with an original mold be willing to share some measurements with me? I specifically need the overall length of the bullet, and the length from the very bottom of the bullet to the top edge of the forward driving band (the lip that the case gets crimped over). Thanks in advance!

Quote from: Little Dalton on December 18, 2024, 01:09:54 PMWould one of you gentlemen with an original mold be willing to share some measurements with me? I specifically need the overall length of the bullet

The value I get is 0.591".  This is an average of 5 bullets measured on the flat portion of the nose and the best portion of flat base.  Negating the seam where lead is slightly higher and any flowing of lead from sprue cutting.

Quote from: Little Dalton on December 18, 2024, 01:09:54 PMWould one of you gentlemen with an original mold be willing to share some measurements with me? I specifically need the length from the very bottom of the bullet to the top edge of the forward driving band (the lip that the case gets crimped over).

The value I get is 0.3088".  This is an average of 5 bullets measured from the base flat(as stated above) to the best I can do seeing(using magnifier headset) the top edge of the forward band.

I used a dial caliper with the sharp edge of the arms/claws.  I did not save each individual measurement for a range level, sorry about that.

This is coming from bullets molded out of a Perfect condition mold (I got luck with the condition of this 44 WCF mold) and using 'my' purest lead.  Other alloys or purity may change these values slightly.