Ideal / Lyman Mold Reference Comments, corrections, pontification? Identifying Your Ideal / Lyman Mold There is a 6 digit numbering convention for the Ideal and Lyman molds. In this case, 452 486 523 is referred to as a 452486, the final number is dropped.. Convert .resources File To .resx more. 452 is nominal diameter 486 is the cherry number used to cut the mold. Cherry numbers have occasionally been reused from older molds.

Searching by cherry number is not infallible. 523 is a mold pair ID Older molds may be seen with a 5 digit serial, like 452 11. 452 nominal diameter, cherry number 11. Over time, some molds were updated to the six digit by adding a leading zero to the cherry number, example 45211 becomes 452011. Round ball molds are (usually) only marked with the nominal diameter and pair ID.

There are a few alpha characters that were used, L (long), S (short), O (oversize), U (undersize). I have seen B, C, V and X as well. Do serial numbers of the molds refer to as cast diameter or sized diameter? ( 43d Lyman Reloading Handbook) The first three digits of the mould number are the diameter that the bullet is to be sized to. The mould will cast a bullet from.001 to.003 larger to allow for sizing.Undersized bullets (mould number contains 'U') must be used to size to.308 or other bore diameters. An undersize mould will cast a bullet approximately.002 smaller than standard moulds. In short, 'it depends'.

Mar 07, 2017 lund2075 said I have two Lyman super target scopes with the serial numbers 12487 (20x) & 18770 (12x). Can somebody give me the DOM for these?

Find the Mold Number I use this visual list of molds: Note that the Top Punch is NOT identified. For the Top Punch, please refer to the table below. Sizing the Bullet One way is to use 'H&I' dies named from the old Ideal catalog.

The body is part 'H' and the cylindrical stem is part 'I'. A normal size is.001' over the nominal bullet diameter.

For example, a 6mm Remington (243 dia) will use a.244' H&I die. However, your rifles' bore can vary, so the bore may be tighter or looser. Military surplus rifles are a prime example. If the as cast or sized diameter produces poor accuracy, one culprit may be a bad fit of the bullet to the bore. Slug the barrel to determine the atcual bore diameter, size to meet it. Top Punch These are used in conjunction with the 'H&I' dies.