Antique 6 cavity round ball mold

[Dusty_Traveler]

Just wanted to share an eBay find as I have never seen one like this before. It was advertised as .300", but actual measure is closer to .320" I haven't cast any ball with it yet, still trying to figure out which sprue I'm going to face up on that middle ball

 

[Timber Wolf]

I bet that is intended as a buck shot mold. Pretty dang cool mold. I would think you will want to run your lead pretty hot to fill those smallish holes through those little passages. Please report back how it works out. Looking at it some more, they could have cut it so each ball just had one sprue, all in sets of two. I wonder why they chose this Rube Goldberg arrangement instead?

 

[VA Hawken]

Very cool. Would love to see how it works in practice.

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

I bet that is intended as a buck shot mold. Pretty dang cool mold. I would think you will want to run your lead pretty hot to fill those smallish holes through those little passages. Please report back how it works out. Looking at it some more, they could have cut it so each ball just had one sprue, all in sets of two. I wonder why they chose this Rube Goldberg arrangement instead?

I do believe you are correct. In fact, buckshot was mentioned in the item description.

Very cool. Would love to see how it works in practice.

I will post some pictures of when I cast some with it. I'll be firing up the pot more often now that I have a quantity of good quality lead.

 

[Timber Wolf]

Thinking about it some more, cut a different way half the balls would have two sprues, not one as I said above. Anyway, it is a very interesting mold.

 

[JEBMs]

Buckshot mold makes sense, make more with each pour and with buckshot it’s not that big of a deal if the aren’t quite perfect (if the cavity doesn’t fill properly). I’m waiting on pictures, too, nice find.

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

@Timber Wolf @VA Hawken @JEBMs

Well gents I fired up the pot a couple of nights ago...

They measure .300-.310, so I’m guessing it’s a #1 buckshot mold. Super fun to cast these!