Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Snagged a rare mold

In the 1890's, gallery shooting with Service rifles on Army and National Guard bases was a means to provide low cost shooting for recruit indoctrination, and indoor rifle practice during inclement weather. Also, some posts didn't have range capacity for long range high power shooting. Their approach: .30 caliber roundballs loaded into spent cartridge cases. De-re prime, charge with a pinch of pistol powder, stuff a cardboard wad in case mouth, stuff a .30 roundball in on top of it.

This mold was made at Frankford Arsenal, 1895 (marked as such) for that purpose. Five roundball cavities, brass and steel construction. I swear it's never seen molten lead. Can't wait to give it a whirl, thinking of 4-5 grains Bullseye should make the Krags happy.





I already had the tool to manage the case prep, another Frankford Arsenal gem:

that is a cool set up ,I am envious of you . just kidding I like old tools congrats

About 2 miles up the river from me there is site the old timers called the National Guard rifle range, I have hunted and sifted and prowled it but never found any brass, what I thought should be 220 gr spent bullets, it is the only flat spot but much too small, maybe 4 acres, for what I envisioned as a rifle range. Your post explains it all. I have found a few deformed lead balls, dismissed them as later civilian use but now explained. The military strategic minds were brilliant back then, the range was conveniently located less than one mile from the town saloon which has been in operation since gold was discovered here in 1856. Thanks Gnoahhh.

Wonderful set of tools!

Another option is 00 buckshot mold and run them through a sizer then tumble lube. Not as classy, but serves the function.

That's a real piece of equipment!

Even better pic than the others g congrats on the find. Will send you some pics of the 25 cal molds I found this weekend..mb

Great find. Have you cast with it yet, and if so what do they mic out at out of the mold? I have used Lee 00 buckshot sized to .309” in. 303 Savage to produce inexpensive plinking ammo. I used a few grains of Red Dot for the charge. I was surprised at how accurate it was.

Nick

Haven't cast with it yet. Waiting until the next time I melt some 1-40 alloy.

You are loonier than me....and I'm jealous!

Old pieces of craftsmanship and using materials that last a literal lifetime.

I have piles of "high end" lightweight custom aluminum molds; they might not even outlive me, despite being lubed and cared for.

nice have shot a lot of round balls with bullseye in the 30-06. Had to open up the flash holes to keep primers from backing out. Marked the rim of the altered cases with a file

Usage of this mold continues apace. Accuracy out of a .30 Army Krag rifle with the ball cast 40-1 lead-tin and lubed with a smear of Javelina Schuetzen will hit a quarter at 50-60 feet. 5gr. Red Dot is all that's needed, but 6gr. gives a bit better accuracy in my circumstances. 7 grains and accuracy goes to hell. Can't wait to try it in .30-30 and .30 Gov't (.30-06*).

I live in fear of the ball migrating down through the neck so I took a cue from the Frankford Arsenal (the original not the current wannabe's). They provided Gallery and Guard cartridges to military organizations (presumably with balls cast from these molds) with cannelures in the necks to prevent that, so I utilize dimples in my designated case necks to achieve the same thing.

The tools and process:





The pliers-like tool is a 1909-vintage Frankford Arsenal de-re-capper, allows use at the shooting range, and there's no need for re-sizing brass. That and a powder measure (or dipper) is all that's need for reloading. The other thingies are the tools by which I impart the dimples in case necks to prevent ball migration. The little arbor press is 100+ years old and was made for making dental appliances but which I utilize for a myriad of little projects. Not shown is the V-block which centers the jig under the press ram.

* Back then .30 Army= .30-40 Krag, .30 Gov't= .30-06

Pretty neat setup. I’ve often seen molds similar on EBAY and wondered what on earth they would have been using round balls for in that era. Makes sense now.

In The Olden Days a lot of National Guard units didn't have really decent ranges upon which to shoot high power rifles with FMJ bullets. The solution was to issue these gallery loads for them to practice with at short range. It was also popular among Army and National Guard units to shoot indoors with their service rifles, hence the term Gallery Practice ammunition. This was at a time before they saw fit to issue .22's, which later became standard practice. I don't know what the heck they do now - have classes on political correctness instead? (Joking, but it wouldn't surprise me.)

Along with loaded ammo for this practice they also issued these tools so the guys could reload their own gallery ammo. Probably had the newbies do all the grunt work while the old guys had the fun of shooting!