What company or individual maker offers a 404 Jeffery bullet Mold?

Gracias,

Hoot

I understand R Hoch are still in the business of making moulds or were a couple of years ago.

Richard made my 404 mould back in 1978. The Hoch mould is superbly made heavy duty item and a nose pour so the base is cast perfect which is exactly want you want if not using gas checks. For whatever reason, my memory fails me, I ordered my mould in plain base but never got the accuracy from the 400gr bullets. This all changes when I turn a gas check shoulder on them in a small lathe and then they really shine.

You might check with NOE in Provo, UT.

I sent him a couple different designs by Barnes three or four months ago, and he was going to put them on the stack.

I have more than a dozen of his molds, and they are all lathe bored.

Rich

eagle27,

Boy, you brought back some real fond memories. My first assignment with the U.S Forest Service was in Gunnison Colorado, about 70 miles east of Montrose Colorado. On occasion, I would go to Montrose to buy components as they had a discount store called Gibson's which was very well stocked with guns and gun related items. I started visiting Richard Hock and Dick Cook while they were making Barnes Bullets. They made 'em the old way on huge homemade swadging presses. Richard also made cast bullet barrels on a homemade barrel rifler. I think it was called a sine bar rifler. A little later on he was making bullet molds. His process reminded me of a muffler shop that only had straight tubing and a mandrel bending machine. Anyway Richard had a Mori Seiki lathe made in Japan. It was as close as you could get to a Monarch, maybe even better. I don't know. I would watch Richard set up the blocks in a jig he fabricated and bore the blocks. He had the dimensions, depths etc on a thick piece of paper clamped to the lathe and bore the blocks. I was simply amazed at the skill Richard had with machine tools. He was a machinist's machinist. Anyway as time went on he and Dick sold the Barnes Bullets to Randy Brooks and he specialized in the molds and barrels. He eventially sold the mold business to a fellow in Roswell, New Mexico. I did visit the shop in Roswell once and the fellow was making the blocks exactly as Richard has done.

What I was hoping for was to find some blocks that I could purchase now as I will be taking the 404 Jeffery I just built on safari in Namibia the first part of April. Well I just waited too long I guess. Shooting the Swift A Frame Bullets for practice is costing me quite a bit. But, the bullets are the cheapest item of the hunt.

I do have a question though, where did you get a proper sizing die for the 404 Jeffery? I have looked at RCBS,Lyman and Saeco and they don't list one. I thought about taking a 416 Rigby die (.417) and honing it out to .424. Dont' know if that would work or not.

Thank you for answering my post and getting me to relive some of the better times of my life.

Muchas gracias,

Hoot

Idaho Sharpshooter,

I am not familiar with NOE, but I will check out their website. Do you cast 404 Jeffery Bullets? Do you use a NOE mold? If you do, where did you get the sizing die?

Muchas gracias,

Hoot

quote:

Originally posted by Hoot Murray:
eagle27,

Boy, you brought back some real fond memories. My first assignment with the U.S Forest Service was in Gunnison Colorado, about 70 miles east of Montrose Colorado. On occasion, I would go to Montrose to buy components as they had a discount store called Gibson's which was very well stocked with guns and gun related items. I started visiting Richard Hock and Dick Cook while they were making Barnes Bullets. They made 'em the old way on huge homemade swadging presses. Richard also made cast bullet barrels on a homemade barrel rifler. I think it was called a sine bar rifler. A little later on he was making bullet molds. His process reminded me of a muffler shop that only had straight tubing and a mandrel bending machine. Anyway Richard had a Mori Seiki lathe made in Japan. It was as close as you could get to a Monarch, maybe even better. I don't know. I would watch Richard set up the blocks in a jig he fabricated and bore the blocks. He had the dimensions, depths etc on a thick piece of paper clamped to the lathe and bore the blocks. I was simply amazed at the skill Richard had with machine tools. He was a machinist's machinist. Anyway as time went on he and Dick sold the Barnes Bullets to Randy Brooks and he specialized in the molds and barrels. He eventially sold the mold business to a fellow in Roswell, New Mexico. I did visit the shop in Roswell once and the fellow was making the blocks exactly as Richard has done.

What I was hoping for was to find some blocks that I could purchase now as I will be taking the 404 Jeffery I just built on safari in Namibia the first part of April. Well I just waited too long I guess. Shooting the Swift A Frame Bullets for practice is costing me quite a bit. But, the bullets are the cheapest item of the hunt.

I do have a question though, where did you get a proper sizing die for the 404 Jeffery? I have looked at RCBS,Lyman and Saeco and they don't list one. I thought about taking a 416 Rigby die (.417) and honing it out to .424. Dont' know if that would work or not.

Thank you for answering my post and getting me to relive some of the better times of my life.

Muchas gracias,

Hoot

Hoot

Glad my post took you down memory lane and certainly some really interesting memories you have. It's rather annoying now that my memory on some things seems to have faded with time, perhaps because I have had a pretty full and interesting enough life (so far) and my brain can't pack much more in so has to boot out some of the old stuff to make way for the new

Although I can remember in detail acquiring my Mauser 404 and first firing it, I had a pinched nerve in my neck at the time and was worried what the recoil would do, and remember slugging the bore when I realised that to do much shooting with it I would need to cast, I struggle to remember how I ordered my RCBS reloading dies, I do seem to recall I supplied two fired cases and my local gun shop sent them to RCBS in the States and quite quickly a beautiful set of dies arrived back that work wonderfully to the point that the bullet seating die actually straightens the slight case mouth flare I apply when loading cast and this is not the crimp function.

As to the Hoch mould I recall I ordered and paid for this direct (money order no credit cards then) and I must have stated the bullet weight, size and plain base, as .423" gas checks were not available, but not the actual bullet shape or number of grooves, Richard must have come up with that (damn I hadn't thought of using 44cal checks). I recall seeing an article or advert in a Handloader Digest for the Hoch moulds so that must have given me the contact for Richard.

How I got the Lyman G,H and I sizer for the 404, I honestly can't remember. It would have been through the local gun shop I imagine but don't know why it is .425". It came in the little clear plastic tube container with the Lyman label (still have it) like the other calibres I had. Maybe it was a stock item and closest in size to .423" or .424" at the time. Can't imagine why Lyman would have that size but I surely would have ordered .424" had it been custom made. The Hoch mould throws cast bullets that do size down in the .425" Lyman sizer and they shoot well in my 404 provided they are gas checked.

Your idea of opening up a .416" sizer will be the way to go, unless Lyman or someone will custom make a die for the 404.

Hoot,

still waiting for the molds from Swede (NOE). A sizing die is not that difficult. I slug my barrels, and buy the closest smaller die. A machinist friend hones the die out about half a thousandth over the as cast diameter for me.

IMHO, every thing you do to a cast bullet after you drop it gently on a folded towel is bad for it.

Buy your sizing die from Buffalo Arms in Idaho, they make sizing dies in all sorts of custom sizes, .424" is one of them.

DC

duh! Forgot about Dave Gullo...