Pritchett Moulds

[Øyvind F.]

I have received several requests about the Pritchett bullet. I planned to have another batch of moulds made at Lee Precision, but unfortunately they no longer make custom hollow point or hollow base bullets. That means that any new moulds have to be made by another mould maker. Read more about the Pritchett bullet.

I'm having a batch of kammerlader moulds made a NEI now, and they may be an alternative. They are more expensive, but they make moulds in mehanite (iron) in addition to aluminium.

Are you interested in such a mould, even if it becomes more expensive? The last time I made a shortened version of the Pritchett intended to be optimal in slow twist muskets. Is it more desireable with a bullet that is as close to the original as possible? How about diameter? .55" or .568"?

Some pictures of the Pritchett:

[tommy303]

Quite a pity that Lee Precision no longer will make custom hollow base moulds. I have always liked Lee moulds, although I have only a few of them.  As far as another mould maker goes, most of those are well out of my price range.  

Still if I were to invest in a new Pritchett mould, I think I would prefer one casting a more historically accurate bullet of about 530 grains with a diameter of about .568.  The .568 Pritchett at 530-grains shoots well in my P-1853 when made up into British-style cartridges and with a clay expansion plug in the base.  Perhaps the .55 would as well, although .027-inch below bore size seems a little too much, even allowing for a heavy paper outer wrapper.  

It would be interesting to see how much a trade-off the British accepted in order to insure ease of loading under battle conditions.

tom

[Fabian23]

> I'm having a batch of kammerlader moulds made a NEI now, and they may be
> an alternative. They are more expensive, but they make moulds in mehanite
> (iron) in addition to aluminium.

Oyvind, how is the order going for the Kammerlader mould?

[Øyvind F.]

> Oyvind, how is the order going for the Kammerlader mould?

All the moulds are now ordered. The Lee moulds (kammerlader, 12 mm Remington and 10,15 Jarmann) are ordered, and should arrive in 4-6 months.

The NEI moulds are due to arrive shortly.

[remi1100]

Oyvind, i would like a pritchett mould even if the cost was more as for diameter i dont know i sapose i can patch up.

yours robert

[shoe]

Oyvind,

I would also be interested in a Pritchett mold.

Shoe

[Mauser]

Hi
I understand some have difficulties to get moulds.
Here are adress where you can have custom made moulds. steel one and the best quality I have get. Delivery times are not months.
I have ordered severel moulds my own dimensions and all are as ordered.

E mail adress: DAVID HEDGE Dave lives in England. This a part of his  mail to me

Hello Paavo
Yes certainly pass on my address to your friends. But I must say that I usually only make moulds that are difficult for people to find, not thestandard moulds which they would probably find easier and less expensive elswhere.

[jmaurer]

Øyvind:

I am also interested in obtaining a Pritchett mold that duplicates the original as-issued bullet as closely as possible. I would specifically like to have one that produces a 0.55-inch diameter bullet.

I noticed your drawing of the original bullet in this diameter; do you have the dimensions of the ogive of the bullet, as well as the total depth and angle of the sides of the hollow base? I have an older Rapine Pritchett mold that casts a bullet with a very shallow, pointed cone for the hollow, and have thought to have a new base insert machined to duplicate the proper base configuration. I may then be able to resize the bullet to 0.55 inches, but it would be better to have everything right from the start with a new mold.

[Klaus]

Hello Oyvind,

basicly i am interested in a Pritchett Mould
Have you got any experiences for the using in a Zouave Rifle ?? I know that this Rifle was never used in the Civil War but it was manufactored for it

kind regards
Klaus

[Øyvind F.]

> basicly i am interested in a Pritchett Mould
> Have you got any experiences for the using in a Zouave Rifle ??

Hi Klaus,

I haven't any specific plans to have more Pritchett moulds made as of yet, but you never know what happens in the future

I haven't used it in a Zouave, but it shoul work just as well in as Zouave as in an Enfield or Springfield as long as the calibre is .577 or .58.

[Klaus]

> I haven't any specific plans to have more Pritchett moulds made as of yet,
> but you never know what happens in the future
>
> I haven't used it in a Zouave, but it shoul work just as well in as Zouave
> as in an Enfield or Springfield as long as the calibre is .577 or .58.

Hi Oyvind,
thx for reply
i think it could be work well because my Zouave have a slow 3 groved Barrel
Unfortunately all my Colleagues use no " original Bullets" they prefer the Customs Moulds made by serval smal Manufactors here in Germany with heavy ( 600 grs) Minies to force up their Enfields to high tech guns... Nobody used Papercartriges because this should be not exact enought to earn high score results

But i`m looking for the traditional way but the overal count of Moulds are in a Diameter between .572 and .585 and a Paperpatching ( wrap in a Papercartrige) is impossibile .

May you have a hint for me ??

kind regards
Klaus :-)

[Øyvind F.]

> Unfortunately all my Colleagues use no " original Bullets" they prefer the
> Customs Moulds made by serval smal Manufactors here in Germany with heavy (
> 600 grs) Minies to force up their Enfields to high tech guns...

This is what most serious competitive shooter do in Norway as well. Heavy miniés with a shallow base and often used in the fast-twist .577 Enfield P-1858 Naval rifle from Parker Hale.

> But i`m looking for the traditional way but the overal count of Moulds are
> in a Diameter between .572 and .585 and a Paperpatching ( wrap in a
> Papercartrige) is impossibile .
> May you have a hint for me ??

I know that Rapine makes a Pritchett, but you must probably size it down a bit as it seems to be .577" in diameter. I seem to remember that NEI Handtools also has a Pritchett in their catalogue, but I'm not sure. Their web site is down at the moment, so I cannot check it. I'm afraid the way to go is to have a custom mould made, because no commercial mould makers that I' aware of make Pritchett moulds, except for Rapine and perhaps NEI.

[Klaus]

Hello Oyvind,

thx a lot for your answer. I will take another time to search for a Pritchett Mould. At time i have a look on a Original 3 grove Minie from Lyman it seem to be the same as your picture above shows

-
For you and all the User of this nice side,i found this Link http://www.martinihenry.com it seems to be informatively about the history and technical Facs about the Martini Henry and their History

regards
Klaus :-P