Notes on Mould Number 50
September 30, 2008
From time to time, I receive emails regarding bullet
mould number 50.
From the Hensley & Gibbs factory ledger:
#50 --.38 S&W Special. 148
grains. (Also .38 Gold Cup and Clark Conversions,
which are usually sized smaller, at .356".) Target
pistol bullet. Three rounded grease grooves, one crimp groove, small
projection on tip, but still considered a "full-wadcutter"
bullet. A very popular design. Available in plain and
bevel base or gas check base.
Most of the time folks want to know how to tell a number 50 mould that can be
used in .38 Special/.357 Mag pistols from the number
50 moulds made for the .38 Gold Cup Clark Conversions.
The answer is usually easy. The number 50’s made for the Gold Cup Clark Custom
conversions are usually stamped “.356” somewhere on the mould to indicate a
diameter less than the normal as cast diameter of .358”. Conversely, if the
mould is unmarked, meaning its just stamped “50” you may safely assume that
this mould is a standard number 50 and was made to cast bullets for the .38
Special/.357 Mag caliber pistols.
The reference alloy Hensley & Gibbs used to test their mould before
shipment was Lyman #2 mix in case you were wondering.
From time to time, you may come across a Geo. A. Hensley, or a Hensley &
Gibbs number 50 that sports “.359”, or “.360” and it may or may not have an “S”
stamped on it (to indicate special order). And this is perfectly normal, as you
may well remember from other articles I’ve written on Hensley & Gibbs, the
customer was king, and whatever the customer wanted, the customer got. So if
you wanted a number 50 wad cutter mould that cast .360 inch wadcutters
for your old Model 10 Smith & Wesson, Hensley & Gibbs was more than
willing to accommodate your request. And since their stampings on the moulds
changed over the many years they were in production, I will try and identify
what you can expect to see on a number 50 mould, and try and decipher the
meaning.
This was the 1940’s & 50’s gents. Not too many ISO 900x operations existed
at that time at Colt, Smith & Wesson to name just two. .38 caliber pistols
had been in production since before the turn of the century and a lot of old
pistols needed a larger bullet. I am sure that if you mailed George a slug
hammered through your bore that George made you a nice tight fitting mould for
your pistol and called it a day. And he may have stamped that oversize number
50 mould with a “S”, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it.
On with the identification:
Let’s start with a 1939 era Geo. A. Hensley mould. The mould blocks might have
this:
50358148
And nothing more. Not even Geo. A. Hensley on the mould blocks. Why? Because early on, George didn’t stamp his name on the mould blocks,
only on the handles. And when he stamped 50358148 that stamp decodes as:
50 = Design Number 50
358 = As Cast Diameter in thousands of an inch
148 = As Cast weight in grains
Fast forward to 1947:
The mould may be stamped:
50 Hensley & Gibbs San Diego CA
This means a standard number 50 whose diameter should be .358” when using Lyman
#2 mix.
Fast forward again to 1965:
50 S Hensley & Gibbs Murphy Oregon
This means a special order #50 that probably has a design OR a weight change.
The design change may be a missing button tip, which received its own design
number years later. Or it may be a SIZE change, like #41. No way
to know until you cast a bullet out of Lyman #2, weigh it and measure
it.
Design #41 started off as a special order number 50 that had one lube groove
removed (by running the cherry short into the blocks) to decrease the weight to
about ~110~ grains to make a neat little gallery bullet. I have a 1940’s era
two cavity mould stamped “50 S” and “110 grs”. I’ve never seen its twin. Later, when more orders for
that little gallery bullet came in, Hensley & Gibbs gave it its own design,
#41. Why did 41 get a number lower than 50? Even I can’t answer that question.
You would think 41 came out before 50 but I’ve been unable to prove or disprove
the theory.
Same year:
50BB Hensley & Gibbs Murphy
This means a standard number 50 in bevel base.
Same year:
50GC Hensley & Gibbs Murphy
This means a standard number 50 in Gas Check (I’ve never seen one, actually,
I’ve never seen a number 50 with a gas check but the ledger says they were
available).
George Hensley, James Gibbs, and eventually Wayne Gibbs each worked and
contributed to a somewhat constantly evolving nomenclature scheme for marking
bullet moulds. You can see this evolution of markings from the earliest moulds
to the last ones. George first started indicating special order moulds with an
“S” to indicate that something was different about this mould (other than the
standard design). Eventually, as indicated in a separate article I’ve written,
When George partnered up with James Gibbs, and became “Hensley & Gibbs”
they started stamping the blocks with the mould design number and “Hensley
& Gibbs,
Based on my observations and measurements, more than 90% of moulds marked “50”
cast the standard .358” wadcutter. And I’ve measured
quite a few. The demand for special order number 50’s seemed to be few and far
between, enough so that George, James, and Wayne made an effort to identify
those special order moulds with a stamped “S” to indicated Special order.
As with rifle bores, the final word is casting and measuring with a known
reference alloy, like Lyman #2 mix.