What bullets did the 50-110 and 50-100-450 use?|General Discussions & Questions|Forum|Winchester Collector

John: I used to own the 2 molds you mentioned for the 50, and their reloading tool in model 1894.

as you mentioned 300 grain and 450 grain lead was available. The Yearout booklet on reloading tools and molds has good info,

as does Winchester cartridge boxes by Giles and Shuey. There was also a Jacketerd Hollow Point 300 grain bullet 

noted on page 164 of the aforementioned book. You might find a  mold on Ebay–good luck  Bill

I’ll have to dig through my molds and take some pictures for you and post them. I’m going to try to remember to do that tonight but have subscribed to this topic as a reminder to myself.

Sincerely,

Maverick

So on the left is the 50-100-450 VS on the right is the 50-110 Express WRACo Bullet Molds.

Some general info on each you can read in Shuey & Giles book as follows.

The 50-100-450 was loaded with black & smokeless powder. Bullet types were Lead, Soft Point and Full Metal Jacket all a solid ball of 450 grains. This is not an actual “Express” cartridge. Load name stands for .50 Caliber 100 grains (black powder) 450 grains bullet. Loaded by WRACo 1895-1920.

The 50-110 Express was loaded with black & smokeless powder. Bullet types were Lead, Soft Point, Soft Point Hollow Point, Express, Full Metal Jacket & Shot. The bullets were 300 grains, the shot load was 330 grains using No.8 shot. Boxes call out for 50-110-300 Express and were loaded by WRACo 1887-1940.

These notes from Shuey & Giles obviously deal with the cartridges. Regarding Winchester molds you’ll notice the 50-100-450 is made for casting a solid ball. Where the 50-110 Express is made / came with a “Plug” for making a hollow point or “Express” type bullet when casting. WRACo also sold “Solid Plugs” that were shorter for casting a “Solid Ball” bullet. In the Shuey & Giles book it shows where WRACo sold “Solid Ball” cartridge for the 50-110 Express, but it doesn’t state how many grains the 50-110 Solid Ball is, but states / shows they used the same label and stamped the box with red ink SOLID BALL on the box.

I don’t have a solid plug and don’t know how many grains a Solid Ball in the 50-110 Express would be, but based on the pictures of the cavity it is not large enough to be 450 grains.

They made several different .50 caliber reloading tools and here a display that Tom Quigley put together some years back. Anything .50 caliber goes for a premium. 

Believe or not it would probably take you over a thousand dollars or more and several years to assemble such a display of tools. 

Reportedly there is possibly a “50-100-450 Express” mold that was made by the factory for casting a express / hollow bullet in the 50-100-450, but I’ve never seen one. From what I can tell the 50-100-450 and the word Express were not used together by the factory in catalogs, etc. 

Now how any of that relates to molds made by Ideal is anyone’s guess, as I certainly do not know. But judging from the cavities the 50-100-450 should cast a 450 grain solid bullet with five grease grooves, where the cavity of the 50-110 Express would only cast a shorter bullet with only three grease grooves.

I hope that was helpful.

Sincerely,

Maverick