Hi there. I have a Hepburn Match B in .30/40 and I'd like to try something like the the Pope designed Ideal 308403 for offhand shooting. I understand this bullet was a taper design. Was it shot with fixed ammunition or breech seated?
I have no chance of finding an original mould out here in Australia so I will probably get one cut by Accurate Molds. At the moment I have a photo but no other specs. I'd be grateful if anyone who has some bullets cast from this mould could give me some dimensions relating to the bullet length & diameters for each of the bands.
Also any suggestions on loads would be very useful. Thanks.
Spud

Just check the accurate website, search the bullet, and if has a dimensional drawing for you to customize to your liking... And also read the 'net a bit re. this bullet.

The idea is to use the reverse taper of the base band to finger seat into a fired case neck and use it as  Delicate fixed ammo.
The base band is supposed to seal the free bore or lead of the rifling and the taper to match that of the rifle.

A dimensioned mould cut to your chamber cast would be about as good as it gets I think.
I have a noe clone of that mould.
It shoots better for me breachseated as I have to use a shortened 38-55 long case (2.135") reformed to fit my long 30-30 chamber.
I haven’t that many cases so shortening one to use that as fixed is  near sacrilege.
A factory case is just a wee bit short for top accuracy.

If you go down this route you will have to dip or pan lube.

I will need to cast some more up soon if you would like to try some before purchasing a mold.

I have settled on 4.6 grns bulleye and a pea of Dacron for a load.
It is subsonic I think as it doesn’t crack and tracks like a 22lr out to 300 yards.
Using a steady reloading technique the barrel doesn’t get hot and you can shoot long strings if you like.
It’s my go to play bullet for the last several years as I don’t do any case prep besides scraping the primer pocket out an a rub with a rag on the neck to keep it clean.
I shoot as cast and dip lube.
I have a box of 100 cases just primed and loaded.
A other small pistol ammo case to hold the cast and dipped bullets from getting beat up and drop one down the bore and gently push home with what ever you have handy.
Load case and away you go.
No great tools or equipment needed.

Mine shoots better than the gun rack and equipment snobs sniff test would indicate.

Ohh for a rebar barrel and wire twitching to hold the fore-end and scope mount on.
Mis matched stock and fore -end.

The dimensions that Tom used for the mold on accurate is from samples of my original ideal Pope molds. I cast a bunch for a friend of mine and it shot so well he sent samples to Tom and had him base it on mine.

I have run across some later Lyman cut 308403 that did not have the reverse tapered base and I did not get them to shoot as well.noe also makes a copy of the bullet but the first band in front of the taper base is .310 which is nothing like any original I have ever measured I'm uncertain if it would work better or worse.

I think you will be happy with the results of that bullet. I was out this morning  with my Ruger number 1 30-06 in this is for 5 shot groups breech seated. I would expect your Hepburn to shoot better than this number one.