I have been perusing bag molds as I would like one for my flint long rifles. Ebay has lots listed with number designations. Do any have an idea what these numbers may mean? They are always two numbers such as "16" or "30" or some such.
Appears to refer to caliber of firearm. I checked and found a bag mold 40 listed. turns out it is for a .390 rb. several others listed. The oddest one listed was a mold75, actually was a .715 cal, why load such a small undersized ball? Try contacting Larry Callahan if your looking for bag molds. There is a previous post referring to bag molds.
http://traditionalmuzzleloadingcheap.com/forum/index.php?topic=13844.msg106662#msg106662
Original mould were marked size wise number of balls to the pound. 38 is roughly .490. 160 @ .32 and so on
Guns were also designated that way. An interesting point on that is in the book used to make "Jerimia Johnson,when he bought his Hawkin in St. Louis,the author mistakenly took the size "32" as the caliber or bore size. It was actually about a .56 cal. I don't have my chart in front of me,so don't quote these number exactly,but you get the idea.