RCBS 38-150-SWC diameter

[peerlesscowboy]

What's the "as cast" diameter of the RCBS 38-150-SWC?

John C. Saubak

[MtGun44]

Mine come out about .359.

Bill

[Gunsmoke4570]

Mine come out about .359.

Bill

Same here.

[peerlesscowboy]

Thank's guys,
I've been using an old Ly358477 mould that drops 'em at .363", then I gotta size 'em way down to .358" to get 'em to fit :? Thinking I might retire that old mould and get an RCBS instead.

John C. Saubak

[Leadmelter]

The RCBS 150 357 is one of my favorite boolits. You shoot it fast or slow, easy to cast. I just wish they would make it in a 4-6 gang version.
Gerry

[rayzer]

I use range lead to cast my pistol boolits. Out of my .38-150 they mike out at .359.

[MtGun44]

If you try another 477, it will do better, I'll bet.

As a matter of fact, I have an old 2 cav 477 that is kinda surplus since I found a 4 cav
version. Might be convinced to sell it if you want to try another one of them. Good mold,
has a home-made replacement sprue plate that works fine but is a bit ugly, but never was
enough of an issue to actually change out.

OTOH, RCBS makes really nice molds and the Mehanite seems to be a superior mold material,
far harder than Lyman's material (cast iron?) with beautiful surface finishes on every one I have
seen. My 38-150-KT (now 38-150-SWC) will fit into my 477 mold cavity almost perfectly, but has
the larger square bottomed lube groove, where the 477 lube grv is round and a bit smaller. Both are
excellent boolits in every application that I have tried them in. Both are shorter in the nose than
358429 (another great design!) so if you are feeding an N-frame Smith or other short cyl revolver,
they will work fine when the 429 may not fit.

You should advertise that oversized 477 mold in our selling thread - somebody with a .38 S&W cal
pistol or just another gun with big throats may be struggling with too small as-cast diameter and
you may have their dream mold.

Bill

[HeavyMetal]

Mine also drops .359 from the RCBS mold I bought back in the 70's!

As for the large 358477, better to have it to big than to small! Also you may have other issues with that mold. I have a Lyman 35863 and it always cast .363. An older mold I thought it was just off and sold it to a guy here.

After he recieved it noticed a burr on the pins.

We both figured it might hold the mold open just a little and could be causing the .363 boolits.

Since he had purchased to mold for a Webley the possibility existed that if he removed the burr and or it "broke" off some how he might suddenly have an under sized mold for his Webley.

I instantly offered the guy a refund if he didn't feel like taking the risk and, with no hard feelings on either side, it was returned to me.

So take a good hard look at that mold under real strong light with a real nice magnifiying glass and see what you really got, you might be surprised!