? ? ? 357466 & 358477? ? ?

[TCLouis]

I have 4 cavity molds in both of these patterns and know nothing about either.

Never hear them discussed either which makes me ask about them.

One hears a lot some of the GB molds, 358429, 358156 and some of the other brands.

Does anyone out there use either of these molds an do you plink out of a a 38 SPL or push them out of a 377 Mag?

It would be nice to have a mold(s) that will produce a number of boolits, shoot well and avid the gas check.

Just went through the molds and will be listing others for sale in the classified section when I figure them out.

[Jack Stanley]

I have an old Ideal 358477 , I have used it some in the thirty-eight and like it a lot .

Jack

[Dutchman]

357446 is mentioned by Elmer Keith in Sixguns. It's a perfectly fine boolit for .38 Special or .357 Mag though I prefer 358156 with a g/c in .357 Mag. I shot a bunch of 357446 cast from a single cavity mold with some pitting in it.. it was old. I think it may have been the very first mold I ever cast bullets with in about 1971 or so.

Dutch

[theperfessor]

I use the 358477 in .357 mag for my GP100. I can crimp in the crimp groove, which I can't do with the 358429. That or just about any other properly sized 150-160gr bullet will work fine in most .357s.

[Carolina Cast Bullets]

I have used the 358477 in every 38 Special I have owned. It works and it works well.

Jerry
Carolina Cast Bullets

[rintinglen]

The 357-446 never worked out well for me. I have an older Ideal mold that casts well, but the bullet never quite equaled the other SWC's when it came to accuracy. I recommend the 358-477 over its stablemate. In my experience, it is much more likely to shoot well.

[Iron Mike Golf]

I use the 358477 in my S&W Model 28 and Rossie Model 92 and it works great in both guns.

[runfiverun]

i have 2 versions of the 477 and they both do quite well. [ a 2 cav and a 4 cav]
my rossi revolver likes them.
my dan wesson loves them in 38 cases.
and my moms old win 92 will feed and fire them just fine in 38 cases [my rossi won't,but it will shoot them right well]
in fact they are more accurate than my wad cutter mold is.

[Bret4207]

477 has been lauded here quite a bit, it's a fine design. 466, IIRC, has an "either, or" reputation- either it works or it doesn't. It doesn't seem to enjoy a very good reputation. That's all I got on 466. My 477 is a 4 banger and works great.

[Cherokee]

I've tried both designs over the years, I still have the 4c 358477 and use it extensively in 38 Special and 357 Mag. Works for me.

[Love Life]

I shoot the 358477 by the pound. It is my go to bullet for 38 special and 357 magnum. It just plain works.

[MT Gianni]

I like the 477 in 38 special a lot. I had a 446, Skeeter Skelton liked it but mine would not shoot well. Knowing what I now know, it was probably undersized.

[GP100man]

I have both & shoot mainly the 446 , the problem with some 446 molds is the front drive band is grossly undersized ,but even those will shoot well if kept in the 1,000 fps range .

Here`s a pic of both look closely from the top lube groove up ,there`s a big difference in the 2.The 1 with the wide front band shoots good as low as I wanna go ,the other needs the gas !

In all fairness my 357477 drops ded nutts 357 & is a .001" too small for my cyls.& really have`nt tried to do anything with it .

http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/xx110/GP100man/102_0489.jpg

I like the 358156 Barebottomed (GC removed by Buckshot) it stands by itself when ya talk `bout revolver fodder !! I have a DC solid & a HP version
Here`s the DC with a 358446 HPed by Buckshot .
http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/xx110/GP100man/102_0583.jpg
All the above mentioned molds drop 358+ with isotope alloy with 1oz of tin/4lb ingot & I`ve run em to 1200fps but get a tad of skidding any faster though.

[TCLouis]

So I guess I need to cast a few pounds of 466 and run the rest of the pot from the 477 and see what happens on paper!

[MT Gianni]

The old LY manuals gave a load of 5.4 gr Unique in a 38 special w/ 358477. I use it as an accuracy load in a strong gun. [K frame]. It is currently listed as 5.0 gr which shoots almost as well.

[MikeS]

One thing about the 358477, like some other Lyman/Ideal designs they made some changes to it over the years. I used to own a 2 cavity mould that looked totally different than the ones shown here. The edge of the meplat was totally rounded off, and the boolit only weighed 150gr, not the 158 that the later moulds weighed. The version I had worked very nicely thru a 2" barreled Smith model 60. I'm kind of sorry that I sold that mould, but at the time I was selling off most of my 2 cavity moulds with the intent of replacing them with 4 cavity or more moulds. I guess the moral of the story is that if you have a mould that you like, and works for you, don't sell it until AFTER you buy a mould to replace it!

[TCLouis]

Man I am glad something posted on Sixguns brought me back here, I almost cast a pot load of the wrong boolit.

Between looking here and putting mold on the handles I reversed the logic. Sure glad I did not get around to casting them.

[HeavyMetal]

358477 is my go to mold these days, have an RCBS DC that is a clone of the original design and shot so well when I got the chance to buy an older 4C 358477 I snapped it up!

IMO boolits in the 150 grain range are best for 38 Spec, and 357 loads in most "standard" guns. Longer barrels can make better balistics but lose the "handy" that make a 4 inch much more usable.

the 466 mold just never got it done for me and, just an FYI, nither did the 358156! I've had a 10 or so 156 through my hands over the years and each one was tried and just never performed more than so so, I even had two HP's but it just never got it done.

The RCBS 150 K, my first 358 mold, Kicked it's butt up and down the range!

So much so that the last 156 that came into my hands never even got warmed up I just posted it for sale!

Try both and see which one your gun prefers, once ya get that done sell the loser and use the money to buy Red River Rick's Lee type sprue plate with the trough cut in it and convert the winner over to it. Rick's sprue plate is hot stuff and I have both the 358477 and a 429421 converted over and they are light years better than when they left Lyman's plant!

[357maximum]

I would keep the 477....it will do anything 38/357 pretty well if the alloy is matched to the task at hand. The 446 can be tempermental and GENERALLY likes to be pushed harder than most want to push it in order to get good accuracy......it is kind of the premadonna of boolit moulds in my opinion. I still have 4 cavities of both, but I use them for drastically different purposes....if I could only keep one the 477 would win hands down because the one thing the 446 does well can be done with the 477 and the 477 does everything else better accuracy wise.

[oger]

Just picked up an early ideal 466 haven't shot any of them yet but it does drop a .360 bullet with my ww+a little tin. I agree about the first driving band, have no idea what they were thinking about but will give it a try.

[Harry O]

The 477 has a slight edge on accuracy over the 446 for me. The 477 also seems to cast a little easier for me. The 446 has a little more trouble filling out the small driving bands between the front and rear ones.

I once did an accuracy test with the 358429, the 358477 and the 357446. I used a scoped K-38 Masterpiece from a sandbag rest at 25 yards and 50 yards. The 429 had an edge on accuracy at 50 yards. The 477 had an edge on accuracy at 25 yards. The 446 was close on both. No guarantee that a future test would show the same thing. All three were almost equally accurate with only minor differences between them. The 358156 is reserved exclusively for full power 357 Magnum loads.

[Ed_Shot]

I have both the 357466 and 358477. The 358477 is superior in every respect IMHO.

[Bucking the Tiger]

I have NOE's version of the 358477 in a 5 cavity and have cast thousands of bullets with. The 358477 is a great SWC in .38 and I have had fine success in the .357 Magnum also. I also have an Ideal 358429, which makes a fine bullet, but a more specialized choice than the 358477.