LBT mold

[kpep]

Just got my LBT .45 (authentic Kieth) mold. I had thought all molds that duplicate (Kieth) his molds would have a DEEP square cut lube groove. Although this one is square cut it's not deep at all. I e-mailed Veral and was told it was a correct copy of a bullet that came from Kieth. He further states that he has proven the groove can be as shallow as .006 and give identical performance. I don't doubt him but this mold seems to have a very shallow groove. Any throughts?

[MtGun44]

Elmer's designs have the groove deep to cause the center portion of the
boolit in the groove to collapse slightly during firing to force the lube out
hard against the barrel to seal and lube. This is why Elmer objected to the
half circle type of groove, it was too strong against an axial load.

All that said, while I have had excellent results with the sq groove original
Keith design boolits of several different mold makers, I have also had very good
results with some round groove versions from Lyman. These have been
when driven pretty hard, so maybe with a soft enough alloy and driven hard
enough, even the round groove versions can collapse enough to get good
lube action.

Another note. My 358429 (Keith .38/.357 boolit) experience is that it is mediocre when
driven moderately, but very accurate when driven hard. Collapsing or just spinning
it fast enough to stabilize this long boolit? I don't know, maybe both.

FWIW.

My molds from Veral are all extremely well made and accurate, but I think
he is blowing smoke on his version of Elmer's design.

Bill

[runfiverun]

i think your design will be okay
i like the square design for the same reason elmer did it holds the lube
i think better,
i have a couple of lymans they shoot real well but dont hold the lube quite the same
as far as the shallow lube grooves i think they would be okay also
how deep are your lands? 005 or so?
veral seems to be a pretty smart fellow jmo.

[leftiye]

If it carries enough lube, it should work fine anyway.