The Keith 358429 and learning how to never tap a hinge pin again.

[Curly James]

The Keith 358429 and learning how to never tap a hinge pin again.



I own an older Lyman 358429 Keith double cavity mold with square lube grooves that, while a joy to shoot, was a pain in the rear to cast due to the boolits sticking in the mold. An older gentle man caster at my gun club taught me a trick a few months ago that ceased that problem. After filling the mold and cutting the sprue, use you sprue stick to push on the right rear corner of the mold as you open the handles with the other hand. The mold will almost pop open and the boolits will fall free. No tapping the hinge pin or the handles to make boolits drop free. I think it prevents “torqueing” the mold itself as you open the handles.

Now having said that, I also own one of the Keith 38/357 Lee six cavity group buy molds. This mold is problematic, but I have learned to live with its problems for the simple reason that it drops one of the most accurate boolits I have ever fired in a .357 magnum revolver. My favorite load of:

11.5 grains of 2400

The Keith 38/357 boolit cast from range scrap (it’s sized to .358 and with lube weighs in
at 174 grains)

WW SPP

The lube I’m using up right now is a moly/beeswax/paraffin lube that is a little smoky and smelly but works very well in the no leading and accuracy department

The brass is sorted and trimmed but works well with whatever brand.

This load averages 1050 FPS or so and is pleasant to shoot. This load will easily group under 1 inch at 25 yards from my battered old 686 and is the load that lives in that gun.

The Lyman mold and the Lee mold while similar have some noticeable differences as you can see in the photos. The Lyman can be crimped in the crimp groove and work well in any of my revolvers. The Lee needs to be crimped almost biting the driving band or over the front of the band. The heavier charges of 2400 work well also, but my walking around load is the one I just described. I recently spent the morning casting 200 of each boolit on order to replenish my supply. The Lee made the 2000 number easier to reach than the Lyman two cavity but they each have their purposes. Thought I would take a photo of the boolits side by side, the differences are interesting. I wonder what makes the Lee so much more accurate than the Lyman.

[MtGun44]

Please clarify your 'push the rear corner' tip. I can't quite visualize what you
are doing or how it might make a boolit drop from the mold more easily.

Thanks.

Bill

[HeavyMetal]

Pushing the corner of the mold at the same instant you open the handles keeps the alignment pins from "locking" up for a brief instant which forces the boolit back into the mold causing it to stick.

I learned this trick years ago, and it works very well with single cavity molds. Two, three, and four bangers usually require a bit of fiddling until you find a sweet spot but they will "pop" if you can get the right feel for the mold!

[runfiverun]

my bet is that the boolit on the right is the more accurate one.
as it has more bearing surface, and a more non skid in the forcing cone type of nose.

[calaloo]

I posted this "trick" a few days ago after I tried it using a Hoch nose pour mold that sometimes required heroic effort to get the bullet to drop out. I have since tried it with a couple of other moulds including a RCBS two cavity .310 Cadet mould. This method WORKS!! If you Google Paul Jones Moulds there is a photo of the procedure although the description already given should suffice. Try it , it works.

Bill

[Curly James]

Sorry guys, I will never, ever post a message again after taking one of those "muscle relaxers" the Doc gave me. Seems I've pulled the muscles loose from my rib cage and am paying the penalty. The meds are uh, let's say, very good at relaxing me and my post was a little disjointed. [smilie=1:

I didn't think I was the first person to be told about that method of opening a mold I was just happy and geeked up on pills and could have explained it better. I have no clue why I decided to go off on the tangent about the Keith boolits, at least the load data is correct. By the way Calaloo that's a great site, thanks.

[ohland]

http://pauljonesmoulds.com/webnewmold.jpg

http://pauljonesmoulds.com/table_of_contents.htm#How%20should%20I%20cast%20us ing%20a%20Paul%20Jones%20mould

"Experience is the best teacher. Obviously every bullet caster either has or will eventually settle on a technique that works bests for him or her. With that in mind we offer the following recommendations:

First, always use a dipper (ladle) and never use any kind of mould prep. Remember the alignment pins are hard and the blocks are soft so always use caution when closing your mould. Never return the sprue plate to the stop pin (closed) position while the mould is still open. Doing so may cause the sprue plate to strike the inside of the mould cavity damaging it.

In order to cast a good bullet it will take between 7 to 12 seconds for the sprue to set up. After this time has elapsed cut the sprue and then hit the pivot point of the handle while the mould is still closed and in the horizontal position. Next, tilt the mould to the left, slightly past horizontal, and with the face of your mallet push against the bottom right hand side of the mould towards the left mould block while simultaneously opening the mould with your left hand (click on the thumbnail below to see a picture of this). Pushing on the side of the right hand mould block will eliminate any tendency of the mould to bind on the top alignment pin. Once the mould is fully open return it to the horizontal position and lightly tap the inside of the right hand handle, the bullet should drop out. "