BruceB
08-28-2008, 02:25 AM
Due to many severe distractions in my personal affairs, I only finally managed a test-casting-run a couple days ago with two moulds which were acquired from Ebay some months back.
Both are NEW-in-the-box Loverin-designed Lyman-Ideals from the '70s (well, they WERE new, anyways). One is a single-cavity 311465 which casts at 125.1 grains from my WW metal, The bullets are perfectly round, as far as my Mitutoyo calipers can tell. As-cast diameter reads .312" on the rear band. Seems like a very nice light-.30 bullet, which should work well in cases from .30 Carbine on up.
The other mould is a 4-cavity 311466, also virginal and one of the finest examples of mould-making that I EVER expect to see. It is simply flawless. The design is one of my absolute favorites, and I expect to see thousands of fine copies of the design piling-up on the bench. A short test run with my WW at 870 degrees gave some nice boolits. One mould-full, meaning one bullet from each cavity in a single filling, shows maximum weight spread of 0.3 grains, average 152.6 grains, and no measurable difference in dimensions (again, with calipers and not a micrometer). Base-band diameters from the new mould are all .313". This measurement allows for a great deal of experimentation, of course, and these may even run well in my 1955 #4 Mk2 .303.
(YES, Bill, the 2-cav 466 is yours, but jus' hold on thar, pard...I seem to sense a potential deal in the wind....!)
Judicious selection and bidding can still yield some treasures at auctions. Considering that a Lyman new-production 4-cavity mould with handles is well over $100, I believe that some of the obsolescent designs are still within practical (and reasonable) price ranges. It was still a choker for an ol' guy like me to pony-up the $150 for that 311466, I must admit. But, I HAVE IT, and I'm pleased as punch!
The Loverin multi-groove designs come down to us from the 1950s, from whence I clearly recall some writings which described them as designs which yield good fill-out only with somewhat more difficulty than "conventional" designs of the time. It may be the high temperature at which I cast, but I've had no problems in casting well-formed Loverins from a number of moulds. In .30-caliber at least, they are my go-to design for starting out with a new rifle or cartridge. I have great respect for the Loverins I've tried, and always have an eye out for any which are not included in my present conglomeration of boolit moulds.
NVCurmudgeon and I went out to the new Humboldt County Range on Tuesday, and pronounced it a fine facility. We have two fifty-yard short-range bays, a fifty-yard-wide 100-yard range with benchrests, and a 400-yard range with benchrests on a commanding elevation for the firing point. These allow just about any sort of shooting fun a man could reasonably ask for. All the ranges are 100% safe to operate independently of each other, and even the noise from the various ranges is very muted and at pleasant volume. The entire complex was ours on Tuesday; not another soul showed up....maybe they'd heard of two wild-eyed geezers with guns up there on the mountain??? We tried stretching my Shiloh .45-70 to a 400-yard gong, but decided that perhaps we'd best do some intermediate-range paper-target work before getting that ambitious again.
Great fun...made us feel like a couple early-teeners with our first .22s again!
Both are NEW-in-the-box Loverin-designed Lyman-Ideals from the '70s (well, they WERE new, anyways). One is a single-cavity 311465 which casts at 125.1 grains from my WW metal, The bullets are perfectly round, as far as my Mitutoyo calipers can tell. As-cast diameter reads .312" on the rear band. Seems like a very nice light-.30 bullet, which should work well in cases from .30 Carbine on up.
The other mould is a 4-cavity 311466, also virginal and one of the finest examples of mould-making that I EVER expect to see. It is simply flawless. The design is one of my absolute favorites, and I expect to see thousands of fine copies of the design piling-up on the bench. A short test run with my WW at 870 degrees gave some nice boolits. One mould-full, meaning one bullet from each cavity in a single filling, shows maximum weight spread of 0.3 grains, average 152.6 grains, and no measurable difference in dimensions (again, with calipers and not a micrometer). Base-band diameters from the new mould are all .313". This measurement allows for a great deal of experimentation, of course, and these may even run well in my 1955 #4 Mk2 .303.
(YES, Bill, the 2-cav 466 is yours, but jus' hold on thar, pard...I seem to sense a potential deal in the wind....!)
Judicious selection and bidding can still yield some treasures at auctions. Considering that a Lyman new-production 4-cavity mould with handles is well over $100, I believe that some of the obsolescent designs are still within practical (and reasonable) price ranges. It was still a choker for an ol' guy like me to pony-up the $150 for that 311466, I must admit. But, I HAVE IT, and I'm pleased as punch!
The Loverin multi-groove designs come down to us from the 1950s, from whence I clearly recall some writings which described them as designs which yield good fill-out only with somewhat more difficulty than "conventional" designs of the time. It may be the high temperature at which I cast, but I've had no problems in casting well-formed Loverins from a number of moulds. In .30-caliber at least, they are my go-to design for starting out with a new rifle or cartridge. I have great respect for the Loverins I've tried, and always have an eye out for any which are not included in my present conglomeration of boolit moulds.
NVCurmudgeon and I went out to the new Humboldt County Range on Tuesday, and pronounced it a fine facility. We have two fifty-yard short-range bays, a fifty-yard-wide 100-yard range with benchrests, and a 400-yard range with benchrests on a commanding elevation for the firing point. These allow just about any sort of shooting fun a man could reasonably ask for. All the ranges are 100% safe to operate independently of each other, and even the noise from the various ranges is very muted and at pleasant volume. The entire complex was ours on Tuesday; not another soul showed up....maybe they'd heard of two wild-eyed geezers with guns up there on the mountain??? We tried stretching my Shiloh .45-70 to a 400-yard gong, but decided that perhaps we'd best do some intermediate-range paper-target work before getting that ambitious again.
Great fun...made us feel like a couple early-teeners with our first .22s again!