Lyman Postell .45 535gr

[Angus in Wyoming]

Anybody using this bullet? I was wondering what size bullet you are getting from it. I got one for Christmas and I can't get it to drop anything larger than .456 sometimes .457. I have tried the usual changes to alloy and even beagled it. Thanks..

[Buckshot]

................Mine drops almost .460", but it's about 5 years old. Sounds like you should give good ol' Lyman a jingle.

..............Buckshot

[44man]

Yes, call Lyman. I don't have the mold but my friend shoots the Postell and his come out a little over .459 with 20 to 1 mix and much larger with hard lead. It is very accurate in his Pedersoli.
My Browning doesn't like it much though.

[Johnw...ski]

I had the same problem with the Lyman 535 gr. Postell and also the 335 gr. .38 cal. Postell. The .38 was too big in the bore rider section and I ended up selling it to another Cast Boolits member. The 45 cal. mold I finally turned to junk trying to make it cast bigger. I will say that Lyman did get back to me and said that if I sent it back they would check it out but with Lymans attitude in past dealings I felt that to be a waste of time.

I ended up replacing both moulds with custom moulds and while pricey they are exactly what I needed and wanted. I like to find one good boolit for each of my rifles, a boolit that is suitable for the twist rate of the rifle, then work on an accurate load. Since I tend to have only one mould per rifle a custom mould is not that much of an extravagance.

John

[montana_charlie]

Lyman's 'alloy standard' for all of their casting tools is Lyman #2. Few shooters using the rifles the 457132 was designed for shoot alloy that hard...but that's their standard.

If they have begun to tighten up their quality control, they may have decided to make that mould throw the size it's designation indicates. If true, usable Lyman Postells will become a thing of the past.

You should contact Lyman with your problem...and pray they don't say that .457" with #2 alloy is what you are supposed to get.

That bullet design is available from other sources...with NEI (probably) being the least costly.

CM

[Bullshop]

***If they have begun to tighten up their quality control, they may have decided to make that mould throw the size it's designation indicates. If true, usable Lyman Postells will become a thing of the past***

A cuple things ta think about, The Postell design is likely the most used and coppied basic design being used in BPCR. The cherry's being used at Lyman have a life span like a chamber reamer. They can be sharpened just so many times before the diameter is no longer usable. If you order a mold when a newly cut cherry is put into use it will likely be on the high side of stated diameter. Timing will likely make a big differance. If enough people complain now they will likely cut a new cherry and that will be the time to order, if you want and oversize diameter.
OK now here comes the bomb, .457" is not undersize for the caliber. Is it safe now? Please dont hurt me!
Consider a cupla things here. Has anyone here ever tried to chamber a groove diameter boolit in any pre 1900 Winchester? Some may but most wont, at least in my experiance which is considerable. Some folks say that is because our brass is thicker now. True in some cases but not really the root of the problem. The fact is as I have seen it is that pre 1900 BPC were loaded with boolits that were under groove diameter and most often hollow base desing. The alloys used were also very soft compaired to what we may think of now as hard or soft. Even so shooting what we now consider undersize the old Winchesters shot perty good.
Consider this also, the guys shooting conicles in modern ML are using boolits at bore diameter, not groove diameter. In 45 cal .458" groove most are shooting a .451" diameter boolit, and dont think for a minute that they cant equal the accuracy you may be getting shooting over groove diameter in your cartridge gun.
The only real diffis the the ML already has the boolit in the rifling where the cartridge gun has to transition from throat to rifling, unless it has been fully breach seated as was done for target shooting in the past.
Another very controvercial issue that may shed light is PP. What is the correct diameter to use bore diameter or groove diameter when the boolit is patched. That question usually gets some kettles boiling. I will play it safe on that issue and say that I use both with very good results.
What is my point you may be wondering by now, glad you asked. Point is that if you find yourself stuck with that mold that drops smaller than what you think you need it may not be a total loss. Give it a try.
BIC/BS

[redneckdan]

If for some reason lyman won't work with you I'm intrested in the mould to use for paper patching. I size down to .452 any way so the smaller the initial boolit the better.

[Angus in Wyoming]

I called the retailer I bought the mould from. They said they would happy to exchange it for me. I was going to do this, but I visited with some of the local shooters and asked them. I guess 4 or 5 of them had the same problem. The Lyman number does start 457. Anyway there is one guy in our group of shooters who is going to help me fix it. Basically, we are going to make the driving bands a couple of thous. larger with a lathe. I looked at 3 other moulds he has done that on and they, and the bullets look fine. I have seen them shoot too.
I want to say that I didn't contact Lyman as I decided to "fix" the problem. Please don't read anything bad about Lyman, I never contacted them.