Old Lyman Molds

I just sent Lyman an e-mail suggesting that many of their old molds be available on a special order basis. I know that some here have had problems with Lyman products but recently I have a good experience with their reps and products. I know they will most likely ignore my suggestion. The number of old black powder cartridges, old military rounds and even the resurgent in cast lead target shooting of modern calibers makes me think this would be a good business move. I am thinking mostly of the old rifle target designs but also those for lesser known cal.s such as 9.3 (366408) most of which are shown in the back of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook (#2, from early 70s). I know I am a dreamer but I am tired of searching gun shows for molds I want.

Good luck, there are probably a few I would seriously consider if they go for your idea

walt

The problem there is, Lyman sold many of it's old cherrys and obsolete molds to Mike's Reloading years ago. They would need to make new cherrys, and I doubt that the new ones would match the old.

Scroll down on this link below, then on to the next page to see what some of those old numbers looked like.

http://www.sodcity.com/gallery2/view...res-etc&page=2

The last 9 months, or so have seen more articles in gun magazines related to cast bullets than I think I saw in the 5 years before that. It seems that you may be right about a resurgence of interest, or perhaps need with the huge increase in jacketed bullet prices. We all know that usually once one shoots some successful loads with home cast bullets, they are hooked. I got really lucky perhaps 15 years ago, and came across a box full of old Lyman, and Ideal molds, mostly single cavity, that the shop hadn't been able to get rid of. I think I gave them $35 for the whole box, but that won't happen many days of the average week, and certainly not in recent times, but it does pay to keep your eyes open.

All the Ideal Molds ...
http://www.three-peaks.net/bullet_molds.htm
Correct on the cherries and diagrams - Gone! Did a group buy for the Ideal 375166 and had to draw the schematic myself and send it to them

Waksupi, I dont think Mike has them if you are refering to Mike Morton of M & P Casting. He lives about 40 miles south of me and I see him every three or 4 weeks. He told me about a month ago that he was down to Lyman and that they had 2 palets of obsolete old mold cherries. He's been trying to get them for years, or to get Lyman to start running obsolete molds. They are just plain BONEHEAD.

Lyman listening to what a customer wants. The government caring about what the serfs want. An honest politician. BigFoot. The boogie man, Vampires, and A woman knowing what she wants before she opens the menu.

All the above are things that make me say "YEAH RIGHT"

The small vendors here actually care about what YOU want and are willing to serve your desires for a very small profit. Not doing business with a feller that is willing to turn your dreams into lead rates right up there with wiping fore ya poop in my book. It simply makes no sense, but that is my take on things.

Easy enough. Everyone put put your favorite number in a pot. Makers to publish offers of production, cost, and time for numbers that intrest them. Let us individually vote on each to establish a production priority, each vote being a public commitment to purchase at the price and constraints offered.

Group buy from a new catalog of old designs. Saves the moaning & groaning, prodding the disintrested ex-makers, waiting forever, etc. BvT

I know I am a dreamer. Should some kind soul wish to make the cherries and sell molds as a part time business I feel he could do very well. My thought would be to make some of the better target boolits and Schuetzen type boolits. Perhaps a retired tool and die maker or machinist retired or part time. Some of the smaller manufacturers could also do it. I just feel that there is a place for these types of molds because of the interest in older rounds and the target shooting of the newer rounds. It is just a cry in the wilderness. I thought that Lyman might give it some consideration.

Lyman has made a couple of special runs of discontinued molds in the last couple years. They are single cavity only but were nice molds. Thet were pre-ordered but I can't remember the man's name who set it up but there was a certain minimum wich was met easily. So you may very well get them to run a mold for you.

While it would be nice, Mi-hec, NOE or BABore can do a better job IMO.

Even if Lyman started making them again they wouldn't be the right dia's so we wouldn't buy them and they would say ''I told you so'' and would go back to ignoring us. Pat

I agree with GLL. The quality of molds available from our current custom mold producers is so good these days, and who knows what the heck we'd get from lyman.

Now there is the point: QUALITY. Cherries not needed. look at the pictures, scale them, program the cnc machines, make them. Surely enough expertise exists to do that. That is essentially what happens when I put the dimensions in Mountain Mold's template.

BvT

Corporate America only cares to please "most" of their customers. So we go elsewhere. Of course then they whine like crazy about 'losing market share', and they wonder where it went! But they learned in their Masters of Business Administration programs that that's what they're supposed to do, so therefore it must be right.

Go figure.


Cat

Quote:

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Lyman has made a couple of special runs of discontinued molds in the last couple years. They are single cavity only but were nice molds. They were pre-ordered but I can't remember the man's name who set it up but there was a certain minimum wich was met easily. So you may very well get them to run a mold for you.

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Shooter, it's not that easy. Lou Sellman in Pittsburgh is a Lyman Distributor. Through him, I was the honcho for the Ideal 457192 (45-75) and 375166 (38-55) remakes from Lyman. Lou needed a minimum number before Lyman would start up the CAD machine and Lou had to buy that minimum number. In addition, he had to PAY Lyman $2700 for 3 cherries but Lou owns the cherries. Also, Lyman had to be supplied with the bullet schematics calculated on 1:20 alloy because they sold them off years ago. If Lou didn't know Mr DeAngelo @ Lyman we would still be wishing for these excellent molds that were made by Ideal ... and we wouldn't have gotten SQUAT from Lyman!

Let's put it this way ... one would have to be the mistress of Lyman's President before they would do any favors for casters. Further they can't because they have no old cherries or schematics to load into the CAD

Why even bother with Lyman when someone like Accurate will make anything you want AND lathe bore instead of cherry cut them??? I can see the surface appeal to the idea, but if you follow the thought through to conclusion I think you'd see it's not really the best of ideas. Best of luck to you though.

I'm afraid that most manufacturers today are more interested in home runs than in base hits. I'm sure that there are more Ruger 10-22 designs out there waiting to be found, but it may be a while with so many players in the game. What companies don't seem to understand is that their markets go through life cycles, and that they can do the same thing every 10 years, or so, and it will sell well. The 'Ruger 250-3000's, Marlin 1894 CL's in 25-20,32-20, and 218 Bee are examples. The other thing they don't seem to see is that there is a bunch of money to be made serving markets that are more "nitch" in nature well. Good molds, etc. are examples there. IF it is done right, there is money to be made doing things right in less than huge quantities........... isn't that the whole idea behind CNC machining, and other new manufacturing methods?

Who cares?

With Miha and other custom makers we get the ACTUAL shape and diameter of the old
Lyman designs in higher quality molds.

Bill

One recent example is a 358009 that was in our classified ads for 1 1/2 days before it sold a a reasonable price. When I started casting in the 90's there had been a re-introduction but they were hard to find. By the late 90's early 00's it was a $100 mold. Because of modern mold mfg's and group buys this one stayed here when it should have been gone by rights in 15 minutes.

don't forget Mountain Moulds.

And don't forgot that old abused molds can be ground to exactly fit a larger diameter caliber rifle.

Time passes and the original owners of companies die. The new owners frequently have
very differnt interests, goals and methods of business than the original owners, even
though the name on the door stays the same.

Companies that produced desirable products, to high quality standards for reasonable
prices prosper. Companies that produce unwanted products and/or poor quality will
not prosper.

At this point, I can't tell where the current company with the Lyman name is going, but
some here have reported unsatisfactory results. I hope they are not the new normal,
but time will tell. For now, I am getting WONDERFUL quality molds to my exact
needs by some fantastic mold suppliers. If Lyman were to go out of the
boolit mold business tomorrow, I would not even notice.
Bill

MtGun44 is right, there are no voids in the marketplace that exist for long. One look at the Kimber success story makes that very clear. Many of us thought they were entering a market that was saturated allready, but they did it right, and very quickly became the name to beat if you wanted to be in that market. They also did it at a price point that was profitable to them, and stretched the average buyer just enough that they would find a way to come up with the cash. Other products like Ruger's single actions seem ripe for that kind of picking today so it will be interesting to see what happens. I've been using Lyman molds for nearly 50 years now, and sure hope that I will be till the end. I haven't been shooting Ruger single actions for quite that long, but I sure hope I will be.