H&g #130

I bought this mold, a 4 cavity, at a gunshow a couple of years ago. It had a lot of surface rust and some pitting, all on the outside. The cavities looked good and no rust on the faces of the blocks or anywhere that counts as important. I soaked it in Evapo-Rust over night, it cleaned up pretty well except for the pitting. And it came with the handles. I don't remember what I paid but it was fairly cheap, I think the rust scared most people off.

I just got around to using it. It is a real jewel to cast with. Bullets drop free on opening or at most a slight shake. Best casting mold I've ever owned, and I've owned quite a few from Lyman, RCBS, LBT, Lee, and Mountain Molds. Using wheel weight metal with a bit of tin it drops bullets at .454 weighing about 199 grns. I will be loading them in .45 Colt for use in a Uberti clone.

The only negative is that the sprue plate screw keeps loosening up. I'm hoping to fix that with a 1/4" wavy type washer, forget the technical name, to keep some tension on it.

Kudos on saving a classic. Those old H&Gs are amazing molds but they are disappearing. Good to hear one got saved.

I only have one h and g but it has a set screw to hold the sprue plate screw once adjusted . I thought they all did .

I have a few H&G molds and they all cast like you have stated. All of mine have a set screw for the sprue plate screw. Maybe your set screw is missing and you just did not notice the hole? Like the others have said, good save!

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Originally Posted by fstreed

... It is a real jewel to cast with. Bullets drop free on opening or at most a slight shake. Best casting mold I've ever owned.....

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Hear hear!! My 2C #20 (169gr SP - Squibb) was like that from the first cast. I found this mold on ebay a few years ago and use it exclusively in my 1903. Keeping the speed down to around 1500fps, I get around 1.5-2.0MOA. AND...it hits point of aim @100yds with the leaf sight down so it's great for the informal Garand matches my club has (we only have 100yd capability). Anyway, I can make a pile of boolits fast with this, they just fall out and hardly ever have a reject.
Semper Fi

A small piece of solid copper wire (like #12-10 Romex) about an 8th inch long between the set and pivot screw will hold it in place. It'll come loose after first use but then will hold after that. I set my sprue plate tension, without the wave washer, so the sprue plate will open when the mold is turned sideways but doesn't swing. I hope that makes sense. I use antiseize on all the screw threads. That #130 was real popular with the bullseye crowd after WWII.

Mine does have the set screw that locks the sprue plate screw in place. The plate screw is worn and battered where the set screw engages it. I think a replacement screw (1/4 x 28 fillister) will fix it. And I think I will take jsizemore's advice about a piece of copper or brass to keep it from happening again.

Replaced the abused sprue plate screw with a 1/4 x 28 allen type cap screw with a wavey (spring) washer, put a small pellet of 10 Ga. copper wire under the lock screw, adjusted and seated it all in, works like a champ. I wanted a new slotted fillister head screw but couldn't find one so I went with the cap screw.

I've had several of the #130's (and still do) and they are the best shooting design in several of my .45's.

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Originally Posted by fstreed

Replaced the abused sprue plate screw with a 1/4 x 28 allen type cap screw with a wavey (spring) washer, put a small pellet of 10 Ga. copper wire under the lock screw, adjusted and seated it all in, works like a champ. I wanted a new slotted fillister head screw but couldn't find one so I went with the cap screw.

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I have the brownells fillister screw set, send me a pm with the thread dimensions and if I have the one you need I can send it your way.

I gave $30 for one that looked like that .
Attachment 220844
Attachment 220843

It cleaned up ok I guess .
Attachment 220845
Attachment 220846

Casts just as described .