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Didn't Lyman used to make a two part .45 caliber bullet mold, the bottom 2/3 was cast hard and the top 1/3 was cast soft? The bottom of the top part was a V and the bottom was an inverted V. A drop of epoxy was put in the bottom V, then the top was inserted and given a twist to seat. Are they still being made? Inquiring minds want to know...….robin
For is worth (not much) decades ago, GONRA successfully Epoxy Resined together (base-to-base)
2 Lyman "585213 Special" (no hollow base!) cast lead bullets for Proof Testing my Soviet 14.5 mm PTRS-41 AT rifle.
Do a search on this site for "Bruce B Soft Point Bullets". No epoxy required. THEY WORK.
You are correct. Lyman did make such a mold.
As stub shaft said, Lyman did make such a mold and had pictures and a description of "how it was done" in their Cast Bullet Handbook, 3rd. Edition.
I have a Lyman kit but in 44 mag.
Attachment 238901
Attachment 238902Attachment 238903
Lyman has discontinued the two part moulds. They are two single cavity moulds to the set , you cast the bottom , change alloy and cast the top , size the bottom , glue the top and bottom together , let epoxy cure and then you have one boolit..... production was more than slooowwww .
They pop up on ebay every now and then.
Gary
I always wondered why they went the epoxy route. If you look in some of the old Ideal books they had moulds made similar but the bottom of the nose piece was a reverse cone... kinda dovetail like. So you cast the soft noses up then change alloy, drop the nose into the mould then simply cast the harder base around it and they are locked together.
I can guess that unless you pre-heated the mould with nose in each time that there would be cold shut/wrinkles/cavities in the joint making for inconsistent weight though they should stay locked together.
A way of doing this about as easy or even easier is to use a small dipper to pour soft lead into the nose then follow immediately with header lead for the body. If the lead and mould is hot the bond is virtually perfect... although for me I found it easy to do this using Lyman 457125 500 gr. boolits casting the entire nose out of soft lead then the body from straight wheelweights, when I tried it with Lyman 314299's (200 gr.) for my .303's it didn't go so well. I got poor joints. You really need hot lead and mould to do this right.
And yes, the BruceB method works too.
Personally I think the epoxy idea is silly and I have read that the boolits often separated on impact. Since the joint is tapered I can believe it, if they tumble anyway, but no personal experience.
Longbow
I hunted with this epoxied bullet and shot in wet newspapers and I never saw a separation on impact! Never.
Base in lino and nose in soft lead. A little, very little bit of Araldite in the cup and after one night go to hunt!
Like I said, no personal experience, just what I read. It may well depend on epoxy used and the hardness and performance of the 2 alloys. A quick search didn't turn up anything except that the moulds didn't sell well so were dropped by Lyman.
Overall I would just use the 2 dipper method which works very well... at least with large bore boolits, or paper patch softish alloys. No fiddling with casting and assembling 2 pieces and no chance of separation or misalignment.
Different strokes.
Longbow
Holo have you cast with that mold? What kind of results did you get? Accurate? Sounds like a neat idea.
I melted a hundred boolits with the mold in 44 mag for hunting with a Super blackhawk and a single shot H&R. The precision and the result are excellent. At 50 meters every shot is in a half playing card. This precision is sufficient for hunting. For the precision it is necessary to put the least glue possible and to make turn the nucleus on the base to distribute the film of glue; only the true Araldite glue gave good results. Excuse my broken american.
No excuses needed ...Your American is as good as any and better than most !
Welcome to the forum .
Gary
One of the niftier mould I own is a nose core mould for pure lead noses on the 311291.
They make perfect little slugs for the BruceB method .30 cal “round nose moulds,” in particular my beloved 311290.
Fortunately I only need to cast a dozen or so at a time.