Mihec 452-200 Cramer HP - great mold

[BeeMan]

Had my second casting session yesterday, with my new 4 cavity brass Mihec 452-200 mold. This mold is simply amazing. I have a couple of aluminum customs by Mihec and NOE, but brass trumps them soundly for easy temperature control, consistent fill-out, and effortless drop from the mold.

Even though I've never used any HP mold before, I dropped bullets non stop until the 10 lb Lee was nearly empty. I rejected only half a dozen bullets, total, for the run. This was using the round HP pins.

Up til now, my most consistent results were with RCBS molds. Those still run great, as I also cast some RCBS 9mm yesterday. But now I can cast hollow points four at a time at almost identical yield.

Time to start saving for more brass molds from Miha...

BeeMan

[L1A1Rocker]

I've got that mold too. It's great but I think my favoite is a 38/357 mold that has a rerun that just started.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=146731

[slide]

I've got the 452-200 also. Agree with everything you said. They are fantastic. Shooting them through my Kimber. It liked 5.5 grains of Unique with an oal of 1.200" I didn't come up with the load. It came from Triggerhappy. The only problem is when the pot runs dry and you have to stop for a while.

[buyobuyo]

I was casting with mine today. It was great. The stars and planets aligned, and I ended up with 9.25 pounds of bullets after the initial sort to cull rounded bases. I still need to do one more sort to cull any torn cavities. To top it off, I was able to cast at sub-700 degrees without problems which has never happened before.

[Michael J. Spangler]

this mold was my first, and the only one i use (i have a 358156 and don't even own a .38/357)
its amazing. pump out boolits all day long, and i barely every get something that i wouldn't shoot.

i load them to 1.190 over 4.5 grains of bullseye and they're sweet. flawless in my 1911 and so far flawless in my 625-4

now that i have my sizing for these boolits figured out, and just about out of bullseye and i'm going to mess with some WIN 231 to see if i can find a nice accurate load.

glad everyone else loves this mold too!

[xacex]

I have tried bluedot, bullseye, clays ,w231 to date, but my most accurate loads for this mold are made with universal pushing them about 950fps.

[Dale53]

I have both 1911's and 625's. I haven't found any of them to be powder sensitive. Any powder that has the correct burning rate for .45 ACP seems to work extremely well. I'm talking consistent groups under 1" at 25 yards.

Right now I am using Titegroup. However, I have successfully used Bullseye, Dupont 5066, Dupont PB, Dupont 7625, Win 231, and Unique.

Titegroup measures well and is not position sensitive (not particularly important with the .45 ACP/Auto Rim but a useful characteristic for .38 Special, .44 Special, and .45 Colt).

FWIW
Dale53

[HiVelocity]

I too love this mold; I actually have 2 of them.

My load for my Kimber and my XD Tactical is 5.9gr of Titegroup. This is about
.4 over the published load data for a 200 grain cast bullet. Yet, no signs of excessive pressure, est velocity is ~960 fps.

Just my $.02 worth. Enjoy!

HV

[lead_her_fly]

Culls still in there but, I got a 1lb coffee can in about an hour and a half.

Did I say I love this mould?

[HATCH]

I had to run my pot to 800 to get constant good ones.
But it spits out perfect ones every time.

Wish i had one like this for my mastercaster

sent from my mobile

[MiHec]

I have some of this molds on hands. If you want one, please PM me.

[Balta]

Culls still in there but, I got a 1lb coffee can in about an hour and a half.

Did I say I love this mould?

oo that looks great..Can wait to get one in my hands...

[Michael J. Spangler]

wow now i want to go to the shop and heat up my mold.
great boolits. i want to cast some in FP. all have been HP thus far

[Balta]

Can you guess what postman bring to me yesterday??
YESSS ,MP HP mold....
Gonna share my experience in another post..this mold deserve that.

[MiHec]

I still have some of this molds on hands.....
If you want one , please PM me.

[thebigmac]

Yes, fellows, It is A GREAT MOULD. No doubts about it. These feed in my 1911's;
Grizzly LAR; and Springfield much, much better than the 230 ball. bigmac

[TheCelt]

Haven't cast any bullets with this mold yet as I just recieved it 15 minutes ago! Sure is a fine looking mold though, and I got it quick! Believe I'll be doing buisness with Mihec again!!!

[trixter]

Haven't cast any bullets with this mold yet as I just recieved it 15 minutes ago! Sure is a fine looking mold though, and I got it quick! Believe I'll be doing buisness with Mihec again!!!

I want a full report, with photos if you can.

Thanks

[TheCelt]

Hi Trixter,
Well, it took awhile to get after it with this mold but I did cast today and as per your request here's my report.

In preperation, I heated the mold to 300 deg F on the Hot plate and let it cool down three times. It seemed like the HP pins and guide pins seated well so I fired up the pot.

I must admit that I can't tell you much about my alloy except that it's got lead, tin, arsenic and antimony in it. The BHN works out to about 15 when air cooled and up to 20 when quenched in cold water and that's about all I can tell ya about the metal. If I can melt it I'll make boolits out of it!!! When aged about 30 days I get a BHN of ~25 when quenched in cold water.

It took awhile before I was getting acceptable boolits cause I'd never cast HP boolits before and I had to climb a bit of a learning curve. First, I discovered that the alloy has to be HOT. I ran the melt at about 750 deg F and kept the mold on the Hot Plate set to about 400 deg F. That and keeping up a brisk casting pace produced good HP bullets in short order.

The results of the first casting session with this mold are nothing short of FANTASTIC!!!! Boolits miked out at 0.4525" and weighed from 199.1 to 200.3 for ALL boolits!!!! That is a 1.2 grain spread for all boolits!!! I don't know about you but I've never cast that many boolits with that small of a weight distribution!!!

Gonna size them tomorrow and load some up in a 45 ACP in front of 8.3 gr of Acc #5. It's a fairly stout load for my Officer's model but it's an "authorative" round!!! I'll ley ya know how they shoot later!

[kgb]

I just received one of these molds, have a question or two. First, can either set of pins be installed in reverse to form flatpoints? Second, the pins are a very snug fit which I assume is a good thing, but the penta set doesn't allow the mold to close. Do you need to clearance anthing for a proper fit or do they wear in?