Please rate the mould manufacturers!

[fatelvis]

For those of you that have used several "brands" of moulds, could you list them in order of Best to worst. Those being equal group together. I'm curious to see how this works out! Thanks! Here's mine;

Best= (Mihec, NOE, RCBS, NEI)
Ok= Lyman (2 good, 1 undersized GC shank, 1 undersized, 1 not round)
Worst= Lee

[cbrick]

Best= Mihec, NOE, Accurate, Mountain Molds
Very good= RCBS, LBT
So-So= Lyman, SAECO
Poor= LEE

Rick

[trixter]

I have 6 Lee molds and I like them, so they are the only ones that I can talk about.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I can't really do this, Lee's are gonna be notoriously rated as poor, BUT I have had Lee 2 cav. molds that cast as good as any. Besides Lee, I have cast with Herters, Hensley, NOE, Lyman, MP, TC, LBT, Accurate Molds, RCBS, Seaco, ....and soon Balisticast.

I could rate individual molds, but I won't rate all the manufacturers in order of best to worst. BUT, I will state my personal favorite.

That is NOE. For a very reasonable price, Al makes top quality molds and he provides good quality accessories as well as instruction (personal, if needed) And quite possibly the best customer service (I've had the odd luck to need that from him, not due to quality, just an honest mistake).
Jon

[Humbo]

Best: MP molds, LBT, NOE, SAECO
Very good: RCBS, Ballisti-cast/H&G, Mimek, NEI
Good: Lee, older Lyman
Poor: New Lyman

I don't have any experience with Accurate molds and Mountain molds yet, but I'm sure they are up there with the best.

[Jack Stanley]

Best ; H&G , Cramer , Hoch and old time NEI
Very good ; LBT , RCBS , Lachmiller and a Saeco from about thirty years ago
Good ; Ideal and some older Lyman along with a LEE sometimes
Poor ; NOE , LEE ( normally ) Lyman most of the time now

Lots of molds I haven't tried Mihec and Accurate come to mind but I may get an Accurate for my Russian zip gun just to try it out .

Jack

[Baja_Traveler]

Well, you are the first person I have ever heard of calling an NOE mould "poor"...

Best ; H&G , Cramer , Hoch and old time NEI
Very good ; LBT , RCBS , Lachmiller and a Saeco from about thirty years ago
Good ; Ideal and some older Lyman along with a LEE sometimes
Poor ; NOE , LEE ( normally ) Lyman most of the time now

Lots of molds I haven't tried Mihec and Accurate come to mind but I may get an Accurate for my Russian zip gun just to try it out .

Jack

[doctorggg]

I am also curious as to why you rated Noe as poor? I have 29 molds from NOE. They all perform very well. Customer service is excellent.

[snapthecat]

Best---RCBS
Second best---Lyman
Worst by far---Lee

[captaint]

Best - H&G, Mihec, NOE
Good - Old Lymans, RCBS, LBT actually very good
Not so good - Some Lee's

Mike

[Harter66]

I've had only a few moulds that aren't Lee moulds.

Best 3 RCBS
Good 5 old Lyman
Acceptable 11 Lees

I will quantify this all of the RCBS and Lyman moulds are 2nd hand , 3 of the Lyman moulds are aluminum Maxi ball moulds and work well but 1 of them has closing alignment problems about 1 in 10 . 2 RB moulds are a little quirky to work w/and require your full attn to walk the line between hot/cold/too hot.

The RCBS moulds also 2nd hand an RB, 45-200 swc and a 27-130. All worked well right "outta the box" and are all iron moulds. The RB is a little quirky but runs well once you get it in the running window. The RCBS moulds are easier to keep in the run window temperature wise I don't foresee me ever running more than a 2C iron mould

Lee, well "acceptable" means its a simple tool to do a simple job.... ....a job which requires that tool. They work work, they heat up fast,come w/handles on every single and double, and for the same money at retail pricing I can get 11 6 C Lee moulds for what it would cost to replace the 8 Lyman and RCBS singles and doubles dollar for dollar or! ( 2C moulds. I'm one that will buy a wear tool based on it doing the job if its 1 I'm likely to wear out and I can buy 2 that will last 2/3 as long each as the good 1 that costs twice as much I'll buy them. At this point except a couple of commercial casters here I bet nobodies ever said "I gotta get a new RCBS iron mould mines just worn out " and if they did it must have been abused and/or cast about about 10 million Boolits. Added bonus of Lee moulds no rust wingtips at the end of a session and if you boogger 1 up you can afford to replace it and/or try your hand at prototyping a patch mould from the 1 you wrecked 1 calibre up or more.

[Oreo]

I feel like there ought to be a higher category for Miha's molds. The term Fine Art comes to mind but you guys call them as you see fit.

[ShooterAZ]

Based solely on my personal experience:

1) RCBS best
2)Lyman good
3) LEE hit & miss passable

[Jack Stanley]

I am also curious as to why you rated Noe as poor? I have 29 molds from NOE. They all perform very well. Customer service is excellent.

That's easy , I bought two of them . First one wouldn't take a Hornady gas check unless you used a mallet to put it on regardless of alloy . The second absolutely refused to fill out no matter the alloy , temperature , ladle or bottom pour , how it was cleaned , time of day or cycle of the moon .

Jack

[dragon813gt]

All my molds work and that's all that matters. Like any product there will be lemons from time to time. I am in the process of replacing all my aluminum molds with brass but this is just personal preference. There is nothing wrong with the aluminum molds. Why bother rating them when they all work?


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[blikseme300]

H&G
Lee
Lyman

[MT Gianni]

1] LBT, NOE, old H&G
2]RCBS
3] Lyman, some Lee, Saeco-casts great after they fixed it bought in 2004-
4] Le rest of the Lee's

[gandydancer]

NOE rated as poor?? you have got to be kidding me. I have 12 NOE molds and all work great and any checks that where a no fit from hornady turned out to be undersized for a 308 caliber.NOE is one of the best mfg's in the USA. gd

[40Super]

There isn't really any way to rate them, they are just in catagories that mostly follow the price you pay

Group 1= NOE, H&G-Ballisticast(so far my best),MP, Accurate(my second fav's), I don't own any NEI,LBT or Mountain Molds but I would assume they would be in here.

Group 2= RCBS, Seaco, Lyman , MAYBE a few Lee, basically factory stock molds

Group 3= Lee (if price is a concideration they can be higher than some of the others in group 2)


If someone had 30 of each brand maybe a person could give an accurate rating based on condition recieved, tweeking needed to work better/or at all, return for refund or replacement ect... otherwise to rate on a few samples is rather inaccurate.

[scb]

Best= Mihec, NOE, Accurate, Mountain Molds,CBE, Hoch
Very good= RCBS,Saeco
OK= Lyman,
Poor= NEI
Worst= Lee