Try Lyman Molds First

[guicksylver]

As the man said ,"let me make this perfectly clear",I'm not saying buy Lyman molds first.
What I am saying is try that Lyman mold before you send it back or sell it.
Here's why.
Some how I ended up with a $50.00 gift certificate from Amason.
What better use could I find than ordering yet another mold?
So I purchased a NEW Lyman 311332 and a few assorted items as well.
Great now I have a $25.00 mold for better or worse.
I cleaned it up with break cleaner, heated up the pot, through in some alloy and started pouring.
BOOM! Right off the bat it stared to drop little beauties weighing in at around 186 grs with my alloy.
I weight sorted, gas checked and sized 311.
Before doing that I miked some, 312 bands and hold on 305-301 noses.
OUT OF ROUND!
OK SO ARE BEAGLED BOOLITS AND THEY SHOT GREAT RIGHT?
I loaded some for my 2 groove 1903a3 Remington.
It has a stock rear sight and a Lyman 17A front.
The loads I tried were 17-18 grs 2400 with boolits seated for the rifle.
Next good day I went to the range.
Tried 5 with the boolit seam loaded vertically and 5 Horizontally.
The two groups were both around 1.25 inches.@100 yds
The ones loaded horizontally were slightly better, with 4 measuring .75" and the other taking it to just under 1.25"
I should add that I lubed with Carnuba Red and then rolled in liquid Alox.
I only mention this because I have read where people have gotten new Lyman molds and shipped them right back.
This one is not of the same quality as my older Ideal or lyman molds ,BUT it sure shoots fine.
Good luck!

[singleshotman]

I have used a lot of molds in the last forty years or so. I have used all kinds but still for the price lymans are the best.
hoch molds are better, but cost too much and casting nose pour bullets is a pain in the butt. I find it easier to cast base pour bullets.

[runfiverun]

glad they worked for you.
I'd have to have a nose sizer made to get them to chamber from the correct end in one of my rifles though.
I dunno how well a half sized nose would do for me.
but I'd be pretty bent about spending 50 bucks to kinda fix a 25 dollar mold.

[bhn22]

Lyman has their ups and downs. So does everybody else, I'm had issues with at least one mold from all of the major manufacturers. My personal favorite is actually SAECO, but they've priced themselves out of the market for me. I can have custom molds made for less, and exactly to my specs. Rifle molds have more potential issues than handgun molds do since there's a potential for nose sizing issues on the bore riders. I don't do that much rifle work anymore, so I'm a bit detached from those issues.

[1Shirt]

Have a number of Lyman molds, and like all that I have. Those I didn't like I sold on e-bay!
1Shirt!

[Nrut]

quicksylver,
Sad to hear that Lyman one of America's oldest mold making company still makes out of round molds..

[MtGun44]

"quicksylver,
Sad to hear that Lyman one of America's oldest mold making company still makes out of round molds.. "

that shoot under or just above 1 MOA groups right off the bat.

Yep, that is a real tragedy being forced to own junk like that. . . . . . .

Bill

[Nrut]

"quicksylver,
Sad to hear that Lyman one of America's oldest mold making company still makes out of round molds.. "

that shoot under or just above 1 MOA groups right off the bat.

Yep, that is a real tragedy being forced to own junk like that. . . . . . .

Bill

That's great to hear Bill!
How much is it out of round is this mold you speak of?
Do you beagle it ?

Could you tell us the particulars please?
You know things like the rifle, caliber, cartridge, alloy, lube, load, velocity and range at you can hold "just above MOA groups" with this out of round mold of yours..

As a side Bill do you own a 45-70?
Maybe you can help me if you do..
You see I have a line in a grossly out of round 457193 lyman mold (.005") IIRC*..
It is about eight years old but like NIB if you can imagine that..
I showed the present owner how to beagle it when I casted up a few of my own..
For me beagling is a pain as the tape didn't stick that well and I had to keep readjusting it..
Great fun on a hot mold..
I tried to encourage him to send it back to lyman but he never did..
So it sits on his shelf..
If you have any ideas how we can make this mold shoot without beagling please spill the beans..
I am all ears and always eager to learn new tricks Bill..

Thanks!


*Ah ha..
As luck would have it I found a pre beagled bullet from that mold..
It measures .459"+ at the parting line and .455" 90 degrees from the parting line..
How did they do that????

BTW I didn't shoot the out of round version of this bullet but the present owner did in his very accurate Pedersoli RB..
I don't remember the particulars as to how it grouped, only that he was dissatisfied and never used that mold again..
Another BTW..
I only own two lyman molds that I can think of..
1. 358156 bought in the mid 80's that casts .359"+ with WW (no tin)
Excellent mold and I killed at least three coyotes with it out of my DW .357 back when I lived in Arizona..
2. 457122 HP that casts very close to .459" (ok there)
It is an older version with the dinky lyman handles and their thin sprue plate..
It gave me fits until I ordered a new thick sprue plate from Rick at KAL..
The thin plates funnel looked like it had been finished with a rat tail file and you had to pry the cut sprue out with a screw driver..
A real pain when you are casting a HP and have other things too attend too like keep the HP pin hot..

With the cost of shipping from the states these days at $20.00 min., more like $25.00 + one way it just doesn't make sense to take a chance on lyman which is too bad as I can think of three or four sub .30 caliber mold designs in .266" and .284" that I would have liked to try that aren't being made by any of the custom mold makers that sell on this forum..
So with reading about the problems other people are having with lyman, the time lost, shipping costs and dealing with the disappointment of a new out of spec mold why would anyone buy from lyman these days when you can buy from one of the other mold makers out there?
I haven't had any problems with the following mold makers..
1. Mt. Molds
2. NOE
3. Mihec
4. Darr
5. NEI (made by Walt)
I have one undersized unusable mold from RCBS out of the eight or so molds from them and two molds from NEI that had undersized GC shanks which were undersized..
Those molds were made after Walt's passing..