Lyman 454424 mold?

[Ragnarok]

I scored what appears to be a new old stock Lyman 454424 dual cavity mold(orange box..hand written numbers)

Anyhow..from what I've read the this mold number has been modified a couple times as far as groove contour and has been superceded by another mold in the Lyman catalog.

This mold seems to have the old type square grooves that I guess could be problematic as far as releasing the bullet. I've been using mostly LEE aluminum dies lately...any advice for breaking in and using a nos Lyman mold??

[Harter66]

Wash , lube , pre-heat , pour .
At least it went that easy with a brand new 458193 .
The single Lyman 454424 I have has the round lube groove , it is considerably smaller than the trapezoid groove in the NOE copy .

The only Lyman that has given me any trouble is a 4C in 25 cal . It's rough keeping 5# of iron hot with 360 gr of lead .

[LenH]

I have an old Lyman DC 454424 with the Keith sq. lube groove. It drops bullets with no trouble. I bought mine in the early 80's in the old gray cardboard box.

[runfiverun]

I'm not sure when mine was made but it's the square groove mold too.
it actually makes far more bullets than I need for a 2 cavity mold.

[Leadmelter]

Great Bullet
HP from NOE
Leadmelter
MI

[Treetop]

I bought my 2 cavity Lyman 454424 in the early 70s. It casts and drops boolits just fine. Mine's a keeper for several reasons. But the main reason is it throws 50/50 boolits at almost .455" which is great for my model 25 S&W and it's .456" throats. Not a perfect fit but close enough!

You will find that this steel mould will stay hot longer than your aluminum moulds therefore you don't have to feel as rushed while casting. In fact, you may have cool your mould periodically, when and if you notice the sprue puddle taking too long to solidify. Hope this helps, Treetop

[MT Gianni]

I have seen evidence of at least 10 different cherries used with the 454424/452424 bullet. Mine is a square groove and I have no problems with bullets hanging up. It is the most accurate 45 mold I own.

[runfiverun]

mine has the longer nose.
airc at one time lyman put out data for the mold with the crimp over the front drive band.

[Ragnarok]

mine has the longer nose.
airc at one time lyman put out data for the mold with the crimp over the front drive band.

I was looking at it and wondering about it as far as where to crimp....or if it would take a crimp. has enough front band to crimp on. However looking at it seems like it has a crimp groove below the front band and a single lube groove. I was looking at things wrong...this mold has the rounded lube groove.

I need to season it and lube the plate...see the bullet it makes for real.

The only .45 Colt long gun I own is a Marlin 1894 Cowboy. I don't think it will feed semi-wadcutters...but I can use these bullets in my Uberti SAA clones

[runfiverun]

I seat to the groove for my revolver and just over the band for the model 92.
my 92 will feed 200gr swc's for the 45 acp set up the same way so it's worth a try in your marlin.