I got this mold from a friend about 10 years ago. The friend who provided it to me is not a caster. He got the mold from an estate sale and sent it my way. The design of this 2X mold did nothing to excite me - a smallish SWC nose, 2 loob grooves and no crimp groove. Came the day I wanted to cast some boolits around .360-1" diameter for the 38 S&W cartridge and this mold came to mind. I dug it out and took another look at it.

The mold was dirty and showed a lot of abuse from previous owners. I detail cleaned the blocks and saw dings and gouges on all exterior surfaces. It appeared to have had an issue with casts sticking that was answered with brutal beatings. I made a few casts with the mold and was disappointed at what I found. The tops of the cavities had so many dents and gouges that casts frequently had a fin attached to the base of the boolit. This left the bases too large and irregular to enter a sizing die. To cure this I stripped all parts from the blocks, including the sprue plate stop pin, and delivered the blocks to a machine shop. My request was for them to lower the tops of the blocks by 0.025" in hopes this would eliminate the base fins and get them functional. It worked! Now this mold makes (and releases) boolits measuring 0.361" diameter and weighing 145 grains. I started with an unusable mold and ended up with a very satisfactory mold.