Why Not Go for Highest Cavity# Molds?

[Dannix]

Well I'm joining in on a mold GB, my first mold and first foray into casting, but I still need to decide on how many cavities to go for.

I understand the 1-cavity concept, boolits as identical as possible concept, but why go for 4 and not spend the $7 more for 5 cavities?

Thanks

p.s. while I'm asking newbie questions, what does RF stand for, e.g. " TLC311-165-RF"?

[mooman76]

RF is Round Flat nose bullet. The TL is for Tumble Lube and the first 3 digits are usually the moulds expected bullet dimentions. Why go for 4 what you could go for 5 for $7 more. I don't know. Personal preferance perhaps. I myself if I was in that boat, I'd just go ahead and get the 5. I do sometime perfer the 2 cavity over the 6 at times though. If you don't need allot of one style bullet it is simpler and quicker to just whip out a hundered or so instead of going through the trouble of getting the 6x going. Yes the 6x is great when you need allot of bullets but sometimes it takes awhile to get it up to speed before you get good bullets.

[Doc Highwall]

One thing to consider is the more cavities the more sprues that have to be cut at the same time adding to using it.

[SciFiJim]

Dannix, in the group buys I have gotten, I have always gotten the 4 cavity instead of the 5 cavity. It makes a lot of boolits like the five cavity, but is a little easier to get up to casting temp. The four cavity is the longest that will sit flat on top of the melt in my pot and will warm up evenly. The five cavity I would have to stick the far end in the melt and the near end wouldn't heat up as evenly. So, in answer to your question, the four cavity fits MY pot better. If you decide to use a hot plate to preheat your mold this would not be an issue. Its more of a preference issue than an expense issue.

[mold maker]

The single or double cav. mold will be easier to learn with.
That said, the 5 cav. will shorten your casting time after you learn it's quirks.
Weight is also a consideration.
As with every thing else, experience makes a huge difference. Progressing from a double cavity to a bigger mold is less of a learning curve, when done separately.

[garandsrus]

I went with a 5 cavity and would have gone with a 6 if it had been offered. If you preheat your mold on a hot plate, the mold is up to casting temp within one or two cycles. The weight difference between a 4 and 5 cavity is pretty small.

John

[Dale53]

In an aluminum mould, I ALWAYS go for as many cavities as is available (with NOE, as a for instance, I picked five cavities because they do not offer six). It is a superb mould.

With iron, however, four is the magic number. I have a six or eight cavity H&G #251 (can't remember which) and it is so heavy I am worn out by the time I finish a 20 lb pot. The mould and handles weighs nearly five lbs! That is definitely TOO much for this "Certified Old Fart". Using a four cavity iron mould, it is NOT a problem. There is a limit to everything... The only reason I keep the H&G is that it casts beautiful bullets that just FALL from the mould.

At one time, it was a truism that you couldn't get precision with a multi cavity mould. That is no longer true. When I got my MiHec six cavity mould, after I got it up to temperature I cast a mould full and set them aside. They weighed within .2 (two tenths) of a grain between cavities. That is fantastic but true.

When Walt Melander was still alive (NEI Handtools) I bought a four cavity mould from him and the same from LBT for my black powder cartridge rifle. BOTH will cast a 425 gr bullet +or- .6 of a grain. Again, fantastic performance. Further, in front of witnesses, I shot a ten shot six inch group at five hundred yards (with a 20 power scope) in good conditions.

So, for me, as long as I can pick my mould maker, the only consideration I would give is as above - five or six cavity in aluminum and four with iron.

Now, one disclaimer: I have two MiHec hollow point moulds (two cavity) and I can live with the capacity because it is about three times as fast as a Lyman one cavity hollow point mould.

FWIW
Dale53

[Dannix]

Thanks a bunch for the comments. I'll go 5 cavity, at least for this one. Now I just have to decide on going HP, but I'll start a new thread for that one.

Thanks again

[Gerry N.]

Everone's situation is different. I have at least 30 molds, not many by some standards, a huge number by others. The most cavities I have in any one mold is two. I am not in the bullet business so production is not a priority, I cast about three times a year and casting 150 of any bullet is a fairly large number for me. I have a ball while doing it.

I have a friend who, when he sets up to cast, will cast 1500 to 2000 of one bullet. His casting sessions will last five to seven hours and he has a casting session about every two months. He shoots more in a month than I do in a year so he really likes to pound out the bullets. He has many, many six cav. molds and uses 'em. He has a ball.

So, there isn't a single "best" answer. It's what's best for each individual. Fool around and find what's best for you while having fun. That's what it's all about.

Gerry N.

[jlchucker]

Dannix, in the group buys I have gotten, I have always gotten the 4 cavity instead of the 5 cavity. It makes a lot of boolits like the five cavity, but is a little easier to get up to casting temp. The four cavity is the longest that will sit flat on top of the melt in my pot and will warm up evenly. The five cavity I would have to stick the far end in the melt and the near end wouldn't heat up as evenly. So, in answer to your question, the four cavity fits MY pot better. If you decide to use a hot plate to preheat your mold this would not be an issue. Its more of a preference issue than an expense issue.

I agree, even though I've yet to get a 4 cavity mold. My first mold with more than 2 cavities was a Lee, bought on a group buy, with 6 cavities. You scrap a lot of bullets, even though the thing is aluminum, before all 6 are dropping smooth boolits. Iron would probably take even longer. My guess is 4 holes are about as much as I'd want for hand-casting.

[mold maker]

When casting with multi cavity molds, it's just as important to keep the sprue plate warm as the mold. It's the sprue plate that the melt hits first, so it has to be hot too.
Open time is where the sprue plate looses it's heat so getting the boolits, out of the mold, and cycling the mold has a big influence on boolit quality.

[Dale53]

The best trick I have learned in over fifty years of casting is to pre-heat the bullet mould. When I turn on the electric pot (RCBS 22 lbs) I also turn on the hotplate and put the mould on the hotplate (set at just higher than medium works for me). When the pot is ready, the mould is ready. I prefer to have the mould just slightly less than casting heat - so that it takes one or two casts to be fully up to heat.

After I get up to speed, I have almost NO discards. It's just a matter of "time at the pot" and you begin to be sensitive to "what works".

I LOVE the five and six cavity aluminum moulds. When you are talking iron, then four cavities have all of the weight I need. Any more, and it is just too dern heavy for me.

Dale53

[Dannix]

I'm probably going to go with Lee 20lber, so I don't anticipate having a problem keeping the mold warm.

jlchucker, did you clean the mold and smoke it first? Just curious. Going to pickup a 9mm Lee 6-cavity at some point as well. I'm enjoying 6.5cent FMJs right now though.

[Lead Fred]

Im retiring my dual molds for singles.

I like the constant weights I get from a single

quality over quantity

[Wally]

Im retiring my dual molds for singles.

I like the constant weights I get from a single

quality over quantity

Remember with a two cavity you can just cast using one cavity---you can then determine if one cavitry casts more accurate bullets than does the other...

[Dannix]

Im retiring my dual molds for singles.

I like the constant weights I get from a single

quality over quantity

Even with a quality mold like a NOE?

[Lead Fred]

I use lyman, dont no what quality they are, but they sure make a nice shootin boolit.

[Dannix]

I use lyman, dont no what quality they are, but they sure make a nice shootin boolit.

No I mean, if the mold is made well the cavities should be as near to as makes-no-difference identical, right?

[Dale53]

I have a Schuetzen bench rifle that is a bonafide 1/2 minute rifle (1" at 200 yards). I am only interested in a one cavity custom mould for that rifle.

However, modern made handgun moulds are so good that you cannot tell the difference in a multi-cavity mould by weighing OR measuring. A good handgun of normal design is often considered quite good if it'll shoot under an inch at 25 yards. That is a four minute handgun. Plus the factor that we often shoot a handgun many more times a trip to the range than we do a rifle leads me to INSIST on multi-cavity moulds for handguns.

As I mentioned above, I recently took delivery of a MiHec six cavity mould for my .45 ACP and Auto Rim revolvers and pistols that vary + or - .2 tenths of a gr. It just doesn't get any better than that and you would NEVER be able to demonstrate that using one cavity would give you better results than ALL cavities. To clarify, I mean a world class pistol shooter could not tell the difference - even a Ransom Rest could not tell the difference.

My Schuetzen rifle, maybe...

Just a thought or two...

Dale53

[jdgabbard]

I agree, even though I've yet to get a 4 cavity mold. My first mold with more than 2 cavities was a Lee, bought on a group buy, with 6 cavities. You scrap a lot of bullets, even though the thing is aluminum, before all 6 are dropping smooth boolits. Iron would probably take even longer. My guess is 4 holes are about as much as I'd want for hand-casting.

Sit an iron mold on top of the pot while its warming up. And its ready to go after 2-4 pours. A aluminum mold, might be a little quicker warming up without an initial heating, but no one here can debate the fact that an Iron mold holds the heat much better then a aluminum. If I sit my mold down on the rim of the pot for a couple minutes to drop a few more ingots in the melt, then walk away and wait for it to come back up to temp, when I start pouring again its right at the right temp. The aluminum molds are ok, but you nothing is as good as iron, though brass is a pretty good medium as well...