.............Why I've read so much complaining about recently manufactured molds. I've come to accept up to .002 in out of round, bullet diameter and a host of other things we all know about here. Most of my molds have been purchased in the last ten years -- the steel ones that is, had mostly Lee Aluminum before that but I know how to make those work. Nothing wrong with my current production Lyman molds they're mostly good.
But..........I just got in the mail today an older 4-cav Lyman 358156 mold from a forum member. Cleaned it up, fired up the lead pot and proceeded to cast a bunch. Nice mold. Bullets drop from it with barely a thump.
Then I got out the micrometer and BOY, did I get an education. These bullets are not only nice and fat measuring a full .3595-.360, but they aren't out of round by even .0005 and the wieght difference can be measured in tenths of grains which, as far as I am concerned, compared to the dozen or so current production molds I have, is just about perfection.
If I had been casting for 50 years and had a supply of these old molds that had been made like this, then had to put up with what is being made today (NOT bad but certainly NOT this good..) I would be screaming bloody murder too.
Here's to custom molds and old manufacture molds. This was a real eye opener and I can't wait to shoot some of these!
Art