What Is A Good .45 ACP Mold?

[Cherokee]

H&G68 or Lyman 452460. I also use a lot of 230 gr TC design

[cbrick]

I use two bullets in my 1911, the Lee 4 cavity 230 gr TCBB and SAECO 068 200 gr SWCBB 6 cavity. Both are accurate in my gun and neither have ever had any kind of feeding problem. I shoot more 068 than anything simply because of how well the SAECO mould drops 6 perfect bullets fill after fill after fill.

Rick

[ANeat]

I use two bullets in my 1911, the Lee 4 cavity 230 gr TCBB and SAECO 068 200 gr SWCBB 6 cavity. Both are accurate in my gun and neither have ever had any kind of feeding problem. I shoot more 068 than anything simply because of how well the SAECO mould drops 6 perfect bullets fill after fill after fill.

Rick

Rick do you mean Lee 6 cavity and Saeco 4 cavity??

[cbrick]

Ooops, yes, it is the Lee 6 cavity (NOT 4) but it is also the SAECO in 6 (six) cavity 068.

Sorry.

Rick

[ANeat]

Nice; didnt know Saeco did 6 cavity molds, I wish RCBS would do 4 cavity ones, or Lyman do 6 cavities.

I have a Saeco 130 (4 cavity) that drops a real purdy bullet...

[cbrick]

The SAECO I'm sure was a special order. I have about 50-55 moulds and It's also one of the best mould purchases I've made.

The handloading store at our range had it for sale used (in absolutely brand new condition) complete with handles for $175.00. He showed it to me and I told him nope, don't need it but I'll give you $50.00 for it. He declined but every time I went in he would show it to me and I would say $50.00 and he'd say no. This went on for 6-8 months and then one day I walked in and he said . . . got $50.00 on ya?

It had some type of grease dried on it but it cleaned up fine and is an awesome casting mould that I got basically for the price of the handles.

Rick

[ANeat]

$50.00, thats some real fortitude there

[trickg]

Dad never used any 4 or 6 cavity molds - either they weren't available prior to his passing 11 years ago, or he just never saw the need. Or it could be that he didn't want to spend the money for the bigger molds and chose instead to take his time casting - I'm pretty certain that it was something he enjoyed doing.

I'm leaning toward the Lyman molds at the moment - one thing at a time though. I just bought a case tumbler and all accessories needed to clean cases, and in order to keep the missus happy, I should probably wait another month or so before jumping neck deep into the casting pot.

[Meatco1]

For the .45 ACP, I believe the Lee RF design with a bullet wt. somewhere between 225 – 230 gr., would be a very effective design.

Adding 25 -30 grains to this 200 gr RF Lee design, would certainly make it a stopper for sure.

Has anyone ran a group buy for something like this?

I've have used the 200 gr H & G 68 200 gr to to kill boar in the central valley of Calif, and although it did get (finally) the job done, (you might need a close tree to climb), it does leave a bit to be desired. (wasn't hunting, just managed to get to close without either of us knowing the other was there)


Thanks,

Richard

[870TC]

Meatco1, RCBS has a 45 bullet that looks like what your talking about. There was a article in the last Handloader by Mike Venturino (sp?). Article was about casting for autoloaders.

[Meatco1]

Hello 870:

I wasn't aware anyone was making a mold as I described it.

I will check out RCBS tonight.

Thank you,

Richard

[Horace]

Working with RCBS (82308 BULLET MOULD .45-230-CM 637) works great through the unaltered Series 70 Colt 1911.Still working on the Load.

Horace

[wiljen]

For the .45 ACP, I believe the Lee RF design with a bullet wt. somewhere between 225 – 230 gr., would be a very effective design.

Adding 25 -30 grains to this 200 gr RF Lee design, would certainly make it a stopper for sure.

Has anyone ran a group buy for something like this?

I've have used the 200 gr H & G 68 200 gr to to kill boar in the central valley of Calif, and although it did get (finally) the job done, (you might need a close tree to climb), it does leave a bit to be desired. (wasn't hunting, just managed to get to close without either of us knowing the other was there)


Thanks,

Richard

The BD45 Group buy mold is also pretty close to what you describe - big meplat 230gr RNFP.

[trickg]

Question - where does one find Hensley & Gibbs molds? I'm looking around for them online but I can manage to find are references on forums.

[cbrick]

Hensley & Gibbs haven't been made for a few decades, if you can find used ones someplace they are an excellent, high quality mould. I have one that I found at a gun show several years ago.

Rick

[trickg]

Did anyone take over the H&G line? It would appear that the Saeco 68 is very similar (if not identical) to the H&G 68, which seems to be one of the two standards for the .45 caliber 200 gr SWC. (The other being the Lyman 452460)

[cbrick]

I'm not sure, others are more up on the history of moulds and mould companies than I am. I think the 068 was/is such a successful boolit that many mould makers have and/or do make it. If my memory is not completely gone it was originally a H&G design.

Here is the SAECO example of the 200 gr. SWCBB number 068.



Hope this helps some.

Rick

[trickg]

I know that the Lee is very similar to the 68 design, but it's not the same. Saeco molds aren't terribly over-priced - it sticks in my mind that Saecol molds can be had in the $90 range from suppliers like Midway USA and Cabela's - I'll have to look it up.

I bought another 500 .45 ACP 200 gr SWC cast and lubed yesterday that were made by a Virginia company called Proofmark - those should hold me until I can get together a casting setup complete with molds, pots/furnace, etc, but they are virtually identical to the bullets I got from from Meister bullets, which are from what I can tell the 68 design. Whatever the case, my .45 ACP likes them, shoots them with no feed problems and they seem to be pretty accurate - more accurate than I am anyway.

[ANeat]

Question - where does one find Hensley & Gibbs molds? I'm looking around for them online but I can manage to find are references on forums.

Ballisti-Cast are making the full H&G line of molds plus others. They are the ones that bought the H&G stuff. They make very very nice molds.

http://www.ballisti-cast.com/


Last year I needed an H&G 68 that was built for softer alloy and they made one for me, less than 2 weeks.

Here is another I recently bought. Its a 842, formerly H&G 242. Ballisticast adds 600 to the old H&G number so a 68 is now 668 etc.

This is how it looked out of the box

[OBXPilgrim]

For the .45 ACP, I believe the Lee RF design with a bullet wt. somewhere between 225 – 230 gr., would be a very effective design.

Adding 25 -30 grains to this 200 gr RF Lee design, would certainly make it a stopper for sure.

Has anyone ran a group buy for something like this?

That Lee 200 gr RF boolit is a good one just as it is for 45 acp - I've shot several of them. I've seated them short of the seating groove & with the groove down in the case. Seated out, it just seems too long. Seated in, I barely covered the groove, but kind of wished it didn't have the groove.

But...if the groove were filled in, and it had a larger lube groove to make the weight the same - I'd probably have to slug I'd shoot more than any others.