What was your first mold

[10x]

Mine was a 5/16 hole drilled about 1/2 inch deep into a piece of 1" square shaft about a foot long.
It threw a bullet that weighed around 135 to 145 grains. I would pour till there was a "sprue" then sweep off the molten excess with a tin can lid. I used beeswax as a bullet lube and the wrist pin from an unknown single cylinder engine to resize the bullets to .310.
30-30 cases were not resized - I would press the bullets into the primed case over 8 grains of Unique. These bullets gave a 2" group out of a Savage 340 at 25 yards.

Casting bullets and reloading this way wasn't by choice. A quality mold cost the equivalent of a days wages ( $8.00 for a ten hour day in 1966). A lee loader cost about the same. In a part of Canada where a job for wages was more of a rumor than a reality buying a mold was out of the question.

My next mold was a lee 150 grain FP GC in 308 - I will never, ever badmouth lee. That mold has cast 1000s of bullets in the forty or so years that I've owned it with only minor grief.

[arcticbreeze]

My first mold was a Lee 2 cav 401-175-TC. I now have probably 45 molds now and that is after I just sold 20 or so molds I have not used in while.

I think I may have a problem. :cbpour:

Hi, my name is Marc and I am a castaholic[smilie=1:

[MtGun44]

Lee 38-105 SWC; 1975. Still have it, an it is a dandy design for 9mm and .38 Spl.

Bill

[RobS]

Lee TL452-230-TC. The design is pretty good for the 45 auto and the tumble lube allowed me to get started with minimal equipment and expense.

[primersp]

an lyman 357156 second hand buy in 1978 sold since an rebuy an new in 90

[mooman76]

My first one, I believe I got from Cabelas but it was looooong ago. It was a 1/4" slingshot pellet mould. It made 40 at a time and they were a little crude but fine for what they were. Half were done on one side and you flipped it over for the other half. It had a mettal handle so I had to use wood to put over it.

[HeavyMetal]

My first mold??

Can I remember that far back???

Hmmm...It was a Lee DC # that Lee no longer offers but it looks very much like the 90463 with twin "real" lube grooves. Way before tumble lube.

Found it to be very accurate but unable to "feed" the need when I got into IPSC. I bought commercial cast from the league for awhile then had a friend inherit some H&G molds. a pair of 68's were in this windfall.

This worked well for a couple years but then some fool actually offered him a real job in the mid west and he and the molds followed the cash!

It was a good job and I'm glad he took it.

About that time I had a "brain storm" and started using two molds at a time to get my production up. About that time Lee intro'd the 6 banger and a copy of the H&G 68 was added to the line.

I still have the original pair of 6 banger's in that design, the old DC mold was traded off or given to a needier soul long ago.

[onesonek]

An AM mold made to order, to throw a .459-405 and then a .455-320
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/onesonek/100_4136.jpg

[Calamity Jake]

358156 or 356402 mismarked as 358402 I don't remember which came first, still have both,
happened about 1982

[winelover]

Very first mould was a Palmer sinker mould. First boolet mould was a RBBS .490 Round ball. Price on box is $24

Winelover

[gnoahhh]

Mine was a Lyman 311241 155gr. PB back in 1969. I promptly cast a pile of bullets out of WWs and sized them to .311 with a homemade push through die my Gramps made me. Not a bad start, but things went downhill fast. I lubed with vaseline and loaded 30 or so over a really stiff charge of 2400 for my .30/40 Krag. Accuracy for the first couple of rounds fired at around 50 yds. was decent, but quickly deteriorated. By the time I made it through all of the shells I had loaded the bullets were flying god-knows-where. Dejected by my first experience with cast bullets I went home to clean the gun whereupon I discovered the rifling grooves were packed so solidly with lead that it looked like a smooth bore! Three days of scrubbing later found the bore back to normal. The next trip to the gunshop found me buying a stick of Javelina lube and a can of Unique, and life was good.

[sewerman68]

Mine is a H&G #244 .38 wadcutter mold that my neighbor gave me after he taught me to hand load and I began asking about casting my own. He has 18-20 different molds and I have cast with them all at this point, but nothing I have ever used is even in the ballpark of how well and how easy that mold casts perfect bullets every time.

[sundog]

A Lee single cavity 358-148WC, and I still have it. My buddy, what got me started, had a 1C Ly 358311, and I still have some of the boolits cast from it - early 70s. We'd fire up the pot and both cast from it. He'd dipped, I'd be dumping. I'd dip, he'd be dumping. The small amount of 38 Spl brass we had got a real work out!

I look around my loading room now and think about what humble beginnings. What a great journey.

[pls1911]

For the 30-30...Lyman 31141.... at about 14. Too danged long ago.
Still have it, still use it, along with "a few" more.
How that for old time tradition?

[casterofboolits]

Jeez! Ya just hadda give an old fart brain freeze!

There wasn't a first mould so much as a batch of first moulds. In 1972, I was setting up a branch operation in Tokyo, and since I had to leave my firearms in the US, I spent a lot of time reading gun mags and had even found a copy of Sixguns in a Ginza bookshop. So I decided to order all the items I would need to start casting boolits when I got back to the states.

Among the moulds I ordered was a Lachmiller three cavity 429 250 S W, a Lyman two cavity 358477 38-158-SWC and a Lee 90318 38-140-SWC. Also a Lee lead pot and cast bullet lubing and sizing kits. Still have all the items.

My Dad and brothers had collected several hundred pounds of wheel weights for me by the time I got home. So it was off to the races!

[testhop]

my firstwas 358156
i was in the air force in EL PASO TEX in 1953
had to go out in the boonies to cast over a campfire not a thing i would like to do again.
used them to hunt jackrabbits.
now i have 2 lymans a bottom pour and a dip pot and a rcbs bottom pour
and about 45 moulds
i guess i am set .(FOR NOW)

[1Shirt]

Single cav. 311284, that I had Buckshot HP for me. If memory serves me right, bought it used in 1965. It is an Ideal.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[dragonrider]

Don't know which for sure, only that it was a Lee, probably 45 cal for my first gun, a 45 ACP

[peerlesscowboy]

Either the Lyman 358156 or 358429, I don't remember which? Followed closely by a 31141 & 3118. It's been a few years ago, prob'ly about late '60ish.

John C. Saubak

[clodhopper]

Lee single cavity 7MM 130 gr. Wanted to shoot pistol silhouette was poor so I bought a mould, Lee lube &size kit (this was a hammer powered sizer with lube pan and 50/50 alox beeswax) and 100 hornady gas checks for less than the cost of 300 bullets.
Thompsen center super 14 7MM TCU.
I think it ws 1983, wheel weights were easy to get and solder was about 7 bucks a pound.
My first load shot less than 1 minute, it was sloppy luck.

[Harter66]

I bought 2 the 1st time a LEE 452-255 rnfp and a 358-158 rnfp . Only about 5 years ago now there are a dozen or so.


Hey. I'm richard and I'm a castaholic.

[Matt_G]

A Lyman 452460 double cavity. After seeing a buddy of mine casting round balls for his .54 cal smokepole, I just had to try my hand at casting boolits. Had a 1911 that needed to be fed, hence the mould choice. This would have been late 80's.
Still have that mould and it's still in the original Lyman cardboard box with the Cache La Poudre Rifleworks price tag on it. Price was $22.50.

[Dframe]

Mine was an old Lyman single cavity, 358 429.
Still have it.

[stubshaft]

Lee single cavity 308 155 bought in 1976. Still have it and cast with it.

[357maximum]

My first mould was a flattish piece of wood from the woodpile filled with 5/8 holes to make catfishing sinkers. I cut a bunch of paperclips to lay in the molten lead for line ties. I melted the lead in an old can with the rosebud tipped torch and my very first pour explosively introduced me to the tinsel fairy ...BIG TIME[smilie=b:. Luckily I wore prescription glasses at the time and that saved my eyes. I ruined the glasses, lost an eyebrow, eyelashes, and some hair off my head. I burned my chest , face, lips and my right arm pretty good. My lips and cheek looked like I had herpes real bad for quite awhile. [smilie=b: Needless to say the moisture/tinsel fairy lesson took hold real well and has been forgotten only one time in the 29 years since that day.


My next sinker mould said DO-IT on the side. [smilie=l: My first boolit mould was a N.I.B new old stock ideal .490 RB mould and a very used lyman 20 gauge foster slug mould purchased at the same time if memory serves.

[Tom W.]

My first boolit mold was a Lee c-358-158 swc that I bought in the early 70's.And still have.

Or maybe it was a T/C .440 rb mold, and a T/C .45 maxiball mold, about the same time.
I dunno for sure...

Yup. I think it was the molds for my muzzloader...


Probably.

[geargnasher]

My first mould was a two-cavity Lee 309-160-R I bought new when I was a freshman in high school, went and ordered it from the local sporting goods store after my first experience with casting with my best friend and his grandfather. I tried the mould out with a "modified" soup ladle and enameled steel saucepan over a white-gas Coleman stove, and I still have a handfull of the wrinkly rejects. I knew nothing of aluminum moulds at the time, didn't degrease it properly or know that it needed to be HOT to work, so I gave it away and started collecting Lyman moulds like the first ones I cast with. My conclusion: Lee moulds were junk. I didn't have this site to tell me that it was just my ignorance and that Lee moulds are, generally speaking, quite good if you know how to use them, and they require different techniques than steel moulds.

Gear

[Euan]

My first boolit mold was a lyman 311 316 2 cavity in 1969. to feed my $45-00 92win half mag carbine. With the high price of factory CIL 32/20 ammo @ $2-00 a box of 20, I couldn't afford to shoot as much as I wanted. I was on $14-00 a week before tax.
All this with a lyman 310 tool, some small rifle primers, Lyman gas checks For $3-50 and a can of dupont 4227 For $3-25 I was away shooting like never before. I sho a lot of hares, Rabbits, bailed pigs, and quite a few red deer with the wee carbine and cast reloads.
Cheers Euan.

[454PB]

Lyman single cavity 454190 bought in 1971 to feed my Hawes Western Marshal .45 Colt. I was so poor, I couldn't afford the mould, handles, AND a lubrisizer, so I smeared home made lube into the grease grooves with my fingers. I did about 1000 that way until I could afford a Lyman 450.

I still have the mould and the lubrisizer.

[HighHook]

I started with 38wc back in middle 70s.

I do remember getting WW behind the gas station 1/2 block away. 5-6 55 gal drums full of them and i would walk over and grab what i needed (handfull) because we never thought in a million years they would be hard to get.

[ktw]

Lee .535 round ball.

-ktw

[Kraschenbirn]

Lee .58 cal Minie Ball in 1971 or '72 followed by a Lyman DC 358156 (that I still use!) a year or so later.

Bill

[quasi]

Lyman 375296 2 cavity, bought on my 18th birthday along with a Lyman .377 H&I Die, a Lyman 450 and a Saeco 10 lb furnace.I then went out with my buddies and got drunk, 18 is the legal drinking age here.

I still have the mold, it has cast close to 2000 bullets according to my gas check consumption. The only work I have done to it is a H&G type sprue plate "trough" as recommended by Col. Harrison in his book "cast bullets".

[Shooter6br]

Hand made sinker mold my Grandfather made

[Patrick L]

Mine was a 2 cavity Lee TL 148 wadcutter I bought in 1989. That was very soon after Lee introduced the whole Micro Band concept. I recall they wanted to call it Micro Groove, but another BIG company owned that trademark!

Anyhow, talk about the right time to get into casting! No need for a lubesizer, just a fairly inexpensive mold and a bottle of LLA. My dad had a propane plumbers pot, and I bought a secondhand Lyman ladle and 10# cast iron pot for I believe $10.

That mold cast thousands of boolits. I subsequently graduated to a six banger of the same design, and remembering those who had helped me, I gave that first mold to a younger shooter who wanted to get into casting.

[oldhickory]

An Ideal 575213OS.

[DeadHandRed]

Lyman 314299

edit: and a CTL312-160-2R

[beagle]

An Ideal DC 311291 in a Lyman Ammunition Maker kit. I still have the handles but the mould is long since gone./beagle

[nwellons]

Mine was a brass .36 round ball/conical that I bought with my Navy arms cap and ball revolver about 1967. Started back casting this year after a 43 year break.

[BD]

My first was also the Lee TL452-230 TC, And times weren't near as tough in the lower 48. By 1966 I was making $1.00/hr @11 years old.

[John D]

Mine was a Lyman 429348 double cavity back in the late 70's.
Still have it and use it on a regular basis.

[kelbro]

Lee 309-170 FP. Still casts great boolits.

[cephas53]

Lee 2 cav 38 wadcutter, used. Was gonna keep casting simple. Then found this site, and succumbed to the disease.

[btroj]

Not sure, but I know it was a roundball of some sort. Man, that was a few years ago.

[Ilwil]

I bought a used Lee single cavity 158gr swc, then a used double Lee .452 228 rn, back in 1988. Both are still going strong, though now I tend to use my 4 and 6 cavity molds to get quantity fast. The swc is still used often though, when I get mystery lead; I make a rough cast so I can run it in my Saeco lead tester for hardness.
Lee stuff got me started, and is still an important part of my casting equipment. I recommend it to anyone, especially starting casters.

[skeet1]

My first mould was a single cavity Lyman 357446 SWC of about 160 gr. I bought it used from the guy that started me casting about 35 years ago. I also bought a Lyman Model 45 lubrisizer from him. Still have the mould but the Model 45 is gone. My first casting was done with a cooking pot on an old Coleman stove.

Skeet1

[TCLouis]

Lyman 429215 for my trusty Ruger Blackhawk.

That gun and I did MANY things and covered a few miles.

Where I was, it was, no permit issues in those days in NM.

[R.C. Hatter]

:coffeecom My first mould was a Lyman #311291 bought in 1960. I still have the
mould and use it quite a bit. I wouldn't begin to know how many boolits it's cast.

[Iowa Fox]

Mine was and I still have it- a Lyman DC 358429 in the early 70s. It was a steep learning curve but I got them to shoot very well out of my Dan Wesson. I brewed up Lyman #2 on my dads forge at the farm using coal. I was hooked. I'm not sure how many molds I have now, this site has done me in with group buys. Also my wife buys any she can find cheap and not rusty at rumage sales and tag sales. She has a real eagle eye for them. Thing that amazes me is those old Lymans cast such nice fat bullets.

[rintinglen]

lachmiller 358-432 wc copy, cost me 12.00 cerca 1974, with handles, a homemade push- through sizer and a small pan and a "Kakecutter". I got a coffee can full of wheel weights from a friend at a gas station, plundered a regulator and a burner from an old stove and ran a gas line off the water heater line to make a place to heat my melting pot--an old cast iron pan. Once I got a decent ladle at the Great Western Gun Show, I was off to the races. I turned up a three cavity Cramer 16h for $8.50 at a swap meet a couple of years later. Now I am wlaking bow legged with the darned things. Still have the Lachmiller and the Cramer, though they don't see much use these days.

[quack1]

My first was a Lyman 358271 single cav. I got it and a Lyman sizer with a .357 die in it when I bought a 38 Colt Official Police revolver in about 67 or 68. Cast up a bunch, sized them, loaded them, and proceded to lead up the barrel. Took me a while, but I finally figured out I needed a bigger bullet. I hand lubed a few and shot them as cast and was pleased to find a clean barrel when I was done. Still have the mold and sizer, but sold the gun and bought a 357 S&W.

[45-70 Chevroner]

My first mould was a Ideal 357 single cavity mold with round bottem grease grooves, I don't remember the # but it was a round nose with a small flat area on the nose. That was in 1971. I didn't have much luck with it in my Blackhawk 357. It key holed a lot. Of course this was before I knew any thing about slugging barrels and or slugging cylinder throughts. I did not own a micrometer. I bought a Lyman # 45 luber sizer and a 357 GH & I die for $25. I still have it today and use it a lot. I bought the mold from an old guy in Avondale Arizona, I paid $5 for it. I thought that was the prettist 357 boolit in the world and I still think it was, but I sold it some time after trying several different loads with no luck. I could probably get it to shoot today.

[deltaenterprizes]

LEE 150 SWC, worked great andcast plenty of boolits with it.

[MT Gianni]

I ordered a LEE 124 gr 9mm TL TC and a 255 gr 429 swc together. The 9mm was the first one i cast with. I had previously bought a 311413 but not handles locally.

[Shuz]

First mould I ever cast with in 1962, was a Lyman 429360 that belonged to a friend. We used that for a couple of years while we were stationed at Loring AFB in Limestone, Me. We tried to buy a 429421 from the Rod and Gun club on base, but they claimed it wasn't available to them. When I got out of the AF in '65, my first mould was a 4C Lyman 429421. I still have it!

[Leadmelter]

My first mold was an Ohaus 58 cal Minnie bullet. I was into black powder back then with my H&R Huntsman. I still have the mold and pot. I casted on my mother's basement stove and managed not to burn the house down or kill myself and made some good stuff in the process.
That was about 1972/73.
Graduated up to regular boolits in the 80's
Still goin'.
Gerry

[That'll Do]

My first mold was an RCBS 38-150-SWC. I still have it (I've only been casting for a couple years), and it is one of my favorite boolits for 38 Special and 357 Magnum.

[AZ-Stew]

Shortly after I married the wonderful woman I'm still married to (after 39 years), I bought a .45 cal muzzle loader that was a really nice piece. I wish I hadn't sold it. Since there were no commercial swaged RBs in that era, I bought a Lyman 2-banger RB mould and ladle, and cast using a pipe tobacco can (no soldered seam to break while casting) and heated it over the gas stove in our apartment. Not only did the apartment have windows, it also had several cracks in the corners of the rooms where one could look outside. Got a bit chilly in the winter, but newlyweds have ways of keeping warm. The RB mould was followed shortly by a 445599 Minnie, and shortly after that a 452460 for the .45 ACP Colt Government Model that followed me home a bit later. The whole business of buying guns, moulds, reloading equipment really got out of hand after that, and still goes on to this day. I finally had to buy a house with a big yard and build a big workshop in the back yard to manage all the hobbies. I don't know how she puts up with me.

Regards,

Stew

[TCFAN]

I bought my first 2 molds in 1961 or 62 I was still in high school.I still have them A Ideal 266469 and a 266324 for my 6.5x55 sweed.
Also bought a loading press A Lyman 45 and the small cast iron pot and ladle and a set of 6.5x55 RCBS dies and a .266 H and I die. Also a Lyman 55 powder measure. If I remember right I think it all cost less than 100.00 dollars. Money earned from my first ever job...............Terry

[LAH]

A Lyman 4 cavity 358429.

[alamogunr]

Lee TL452-230-2R. Bought it in a gun shop in Tulsa while visiting my brother. Don't use it anymore but do keep it.

John
W.TN

[Landric]

Mine was a Lyman 358430 double cavity, not quite two years ago. One could say I got the sickness hard. I got into casting to be able to shoot 200 grain boolits in .38 Special, so it makes sense that the 358430 was my first mould.

[theperfessor]

My first mold was a hollowed out coconut. I was about 12 yrs old and a childhood playmate and I wanted to cast a shot putt so we drained a coconut of its juice and poured melted birdshot into it. Should have done it outside, the smoking coconut meat stunk the neighbor's house up to high heaven and got us both booted outside while his mom opened all the windows and aired the house out. We ended up with something that looked like a shriveled silver brain.

Their house stunk for weeks and I was a persona non grata for several months.

[Alchemist]

Got started with a Lyman S/C 358495 in 1982. After dropping a couple hundred boolits 1 at a time, I bought an RCBS 358-150....I still have it and it's a favorite. Traded the Lyman 1 holer years ago...

[crawfobj]

First mold was a Do-It egg sinker mold.

First boolit mold was a .54 T/C Maxi-hunter. It was several years before the next one (Lee 158gr TL SWC), but it's been downhill ever since!

[10 ga]

.69 minie from "Dixie" in 1964. I think it's a Lyman but it's put away and I aint diggin it out now. 10

[Black Wolf]

Lee TL452-230-TC. The design is pretty good for the 45 auto and the tumble lube allowed me to get started with minimal equipment and expense.

Ditto. I've even got pictures of my very first bullets cast. Boy was I hooked, and proud.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i72/rterwilliger/Milsurps/NewBullets001.jpg
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i72/rterwilliger/Milsurps/NewBullets002.jpg

[adrians]

323470 for my mauser 8mms , its a great boolit for em and they love it :evil::coffeecom:twisted:

[Southern Son]

Mine was CBE 459550 cut to drop a 525gr boolit. I had no idea about casting. I could not get it to cast with 20/1 and gave up on it when I got a Lyman Postel. I did not give up on that mould early enough, though, and I beat the living snot out of it. Me and a brass mould don't go well together. When I wanted to try smokeless Paper Patching, I used that mould to cast some 50/50 WW/Pb and the mould cast beutiful boolits with that alloy, except for the fins on the base from where I had banged hell out of the mould. The fins are so thick I have to cut them off with a stanley knife.

[Mavrick]

Back shortly after I got out of the military, about+ '73-'74(I got out in '68), I got my refund-check, and I wanted to "invest" it in something I could use, instead of "wasting" it on things I didn't need, ie food, and fine women. lol
I went to a sporting goods store that had everything I needed, and plopped my cash. When I left, I had gotten enough to go shooting...AND still have ALL of it!
The pot was/is an RCBS bottom-pour, the lube/sizer is an RCBS, and the RCBS molds are 38162SWC and 41210KT two-holers and the Lymans are 357446A and 452460 four-holers. The .45 was for a S&W .45ACP/.45AR, and strange as it seems, I recently got a TC Contender in .357 Herrett to use the 162gr SWC. I also use them in a Rossi (Win M92) .357 Mag that I bought about 3 months ago.
The .41 is a PB that I had HPd a while back, but used a LOT of in a RBH old model the I really regret having to divest myself.
The S&W was replaced with an M1911 Government Model.
Have fun,
Gene

[firefly1957]

First mold was fine sand used to make heavy fishing sinkers. First bullet mold was a lyman for 58 cal. Minie bullet. I let that mold go with the rifle I would like them both back today.

[Eutectic]

Lyman #457130.... 'The collar button' Cost me $5 but it was common that they came with the handles then...

The Trapdoor Springfield cost me $14! But I was just a kid and thought I was a big shot with that big ol' thing! My Dad taught me to cast with that mold somewhere around 1949 or 50...

Eutectic

[shdwlkr]

TC molds for my thompson center black powder firearms

[koehn,jim]

My first was a 4 cavity 36 cal conical bullet mold. Had to cast my own they only sold rb around here. Still have it as a memory.

[Freischütz]

Mine was a Lyman .375 diameter round ball mold.

[rayzer]

Lee .358-105 SWC. 2 cav. was my first mold. 3 years later, I have poured over 9,000 boolits in this mold. Lets just say it was money well spent. 1 year after buying this mold, I became a member here. That was when I started learning how to cast boolits. Before that, most of my creations were sent back to the pot to be remelted. Now I have 9 molds from different manufacturers, and I am hooked on pouring my own boolits.

[Linstrum]

My first mould was made with two pieces of 1" x 3/8" extruded aluminum bar stock sawed off about 6" long with a 5/16" hole drilled in it. I melted scrap solder in a Campbell's soup can over a Bunsen burner in the machine shop and poured the cavity until it was almost full because I didn't have a sprue cutter. It dropped about a 175 grain boolit I used in a thoroughly thrashed 1914-dated SMLE Brit 303. I drove out spent primers with an ice pick, drove in new primers with a block of hard wood, loaded cartridges with home made black powder, pushed the boolit in with my fingers and had at it. That was in 1964. My next mould was a lot more sophisticated, I cut it in my lathe and it had a sprue cutter.


rl941

[Artful]

I'm not sure but think it was my 452460 single cavity lyman but it could have been my single 358156 lyman - I remember ordering RCBS 2 cavity after I had ordered a second 452460 to double my production - now running lots of NOE 4-5 cavity or lee 6 cavity - I love production at a fast clip.

[MakeMineA10mm]

My first mold was a hollowed out coconut. I was about 12 yrs old and a childhood playmate and I wanted to cast a shot putt so we drained a coconut of its juice and poured melted birdshot into it. Should have done it outside, the smoking coconut meat stunk the neighbor's house up to high heaven and got us both booted outside while his mom opened all the windows and aired the house out. We ended up with something that looked like a shriveled silver brain.

Their house stunk for weeks and I was a persona non grata for several months.

[smilie=l:

Now THAT is FUNNY!!!



My first mould... Well, how do you define first??

The first mould I ever cast from was my mentor's Ly 431244HP and that was very soon followed up (same casting session) by a Ly 358242 (122gr version) 2-cav. That was when I was 15 or 16, a couple-three decades ago...

The first mould I owned and cast with was the Ly 452374 I "inherited" from my dad, along with a Ly 311410, which I didn't cast with right away.

As far as the first mould(s) I purchased and owned on my own, I'd say it was probably the couple hundred 2-cav. machine moulds from H&G, Saeco, and RCBS that came with my Ballisti-Cast machine, but I don't consider that anywhere near the same as hand-casting. (It's an operation close to work, and nothing about relaxing and enjoying the hobby at all, although I used these boolits for years in my own guns...)

The first mould I bought and used for hand-casting for myself was a Lee 40-175-TC (single-lube-groove; not the TL design) 6-cavity I got from Midway for loading my 10mms.

[DragoonDrake]

I got my first four molds all at once. A LEE 6-cav 45-200 & 44-200 & 357-125, and a 2-cav 457-405 PB. That was five years ago and about 80 some molds. At the time I figured I would never need anything else. Yeah 2 months later I added LEE 6-cav 45-255, 44-240-R, and one for the 45-70 ( I think the 500-3R). I met a caster that let me try some lyman and rcbs. It has been downhill from there. I have LEE, RCBS, Lyman, NOE, BRP, Accurate, LBT, H&G, and NEI. I think that is all of them.