New Lyman mold 429421

[atr]

Just started casting with this mold 245 gr #429421.
Lyman specified it would drop at .430.....it dropped at .4305 !
boolit weight was as advertised 245 gr ....dropped at 246 gr. !
The mold behaved right from the start...maybe he first 6 were throwaways but after that it cast perfect boolits

Hats off to Lyman on this one....they got it right !
atr

[runfiverun]

it was probably a mis marked 454424 :lol:

[MtGun44]

I think that many have been trashing Lyman, and I have no doubt that they do mess up
sometimes, but it is good to hear that they are producing good quality molds. I would bet
that we hear about most of the screwups but few of the successes because most folks
don't get as "activated" by a good mold as they do by a bad mold.

Bill

[GP100man]

I agree Bill , how does the ole saying go "bad news travels 10 times faster than good" !!!

[Larry Gibson]

I wonder when they "trash Lyman" if they ponder where this hobby of casting bullets would be if it were not for Ideal/Lyman moulds, Lyman's other casting products and the R&D done by Lyman in the last 100+ years?

Larry Gibson

[MtGun44]

I doubt it. I have a BUNCH of Lyman molds and most of them are good molds and many
were decades old before they came to me. I have absolutely no doubt that Lyman has
made mistakes, and probably continues to do so, but out of all the Lyman molds I own (I'd
guess maybe 40 or 50) none are bad molds. Some are smaller diam than I would like
but most are pretty good, and many are really great molds.

Bill

[Wolfer]

The quality of my two Lyman molds is superb. They both cast right where they say they will. However I had to lap .002 out of one to fit my throats. My 311041 casts right at .309 just like it said it would I just wish it were a tad larger. If I get to wishing it too much you can bet it will become a tad larger.

[atr]

Bill,
your experience with Lyman mirrors mine.
Some ARE easier to cast with than others, some ARE stubborn, but ALL are worthwhile

[blackthorn]

And then, in this electronic age, just maybe Lyman has someone monitering sites like this one and some of the criticism has been noted. Time will tell.

[1bluehorse]

I only have three Lyman/Ideal molds. They do exactly what they're supposed to do. I've had others that I've sold that were good as well, just wasn't what I wanted for one reason or another. I wonder if some of the "problems" some are having with undersized bullets are alloy related?? Truth is, I've not had a Lyman mold that didn't cast a slightly larger bullet than indicated. I wouldn't hesitate at all to purchase a new one. I find it interesting that people expound on the virtues of the Lee molds and degrade Lyman. I have a few Lee molds, and while they may work O.K. (hate those little lube grooves) they certainly aren't in the same league as any of my Lyman molds. But to each their own...:drinks:

[Freightman]

1/3 the cost, so should be better.,You must be reading other post as some of the "Hate LEE" post are almost violent

[MtGun44]

I do not doubt the people that report problems with Lyman molds, but I hope that Lyman
is paying attention to their customers. Most companies do listen to customers, and I hope
that Lyman does. Certainly, casting undersized is the most common critizism and the
hardest to live with.

To my way of thinking the biggest criticisms of Lyman over the decades has been their
sloppy tracking of designs, when they let the designs drift dimensionally until some of the
molds are nearly unrecognizable, or they modified designs in ways that the original designer
objected to as violating the design principle that the boolit design was based on. The classic
here was the changes to Elmer Keith's designs, most notably the lube groove. The current
429421 and 358429 have "square" (flat bottomed) lube grooves, as Elmer intended. Lyman
recognized that they had drifted and many customers wanted Elmer's original design, not
their modification of it. IMO, that is responding to customer needs.

Look at the front band on this mold which is marked 429421. Wow. Glad that they stopped
doing this. I'd like to see a picture of that brand new 429421. AFAIK, they are back to
very, very close to Elmers' original intent.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=3905

Bill

[Shuz]

I do not doubt the people that report problems with Lyman molds, but I hope that Lyman
is paying attention to their customers. Most companies do listen to customers, and I hope
that Lyman does. Certainly, casting undersized is the most common critizism and the
hardest to live with.

To my way of thinking the biggest criticisms of Lyman over the decades has been their
sloppy tracking of designs, when they let the designs drift dimensionally until some of the
molds are nearly unrecognizable, or they modified designs in ways that the original designer
objected to as violating the design principle that the boolit design was based on. The classic
here was the changes to Elmer Keith's designs, most notably the lube groove. The current
429421 and 358429 have "square" (flat bottomed) lube grooves, as Elmer intended. Lyman
recognized that they had drifted and many customers wanted Elmer's original design, not
their modification of it. IMO, that is responding to customer needs.

Look at the front band on this mold which is marked 429421. Wow. Glad that they stopped
doing this. I'd like to see a picture of that brand new 429421. AFAIK, they are back to
very, very close to Elmers' original intent.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=3905

Bill

Bill--What is the as cast diameter of the boolits thrown from the 429421 4C you show with the small FDB? The reason I ask is that the "mould from Hell", which is a 4C of like design, but hollow point converted, shoots wonderfully cast boolits out of all my .44 mags. However the as cast diameter of boolits from the "mould from Hell" are .435-.436 and I size them to .431.

[MtGun44]

Sorry, not my mold. I copied the pic off of eBay because it was such a radical deviation from
the original design and intent to have a wide, strong driving band to assist in aligning the
boolit in the transition taper between the chamber proper and the throat.

Bill

[JayinAZ]

I have the 2 cavity version of that "style" of the 429421. It casts pretty well and the boolits shoot pretty well too. But I don't like it very much, the skinny front band is easy to mangle when dropping them from the mold, and the round lube groove makes picking out correctly filled boolits a bit less obvious.

I'll probably be getting another .44 Keith style mold. How's the RCBS?

[Forrest r]

I purchased a new 429421 mold earlier this year & couldn’t be happier with it. I had an old 2 cavity version of this mold for years & sold it planning to get a 4 cavity version.

The new 4 cavity mold cast beautiful bullets with the size of 429.5 for soft lead bullets & .430.25/.430.5 for hard cast material (WW). This new 429421 Lyman mold is designed with the square a square grease groove & 3 equal driving bands, no more little top drive band. This bullet easily produced multiple accurate loads for the same revolvers. And like your mold, the bullets just fall out of the mold, easily roll on a flat surface & have had very consistent weight.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/429421pink.jpg

I’ve owned a lot of Lyman molds over the years & have gotten a couple of bad ones. But I’ve also owned bad Lee, RCBS & Thompson center molds also. I’ll continue to buy Lyman molds and use them. And for some odd reason I’ve never had a problem selling any of them either.

Enjoy your new mold; it will give you years & countless 1000’s of quality bullets.

[MtGun44]

Current Lyman 429421s are really made the way Elmer wanted. The pic right above shows
a perfect example of what Elmer wanted in his designs.

That said, the RCBS 44-250- K is a wonderful mold, one of my personal favorites. The crimp
groove is a bit nonstandard, but not enought to be a problem.

Actually, my personal very best Keith 250 .44 mold is a MP H&G 503 clone that is just perfect,
design wise, and is a really good mold and a 4 cavity. I have a few Lyman 429421 4 cavs that
are also very good on production rate, in addition to design. I have a large number of different
variants of Keith's .44 250, and most work between good and great. I tend to prefer the 4
cavity designs now, just because I wand to make the most of casting time.

Bill

[Irascible]

My big complaint with Lyman is the undersize bullets, because they insist on sizing for Lyman #2 alloy which is 5% tin. OK for general pupose, but when you want a softer alloy, either for obturation or hollow point use, it is always undersize. That said, I really like the RCBS Keith, but the one I bought was also undersize, requiring at least 3% tin to reach .431. Sounds big? I have a M29 Smith, 2 Ruger 44 specials and 3 ruger 44 mags. All require .431 bullets! The only small cylinder revolver I have is a DW with .429 throats. Maybe I should complain about the gun makers more than the mould makers!

[rintinglen]

Since 2009 I have purchased 8 Lyman molds, the only one that doesn't measure up is a 429-664 that runs right at .429 as cast, still useable, but undersize for my Rugers with their .430 bores. My Taurus tracker, though, eats them right up with virtually no leading. That bore runs .4293-ish.
That said, I have no truck with the "Saint Elmer" crowd. I much prefer the round groove Lyman version to his "original" square groove. They drop from the mold easier which is a big help when you are trying for maximum production, and there is not a dime's difference in them when it comes time to shoot them. Don't get me started on the 358-429.

[9.3X62AL]

My example of #429421 was bought from a member here, and conforms in all respects to Mr. Keith's design specs. It casts wonderfully, and falls out at .432" in 92/6/2 alloy. I don't know its actual age, it came in the orange plastic box--so it's fairly recent.

One Lyman mould I KNOW was recently made came to me in November 2011, and was made in October 2011 per the note inside the box. It is a 2-cylinder #266469 for my snug-bored Ruger 77R in 6.5 x 55 (throat .2645", grooves .264"). Bcause of all those dinky Loverin-style lube grooves/drive bands, its first warm-up was conducted with Lyman #2 alloy. It performed very well, and boolits fell free readily at .2665". Can't kick at that!

I have griped about both Lyman and RCBS 45 caliber rifle moulds and their undersized castings for most rifles, so I posted this above info in the interest of fairness.