Mold out of round?

[Bagdadjoe]

I bought a used LBT mold from a member and it throws out of round bullets with the long side following the part line, consistently from all four cavities. It's about .006" out, any suggestions other than using it to hold down old receipts ? Oh, use oblong targets:????
thanks!

[Ola]

I have couple of LBT molds and they are great. As far as I know, that kind of a problem is unusual for the brand.

Maybe you should ask from the manufacturer? Here's the email address:
LBTisAccuracy@localnet.com

[MT Gianni]

Is it closing evenly? A pin adjustment might be necessary.

[wallenba]

Beagle it, and it will be a little more 'in round'.

[crappie-hunter]

Contact LBT, Veral is a very reasonable man and may just stand behind the mold regardless of its age or weather you are the original owner or not. He may ask to see it to make sure it was not abused before he makes a decision. I would bet the farm that if it was defective from new and he can determine that it was defective ,he will make it right.

[Bagdadjoe]

Somewhere along the line someone, not me, machined off the gas check rings, so I don't think Veral would feel obliged to do anything...I'd put that under the "abuse" column. I'll check the pins. I have other LBT molds, that's why I bought this one. I can't figure out how it's doing what it's doing. All the bullets seem uniformly off. It closes tight, no light comes through, correct me if I'm wrong, but it needs more "gap" between the halves to make the bullets wider??? At what point would you consider lapping...and how much effect does out-of-round make on accuracy? I'm guessing when the bullet hits the forcing cone it will become as round as the barrel but maybe a little more mass off the center line?

[Dennis Eugene]

Have you shot any of these bullets yet? Just askin' Dennis.

[Bagdadjoe]

Dennis,
shot a few at 50yds with pie plate groups. I cast some more out of 4ww/1 lino that I'm going to load up and try. Thought I'd get some input on this before I invested too much time..figured someone would have run across this problem already. By the way, nothing keyholed.

[geargnasher]

I don't know why you didn't ask Veral first.

Gear

[Bagdadjoe]

Actually, I did. Still waiting on a reply.

[EKO]

Check to see if one of the alignment pins have cracked, I found a cracked roll type alignment pin in an otherwise good condition LBT mold and it threw it out by about .003". With a new pin it was within .001", probably would have been even less but it had probably been used a bit with the broken pin and had probably worn a little uneven in the mating hole.

[MtGun44]

Roundness in boolits is overrated. Size and shoot. Probably will be fine.

Bill

[Bret4207]

As Bill said, I'd shoot them before I decided the mould was "bad". They may shoot fantastic. The barrel is the ultimate sizer.

[Bagdadjoe]

Well, that's what I was wondering. I'll postpone anxiety until I shoot a few more. Thanks for the suggestions. I don't think Veral would cut one out of round, and I don't think he'd ship it if he did. Nothing has been altered on the face of the mold, so it has to be something I'm not catching. I'll revisit this after I shoot enough to figure it out one way or another.

[paul h]

It could be when the gas check stub was machined off the mold that whoever did the work really cranked down on the vise and distorted the mold. Or perhaps the mold was lapped and lapped out of round.

Out of round bullets should clean up in a sizer, but 0.006" is quite a bit out and may be a problem. If you're shooting pie plate size groups, my first guess would be the bullets are undersize, or the guns barrel has a choke where it screws into the frame.

[Bagdadjoe]

I'm going to try to get time this weekend and check it out. I have some push-through slugs and some lapping compound from Veral so I may be fire lapping. I am sizing through a .430" so you might be right. Thanks.