Which mold???

[munchie3409]

Greetings everyone.

I am brand new to casting, so I am looking for recommendations for my first mold.

Caliber will be fore 300 blackout. I have a 16.5" barrel with 1:8 twist and this is for a bolt action.

Primary usage will be for subsonic work with suppressor. Eventually, I will be adding an AR15 in 300BO as well, but for now, this will strictly be for my bolt action.

I've been reading about the NOE and Lee mold. Please recommend me a first mold.

I've also been seeing that you can purchase a mold that does 2 bullets up to 5 bullets at a time. Beside the loading capacity of 5 vs 2 at a time...are there any other pros/cons that I'm not aware of when it comes to selecting that type of mold?

thanks for any advice.

[Moonie]

The NOE 247gr (311247) is a good mold, Tom at Accurate Molds makes a 245 that is identical, or very close to it.

I use the Accurate Molds version in my AR in 300BO. This is a good boolit for subs but keep in mind that in a bolt action you are not restricted to using the heavies to shoot subsonic. You can use any mold as long as you load slow enough.

In the AR-15 you will be restricted to 200gr+ for subsonic and proper cycling.

[munchie3409]

Thanks for the reply. To be honest, I never loaded subsonic ammo before, so that is useful information that I'm not limited to shooting 200+ gr out of a bolt action. It's going to be a few months til my suppressor will be ready, but I'm trying to start load development in the mean time.

I have a lot of 168/178gr bullets. I know most are shooting 300BO out of an AR15. I really want to try the 208Amax, but I also wanted to shoot inexpensive cast bullets as well.

Are the NOE molds the same, minus the fact that you can buy 2,3,4,5 mold?

[garym1a2]

Since its a bolt gun you might get a couple cheap lee two banger molds of different weights to try it out. Than once you learn the ropes buy a good one.

[Moonie]

I've just loaded up a bunch of 155gr Lee .312 boolits designed for the 7.63x39 with 16gr of H110 for testing in our 300BO uppers. This boolit could easily be shot subsonic with a small charge of Unique or similar for use in a bolt gun and the mold only runs about $20.

[Beerd]

I don't know nuthin' about the 300BO, but in this situation a two hole Lee mould makes a lot of sense to me.
..

[MikeS]

Lee makes a 2 cavity mould specifically for the 300BO. It's only sold by Midway, in fact I think they designed it, and had Lee make it as a custom order. I don't recall the weight, but it's a tumble lube design and has a boat tail. It wasn't designed to use a gas check, but it seems some folks have been able to put on on the boat tail acting like the GC base of most moulds.

[Blammer]

I'd go with the NOE first. :)

[Moonie]

Lee makes a 2 cavity mould specifically for the 300BO. It's only sold by Midway, in fact I think they designed it, and had Lee make it as a custom order. I don't recall the weight, but it's a tumble lube design and has a boat tail. It wasn't designed to use a gas check, but it seems some folks have been able to put on on the boat tail acting like the GC base of most moulds.

I have this mold, it is 230gr and seems to do ok. I also have the 245/247, the 230 does feed better due to the nose shape but I don't think it will give great accuracy as is.

Oh, and as a follow up, both our 300BO uppers loved the 155gr .312 boolit, very accurate and fed perfectly.