Advice needed on possible mould modification

[Trey45]

Long story short, I bought a used Lyman 429360 a few years ago and was never told the mould had grossly undersize front bands(.423), and also both cavities have meplat damage and pour misshapen boolit noses. Also, this particular lyman boolit style has a spotty accuracy reputation, at best. Some can get good accuracy out of this boolit, most cannot.


The time has come to try and make this mould into something usefull. What I am thinking is since the meplat is ruined that I'd send it to Hollow Point Services and have an inset bar installed to make this a button nose wadcutter. My concern here is the front drive bands. By shortening the nose and putting the balance point farther to the base, do you think it necessary to still have the front bands enlarged, or do you think the boolit will be ok as a button nose wadcuuter with sub diameter front bands? The boolit has 3 bands, the top band on top of the crimp groove being the grossly undersized one. My thinking is to have the inset bar long enough to keep the nose at 1/16" to 3/32".

I am open to any suggestions here, I could really use your help. What say you?

[I'll Make Mine]

I'd say try it after having the nose insert made and see how it shoots. You can always selectively lap the front band later, but why spend money or put in a lot of effort if that isn't needed?

[MtGun44]

If you are having fun experimenting, this could be fun. If you are trying to salvage the
mold, I'd say toss or sell with accurate description for low price and move on to a
known good design.

Bill

[runfiverun]

i'd cut the drive bands.
i have a 41 cal wadcutter very similar to the 358091 wadcutter.
the front band is longer than the other two but it is super accurate.
pick a gun,and have the front bands cut to fit it while you are at it.
i actually trim my 41 brass back .005 to make things a thumb press fit in the cylinders.
it's worth it.
a 44 cut with a longer front band like that would be an excellent candidate for a ruger black or red hawk 44 mag revolver.

[cbrick]

Sounds like an ebay buy? :mrgreen:

R5R as usual is right. I wouldn't settle for an under size front band. It's the front band that lines the bullet up with the bore inside the throat. Also since it's already at Erik's why not have it done correctly.

Was this a poorly made mold or was the boolit designed with an under size front band? If it was designed that way making it a proper front band could well make it a good shooter.

Rick

[longbow]

I would have to figure that it will cost about as much to have the mould modified with insert bar and front driving band opened up as to order what you want from Accurate Molds.

If you want to experiment then maybe you could get Erik to make an insert bar with full groove diameter pins so the cavities could be bored to the bottom of the front driving bands enlarging those at the same time. Then you might have the option of different nose shapes with extra pins ~ full wadcutter, cup nose HP or even SWC nose.

Longbow

[Trey45]

Sounds like an ebay buy? :mrgreen:

R5R as usual is right. I wouldn't settle for an under size front band. It's the front band that lines the bullet up with the bore inside the throat. Also since it's already at Erik's why not have it done correctly.

Was this a poorly made mold or was the boolit designed with an under size front band? If it was designed that way making it a proper front band could well make it a good shooter.

Rick

Actually I wish I had bought it on ebay, I bought it from a user here on our forum. I'm stuck with the mould and he's stuck with living with his conscious.

Erik doesn't have the mould yet, I'm weighing my options before sending it. I may do what MtGun44 suggested and sell the mould here with a full disclaimer of it's faults and cut my losses, and then buy what I want from Accurate Molds. The money to enlarge the bands and the inset bar will more than cover the cost of a new mould from Accurate.

[RobS]

Actually I wish I had bought it on ebay, I bought it from a user here on our forum. I'm stuck with the mould and he's stuck with living with his conscious.

Erik doesn't have the mould yet, I'm weighing my options before sending it. I may do what MtGun44 suggested and sell the mould here with a full disclaimer of it's faults and cut my losses, and then buy what I want from Accurate Molds. The money to enlarge the bands and the inset bar will more than cover the cost of a new mould from Accurate.

+1 on this idea and is what I would do in a heartbeat........design exactly what you want and be happy about it.

[Piedmont]

Something just occurred to me. Will any of our custom makers recut Lyman blocks to a larger caliber? For instance making a .45 caliber of completely different shape. I think I read somewhere that Accurate Molds has recut one of their molds for someone. Maybe Tom (AM) would do that on Lyman blocks?

[runfiverun]

he might i have heard of it being done but don't know if accurate does or not.
i'd like to know if someone does re-cut smaller molds into larger ones.
i have a couple that would allow them to be used again.