Mp molds (MiHec) 2 cav. Lyman style 525 grain slug (for use in sabot)

[MiHec]

I have 20 molds on hands for sale.
Price is 120$ shipped. Lee 6cav. handles or MP handles will fit.

Mold drops around 500grain slug with wheel weight alloy.

If you are interested send me a PM here.

[longbow]

Miha:

Can you supply extra pins for modification?

I am thinking small diameter for screw to make a Brenneke style slug for smoothbore.

if so, what would be the cost of say two pairs of spare pins?

Not sure I can spend the money right now but I would certainly like to!

Thanks,
Longbow

[45 2.1]

I am thinking small diameter for screw to make a Brenneke style slug for smoothbore.

This slug is for use in a shotcup. It is my understanding and from disassembly of a Brenneke slug that they are just slightly under bore with an attached wad. From this, I would assume that the windage would be more.

[longbow]

I am making a Brennekle style slug now that fits into a shotcup. My thought was to use the Lyman clone the same way though it may be a bit long.

I have modified lee Drive Key slugs into a an attached wad design with not bad results so far. Again loaded into a shotcup.

All in all, so far I get the best consistency and darn good accuracy to 50 yards using round balls. The accuracy does not hold up at much longer range though so I am searching for a something "better".

That an I have to play with stuff.

Longbow

[45 2.1]

What shotcups (as most seem to taper) are you using for those interesting ideas? I always wanted a wad for the 10, 12, 16 & 20 gauge RBs like the little one for the 410 that BPI sells. As an aside, I know he has a drawing for a grease groove type slightly under bore for a HB 1 oz. slug also. That one, with some changes, could have a lot smaller cherry and be orbitted to specific sizes for 20 to 12 gauge with a solid base for wad attachment like your trying for the Brenneke copy.

[longbow]

Yes, the shotcups do taper. Lee Drive Key Slugs cast with a taper to them but I think it is actually too much.

I am just using standard one piece wads. I have had pretty good results with Winchester white and some Pacific Versalites I picked up ~ they are pretty tough. Federal wads are supposed to be very good for slugs but I have not tried them yet. I have to order everything in so it is a problem.

The Brenneke styles I am currently working on are Lee drive Key Slugs and a home made mould.

The Lee slugs get put into a form then hot melt glue pumped in to fill the cavity and form which makes a nice attached wad. I grease the hot melt glue so it doesn't stick to the shotcup before loading.

The TC mould I made originally for a friend who designed a wad slug using steel wads. I modified the mould and make a short fat TC slug with a cast in screw starter hole in the base (nose pour mould) then I put a short #10 c'sunk screw in it, then put into a form and pour hot melt glue in. This makes an attached wad that is very tough. The whole works is a bit undersize so I use two crossed paper strips to "shim" it up to size for the shotcup. I also grease the hot melt glue to prevent it sticking to paper or shotcup.

So far greasing has worked though it is less than ideal. However, the attached wad looks good and is tough. it also swells to fill out and make a tight fit to the barrel at firing. I recovered three today after shooting in snow and you can see the mark left by the split in the petals. I think that fill out takes care of taper.

So far accuracy has been as good as about 6" at 50 yards which isn't as good as my round ball loads but the goal is decent accuracy at 100 yards and so far that has been elusive with round balls. If I can get a Brenneke style slug to stay under 8" at 100 yards I will consider that a success. I would be ecstatic with 4" to 6"!

Lyman claims their Foster slug can produce 4" groups at 100 yards but so far I have been unable to get that slug to shoot under 8" at 50 yards no matter what I tried. The best groups were after paper patching to bore size (from as cast 0.705") but I still got fliers and typical round ball accuracy runs around 4" at 50 yards.

Anyway, I digress.

I don't think that the Lyman clone is what I am looking for from smoothbore but if Brenneke-ized then maybe. I would have to check slug length to make sure there is room for the slug and an extended attached wad or it won't work. They would likely fit 3" hulls okay with deep shotcups but maybe not 2 3/4".

I would sure like another Mihec mould though! And two cavity slug mould at that! And Cramer too! What's not to like!

Longbow

[MiHec]

Miha:

Can you supply extra pins for modification?

I am thinking small diameter for screw to make a Brenneke style slug for smoothbore.

if so, what would be the cost of say two pairs of spare pins?

Not sure I can spend the money right now but I would certainly like to!

Thanks,
Longbow


I have some extra pins....... But they are hollow.
I will post drawing so you can see if you can use them.

[longbow]

Miha:

I looked at wads and I think this will be too long for a wad slug in Brenneke style. I am thinking that I will need about another 30% to 50% of slug length as an attached wad. That works for full bore but not wad slug.

Unfortunately, I think this one is a no go.

Oh well, I have another of your moulds coming anyway.

Thanks,
Longbow

[turbo1889]

I can't find them on your site in your E-store section. You sell them all already or are you selling them here via. PM?

[quasi]

look in the Vendor sponsor section, under Miha's section, there is a Feb. 2013 PDF download that is a 2 page list.

[MiHec]

<<<<<------- PM means Personal message - just click on my nick on the left and you will get menu.

[turbo1889]

My Bad, guess I need to actually read the OP not just look at the title and pictures !


. . . If you are interested send me a PM here.



PM sent.

[longbow]

The ends of those pins could certainly be turned down to provide a screw hole for a wad but none of the wads I have checked are long enough to take the slug plus attached wad inside the shotcup.

Maybe some real heavy payload wads would be deep enough. I'll see what I can find out. Nothing available locally though so I have to see what I can find on the internet and order in if there is anything.

Thanks for posting the drawing anyway.

Longbow

[SuperBlazingSabots]

Hello LongBow, the only wad that is long enough to take on a 1/4 wad is shown on the left, I had put two .125 nitro cards below the Lyman 525 slug in this case to raise the slug!
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/Dantebeowulf/Lyman525inwads.jpg
all other wads have only one .125" nitro card below slug.

Hoping it helps!

Warmest regards,
Ajay
BlazingSabots@Gmail.com
Blazing Sabots, LLC
www.BlazingSabots.com
http://www.facebook.com/BlazingSabots?ref=hl
www.PreciousVideoMemories.com

[longbow]

Ajay:

I am thinking that to be effective as an attached wad slug for smoothbore these would need a little more length in the wad than 1/4". I was thinking about 30% or more of the slug length. I may be wrong there but I don't want to buy a new mould and not have it work.

I was thinking that some of the really heavy payload wads might be deep enough ~ 1 1/2 to 2 oz. maybe?

By the way, I am still playing with smoothbores so that is the challenge! If I had a rifled gun I would buy this mould right away!

Thanks for posting that and again you are always with the great photos!

Also, while we are chatting, what is your experience with the Lyman sabot slug in smoothbore? I have read that they become unstable at transonic velocities when shot from smoothbores. Any truth in that? I am looking for long range accuracy and am sort of set on Brenneke style designs at this point.

Thanks,
Longbow

[turbo1889]

Okay, I bought one of these molds and thought I'd post my results for it after I've cast several hundred slugs from it with several different alloys in direct comparison with the original Lyman mold.

My primary concern for this mold was "Equal or better quality slugs with equal or lower cull rate at increased production rate." The mold does fulfill this with about 170% to 200% final production rate of good quality slugs compared to the original Lyman mold.

The hollow base pin style does allow for reduced "annoyances" compared to the Lyman set-up since you can just flip the mold up-side down, open it and tip it to one side and tap on the handle pivot bolt gently and the pins slide to the center and the slugs drop out into the water bucket. It is, however, heavier so operator strain while casting is about the same over all.

You do have to run your alloy hotter with this mold then with the original Lyman mold especially if you are casting with pure lead which I had to run my pot "full out" as hot as it will go with a gold sheen on the top of the pure lead in the pot in a 35-F temperature casting shed to get it to cast with good fill out with pure lead. So I will be keeping my original Lyman around since I don't think I'll be able to cast with this mold in below freezing weather since I don't think I can keep this mold hot enough in cold weather to run pure in it since it needs to be run even hotter then the original Lyman.

I was hoping for production rates approaching 300% due to the improved hollow base pin design compared to the Lyman but since this mold needs to be run hotter you have to wait longer for the sprue puddle to solidify and this offsets the speed gained with the pins so you can't push it much beyond 200% production. Basically running the same casting pace as with the original Lyman single cavity but dropping twice as many slugs due to the double cavities with more time spent waiting for the sprue to solidify and less time spent messing with the hollow base pins.

In addition the way these molds are cut using an undersize cherry in a milling machine using circular interpolation produces a very nice side effect which is to the benefit of this particular mold. Basically the cavities of the mold have a very fine spline like profile on the surface of the cavities which when casting at the high temperatures this mold needs for consistent fill-out with a big sprue puddle to be drawn in as the casting solidifies transfers to the driving bands of the slug. Not nearly as significant as knurling but should help at least some when firing these slugs in a rifled barrel slug gun to get a little better torque transfer to the slugs through the wad petals then the original without having to take the extra time and effort to knurl the slugs.

Overall the mold itself is of superior quality to the original Lyman. Took a little personal tweaking to get it to run a smoothly as I like (namely pulling the sprue plate hold down bolt and grinding a flat in its side to match the set-screw so that it wouldn't work loose running the mold hard and fast for maximum production like it did several times in the beginning) but the machining and quality of the mold is far superior to the original Lyman. Of specific note is the fact that this mold has male/female matched hardened steel alignment pins where as the original Lyman has a hard steel male pin that simple goes into a hole on the opposite block and the soft iron of the block eventually wears around the hole causing alignment issues which is eventually where the original Lyman mold wears out (I've already worn a couple of the original Lyman molds out making thousands and thousands of slugs from them and this is their fatal flaw). In addition there is no wooden pin handle to eventually burn out and have to be replaced like the original Lyman has (not a fatal flaw but annoying to have to fix every once in a while).

Long story short - for not a whole lot more in price this mold beats the original Lyman mold hands down in almost every way with the possible exception of casting soft pure or nearly pure lead in low temperatures where you may not be able to pump enough heat into this mold to get consistent fill out even at a break neck casting pace running your pot all out "gold sheen hot". Keep the slide pins lubed with a couple drops of oil (provided with the mold and then use full synthetic 2-cycle mix oil after that runs out) and then a single drop under the sprue plate near its pivot point every hour to half hour depending on how fast of a pace you are running.

I intend to purchase another one when funds allow provided they don't get all bought up before then.

As to my advice for the mold maker for future reference for making molds for us slug guys. The Lyman 525 wad-slug was a good choice for a first run. I would suggest that a 68-cal round ball mold with a minimal sprue hole would be an excellent option especially in a 4+ cavity configuration (maybe use the 6-cav. aluminum blocks and expand the spacing a little to fit 5 cavities in the same blocks?). Using a 68-cal round ball inside a wad works as good or better then the Lee slug mold and is fast and easy to cast and load (Lee slug is a PITA to cast and probably a difficult design to clone with the key slot in the hollow base pin.) That perfect ball size is really nice for us slug guys to load but is a real pain to get molds for with the expensive $120+ RCBS 0.678" mold being about the only option except for Jeff Tanner and his molds have big ugly sprues that need to be cut as a second operation with a set of flush cutters since his molds don't have sprue plates like we are used to using with our boolit molds.

Long story short, an affordable 4+ cavity 68-cal. (0.678"-0.682" size range) round ball mold with a nice small sprue hole like Lee round ball molds have would be highly desirable. For me even more desirable then this mold, especially since round balls are so easy to cast and cast quickly in quantity with an almost 0% cull rate. Some very impressive production rates would be possible and they make an excellent all around jack of all trades slug load.

[longbow]

Excellent write up!

Miha's moulds are very nice. I suspect I would splurge for this one if I could make it useful as an attached wad slug. That seems to be the trick though. Most wads do not have enough depth to allow much of an attached wad.

Possibly filling the cavity with hot melt glue and allowing a glue extension as I did with Lee slugs would work since the original design is already nose heavy. This is also what I am doing with my "Brenneke" style solids and so far it is working pretty well.

I might see if I can buy some Lyman sabot slugs to try then if they work I would jump at the chance to get another Mihec mould.

However, living in Canada, it is not so easy to get hold of reloading components especially from the States.

I will have to see what I can work out.

Anyway, thanks for sharing that turbo.

Longbow

[Relsom]

PM Sent. 1 mold with extra pins.

[HDS]

This is exactly what I want for shooting slugs in my smoothbore. The plan was to get a lyman someday when I could prioritize shotgun casting and reloading, but that's for another day. Hope this will be available in the future.

[Dannix]

Whoa, color me very interested.

turbo1889, have you done any shooting for accuracy with this design in a smoothbore? (I own several other Miha moulds, and the quality is indeed great, but I'm interested in the accuracy for this.)

VdoMemorie, thanks for the wad photo. What type of wad is on the far left and the far right? I have my MEC setup for Remington hulls, so I'll be hunting for a wad specifically for that for this slug, if it proves to be an accurate slug.

[Dannix]

P.s. One mold I also be interested in is something to replicate the tri-ball in 3" hulls. .60 apparently (http://www.dixieslugs.com/products.html).

[Shedhunter]

PM sent on this one.

[Shedhunter]

I received the mold this week and it's beautiful. Got the mold up to casting temp and it was dropping excellent sabots after a few cast and beats the pants off the old lyman style mold. It sure empties the pot when your dumping two sabots at a time:D

[jason f]

Anyone else bought one of these. Are they working good for you. Might have to see if there is any left.

[Dannix]

I have not (as of yet), but I'll be interested to see how others have fared.

[turbo1889]

P.s. One mold I also be interested in is something to replicate the tri-ball in 3" hulls. .60 apparently (http://www.dixieslugs.com/products.html).

Contact HM^2 molds in the group buy section (one of the group buy custom mold makers) he made up a small batch of molds specifically for Tri-ball loads (three cavity correct size ball molds). I don't think he sold all of them and may have some left that you could buy from him.

[Dannix]

Contact HM^2 molds in the group buy section (one of the group buy custom mold makers) he made up a small batch of molds specifically for Tri-ball loads (three cavity correct size ball molds). I don't think he sold all of them and may have some left that you could buy from him.
Cool deal, thank you, sir.

[Shedhunter]

I was out working up some more loads and here is how it's doing at 50yds.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/AKRFC/IMG_20131027_222341_338.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/user/AKRFC/media/IMG_20131027_222341_338.jpg.html)

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

[QUOTE=Shedhunter;2449138]I was out working up some more loads and here is how it's doing at 50yds.

Is this with rifled barrel or smoothbore?

[Shedhunter]

Fully rifled barrel