Lyman .439 Spanish Mold

[pommel]

After degreasing my new .439 Lyman mold I cast 80+ bullets with clean wheel weight alloy and could not get one decent bullet without deep longitudinal ripples in the side of the nose. This is the 1st Lyman mould I have ever had a problem with. One half of the mold block has a "2 H" stamped in one corner. Is it possible this denotes a "2nd" rather than a 1st quality mold?

[skeettx]

Where do you live? Maybe we could compare our .439 moulds
After you degreased your mould did you cure it?
You know that after you clean the new moulds, they will still outgas
until cured.

Mike

[Bent Ramrod]

When Lyman was bought out by "The Leisure Group" in the mid '80's, they offered a bunch of moulds very cheap, no guarantees and no returns. These were marked with a large "R" denoting "Rejected." Since then, I have not seen anything out of Lyman to infer that any of their products are below their standards for quality. So I doubt they have any "factory seconds" or "blems" to offer any more. (By the way, the "R" moulds I purchased all worked fine and cast very good boolits.)

Sometimes you just have to live with a mould for a few sessions. Turn your heat up, leave the blocks open when you are finished so the cavity surfaces can oxidize, and, if you have a hot plate, preheat the mould before casting. I have belatedly found that Bullplate Lube, thinly smeared on the top of the blocks, and the top and bottom of the sprue plate with a Q-Tip, allows a mould to run quite a bit hotter without the sprue smearing on the blocks when cut. You have to be careful, of course, that you don't tear a large cavity out when the sprue is cut, but it certainly helps with fillout and speeds the casting up some as well.

[Guesser]

I bought my 439186 about 12 years ago. Took me several sessions before it dropped fine bullets.

[Bob Busetti]

My Lyman .439 mold cast perfect after the first the first 15 or so casts. At this point I have cast 200+ with out any problems using ww metal at 700 degrees. I was surprised & happy about the quick break in time.

[Larry Gibson]

deep longitudinal ripples in the side of the nose

That is indicative the alloy is not hot enough, the mould is not hot enough and you are not getting the alloy into the cavity quick enough. Raise the alloy temp, use a bit quicker casting tempo and open the spout all the way or use a dipper to cast with. I prefer a digger for heavier than 300 gr bullets. Your Lyman mould is probably just fine and no the "2 H" does not relate to the quality of the mould.

Larry Gibson

[Buckshot]

............This is just me but to see what a "New to me" mould will do, after cleaning it up I dip an edge into the alloy and let it cook awhile. The blocks have been previously well cleaned and then smoked with a Bic Type lighter. The melt will be hotter then you'd desire for continuous pouring for a couple of reasons. One is that a hotter then normal temp will usually deliver a superbly well filled out specimen to make sure things are working. Maybe even a bit of finning into the vent lines.

Then you turn the temp down and begin casting. To help lower the pot temp return the sprues to the pot as you go. For me, as I remove the mould from under the pot if I can see the sprues set up as I move them to the sprue box to swing the sprue plate I'm good to go. The temp position at that point is correct for that alloy and slug. I do not have to wait for anything and with Bullplate lube on the SP and pivot screw I can then maintain that same tempo until I have to increase the flow rate as the level in the pot (Lee 20 lb pot) drops to a certain point that requires opening the valve some.

With Lee Aluminum blocks I crank the temp of the melt up and again float the blocks on top of the melt. The first several tosses will generally produce frosted but perfect boolits. Once you then tweek the temp back a bit but continue casting the frosted surface will disappear but you'll continue to get perfect boolits.

BTW I assume you have a Rem RB in .43 Spanish Remington? Forgive me if I'm telling you something you already know, but there is no throat as we normally assume. The chamber has no seperate case neck area with the throat being of slightly reduced diameter leading to the leade.

http://www.fototime.com/CFE4FB6484BDAE6/standard.jpg

The area normally associated with the 'Throat' is the same OD as the case neck OD. In the above example a slug sized .441" has been seated 'upside down' and then chambered. It's base 'just' touches the leade.

http://www.fototime.com/4B9EBE131ADC269/standard.jpg

A 45 caliber Saeco 538gr slug had been sized .441" (the groove size of my M79 Argentine RB) and then driven into the 'Throat' area ahead of the chamber so that a cartridge case will 'just' chamber behind it. The upper line displays the angle of what we normally call the leade. The 2 parallel lines below it show the length of the 'leade' from the throat OD to full groove depth.

http://www.fototime.com/14622A982A0BAF6/standard.jpg

Mountain Moulds produced this design for the .43 Spanish. It's 420grs and it's reason for being is to have it seated in the case, yet long enough to span the distance from casemouth and to seat against the leade. Basically so it doesn't have to make that flying 1/2" leap to engrave :-)

http://www.fototime.com/23E5560C8BB6BF7/standard.jpg

I really haven't shot my rifle at long range, but the above targets with the Lyman and RCBS slug were shot at 50 yards, and I was happy with it.

..............Buckshot

[MtGun44]

Thanks for the info, and GOOD TO HEAR FROM YOU, Buckshot!

Looks like you made a Loverin for the .43 Spanish. I will keep this in mind as on of
these RBs is in my list to work up a load for "someday"........... you know how that
can be.

Bill