bhp9
02-03-2008, 07:50 AM
A few years ago I wanted to speed up casting production so I decided to buy a Lyman 2 cavity 8mm mold (the old 160 grain Lovern style). I believe this is the only 8mm mold Lyman still makes. I had been using a Lyman Lovern single cavity mold previously.
Much to my horror I discovered that Lyman had either changed the design or had goofed in making the mold as all the drive bands where the same diameter preventing me from seating the bullet within the case neck and not down into the powder charge. When seating the bullet out properly it would jam itself into the rifling. The cure was to size the two from drive bands to .321 by turning the bullet upside down and using a .321 sizing die to size down only the top too bands, the rest of the bullet was sized to .325.
I called Lyman and told them about the problem and at first they did not believe me until I told them about the much older single cavity mold I had. They then admitted they had actually lost the original blueprints for this mold ( no wonder they were making it wrong).
Recently I ran across a fabulous deal on an original Saeco 8mm mold in 190 grain weight. So far I have only been able to test it in my 8x52 Siamese Mauser but not yet in my various 8x57 guns, but in the Siamese it was outstandingly accurate.
Its amazing how expensive molds have become in recent years as I almost fell off my chair when I looked up the price of a brand new Saeco mold with handles topping out at over 100 dollars on the wholesale level. I got this mold for way less as it was used but almost in brand new condition. I feeds better out of the magazine than the Lyman Lovern bullet as well
Much to my horror I discovered that Lyman had either changed the design or had goofed in making the mold as all the drive bands where the same diameter preventing me from seating the bullet within the case neck and not down into the powder charge. When seating the bullet out properly it would jam itself into the rifling. The cure was to size the two from drive bands to .321 by turning the bullet upside down and using a .321 sizing die to size down only the top too bands, the rest of the bullet was sized to .325.
I called Lyman and told them about the problem and at first they did not believe me until I told them about the much older single cavity mold I had. They then admitted they had actually lost the original blueprints for this mold ( no wonder they were making it wrong).
Recently I ran across a fabulous deal on an original Saeco 8mm mold in 190 grain weight. So far I have only been able to test it in my 8x52 Siamese Mauser but not yet in my various 8x57 guns, but in the Siamese it was outstandingly accurate.
Its amazing how expensive molds have become in recent years as I almost fell off my chair when I looked up the price of a brand new Saeco mold with handles topping out at over 100 dollars on the wholesale level. I got this mold for way less as it was used but almost in brand new condition. I feeds better out of the magazine than the Lyman Lovern bullet as well