New Lyman 4 Cav #452374

[LarryM]

Got my new Lyman 4 cavity #452374 mold Monday, it had been on backorder with Miday for a month, cast about 300 bullets with it Tuesday, WOW, I had given it a good cleaning, smoked te cavities lubed the hinges and pins and got everything set up and went to casting. Its a little heavy but a little work out can't hurt. After just 2 fillings I was casting keeper! It was cool in the shop but not cold and I was able to cast pretty much as fast as I could fill the mold, cut the sprue and dump the bullets. I was using straight WWs and was very happy at that point.

Well last ight I decided I was gonna size and lube these little gems. Got to checking them out and pulled out the calipers and see .451ish at best, a little on the thin side from my experience with my Kimber. I sized and loaded a small batch and will give them a try but i expect unacceptable leading due to undersize bullets.

I'll try another batch with a harder alloy but I don't know how much that will do for me. any ideas???

[Dale53]

That sounds a bit disappointing. Maybe you need to call Lyman and see what they have to say. You can increase the size by adding Linotype to the formula (if you HAVE linotype). I want all of my moulds to work with straight ww's but apparently this one does not.

FWIW, I size all of my .45 ACP bullets at .452" and I shoot a LOT of .45's (of late, mostly in my S&W 625-8).

I hesitate to mention this, but I will anyway... It is difficult to measure lead bullets if you do not have a machinist background. A set of calipers is not really the tool to do this with for a decent confidence level. You really need a set of micrometers and you need to be extremely sensitive to pressure to do it correctly (it is extremely easy to compress the lead bullet .001" and not be aware of it). So, you need a good set of 1.0" micrometers AND a sensitive feel for the job at hand. If you have a machinist friend (assuming you don't have micrometers) have him measure it for you. You may NOT have a problem, just a problem with measuring.

If that doesn't work, see what Lyman has to say - it only takes a minute or so to call them.

Dale53

[mtgrs737]

I have the New Lyman 452374 4 cavity mould that I got at Midway and I just ran bunch of boolits with it out of WW's + 10 - 20% linotype. All my boolits measure between .453" and .4545" when measured at four places around the circumfrence. Maybe your alloy is shrinking too much.

[LarryM]

I was using straight WW with no added tin. I intend to try 75/25 ww/lino I have ingoted up and see how that does but I was sure hopping to get good results with straight WW. I'll shoot a few of the ones I have just to see how they do before I get too worked up about it.

Still a million times better mold than the Lee 2 cavs I've been using for the last 6 years. I don't hink I could buy another 2 cavity Lee mold now. A 6 banger maybe but not a 2.

[rmb721]

Dale 53 is right about the calipers and micrometer. Calipers are OK for case lengths, but not accurate enough for bullet diameter.