No more Lyman 311041?

[jaysouth]

I was at the NRA convention Saturday and Sunday. I stopped by the Lyman booth and picked up a copy of their latest catalog. Guess what? No 311041 listed. The reps in the booth did not have a clue what that iconic mold was.

Sad that every contact with Lyman employees for the last couple of years has been disappointing.

[runfiverun]

maybe a ehh they'll figure it out.
I hear you got time to think standing in the [un] employment office.
not listening to your customers is a pretty good way to become a usta be available from company.

[bhn22]

Lyman has been suffering from "corporate alzheimers" for some time, in my opinion. They can't seem to remember what they're in business for.

[Echo]

Problems like that come from the top down - my guess is that there are new (10-20 years?) owners who bought a profitable company and decided to improve the profitability - but had more money than management/business sense.

[Outpost75]

Given the generally poor quality of recent production Lyman molds, and the high quality of affordable competition, I cannot see why anybody who is serious about casting would even consider buying an obsolete cherry-cut mold, when modern, precision made lathe bored molds from Accurate, NOE, LBT, HM2 and others are plentiful, affordable and far superior.

Lee fills the inexpensive, mass-market, entry-level niche.

Cherry-cut Saeco and RCBS blocks cannot compete on a cost-quality basis with modern lathe bored molds. I see them disappearing too within ten years....

[MT Gianni]

I think Big green will always have a following for some, Ly and Saeco/Redding will be around as long as gunwriters believe they are the only game in town.

[gwpercle]

I was surprised when they told me , not too long ago, that they were no longer making any .410 moulds, none , nada ,zip !!! Like what, 41 magnum shooters don't need moulds any longer.
I keep an eye on E-bay for used ones, I haven't found one I could afford yet, so I know a market is out there...They got problems, sad to see a grand old company go down the tubes.
Gary

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Lyman's decisions in moldmaking over the years has sometimes been controversial. They scrapped a lot of good designs along the way and in doing so they eliminated a wealth of choices for many shooters. Their quality control also has been spotty along with their customer service. I have many of their molds that were made back in the day and they are good ones. LLS

[frkelly74]

there was a seller on ebay who had some 6 cavity Lee custom molds in the 311041 design. There were both gas check and plain base available at about $80 I think. Shooters Choice was the seller.

[Gtek]

Are there not really talented and customer driven companies for just a couple more dollars waiting for our call? Tell me how an Ace Hardware located in front of a Lowes has a full parking lot on the weekends. Maybe CUSTOMER SERVICE? I do not believe those two words are even thought much less spoken at any of the big table talks these days, only margin and risk. Welcome to the new world!

[TXGunNut]

I dunno, last Lyman moulds I bought were the 375449 and the new (at the time) 380681. Both good old-school designs that work well in my old-school leverguns. I even bought a second 4500 last year so I could switch from BP to SP lubes easier. For some cartridges there are better boolits, for others Lyman is hard to beat, IMHO.

[sawzall]

there was a seller on ebay who had some 6 cavity Lee custom molds in the 311041 design. There were both gas check and plain base available at about $80 I think. Shooters Choice was the seller.

It's actually Shooting Supply. I buy from them pretty often, great service and amazingly fast shipping. I actually bought one of the gas check molds you mention and have been extremely pleased with it. Drops perfect, round .311" boolits out of straight clip on wheel weights. And it drops a lot of them fast! Highly recommend the mold and seller! I also bought from him a Lee 6 cavity C312-155-2R and it drops nice round .314" boolits. 2 of my most useful molds.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Obviously everybody has forgotten about the version of the 311041 mould Al at NOE makes. Look on page 8 of his .308 - .311" offerings.Robert

[shooter93]

I'm not defending Lyman but part of it may very well be the limited market. While it appears there are a huge number of casters we are actually a very small segment of the shooting public. Probably vastly more people casting mostly handgun bullets as opposed to rifle rounds too. That mold has been sort of the "standard" for the 30-30, a round most likely responsible for one of the top spots in hunting calibers and most of the game killed with it used jacketed bullets. Companies like Lyman think in terms of millions of units sold. The custom makers here couldn't make millions but they do very well servicing our market.

[Blammer]

Yea, but we buy enough moulds to make up for those that don't cast. :)

[Yodogsandman]

What ever happened to Ed Matunas over at Lyman? Wasn't he the "casting guy" and new mold catalyst for quite awhile? I talked with him a few times and was impressed by his knowledge and customer service.

[jaysouth]

there was a seller on ebay who had some 6 cavity Lee custom molds in the 311041 design. There were both gas check and plain base available at about $80 I think. Shooters Choice was the seller.

I have the plain base mold. works well for me. Here is a link to both molds: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.X311041.TR S0&_nkw=311041&_sacat=0

[HangFireW8]

Lyman seems to be reacting to a diminishing share of the market as if the market was going away, by retiring molds as the tooling wears out.

[GabbyM]

If you download the Lyman 2015 catalog from Lyman's web site. It still list the 311041.

[45coltnut]

I'm not bashing Lyman as I have several molds made by them that work great. But, these large corporations are loosing site of what their customers want and simply try "market" new gadgets. Honestly, I'll only buy custom dies from great manufacturers like Accurate and NOE from now on. There only slightly higher but well worth the $. In the end, I get better accuracy and a better mold!

BTW, the NOE 311165 that I just got is freaking AWESOME!!!!!

[JeffinNZ]

That's why we are so lucky to have guys like Al at NOE who understand WHAT the community actually wants.

[MT Chambers]

I agree with most on here except I think Lyman make very good molds even today, they kinda wrote the book, without Lyman there would be no 311041, 429421, 454424, 311299, 311284, 311281, etc.

[GP100man]

Most designs came from shooters , some not even affiliated with a company, Ray Thompson designed the 358156 & it has stood the test of time & shooters. Some shooters were affiliated with companies such as Mr. Keith, I know there is many more shooters & designers out there just to many to list , but the most important thing is not to become complacent with what we have & not stop trying to improve on what we do have & to those that do this , my hats off to you& thank you!

[TXGunNut]

Obviously everybody has forgotten about the version of the 311041 mould Al at NOE makes. Look on page 8 of his .308 - .311" offerings.Robert


I haven't, good point. That was my first NOE mould, excellent design.