Mal Paso
06-06-2015, 01:20 PM
Just got the New NOE version of Ideal's #503 in Aluminum. Fit to the mold handles was about perfect and I liked the alignment pins. I ran 1/3 of a pot the first night with only 15 keepers. I was tired and the temperature was low. This morning I set the pot to 700F, adjusted the mold height, and had one of the best runs I ever had with a Keith mold. It isn't as aggressively vented as the M&P version and it's important to hit the hole with the lead stream for a crisp base. The "zone" was easy to find, I had good consistancy across all 5 cavities, AND the boolits almost jumped out of the mold. Out of the box this is the easiest Keith mold I've ever run. Not one hung boolit or cracked band. Fillout was outstanding.
Boolits were around 269g WW+tin, .432"+. The machine work was excellent. The lube groove is smaller than M&P but if the NOE shoots well it's the one I'm going to cast. I acknowledge some do very well with brass molds, I'm not one of them.:-(
Edit: I was tired from a long week when I wrote this. I've cast 1,000 so far and the cull rate is well below 10%. Mostly mechanical damage when dropping and a few rounded bases when I fiddled with sprue lube. I get crisp drive band edges easily. My first custom mold was NOE's first 429421 from the group buy. It had a tiny front band. I broke the cross bolt on the sizer taking the water dropped .434"+ boolits down to .431" but I gained almost 100 fps switching from an undersized Lyman to a NOE boolit that fit the gun. NOE has gotten even better. Top notch mold, thanks Al.
The #503 is halfway down the page.
http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php?cPath=37&sort=2a&page=2&osCsid=e98o3dheg24e3glm1us53jjgv5
Boolits were around 269g WW+tin, .432"+. The machine work was excellent. The lube groove is smaller than M&P but if the NOE shoots well it's the one I'm going to cast. I acknowledge some do very well with brass molds, I'm not one of them.:-(
Edit: I was tired from a long week when I wrote this. I've cast 1,000 so far and the cull rate is well below 10%. Mostly mechanical damage when dropping and a few rounded bases when I fiddled with sprue lube. I get crisp drive band edges easily. My first custom mold was NOE's first 429421 from the group buy. It had a tiny front band. I broke the cross bolt on the sizer taking the water dropped .434"+ boolits down to .431" but I gained almost 100 fps switching from an undersized Lyman to a NOE boolit that fit the gun. NOE has gotten even better. Top notch mold, thanks Al.
The #503 is halfway down the page.
http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php?cPath=37&sort=2a&page=2&osCsid=e98o3dheg24e3glm1us53jjgv5