4 cavity Lyman moulds?

[BigboreShooter]

I'm about to purchase a Lyman 4 cavity mould.(#429215) Have never used or owned a Lyman 4-cavity before. I was wondering if anybody has any problems with these moulds?

[Christian for Israel]

i don't know about the lyman's but i love 6 gang lee molds. i wouldn't think there'd be any problems with the 4 cavity mold except running out of metal a LOT quicker. :D

[HeavyMetal]

At this time I own or have owned 4 of the Lyman 4 bangers. Please be aware that none of these were bought new.

Also they were in 38 cal. for full wadcutter designs. Two worked great right out of the box, one needed to have the sprue plate milled down so the "retaining" stud would fit under it and the forth just needed to have the plate " flattened" ( sand paper and a steel block) as it had a slight bow in the middle and left the center boolits with base "flash" on them.

So my experience with used 4 banger Lymans is it's a crap shoot! The boolits have been excellent, although one mold was slightly oversized, but the mold itself my require some "adjustment" before it will give you what you want.

If you can see the 429215 before you buy it you may be able to determine that none of the flaws I found exist in it. Again mine were all bought " over the web" and I was prepared to deal with any issues.


Would I buy another one? Check out the swap and sell section and you'll see I just did!

So unless the cavities are damaged, and the price is right, buy it! By the way if it has handles all the better! If not ask the seller to part with the set he was using and pay a little extra.

Two of my molds required that I file the blocks to get them to fit the handles I owned. Seems the handles have the same Q.C. problem as the molds.

[mtgrs737]

I own 5 of the Lyman 4 cavities and so far no problems with them. I do wish they had a sprue plate similar tothe Saeco 4 cavity as it would be easier to strike. I got a couple from MidSouth a few months ago as they were the most reasonable. I have been using the nutcracker style handles but I just got a set of the new style Lyman center hinge handles and that should be better for the caster.

[NoDakJak]

I bought a couple Lyman 4 holers for the 38 a couple years ago. One is for full wadcutters and the other is for the 158 RN. I have only turned out a few thousand boolits with each but they have proven to be extremely satisfactory. When using Iron molds I prefer the 4 holers to the larger molds as they are lighter and easier to use. Neil

[dromia]

I have a 358429 that casts cracking boolits but the sprue stuck to the sprue plate, had to polish pour hole countersinks to get it to release the sprue when hit.

I use it with the old hinge at the front handles.

[Shepherd2]

I have 9 Lyman 4 cavity moulds. Eight of them were bought used on eBay. I have used most of them extensively. Casting as much as many as 50,000 boolits in a couple of them and they show no signs of wearing out. I replaced the sprue plate on a couple of the used moulds when I bought them and that is all I have done to any of them other than routine maintenance.
I don't have to baby a Lyman 4 cavity like I do my Lee 6 cavity moulds. They are tough and with minimal care they will last a lifetime.

[BruceB]

My Lyman 4-cavity moulds produce scads of fine bullets in short order.

I started with two special-ordered 4-cavs back in the late '60s-early '70s, and that was a time when I knew NOTHING about designs, casting , or much else. The UNDERSIZE 9mm (U356402) was a disaster for leading, and the button-nosed 452389 was a Holy terror in the feeding department for my National-Match Colts.

The next special-order 4-cav was 35863, double-ended wadcutter for the S&W M52, which marked the beginning of a long and successful career with good Lymans. Somebody else liked it so much he never returned it....

It makes me blush to recall a day on this Board when I was running my mouth about how 4-cavity moulds were fine for casting bullets for them heathenish and uncultured HANDGUNS, but rifle bullets needed the TLC and Zen state developed by single- or 2-cavity moulds, in deference to the more-deliberate and more-accurate natures of fine rifles.

That particular position has changed radically, and I find a remarkable degree of consistency in my RIFLE bullets cast from 4-cavity moulds (mostly bought from Ebay, like yesterday's 311466).

I've been very fortunate in putting together a group of 4-cavs in very popular and well-regarded rifle designs, some of which are long out of production. These include such goodies as the new 466, its brother the 311467 at 180 grains, the 311291, 311413, and others for rifles, as well as a few additional 4-cavs for handguns.

I still have a lot of one and two-cavity moulds lying about, but these 4-cavity Lymans really turn out serious volumes of well-tested bullets in very short amounts of time...without effort or "pushing the envelope" for production.

I have very high regard for them.