Help me decide: 22 cal, RCBS vs NOE

[War Eagle]

I am about to purchase a .22 cal mold and have decided to give the RCBS 55 SP design a try. RCBS is my favorite commercial brand and NOE does a fabulous job as well.

I have never cast 22 cal before and wonder about cadence and mold heat retention. I figure that brass and iron would help with heat retention given that such small boolit cavities won't be providing as much heat to the mold as the 200gr+ boolits I normally cast for.

I'm not too hung up on the 2 cav issue if I go with RCBS and am currently considering the 3 cav brass mold NOE has in stock (I think a 5 cav brass would be too much of a good thing weight wise). One thing that NOE has in my favor is I can buy a Saeco style top punch for my Lubrisizer to go with the mold. RCBS is obviously a cheaper route though.

Could use some help from the experienced here. Am I off base with my heat retention thoughts? Do I abandon the brass and iron and just go 3, 4 or 5 cav aluminum? Any reason to pick one brand over the other?

I am in need of some guidance!

[Mr Peabody]

I haven't done what your asking, my first thought is aluminum. I'd buy a 3 or 4 cavity NOE.

[JWT]

I have a NOE 225-55-FN GC 55gr 3 cavity brass mold. I have found that it takes a bit to get the mold heated up (hot plate) but once warm it stays there. The cavities are small and the brass blocks are very large by comparison.

[Oily]

Don't have any experience with steel or brass in 22 cal but have a NOE and a LEE 22 bator both aluminum 5 cavity in the NOE 22-55 FN MX3 and 6 cavity on the Lee. Both like to be preheated on a hot plate and then run fast and hot with pot temp about 650 to 700. Both drop good boolits after 2nd or 3rd pour and then just rain great boolits after that. If you get tired just cut sprue and leave boolits in mold and set back on your hot plate and stretch, get a drink or whatever you need to do and start again and usually start making good boolits after first pour. With the 5 or 6 cavity you can pour a lot of boolits in a very short time. You might give more info here like what cartridge you are loading for,how fast you want to go, and type of gun. and also what type of accuracy you are looking for. Also list what alloy you will be using. for anything but plinkers I use Lino 80/20 with range lead I like both my molds but love the NOE it has pretty big blocks for a 22 mold and retains heat enough that i have to slow down sometimes when I am on a roll. My NOE 55 grain casts 5 at a time and if I do my part less than 2 tenths of a grain difference between cavities. My LEE Bator on the other hand can be 1 to 2 grains difference between cavities on the same pour and the same pot of lead I was using with the NOE. Even though the Bator mold throws less accurate boolits they still shoot great in 22 Hornet and 223 bolt gun at modest velocity, 1800 to 2000 fps. Go figure.

[War Eagle]

More info as requested.

Primary use will be in a .223 bolt gun. May see some use in a Ruger #1 .220 Swift. Plan to keep velocity around 2000fps but might slow some down to .22lr speeds (~1200fps).

I do plan to get an AR15 soon. If the design works in that platform it would be a bonus...if not, I'll buy something different in the future.

Alloy right now will be COWWs. Planning on running these lubed with LBT soft. May play with PC later but prefer running lubed currently.

[MT Chambers]

The RCBS 55 gr. is my most accurate .22 mold and I like the 2 cav. steel (iron) molds, they should last forever.

[Iowa Fox]

I have single & double cavity Lyman 22 molds (steel) and 3 different Noe 22 molds (aluminum). I don't own any brass 22 molds. I have never had any heat retention issues with any of them but I always cast in the warmer summer months. Actually the 22's are some of the easier casting molds I have both steel and aluminum. Nice crisp fill out from all of them.

[fred2892]

I have the NOE 225107 and the NOE 225-55, both 5 cavity aluminium. Out of the 100+ moulds I own, the .22 cals are the most challenging.
Preheating is essential as is alloy selection.
Once they are up to temperature I find that my casting cadence needs to be only slightly quicker than my 5 gang 30 and 45 cal moulds.
The biggest difference is the alloy i use in my rifle moulds. I have found that the .22s need extra tin added to help with fillout to prevent rounded band shoulders.
With the little .22s you have to be totally ruthless with your culling process or accuracy will suffer badly. The slightest hint of a defect and it must go back in the melt.
Don't try driving them too fast, 1500 to 1750fps will be your accuracy window. While the loads from the original 1st edition Lyman cast bullet handbook shows impressive data up to 3100 fps the reality is these super hot loads will only frustrate and lead to poor results and wasted time scrubbing leaded bores.

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[War Eagle]

Thanks for the help guys.

Definitely not looking to do any speed demon work with these so if the accuracy window is 1500-1750fps, that's fine.

Not really seeing a consensus on mold material. Sounds like it's all about preheating and correct alloy for the application (typical stuff). I will definitely need to source some tin.

Okay...just need to make my mind up and try it out now.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I had a NOE 4 cavity brass mold in a different small caliber rifle, great looking mold, it cast great looking boolits, but was TOO HEAVY and my wrist would get fatigued quickly, so I sold it.

I do have a NOE 225-55-FN (RCBS clone) aluminum mold, 5 cavity. I love it, it casts well, and retains heat adequate enough, probably better that a Lee 6 cavity mold in 22 cal.

[runfiverun]

I gave up on trying to run my rcbs mold hot.
so I just get the mold up to normal operating temp and cast with it.
it might run a little on the cold side [shrug] but I weight sort my 22 bullets and they seem to stay within a .3gr window.

[kungfustyle]

I have the RCBS and love it. Shoots about a golf ball size group at 100 yards out of my Venture. One down side is after about an hour of casting my pot is only about 1/4 used up and I have a unimpressive small pile of boolits. It would be nice to have a larger mold to speed up production, but I do love the way it shoots.