Casting with Lyman hollow point molds?

[brewer12345]

I picked up a long discontinued Lyman single cavity mold for a hollow base minie bullet and it looks like a typical Lyman hollow point mold with the pin in the bottom. I haven't had a chance to cast with it yet, but is there a trick to it? How do you get the bullet off the pin without deforming the relatively soft, freshly cast bullet?

[45workhorse]

You twist the pin and pull it out with the mold blocks still together, then open the blocks. Boolit falls out, repeat a few thousand times.

[brewer12345]

Aha. Thanks. Since this will be a shoulder shaking 54 caliber conical meant for hunting charges, I suspect a few hundred will be more than adequate.

[StuBach]

You twist the pin and pull it out with the mold blocks still together, then open the blocks. Boolit falls out, repeat a few thousand times.

This is how I do it as well. Makes it super easy to get nice quality HB.

[Winger Ed.]

The Lead cools enough in a few seconds, and doesn't stick to the pin.

Single cavity HPs are a little slow and tedious, but you won't have any problems with it.

[45workhorse]

To heavy of a charge and you can blow the skirt, base of bullet apart.

[brewer12345]

To heavy of a charge and you can blow the skirt, base of bullet apart.

With a traditional minie, yes. This is a discontinued mold that was designed with a short, heavy skirt for heavy hunting loads. I will be trying these and maxi balls to see if I can do better than a Lee real.

[Mk42gunner]

One additional bit of advice: pull the pin/plug before cutting the sprue.

I learned this the hard way while casting some 457122's, no fun trying to twist the pin out when the freshly cast boolit is just spinning in the blocks.

Robert