Mould suggestions for the 45-70

[KirkD]

I have three vintage 45-70s. One is an original Springfield Model 1888, another is an original Winchester 1886 made in 1901 and the third is an original Winchester 1886 made in 1904. I want a mould for the two Winchesters that meets the following criteria:

1. Must drop a bullet at least .459 in diameter
2. Must be plain base (gas checks help with accuracy, but they are not free, so I stay away from them)
3. Must be at least a two cavity mould
4. Must be for a bullet weight of about 405 grains, but anything between 400-420 grains is fine.
5. Flat nose.
6. Crimp groove in the right position to feed easily.

Any suggestions?

[Maineboy]

I have an 1895 Marlin and find the Lee 457-405 very accurate. I use it for over 90% of my shooting at velocities from 900 to 1650 fps. The mould I have is a single cavity and drops them at just over .459 and 415 grains when cast from wheel weights. I believe that Lee makes them in a double cavity version now but lots of people report undersized boolits from Lee molds.

[missionary5155]

Good morning...
To save you alot of frustration... Take the time and slug your chamber throat areas. You have origonals. Sometimes the tolerances with chamber reaming were a bit loose due to many factors.
My 1884 Trapdoor shoots Best with a FAT boolit .463+ Throat is .462
My Rolling Block shoots best with a .460 Throat is .4585
My Winchester 1886 shoots best with .460 Throat is .459
My 1881 Marlin awaits my presence to get warmed up.
If you do not fill the thoat with cast boolits shooting smokeless you are going to have UGH accuracy. With BLACK (2F) my rifles still shoot best with fat boolits that fill the throat... soft or firm or gift wrapped.

[KirkD]

Missionary, what mould are you using to get a 405 grain (approx) sized down to .460?

[Old Ironsights]

Sounds like you need to pop over to Mountian Moulds and have Dave cut you one to spec.

Did a good job for me on my 200gr 9.3

[KirkD]

I checked out the Mountain Moulds site. Wow! A fellow can tweak his bullets six ways to Sunday! Very impressive. I'll need to take chamber casts of my two '86's to see what the story is on their throat diameters first.

[missionary5155]

Greetings KirkD Yesterday I was up in a mountain village...
Well I go about this as follows. I cast generally soft (30-1) and I have some "opened up " Lyman sizer dies. Also Lyman used to have a better selection than today. Drop boolit into the .460 sizer and apply down pressure on the handle. It really helps to have a perfect fitted nose punch. But I have changed nose shape on soft boolits and maybe I would not win a 1000 match with them but coyotes, groundhogs, bowling pins... know no difference. There are fellers here who do the modifications to sizer dies. I had mine done yeras ago by a machine shop. If you have a way to distemper a sizer die you can "hone it out" some with a wood dowel wrapped with wet emery paper... chuck it up in a drill and it does not take long to open a "softened" sizer die .001+ ..
And you can Beagle a mold... I wish I had thought of that 20 yeras ago.

[DLCTEX]

Check out Ranch Dogs molds. Click on the link at the bottom of the page.

[KirkD]

Dale, thank you for suggestion as well. I checked out Ranch Dog's .460-425 bullet. Very nice. That meplat means business. My only reservation is that it requires a gas check. I got gas checks now, but I cannot always guarantee I'll be able to get them in the future, which is why I prefer a plain base bullet. Nevertheless, that Ranch Dog bullet is very tempting.

Missionary, I should have been clearer in my question. I meant to find out what mould would drop the bullet at at least .460 with ww. I already have a sizing die for .460, so I'm okay in that regard. It looks like I've got some good suggestions here for moulds that will give me a .460 bullet.

[Old Ironsights]

I checked out the Mountain Moulds site. Wow! A fellow can tweak his bullets six ways to Sunday! Very impressive. I'll need to take chamber casts of my two '86's to see what the story is on their throat diameters first.

Yah. Dave's Da Shizzle. I especially like his option for Brass mold blocks.

My 2cav. 9.3 is in brass for "tradition" sake.

[Old Ironsights]

Dale, thank you for suggestion as well. I checked out Ranch Dog's .460-425 bullet. Very nice. That meplat means business. My only reservation is that it requires a gas check. I got gas checks now, but I cannot always guarantee I'll be able to get them in the future, which is why I prefer a plain base bullet. Nevertheless, that Ranch Dog bullet is very tempting.

Missionary, I should have been clearer in my question. I meant to find out what mould would drop the bullet at at least .460 with ww. I already have a sizing die for .460, so I'm okay in that regard. It looks like I've got some good suggestions here for moulds that will give me a .460 bullet.

You know, I don't think it would be any mean trick to mill the GC step out of the mould...

[missionary5155]

KirkD No problem... Sometimes after hanging around 11,000 feet I understander is not up and running fully.
My FAT mold is from Rapine. It drops about 410grains .463 using 30-1 . I bought this mould at least 12 years ago. Some standard molds using WW will drop near .460 but the Beagle Process is a WINNER for nudging up a Soft Boolit to .460.
+1 on Old Ironsights and milling. Any shop can knock that off for a pizza. Shorten the mold or reamed out. I have a .375 Saeco that was shortened from 250gr to 220gr because the tool guy liked the idea of a revolver that could fire .377 bolits at 1300fps + .

[ebner glocken]

Out of my T/C and marlin 1895 CB I have had good luck out of the ranch dog 420 with ww. Seems to shoot well with light loads of 2400 and full house with IMR 3031.

Ebner