Who casts with a Noe,Moose,Lyman .580 minie ball mold ..need some answers

[Brokenbear]

Hope someone does as I have a couple of questions ..this is an assumption that may not be valid but seems most shapes/designs float around the Lyman 580213
Question 1 : are the skirts thin for good function with service loads of 60/65 grains
Question 2 : how do you rate the roundness coming out of the mold

Thanks

Bear

[barnabus]

yes the lyman is about as close as u can get to an actual civil war minnie.I shoot 60 grains in the Lyman OS which is the thin skirt minnie.I size my minnies as it rounds them up.

[1Hawkeye]

Back when I played around with rifled muskets I cast alot of the lyman 575213 which is the 460gr Minnie. When the mold was up to temperature it cast fine with the skirts fully filled out they ran about. 577" in diameter with pure lead. 60 to 65 grains should work fine as depending upon the arsenal that made the ammunition those are the original powder charges using 1fg powder. Most of the nssa competitors use around 45 grains of 3fg. Another thing to consider is what lube to use and where to put it on the Minnie as some will not shoot accurately with lube in the base and others will. I wish I knew how many Minnie's I've cast cause I was also supplying a local shop at the time and they got thousands of them in addition to what I was using. One other interesting thing is that the lyman's have a flat point so that they can't be passed off as an original Minnie ball.