Lyman composite mold............

[3006guns]

The post below about hard nosed boolits caused me to remember the Lyman composite mold from the late 60's (I think). I believe it was actually two molds, a base and a nose portion. After casting the bases in hard alloy you cast the noses in soft, then joined the two with epoxy and some mild pressure in your sizer.

Has anyone here actually used such a set up, and if so how did it work? Good? Lousy? Too much trouble, etc.?

[jdgabbard]

There are a couple people floating around here with one, some two. If I remember right, they said that the results were less then wonderful. I can't remember for the life of me who had them tho.

[Harry O]

I have one of the .38/.357 ones (358624?). I did not try it extensively, but what I did, did not work well. I poured the nose out of pure lead. No problems there. Interestingly, the base and the nose both weigh the same.

I mixed up a Bhn 18-19 melt for the base. It was VERY difficult to get to fill out. The "skirt" is very thin (which impedes flow) and even when I ran the pot as hot as it would go, it would not fill out. I put in more tin (up to about 5% to 6%), but still no luck. Then I added more pure lead and finally ended up with Bhn 15-16 mix to get it to cast decently. Not great, but decently.

I tried using the epoxy glue suggested to join them, but it was too much of a mess. You need VERY little glue or it oozes out all over everything. It is hard to get little enough epoxy. I ended up using only one drop of "super glue". It just barely peeked out around the joint when they were pressed together. Super glue worked easily, without a mess, but it fractured after firing 4 or 5 shots. When that happened, the nose piece bounced out of the cylinder and hit the floor about 3 feet in front of me. The base fired (to a different point on the target) with little recoil. I was using 13.5gr of 2400 powder with a Magnum primer.

However, it did not lead any more than my 358156-GC and was equally accurate. I believe that I could have worked out the problems, but it was not worth doing. The 358156-GC is MUCH easier to cast and works well with full power .357 Magnum loads (very little leading and accurate).

Added info: BTW, the 358624 is supposed to be a duplicate of the 358477. I have one of these and tried to place the nose piece for the 624 in the 477 (planning to add the hard lead later). It is close, but did not fit.

[qajaq59]

That has to be a mold for a guy with lots of time and very few hobbies. But I bet it was fun fooling with it?

[XWrench3]

sounds like a nightmare to me. can you imagine what would happen inside of a game animal with that? starts off as one projectile, ends up as 2. good way to loose penetration, as well as a trophy.

[Harry O]

That has to be a mold for a guy with lots of time and very few hobbies. But I bet it was fun fooling with it?

Keep in mind that I am a guy who has approx 8 hollow-base moulds and have cast many thousands of them. Yet, the composite mould was difficult for me. The "hollow-base" portion of it (really a hollow-front) had much thinner skirts than any of the other hollow-base moulds I own.

I think that was the major mistake they made. The skirt needs to be thicker so that it can fill out easier. That would mean the base would be a little bit heavier than the nose. No problem as far as I can see, but since both parts weighed the same (both approx 80gr), it must have been a design goal.

[Shuz]

I tried the Lyman 429625 a few years ago. It's a 429421 "look-a-like" that consists of two moulds as described by Harry O. I tried all kinds of epoxys and glues, but couldn't get the two parts to stay together in the revolvers cylinder due to recoil. Noses would pull out, tying up the cylinder, or plainly flying out on their own! I had an offer to sell the base only mould and did so. I kept the nose portion and have done some minor experimentation with soft lead noses, dropped into already hot 429421SC, 429244SC and 429650DC moulds. The sperm like tail fuses beautifully to the rest of the boolit when hot, harder alloy is poured behind it. I've been meaning to try my form of composites on live game, but so far have had too much fun experimenting with various hollow point mould configurations to complete my testing of the composites. Maybe this year?

[runfiverun]

just follow the bruce b method you will have a composite boolit that works