LBT molds

[white eagle]

anyone use their rifle molds
I am looking into getting a 7mm,and 30 cal mold
I haven't seen any offered that tripped my trigger :cbpour:
so I thought I would see if any of you all have used them before

[Tom W.]

I believe Veral will let you design your own.

[451whitworth]

i use the 170gr. and 200gr. LFN @ .311" in the 30/30 and the 30 Krag with excellent results.

[Maven]

white eagle, I have 3 LBT rifle molds (6.5 Swede, 8mm Mau., .45-70 for a lever action) and 1 for my revolvers (.357mg.) and am very pleased with their performance and Veral's workmanship. If you carefully follow his instructions for determining what the final dimensions of the mold will be, you'll be quite satisfied I'm sure. Btw, CB's don't stick in the cavities of my molds and pretty much fall out of their own weight. A couple of things to mention about the LBT's: (1) Often the sprue plates are too tight, but can easily be loosened for perfect base fill out. (2) The cast best at ~800 deg. F intiially and maybe ~775 deg. after ~12 - 20 casts. (3) They generally don't need smoking. In fact, that usually degrades casting. I've attached a photograph of the 50 yd. results of the LBT .45-70 CB (~470 grs.) fired from my Marlin #336 (Microgroove) when it wore a 4X scope

[white eagle]

nice !

[HCL]

I have two LBT pistol molds and saving up to get several rifle molds. They are my favorite molds, hands down. As said before follow Veral's directions on boolit selection and dimentions and you will be very happy. He has great customer service, just plain good people!
Mike

[MtGun44]

I have a 7mm 150 gr LBT that is very accurate. I have several pistol molds, too. Good molds,
pistol designs are often good, but not always, IME.

Bill

[PacMan]

David did you get my PM?
As to LBT molds.I am new to casting ,started feb this year, but have spent several dollars on diffrent makes of molds.Maybe because i am new to the game and do not know all the tricks of the trade but i have found that if you cannot pour a good bullet with a LBT mold you canot with any make and i stand behind that. At to that the fact that you get a bullet that is round from top to bottom. Like Maven said above Veral will make a bullet that fits if you give him the right info. that he ask for. Now are all of his designs right for everyone? Maybe maybe not.Same as anyone else mold.
My experience with his molds are a little diffrent than Malven,s but that could be for several reasons.My LBT molds (5) will al produce excellent bullets with WW at 650deg. by my Lyman thermometer.By design the sprue plates can only be tightened only so much relying on the spring washer to hold the plate at the proper tension.I have never had to lossen one to get complete fill out on the base.Like so many other things in life your millage may vary and that can be from day to day.
Dwight

[mroliver77]

One thing to know is that all of Verals designs are full diameter. He hates bore riders. If you have a shallow throat that leaves you only lite for caliber boolits or seating them very deep in the case.
I have been a fan of his molds and even sent his wife money while he was in the pokey. I sent the fellow running the LBT group buys a question about a boolit for an M1A. He passed it on to Veral who was disturbed at my use of the term "boolit" and he quoted my message and changed boolit to bullet every time I wrote it. He then went on to say he did not design or make "boolit" molds only bullet molds and was very snide about it. I was planning on dropping a few hundred $$ but after that I dont think I will do business with such a small minded individual. I really adore my LBT molds but prolly will not buy any more.
Jay

[Bret4207]

Veral gets upset with boolit? Has he ever proof read anything HE wrote?!!! Good Lord, in my old copy of his book between the spelling errors and grammar mutilation it's looks like something my 8 year old wrote.

Weird.

[Good Cheer]

Veral gets upset with boolit? Has he ever proof read anything HE wrote?!!! Good Lord, in my old copy of his book between the spelling errors and grammar mutilation it's looks like something my 8 year old wrote.

Weird.

He's deals with casters. You expect him to be normal?:-D

[outdoorfan]

Yeah, Veral does very much abhor the use of the term "boolit". Just a quirk with him. It wouldn't stop me from buying another mold from him in the future. I've had a few of his molds. I had him make me a 180 grain spitzer for my '06. It was quite accurate and I killed a couple of deer with it last fall (one at around 240 yards). Using 50/50 ww/soft alloy, the boolits came out closer to 195 grains. I have found that his designated boolit weights are usually significantly under the actual weight that is produced, if that matters.

On the other hand, there are so many top-notch mold makers these days (many on this forum) that it doesn't drive me to get one from Veral quite like it use to.

[bhn22]

Not to start a feud, but I know a couple of guys who won't have anything to do with the site because of "boolit". I've explained that they don't have to use it themselves, but it falls on deaf ears. I've dealt with Veral for years, he's a little cranky sometimes, but it is definitely worth the effort to be patient with him at times. The fat that I agree with him 99% of the time helps a lot.

I wish I lived closer to him. I think it would be fascinating to take him out to dinner.

[felix]

No feud because the term boolit has been invented here and deals with us hobbiests, experimenters, and other non-professionals. Those with more a ruthless intent, especially towards other human beings, are not to be tolerated here. This has nothing to do with Veral and his molds. They are indeed extremely well made. ... felix

[white eagle]

That is really childish that some one avoids a site because of the use of a word
oh well their loss :redneck:

[MtGun44]

Bret,

I LITERALLY laughed out loud at your comment about Veral's book. I had the exact same
thought! Lots of good info in it, but it is no masterpiece of the English language. My Mom
used to say "The pot calling the kettle black."

I admire his workmanship very much and most of his designs have worked well for me,
but not all of them.

Bill

[Bret4207]

Bill, I think we all know we owe Veral a vote of thanks for sticking in there and producing good moulds when Lyman, etc. dropped the ball. But, times change and the "in crowd" just doesn't need to worship St. Veral anymore. A good mould is a good mould no matter who makes it. And, as I've pointed out before, you can find the ideas Veral had for his hold down in Cramer moulds and some of his designs in B+M moulds. The guy does good work, but he's no more perfect than anyone else, even Elmer!

[fourarmed]

If you have a problem rifle, call or email him about it. He will send you some lead wire with which to make a throat slug, and then cut a mold to fit the throat exactly, or he used to. The one I have is for a Venezuelan Mauser with a huge throat, and is the only thing that will make it shoot.

[Char-Gar]

I was around this board long before there were any "boolits" and don't intent to leave. I don't cotton to the term and don't use it, but I certainly don't make an Alamo out of the term.

I have had Veral's book for many years and there is much good stuff in it. He also passes off a lot of his opinions as fact. IMHO some of his opinions/feaux facts are pure BS.

[timbuck]

I have seen a LBT mold picture and the mold had roll pins (tension sleeves, split pins) for alignment pins. Is that the way they all are? Also no hardened sleeves for the mating alignment hole.

[blackthorn]

I have Veral's book--great read! Poor grammar? So what? I read for the value of the information--not for the grammar! I just can't bring myself to use the term"Boolit" instead of "Bullet"-- but that is just me! I don't care how you spell, the terms you use, how long your sentences are, etc. etc----just so long as I can (eventually) make sense of it! Have a great day!
(edited by SWMBO [who is much smarter than I am])

[PacMan]

Word for word what bkackthorn said.
I would also like to know what parts of his thinking or writings are BS so myself and others can learn from you.
Dwight