I am copy-pasting my initial responses to this mold from the GB thread and hoping everyone else will also follow suit with their experiences. The 358429 has always been a bullet of interest to me due to its heritage. Until now however I had not purchased one.
Here's my details so far:
Great casting mold, like them all. I was confused when initially the molds wouldn't align on my lee handles. I thought maybe the mold was cut too tight but it turned out just to be the insert that the sprue plate latches on to was too tight, and part was protruding into the channel for the handles. Just very slightly loosen the bolt and your problems will disappear.
Casts dropped free easily, I never once had to tap my mold. I cast about 250 or so at a very fast cadence. I am using the 8 cav aluminum. I for one am a gigantic fan of the new Lee style MP molds and really like them. If Lee would release a "premium" line with half the care and finish these have at a 50% upcharge they would have a real world beater of a product.
Average weight was 169.6 out of a sample of ten, max deviation was about 1.5 grains. Right on the money far as I'm concerned. My alloy is mostly wheel weights with a touch of lino thrown in- run of the mill "mystery metal", good for general purpose.
Base band reads 0.359, middle was 0.358, and front band was 0.3555-0.356. I honestly didn't know if this one would be 0.358 on all bands like elmer would have wanted but personally I am glad it is like it is. This will get you a little leeway with long loads in short cylinders. In all fairness I could get away without sizing in most of my guns with this size as-dropped. This would be a great bullet for tumble lube with lighter loads with cast sizes like that.
I powder coated mine in "magenta chrome". I got this off a member here not really knowing what to expect. I figured it'd be a metallic magenta color. The powder is, but the color actually cures to a chrome silver finish. Looks pretty good, but I wonder if it might make seeing damaged spots in the coating hard to see? Beside the point, I inspected mine closely and they all looked fine, so good deal.
Momentary shout out to the NOE bushing system for the star sizers- I love this tool and being able to buy a blue million different diameters for $9 a pop is great. I had lathesmith make me a ton of punches for every common caliber and I was ready to rock. I always found the stars fantastic for massive amounts of fewer different bullets but I'm an experimenter at heart and love to make adjustments and try new designs, so being able to quickly change things out and buy new sizes for whatever weird gun I might find is great. That, and spending $45-50 for a lube die for a star is a painful experience! You cannot lube with the NOE bushing system but I have mostly been doing hitek and PC lately anyway. It would be great for tumble lube too.
https://i.imgur.com/2KhraRR.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/gUNkQiE.jpg
I sized to 0.358. Minimal sizing on the middle band and none on the front, just a touch on the base.
https://i.imgur.com/Cg5F07E.jpg
A group photo with some fairly conservative lyman load data. I plan to go with the 2400 load for this initially and probably load it fairly hot.
https://i.imgur.com/zs0nXGw.jpg
If it ever stops raining I might get to shoot!
