so I took the plunge!!

[Indiana shooter]

Ever since I bought my first mold (a 430 tl 2 cav lee) I have been eyeballing the NOE 265 gr RG2 PB (RD) mold. I liked the concept of being able to cast 3 different bullets with one mold but I couldn't get myself to spend that kind of money.

As my addiction grows I found myself thinking more and more about stepping up to a better mold. Well, I was milling around online and noticed that NOE has finally made my desired mold available. Sooo, I ordered it, along with a pair of mold handles.

I hope my gut is right, that my mags will like these boolits, and I'll enjoy my new mold.

[tazman]

I can't speak to whether your guns will like that particular boolit. I do believe you will really enjoy using that mold though. I have several NOE molds in RG configuration and they are all great boolit casting machines.

[Beagle333]

Congrats! The NOE is a sweet mold. Was it the 432-265 RG2?

[Indiana shooter]

Yes beagle, that exact mold. I wanted the brass one but they didn't have it in the PB version.

I think the aluminum will suite my casting pace better anyway. With my lee molds I kept getting galling between the sprue plate and the top of the mold, along with the constantly loosing the locator pins. After reading around on here I found that my casting pace was waaaay too fast.

By the way beagle, you have some gorgeous boolits there. If mine comes out half as purdy I'll be happy.

[kalison]

NOE moulds are sweet! You'll love it, worlds apart from the standard commercial brands out there. You won't feel bad about the hole in your wallet once you've got it up to temp and boolits are raining!

[Yodogsandman]

You'll really like the NOE molds! You'll feel really bad if you tear it up the first time you use it, though. Read up on the lubrication instructions and get some sprue plate lube.

Don't worry about the money much, it's a lifetime investment in your own quality boolits! Hope they shoot as good as they look!

[Indiana shooter]

I finally got my new mold today. I went ahead and cleaned the cavities with white gas (colman fuel) and was able to get 2 heat cycles done before I had to go to work.

When I get home I'm gonna do 2 more heat cycles and put the mold handles on and place the cup point pins in to get it ready for this weekend. Wile I'm at it I'll go ahead and lube up the locator pins and smoke the cavities as well.

I do have a question though: Is it okay/necessary to scrub this mold with comet?

I presume it's okay to do but this mold seems to be a very well designed, perfectly crafted work of art and I don't want to destroy it.

[Indiana shooter]

I just couldn't wait for the weekend to start breaking in my new mold. So I warmed up the pot for a few.





Both cavities drop right at .433 with a 20-1 alloy at 750 degrees.

The only issue I ran into was that both cavities are a bit "sticky".