Originally Posted by
MikeS
Since you're already shooting what I'm assuming is a pointy semi-wadcutter (if it's got a single lube groove, and the nose tapers down to the flat meplat, rather than having 2 lube grooves, and a rounded off meplat than it's the H&G #68, or a clone of it), there's no reason to change what you're using. Lee makes a clone of the H&G #68 as well, it's their 452-200-SWC WITHOUT the letters TL in front of it, that's a completely different boolit. It's available either in a 2 cavity mould, or a 6 cavity mould. Which mould you gets depends on a few things. First is how many you think you'll be shooting a month? If you're getting into USPSA than you're probably going to be shooting quite a bit, so the 6 cavity mould might be the better one to start with. The tradeoffs are that with the 6 cavity mould it's got more of a learning curve than the 2 cavity, but it's a higher quality mould to start with. The 2 cavity will cost you around $20.00 and the 6 cavity will run around $50.00 once you buy a set of handles for it (the 2 cavity mould come with handles attached, the 6 cavity has detachable handles that you need to buy separately), so either mould isn't going to cost a whole bunch. If you decide to get a 2 cavity mould, make sure you checkout the post I made where I detailed how I made a 2 cavity Lee mould close in better alignment than a factory one. For either mould, checkout the many posts about "Leementing" a mould.
I would also recommend that rather than looking at the Lyman Big Dipper, you should look at Lee's 4-20 pot. The difference is that the Lee pot holds twice as much, and if you're going to be using the 6 cavity mould, you'll empty the 10lb Lyman pot very quickly! Even tho the Lee pot is designed for bottom pour use, it's setup in such a way that if you wanted to use a ladle, it's not a problem. If you get the smaller ladle only pot, and you stay with the hobby you will be replacing it with a larger pot fairly soon anyway, so might as well get the larger pot right at the start. There's nothing wrong with ladle pouring, or bottom pouring, and if you get the Lee 4-20 pot you should certainly also get a ladle (just not the Lee ladle), so you can try both methods of filling a mould. With a 6 cavity mould, if you want to use a ladle, you should probably get a Rowell #1 ladle (it's available from Rotometals, a forum sponser, or The Antimony Man, if getting it from the second vendor, you can get it with a shortened handle specifically for use with electric furnaces) as it hold more lead than the Lyman ladle, and is a bottom feeding ladle, so the dirt that floats on top of the melt isn't drawn into the mould.