The group buy for a 357 Keith mould has prompted me to post this.
There's lots of debate about Mr. Keith's bullets. People say the real thing has this or that. As some know we cast these 4 years commercially. All the writers testing these were happy. Most considered our bullets to be bullets Elmer would have been pleased with. Were the moulds I used what Elmer wanted? Would he really been pleased?
Below is a note sent us by a source I'll leave un-named. Living in WV I have no way to do much checking so I sent a copy of this note to John Taffin and we discussed the matter. He said, "There's no reason not to believe this is true." Enough said, take the note below for what it's worth. I made no attempt to change spelling, only taking out names to protect the innocent . Hope you enjoy.
Lynn..........Dry Creek
I stumbled onto your web page and was glad to see that you are producing
Keith Bullets which are VERY close to the actual designs. A bit of
history.......
Before Elmer took sick and died......( I was a cop in Salmon, grew up
and lived there and we often visited over matters of the bullet):
Elmer used to get incessed with the bullet manufacturers and we were
talking about the designs and what always seemed to go wrong with the
bullet makers. I listened to him, and could see his point. He would
tell them how they should be made, and they (the bullet and mold
makers) would leave Salmon, go back and low and behold they turned out a
bullet that wasn't even close (worse yet, they always seemed to have
those dam round lube grooves ! ) I suggested to Elmer, that it might be
a good idea to make up some bullet masters and then make the bullets as
he wanted them, which according to everything I know.....the designs
were VERY sound. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, as it
took MONTHS to do this ! I soon found out, that Elmer could not and
would not work on paper.....he had to hold it in his hand and look at it!
SO....the masters were made by hand, on a lathe, one at a time, with
many repeats and modifications over some months until they were just
right......what a pain. All I wanted to do, was see that things got
straightened out and the correct bullets be made available. No wonder
the people who came to see him never could get it right ! To make a long
story short, I had XXXXXX make the molds and for a time, I made
bullets and molds available to the public. I gave the steel bullet
masters to XXXXXXXXXX (XXX company) and as far as I know, they are
still with the company, even though it was sold to another gentleman who
has it now. I just wanted to make sure they were available to the
public. I don't know where you got your designs, but I can tell some of
them are terribly close to the actual designs.....so close, that I can't
help but wonder if they aren't exact copies......which is not only fine,
but to be commended. In fact, some of the actual designs (.357) won't
work in all revolver throats.....due to the length of the front driving
band, which won't let the forward band clear the chamber throat when
normally seated, with some revolver chambers.........but according to
Elmer....that front band was critical at magnum velocities.....and the
dimensions of that front band was one of the things that he had stressed
but USUALLY got thinned down by the manufacturers..... The steel masters
were made, for the then four major magnum pistol calibers.....357, 41,
44 and 45........only.
Anyway..glad to see that you make some really good designs
available.......that are as true as I have ever seen, short of the
actual masters I gave to XXXXX...... Thought you might like to know...
kind regards
XXXXXX