Used to cast a few .38's years back with an old friend of mine that has now passed on. Mostly he had old Lyman 2 cavity molds which were pretty worn out.

Very seriously considering getting back into casting and wondered if you could tell me what to look for specifically. Is one brand better than another ? If you could choose which would you buy ?

I'm only familiar with Lee-Lyman-and seen some RCBS.

Want to cast someday for .40 S&W .41 mag, 44 mag, 45 acp, 45 AR, 45 colt and 38/357.

What should a guy figure to spend on a good quality mould ?

Just looking for advice.


Steve

Best mold I've bought is from LBT Industries. It's $160 for a 4 hole mole. Mine casts a 180 grain .358 bullet for my model 686. From the bench it will print under and inch at 25 yards with no leading.

I also use the LBT Blue Lube.

I have been finding some good deals on Ebay for single cavity molds. I try and stay with the older Lymans (Ideal) .
With that being said...I have the best luck with the molds I buy from a gentlemen in Slavania..Mihec. He makes the best molds IMHO there is. He makes them out of brass. They are a little spendy about 120.00 but well worth it. It also may be worth your while to go over to Castboolit.com site...they have been my mentors since day one. Hope this helps.

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You'll shoot your eye out kid

+1 for cast boollit on vendor sponsor NOE have often rest mold of group buy

Thank you--very impressive mold--how do you contact him. Also--I've been to Castboolits.com and it all seems greek to me. How the heck do you guys know what they are talking about ?

Guys say they like the 258767 whatever and I'm like " OK--What the heck's that ". How do you make sense of it all. I'm green as grass at this--below newbie--can anyone shed any light on how I just get started with nomenclatures ? ( Before I get full blown carried away and start burning up good lead)

Is this really meant to be this difficult ?

Steve

Depends on what your objectives are.
If you just want to make some 158gr RN .358 to shoot IDPA/SSR at your local club and plink away for fun with your model 15, a Lee TL mold and a bottle of Alox tumble lube will do fine for casting wheelweights and pickup lead.

If you want precision shooters at longer range, or for rifles, then buying $100 molds and controlling the lead alloy makes sense. Probably need a separate lube-sizer, too. You make it as simple and cheap or as sophisticated as fits your needs and personality.

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Science plus Art

Those guys and gals at castboolits are like me; they have been casting for 20 to 50 years and have absorbed a heck of a lot of info in that time that they forget the newbies don't have yet. IMHO, you should buy a manual dedicated to bullet casting or even buy a couple of them. Lyman (Ideal) would be best with RCBS's second best.

Lyman started numbering their molds starting with the bullet diameter the mold throws in thousands of an inch when using their Alloy No. 2. i.e., (258767) is a Lyman number indicating the bullet cast diameter is 0.258" before sizing and this particular design is No. 767. You could look at the Lyman Cast Bullet Manual for a picture and and description of this cast bullet. Other makers use their own identification and numbering systems.

Don't worry about not knowing everything from the start. Everyone has to start new things at sometime or another. You will pick it up rapidly by reading the manuals. It would be good to find a friendly person with some years of experience that would allow you to sit in and 'assist' a little.

I use casting as my winter 'busy work' hobby. Once you are set up and equipped, it is easy to cast 100/200 bullets, size and lube and box them up in a long evening or over two easy evenings. Good luck! ..... Big Cholla

Big Cholla--

Thanks much--I'll look for the Lyman Book to get an idea of what everyone's talking about. Also--thanks for helping with the mould ID numbers, I had no idea that they actually could mean something. I'll check out Amazon and E-bay for a book.

Thanks to all for your suggestions, who knows, maybe someday I'll have a bullet Karma for someone.

Steve

I refer to this site a lot and I have been casting since 1970

NRA - IHMSA Handgun, Rifle, Air Pistol Silhouette Shooting. The Excitement Of Reactive Steel Targets At The Los Angeles Silhouette Club

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Semper FI

I think the best sub $100 mold is the RCBS molds. Or at least I seem to cast my best bullets from the RCBS molds. I had a problem with one once. And RCBS just sent me a new one. The lady said she didn't really care if I sent the old one back or not. That is pretty good service IMO. And the problem I had could have easily been my fault. Tom.

Wow Beans--

Great site--thanks a ton--I'll be spending a lot of time there. Very nice of you to share this info.

Steve

My first mold was a single cavity Lee .452" 252 SWC, bought in 1974. Still have it, although I've moved up(?) to double and four cavity molds. It has cast thousands of bullets and is nowhere near worn out.

Lee molds are aluminum and I think a beginner stands a better chance of casting good bullets sooner with aluminum molds. A double cavity Lee mold is about $20, with handles. You can't go wrong.

Yeah, wearing them out ain't gonna happen with NORMAL use. Beat them to death when you are using them and they won't last the week!

I started out with a TL230gr .452 RN 2 cavity Lee. I am going to be brutally honest here. If those were the only moulds available, I would stop casting immediately. It did function but was a pain to use. Mostly in the alignment pin area but also in the sprue plate.

In my opinion, the Lee 2 cavity moulds, even @ $20 aren't worth the money. Now, let me qualify that by saying the Lee 6 cavity moulds are. They need to have handles purchased too and are usually in the $40 neighborhood by themselves, but the alignment pins and sprue setup are TONS better. Not only that but you get 3 times as many bullets in each cast. Win/Win in my book.

I too have some mp-moulds.com moulds. They are top of the line. Guess what, as he was starting out, he copied the Lee almost to a tee only with improvements. They are well worth the money spent on them, in my opinion.

There are other options and none better than the out of production moulds from Hensley & Gibbs. If you want to measure mould performance/quality, these moulds are what folks compare other too. Hands down!

I own several of them, 9mm, 38, 45 calibers and nothing casts like a H&G, nothing.

Get ready to shell out some real dough for one though. An H&G #503, 4 cavity mould I had for a while cost me over $200 used! I was trying to cast for a Marlin 1894 rifle and couldn't get it to cast big enough. I decided to sell it. Made a bit on it and used it for several years. Their value does not diminish.

You can find them on ebay from time to time. Now though, anything I can get from an old H&G, I can get from an mp mould.

One neat thing that Miha does is the Cramer style hollow point moulds though. They are a really slick system for casting either solids or hp's.


FWIW

If you want to cast bullets in any reasonable quantity you need at least a four cavity mold. You can buy a six cavity Lee for around $50 with the handles. The $20 Lee two cavity molds are a little on the flimsey side, but the big molds are pretty well made and will cast good bullets in a hurry.

Here's about an hour's worth of .45's:

My least favorite mold is a 4 cavity Lyman 429421. It takes forever for it to start casting good bullets. Sometimes, by the time it's making good bullets, I've used so much metal out of the pot that it's time to add metal. It's big, it's clumsy and you have to club the sprue with a sledge to shear it, then the bullets stick in the mold. But it does make good bullets, once it's going.

Two cavity molds are my favorites. I can get them going much faster.

Most of my molds are Hensley & Gibbs, which I bought about 20-25 years ago. Recently I did buy a new SEACO mold from Midway. It started throwing perfect boolits from the get go, and seems to be a very good quality. I got it from Midway.
BTW, short of abuse, you will not wear a good quality iron mold out. Take care of it and it will outlast you. Aluminumn molds are a different story.

Is this mold posted by BSkerj made by the same guy as mp-molds.com ? I went to there site and all I saw were aluminum molds. I really like the looks, finish, design and engineering it appears has been done to develop that mold.

No comments at all about the Lyman ( newer) molds--not so good ?

Also thanks for all the input guys--I'm like a sponge--soakin' it up.

Steve

IA, that is a Miha mould. If you go to his website he has a store on the home page to order from. He usually makes a couple xtra but they go fast. Another good source for his moulds is at Castboolits.com on the Group Buy forum. Right now I am waiting for 2 moulds from him. One is a hollow base .45 cal wadcutter that I want to shoot out of my 625. Turn it upside down and it is supposed to make one wicked hollow point. As Skip said above alot of his moulds are Cramer style and it is like getting 2 or 3 moulds for the price of one depending on the style of the moulds. Another plus Lee 6 bang handles fit any mould he makes. Mp-molds.

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You'll shoot your eye out kid

I have a couple of Lee's two and six cavity molds. They both work just fine. They far more often that not cast good bullets from the very first drop. You have to follow some minimum tricks with any molds. The aluminum isn't going to put up with a beating but you shouldn't be hammering at them. I use a piece of yellow pine 2x4 on the two cavity sprue plate. It's low tech and works like a charm. The two cavity molds aren't so hard to keep hot. The six cavity molds you have to keep the lead a little more hot than you would think and keep a good rhythm with them and you will end up with piles of bullets and be out of lead again. Add to that there are tips and tricks on the castboolits forum that tell you how to make a Lee mold even better. So I'm not sure why there is so much Lee bashing. I can buy two almost three of them for the same cost as one Lyman. And the other brands cost even more.

I am waiting on this mould:

Skip, here is what that mould looks like on paper out of my 625. By the way IA...I can more or less thank Skip getting me into this casting addiction..through these threads and following his sage advice I now have over 2 tons of lead, 2 lubrisizers, countless lead bullets from around a dozen different moulds. One of the most satisfying and relaxing hobbies there is. As said above, it will take you as far as you want to go...I just ordered a Big Timber Shiloh Sharps so I can try throwing some 525 grn cast bullets downrange.

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You'll shoot your eye out kid

So the Cramer style means what ?

Steve

I just simply pointed the way to a new and fulfilling part of our hobby. People with good common sense and a desire to be an expert in every aspect of handloading/reloading take the bait pretty easily.

Lyman style hollow point:


Cramer style hollow point:


I believer that these pictures are conversion of standard mould modifications. With the mp-molds.com moulds, they offer them as a standard when ordering a hollow point mould.

I haven't used any of the NOE moulds at this point. I've heard good things about them though. There are a few more custom made American mould makers. BRP is another one. One I have lately heard is going down hill fast but I cannot recall the name anyway!

Going to Active Group Buy's - Cast Boolits you will see some of the group buys in action.

At this point in the discussion, I usually start emitting a subliminal message, but, hey, you all already know that!


cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits, cast, you must cast your own boolits

Skip,
Did you get in on that 4 cav group buy?
I have a two hole and was showing off some stuff the last time I was at the range. Most of the time I am treated as a new kid. But then a guy asked what load I was shooting and I busted out a penta star hollow point and explained about m-p and the beautiful cramer style molds he makes.
Then there was a "this guy might know a little more than he leads on vibe." They now want me to bring some ammo down and try my gun out on the Ransom rest.
"That is, you know, when you have time."

back to the subject.
If you just want to blast or shoot something like steel challenge where you are shooting at a 12 inch target at 10 or 15 yards a lee six banger is hard to beat.
When it come to pistol precision, paying top dollar for a GOOD used H&G. Or spending the money on a Seaco, RCBS, Lyman, NOE, M-P or other custom mold makers is money well spent when the results are tiny little groups from completely indentical bullets. I have high hopes for my M-P hollow base wad cutter mold. It set me back $140 but if it works the way I hope it will be worth every penny.
Aluminum molds last a long time if they are taken care of. A lot of Lee's molds are copies of sucessful designs. I started on lee 6 hole and would do it again if I had to. I made some stupid rookie mistakes on the mold and ruined it. I don't feel that bad about it because they still make them and even if they quit it still will never be as valuable as an H&G.

leas,
Yes sir! I sure did! I go by "lead_her_fly" over on castboolits. Can't wait until that baby comes! WHHHHOOOOOOHHHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sending my #496BB Saeco, 225gr LRN mould to my oldest son in PA who is just getting into casting. He has some Lee stuff but the Saeco will be a nice addition to his new found hobby!

As for the stuff at the range. I used to get that too. Then, after making one hole groups @ 20 yards, they had a different approach when I came away from the line.

Of course, the one fellow I severely trounced was the Range Officer!

They don't like it when you do that!

I spent some time last night surfing some mold sites and was really impressed. Found the brass molds on the mp-mold site--those are things of beauty. While I don't plan on buying anything right away I now have a much better idea of what I'm looking at and for.

The cramer style is the only way to go as far as I can tell. They may be more expensive upfront but you also get 3 molds in one and would imagine resale would be better if it ever came to that.

Are the mp-molds made in Europe ? How big does a group by have to be ?

I've already learned a ton and I'm ready for more. Going to get my reloading room ( "Man Cave") going shortly. I've collected 100's of pounds of real pig lead and wheel weights over the years so I do have a good start. Also a friend of mine owns an indoor range so I'm sure if I help him clean up I can get all the range lead I want.

This section of the forum is quickly becoming my favorite--I love the challenge and love building things--this will definitely help when I retire--which ain't but a few months away.

Been tire kicking here for quite awhile--love the information and knowledge all of you have --thanks for sharing so freely.

Steve

This is the only place I "troll" on the forum.

Yes, the mp-molds are made in Europe, Slovenia to be exact.

As for the last part of your post. Are you trying to tell me that you haven't gotten the bill yet? No wonder you are so gleeful!

The price of getting information in this portion of the forum is two fold. #1: Contribute when you can, ask what you will. #2: Make sure you pass this addiction on to someone else!

Glad you are here Steve!

Thanks for the Welcome. Your enthusiasm for what you love is uplifting. I've thought for awhile now that the title of this portion of the forum should be called " Skips Reloading Page".

You definitely are an ambassador for the sport we all love. I've enjoyed shooting and guns since I was about 4 years old, it's just recently gotten completely out of hand.

Here's my contribution to newbies like me:

#1--If you're thinking about reloading, DON'T, just do it.
#2--If you're thinking about casting, DON'T, just do it.
If you're thinking about buying another gun,DON'T, until you do #1 & #2 First.

Hope this helps someone ( like me) and thanks again to everyone.

Steve

Skip,

Is there a "here's what you need' reference to get started boolit casting in the right manner?

Thanks,

JT

JT,

There is an article that our very own "epj" has written on the subject. If you pm him, he will give you the highlights.

Also, there is another site to go to: Cast Bullets For Beginner And Expert - Joe Brennan

There is usually a section in most reloading manuals that covers it too.

If you want suggestions, start a thread and we all will help you out. Once you weed out "opinions" you can formulate a list of equipment to purchase.

Very basically: Pot and way to heat metal. (Coleman stove and cast iron pot will work.) A mould and a way to get the molten metal into it. (Ladle or bottom pour pot.) And a way to lubricate the bullets once you get them out of the mould. (Lee liquid Alox is the simplest and cheapest way to start, also the messiest! )

Anyway, do a search, this has been covered or start a thread and everyone will chime in. We can weed out what is unneeded later!

The article Skip is refering to is in the 2010 edition of American Handgunner Special Edition if you happen to have a copy. You can spend anywhere from several hundred dollars to less than 50 bucks to get started. A lot depends on whether you want to cast a few hundred bullets a year or a thousand in a couple of hours. The most expensive single piece of equipment I use is the lubricator/sizer. With the heat option, it cost around $150. If you are ok with tumble lubing, most of the rest of the equipment can be pretty cheap. If you want to cast in any real quantity, a bottom pour furnace is in order. The Lee pots have worked well for me and cost a fraction of what the competetors' equipment costs. Molds are made by a lot of different folks in different price ranges. You have to decide what you want. You can start with a Lee 2-cavity for $20 including the handles. They are a bit flimsey. but properly used they will make very satisfactory bullets. That twenty-dollar bill won't buy the handles for some of the other brands.