Mould quality

Well, it's somewhat subjective but in my experience, the RCBS is the better quality of the two. Lyman quality has slipped within the past few years. Lyman has made excellent molds in the past though so the used older ones that haven't been abused are worth looking into.

As far as a Veral Smith mold, the added cost is for a custom made mold machined to drop a bullet to your specifications.

The commercial molds are mass produced thus cost less.

Regards

Contender,

Ahhh I see. So Veral Pretty much makes em how you want em! That makes sense, hence the added costs.

I don't have a Veral Smith mould, but have plenty of Lyman. There is no comparison to the NEI, Ballisti-cast or especially the Rob Applegate moulds I own. Rob's in particular are works of art, precision made pieces. Having said that I use Lyman and Lee extensively for casting and they work well. The custom moulds are made to order for each customer and are more precise.

jpsw,
I've got quite a few moulds, they seem to multiply. As far as the current commercial non-custom moulds go, I rate them like this.
Lyman-good
RCBS-Better
SAECO-Best.

The custom moulds are better from what I can tell. I'm waiting on a mould from Veral as we speak, and the NEI mould I have seems to be better than the three common commercial brands. One thing to keep in mind with Lyman is that they produce 4 cavity mould that are reasonably priced, RCBS limits you to 1 and 2 cavity moulds. I've got a half dozen SAECO 4 cavity moulds and have nothing other than good to say for them. Another nice thing with the SAECO is that all of their moulds 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 cavity, some of those would be customs, all use the same mould handles.

kciH,

I'd be interested to know how your LBT mould turns out. I tried to order an LBT 44-320 back in August '99 just before Veral went on ur ah "vacation" and unfortunately never got my highly anticipated mould.

I was able to touch base with him recently and he indicated he wasn't going to do any more moulds from scratch and I'm not exactly clear on my possibilities for the Win M94 in 30-30. Perhaps I should drop him another line.

Anyway, what exactly are you ordering from LBT?

Thanks,
44

Hi everyone I just got 3 moulds fron Mr Smith,all 4cav
(1)- .500,465gr lfngc-.500 NL,(1).500,600gr lfngc-.500 NL
(1)-.430,280gr lfngc-,.400 NL,all very well made cast great bullets $120.00 each

44,
I ordered a .41 250WFN GC two cavity. I like the weight forward design of the WFN that maximizes powder capacity. I realize that you should have at least half the weight behind the crimp groove, and from what I can tell this design does that.

I've scanned the LBT brochure. I'll send it to the first 5 people who request it on this thread. You'll have to do it on this thread with your email address included. I can't send it through a private message. If you get it from me you can share it with others. I've zipped it into a single file that's about 1.2MB for easy downloading.

Why do (should) you have half the weight behind the crimp,it does not matter for stabilization,check
smith-wessonforum.com for more on this subject especialy
S/W 500 mag data from John Ross, many of his moulds have .650-700 NL with just .300 behind crimp groove,with very good accuracy out to 200 yards, Sean

kciH-

I'll be the first to request a copy of the LBT brochure. My e-mail address is: [email protected]

Thanks much,

475/480,
I base that on the reccomendations that I was given while selecting the profiles for my jacketed bullet swaging dies. I'm not saying that it's the only way, just that it was the info I was given by Dave and Richard Corbin. When laying out that kind of cash for a dies, I want to make sure it's going to fly straight.

475/480

When they claim one needs at least half the bullet's weight behind the crimping groove they're probably assuming the ogive starts just ahead of the crimping groove. A more precise requirement would be to ensure at least half the bullet's length be devoted to its shank; i.e., its portion that fills the grooves.

44

44,
you're correct. I misspoke on that.

kciH said:

I've scanned the LBT brochure. I'll send it to the first 5 people who request it on this thread. You'll have to do it on this thread with your email address included. I can't send it through a private message. If you get it from me you can share it with others. I've zipped it into a single file that's about 1.2MB for easy downloading.

Click to expand...

Kc,

If your still sending them out, I'd really appreciate one.

[email protected]

475/480,

Is that 120 dollar price for double cavity aluminum moulds?

44

that is for 4 cavity, $80.00 for 2 cavity

475/480

The old jailbird just quoted me 125 bucks for an aluminum double cavity 30-170 LCFN which is an item right out of his catalog with no modifications. According to Veral... "they (meaning his moulds) are all custom cut, even though I (meaning Veral) call them standard".

44

44,

Veral cuts all of his moulds on a tracer lathe, not with a cherry. So, yeah, in one sense any size is 'custom' and in another sense any size is 'standard.'

Another way to look at it is that all of his moulds have custom features that are not found in off-the-shelf moulds. For example, get the latest Handloader and on the back page Ross Seyfried's article has a picture of the sprue plate.

I guess it might be a more accurate way to say it that they are all 'made to order.'

Guys,
I'm about to join the ranks of casters. My first two projects will be my .44 and my .375 whelen. I can't find a heavy (320-340) .44 plain base mold off the shelf from RCBS/Lyman/Lee.

Mountain molds at www.mountainmolds.com can make a double cavity in brass ogioval flat point type for $65. Do you have any experience with his work? From the website he seems knowledgeable.

Thanks.

Eric