How come so much weight differance in the lyman 225415?

[340six]

looking at my old lyman cast book shows it at 50gr
looking at the new lyman cast book shows it at 45gr
looking at the 49thlyman reloading book showes it at 55 gr
all with #2 alloy

[Charlie Sometimes]

They periodically change designs slightly, and their supplied alloy isn't exactly "exact" either. Read in #49 on page 57 about the alloy differences.
Heck, read the rest of the book too- My power was off for 9 days, and this is what I did to pass the time! Lots of good information in there- stuff that I had forgotten over the years.

[72coupe]

The 225415s I cast don't vary that much. I cast 10 pounds of wheel weights and sorted them.

They ranged from 54.6 to 55.2 with only 6 out side that range, some lighter some heavier.

[beagle]

Those things are all over the place weight wise. There must have been loads of them made and I guess Lyman/Ideal went through many, many cherries through the years that they have been produced./beagle

[340six]

Those things are all over the place weight wise. There must have been loads of them made and I guess Lyman/Ideal went through many, many cherries through the years that they have been produced./beagle

The one I ended up with was new in the plastic dated 2000 on the inspection sticker I plan on tring to cast a smaller batch with 100%ww 100% lino and 50/50 mix just to see how they are in the gun when I do end up shooting it. When ever that is
If nothing else I will have fun doing it

[Charlie Sometimes]

I read it somewhere in #49- it states that they periodically modified designs, but gave no reason.
Kinda describes the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" scenerio.

Must have been broke!
And no one wanted to take the blame, so they made it a standard practice!

[MTWeatherman]

There really are two different mould sizes (over and above normal mould variation) ...it's not just alloy. In a bullet this size, the difference between pure lead and linotype is only about 3 gr and Lyman sticks to their #2 in determining bullet weight.

Older 225415 moulds generally dropped bullets in the 45 to 50 gr. range. The mould was listed as a 45 gr. mould in Lyman Cast Bullet manual #3. The first Manual from the 50s shows it at 50 gr. but actual weights from 8 different moulds in the old #1 manual shows a variance from 46 gr. to 50 with #2 alloy. The mould design may have been the same with the difference in listed weights simply due to a 5 degree roundoff in the actual bullets weights dropped from moulds cut from different cherries.

However, newer moulds do indeed drop heavier bullets. Although they look similar, the bullets are actually longer. This is of no minor concern for someone with a slow twist .22 caliber...like a 22 Hornet. Lyman lengthened the gas check shank on the newer moulds...increasing the weight. Don't know when this happened but assume it's been since 1980 when Lyman #3 came out. With WW and gas check, my newer 225415 is right at 55 gr.

[JeffinNZ]

Mine the older version and throws WW at 48gr. Regardless of weight it's a great bullet.

[Mk42gunner]

The 225415s I cast don't vary that much. I cast 10 pounds of wheel weights and sorted them.

They ranged from 54.6 to 55.2 with only 6 out side that range, some lighter some heavier.

You have way more patience than I do to weight segregate ten pounds of .22 boolits. I just look at them, if the base is square and sharp when I cut the sprue they go in the keeper pile. They do get another look when the gascheck goes on.

Robert