Recommended Mold Brand, Looking to buy my first mold!

[Agent Ronin]

Well i am looking into buying my first mold. Granted it will still be a month until my Star-sizer comes but i might as well start looking.

Now, the biggest part that is confusing me is not the bullet designs themselves. But which manufacturer i should look towards. I dont have any qualms about spending a little extra for a high quality mold that will last forever. Nor would i really be put off buying a cheap Lee mold.

Anyways, i'm simply looking for some input here. Thanks

[dubber123]

The BEST moulds I have ever used are LBT's. If you aren't in a big rush, why not design your own at Mountain Molds? It's generally not very hard, and it might be a fun experience for you. His molds are a good deal too. RCBS or Saeco are other good choices.

If you just need a quantity of decent quality boolits for a pistol, roll the dice on a Lee 6 cavity. They make a pile of boolits fast and are very inexpensive.

[Jack Stanley]

I am a huge fan of Hensley and Gibbs molds and to warn you , they ain't cheap . I've had and do have a few Lee molds around but they usually get replaced with an Iron mold . I have an old NEI rour cavity that I like a lot but I won't spend another dime with the new ones . I had an old bronze mold made by NEI once I wish I had back .
I've been casting since the seventies and RCBS has consistantly been a good choice for a fair price . Lyman ?? no ...... not again .... not in this lifetime . Their customer service is as bad just as consistantly as RCBS molds have been good . With the quality of the molds I just got from them ..... I am not amused . I have several LBT and they are great as long as you like the styles they have . They make excellent bullets .

I would like to try Old West Bullet Molds one of these days .

Jack

[deltaenterprizes]

I started with a Lee double cavity and mover to SAECO 4 cavity molds. This was before Lee made 6 cavity molds,they look good but I haven't used one yet, but I would noy hesitate to try one for the price.

[mooman76]

I'd start out with a Lee 2 cavity mould or 2. That way you can practice and figure out what you want better and then if you want to move up to something better, you'll have a better idea of what you want.

[Recluse]

For your first mould, keep it simple. I'd consider an RCBS. I like the RCBS moulds real well. H&G, as someone else mentioned, are excellent as are LBT. I wouldn't trade a warm bucket of spit for a (today's) Lyman mould--or much of anything else (today's) Lyman. I have some old Lyman stuff, circa 1960's and 1970's that I absolutely treasure. But their customer service today is simply NON-EXISTENT and has gone to wherever their Quality Control has also gone. . . some black hole maybe? The bowels of Congress?

I like many of the Lee moulds, even the two-cavity moulds. But I'm very, very careful to do a lot of proper prep work on them and cast and use them as they were designed and intended to be used. Doing that, the Lee moulds give me oustanding boolits. In fact, my number one boolit (and has been for years) comes from a Lee two-cavity mould and is a tumble-lube boolit.

But just starting out, reduce as many variables and headaches as you can--get an RCBS mould. Learn HOW to cast good boolits and WHAT to look for in good boolits. Once your comfort level begins to increase along with your confidence, then you can spread out and try different manufacturers and have a much better, more objective opinion of their products.

[docone31]

I only use lee molds. I have found their designs to fit all my needs.
Yes, you do have to do some prep with the molds.
I just cast from my 2 new molds. No rejects!
I had some mineral spirits. I filled a container with mineral spirits and let each one sit in it for a week. I let them air dry, smoked them with a BIC lighter and cast right off the top! There were lots of flakes of aluminum in the bottom of the container! I had less "wings", drips, wrinkles than I have ever had with my Lee Molds. The castings just fell out without much encouragement.
If you use Lee Molds, just let em sit for a week in mineral spirits.

[Agent Ronin]

Thank you all for the suggestions! I'm still not sure which brands to go with yet but i got time to think.

I still have some purchased lead boolits for 357 and 44 mag. And i have to buy barrels for my HK USP's if i want to shoot lead in em. D'oh!

Although, i am really tempted to buy a 357 and 44 mold and melt the commercial boolits i have since i bet i can make nicer ones, any thoughts?

[mtgrs737]

I have Lyman, Saeco, Lee, RCBS, and H&G moulds and I like them all. More important to me is the style and size of boolit they cast, and how well they drop the boolit out. I like my moulds to cast .003" over groove dia. and then I will size them down to .002" over groove dia. I like iron mouds, but they can be heavy to use, the Lee aluminum moulds are inexpensive and I prefer their six cavity models. No matter what you get make sure you use Bullshop's Bullplate on them for best function. I like the round nose flat style with a single large grease groove and a flat base. I have even had Erik remove the bevel base from a couple of Lyman four cavity moulds for me. If you shoot alot then you may want the 4 cavity or larger moulds to reduce the casting time so you will have more time to reload and shoot. I would make my choice by boolit design.

[GLynn41]

my uneeded .2 all the above make good molds -- I really like best my brass MountainMold --not only does it cast very well but --it is unique I designed it

[GLL]

If you want a standard design , decently priced, quality mould, that comes with outstanding customer service I would also pick an RCBS ! Any problems you might run in to are corrected immediately. Five years from now you have another problem it is still corrected immediately ! Good stuff and good people to deal with !

Jerry

[Marine Sgt 2111]

More years ago than I care to admit to I started out with a Lyman 429421 double cavity mold. Over the last 37 years I have had over 3 dozen Lyman molds, a dozen RCBS and 6 or more SAECO's, 8 Lee's and one Ohaus molds.
I really like the RCBS and SAECO molds. I comvert the two cavities over to work on my Auto Caster and can turn out 30,000 on a weekend (this is more of a beating than the average caster gives molds over a decade). RCBS has great customer service and great quality. I look forward to trying out H&G and NEI molds now that retirement has set in. Go with RCBS you will never regret it.