Lyman 358429 Single Cav. Mould

[Ben]

I have a friend ( Jason ) that is a beginning caster.
He is an excellent shooter but has not been casting his own bullets for very long.

He has a nice 24 " Oct. barrel, Rossi, .357 Lever action and a Ruger Varq. .357 Mag.
He wanted a nice general purpose " Utility Bullet " for those two .
I found him a single cav. Lyman 358429 mould.
It is an old one and has seen some use, but in general it was in about 85% shape , better condition on the inside of the cavity than the outside of the mould blocks.

The 1st few test cast with the mold produced good bullets, but they were slightly out of round and didn't size out all the way around to .358" , which was our goal.

The sprue plate also needed some attention. I promised Jason that today I'd get started on his mould project .

About 1.5 hours into the mould " Re-Hab " and I'm now finished with the work.
I'm happy with the outcome.
I thought that some of you might like to see the photos of the work done to the mould.

Ben






Everything is completed now, time to clean the mould with brake cleaner and an old
tooth brush. Now we'll cast with the mould and see what the dimensions of the newly cast bullets are ? ?







An added advantage is if you have a mould that is " sticky " about releasing its bullets when the mould is opened, this process does wonders for that problem.

I wish you were here when this mould is opened so that you'd be able to see the bullets " jump out of the mould. "




I shot his rifle yesterday with open sights. 357 Cases, 358429 with 6.7 grs. of Alliant Unique.

 

[Brad]

I sure wish my Marln shot that bullet well.
Nice work on the mould. What brand and grit abrasive did you use?

 

[smokeywolf]

Looks like he used Clover Fine lapping compound.

I've used both Clover and Timesaver brand lapping compounds. Both work equally well. Timesaver has a compound (yellow label) for soft metals such as aluminum or brass.

Real nice work on that mould Ben.

 

[Ben]

Yes, sorry I didn't make that clear. It was Clover Fine lapping compound.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[Brad]

I have used Clover in both 280 and 320 grit. Those are the same ones I use for firelapping.
Ben does do nice work on moulds.

 

[35 shooter]

Nice mold work as usual Ben! Turned out to be a very accurate bullet also...nice shooting!
I love it when a good plain base shoots like that and i don't have to fool with gas checks.

 

[Ben]

35 Shooter,

Yes, that was the idea behind the 358429 .
He could have a versatile Keith style 38/357 cast bullet for his Ruger 357 mag. revolver and the Win. 92 rifle. He could also avoid the pesky gas checks.

After finding the mold, I looked around for some handles.
I didn't have any single cav. handles, but found a set of Lyman double cav. handles.
The wood on the pair of handles that I found in my mould handle box, was " ratty ", I removed the wood handles and tossed them in the dumpster.

Then I replaced the handles with Oak Dowels.
I epoxied the handles on and used new copper ferrules.
A little bit of cut , file, and trim on the metal of the two cav. handles and they ended up
fitting the single cav. blocks very well.

I think it worked out just fine for Jason.

 

[smokeywolf]

Those are almost too pretty to use.

 

[Ben]

Thanks Smokeywolf ,

They certainly look much better than the charcoaled, black elect. tape handles that were on them . Those went to the dumpster, they were beyond help.

These handles are about 3/4 " or so to long. Jason can easily rectify that issue with his band saw if he chooses.

Ben

 

[9.3X62AL]

Ben--

Taking a band saw to those handles would border on sacrilege. Another very fine photo essay, sir.

 

[Ben]

I agree, but you know people.

Thanks for those nice comments Al.

Ben

 

[35 shooter]

When i looked at the handles in the pic's i thought they were coco-bola wood at first.
Very nice looking wood and finish Ben. Lol, the oak handles might outlast the mold!