Lyman 358477

[Cherokee]

358477 4 cavity was the second mold I bought, first was the 358495. Still have the 358477 from 1969 or so. Great in 38 or 357, mild to max.

 

[yodogsandman]

Lyman still makes great molds! They just cast the wrong size (undersized) for most of our applications using the more common lead alloys available cheaply to most of us. I still believe Lyman has great machinists!

 

[waco]

I buy a Lee mold every now and again for cheap plinking ammo. You can't beat what you get for the price.

If I'm after a serious mold nowadays, my money goes to Tom over at Accurate. Custom built to my specs, done right every time.

Yeah they cost a little more, but I buy once, cry once.

Walter

 

[Ben]

And get EXACTLY what you paid for in a prompt and professional manner.

 

[smokeywolf]

CNC lathes and mills are a wonder of "the modern age". One of the major downsides however has been the loss of the old time machinist. For the most part, NC lathes and mills are run by button pushers making $10.00/hr. who know nothing about metallurgy, tooling choices, setups, feeds & speeds, tolerance stacking or even how to read a blue print. They are taught how to clamp the blank in the machine, which buttons to push and how to use a go/no go gauge.

A real machinist must know something about physics, metallurgy, coefficients of friction, heat treating, tool/cutter/part grinding-freehand/surface/cylindrical, fits & finishes, plating, vibration and harmonics, thermodynamics, welding, properties of cutters and their geometry, speeds & feeds (including how to calculate surface feet per minute), drafting (including geometric dimensioning & tolerancing (GDT)).

Oft times those responsible for the setups, tooling choices and machining parameters on the CNC equipment have had considerable training in Fanuc controls, G and M code programming, a machine shop class in college, some abbreviated training in metallurgy, drafting & tolerancing. Rarely have they actually spent any meaningful time as a hands-on machinist. Without some appreciable hands-on time producing parts, expecting good parts out of the NC machinery that these guys setup and program, is a bit like expecting me to out-shoot Rick with a handgun.

 

[Cherokee]

smokeywolf - I have thought about the loss of basic skills and I hate to see them go. Without all the tech things today, people would not know what to do.

 

[waco]

We have a full machine shop at work. Some manual lathes. Most are CNC, as are the lathes. All our machinists are very compitant. Some are in their 50-60's
A lot are mid 20's to mid 40's. We also have lots of manual Sharp and Bridgeport machines. There is good young knowledgable workers out there. You just need to look hard to find them. Just my 2 cents.

 

[RicinYakima]

WACO, Oh yes there are very very good young ones. But they all seem to want more than $8.50 an hour and want to work more than 31 hours a week. It is not normally the employee's desires, but the MBA telling to CEO how to squeeze the last $.02 out of an item.

 

[smokeywolf]

There are lots of knowledgeable machinists out there. But, those with the knowledge and experience (more than 10 years) don't generally work for what a production or job shop wants to pay. Some of the sharpest machinists I've known had worked in the motion picture industry, medical device industry and defense/aerospace industry.

waco, you have honest to goodness machinists in your shop because you have a good number of manual mills and lathes. I suspect there are a few out there, but I've never known a machinist under the age of 30 who could actually be called a "class A" machinist.

 

[Mike W1]

Seems like I read somewhere that the 477 was developed because you couldn't seat the 429 in a .357 Mag. in the crimp groove or the OAL would be exceeded. That may be why I have one of each, CRS you know. I also had one of those 446 moulds that didn't give me much success. Someone else owns that one now.

 

[Ben]

I was able to get outside and cast with the 358477 some this afternoon.
The mold cast PERFECT for my needs !
I'm sizing .3574 " and lubing with Ben's Red.
The bullets are nice and round.

Here is an " As Cast " bullet :

The right hand side of the blocks wanted to stick a bit and not release the bullet.
I coated a bullet with Clover's Fine Abrasive compound, spun it for 20 seconds.
The bullet JUMPS out now ! !

I couldn't be happier with this one.

Easy to see how the Clover's polishes the
interior of the cavity in the photo below :

 

[Pistolero]

Looks like the only thing wrong with that mold is that somebody stole the other three
cavities. Perfect diameter, that is great. I have a number of molds in that particular
design, plus one RCBS clone with the square lube groove. All are wonderful devices which
make wonderful projectiles.

Bill

 

[Bret4207]

Seems like I read somewhere that the 477 was developed because you couldn't seat the 429 in a .357 Mag. in the crimp groove or the OAL would be exceeded. That may be why I have one of each, CRS you know. I also had one of those 446 moulds that didn't give me much success. Someone else owns that one now.

I think that was the Ray Thompson designed 358156. The issue being the N frame Smiths with their shorter cylinder and the 357. The 477 is an earlier design than the 156 which is a reused number IIRC. I have a 4 cav 477 that I'm trying to get around to testing. Other examples have worked well in the 38 with 5.0-5.5 Unique if memory serves (an iffy proposition these days!). The reason I got the 4 cav, besides being a "Buy It Now" bargain back when I had extra money, was because while I have a 10 H+G 50 mould that casts lots and lots of perfect bullets, I just plain like SWCs "more better-er" as my FIL would say.

On the QC at Lyman. We had a discussion about this back before The Board Which Shall Not Be Named went over to the dark side. IIRC the general consensus was that QC went to the dogs in the early to mid 90's. That period where they had some nifty designs and ancient cherries but the nose would come out -.003 and the bands even worse or when one cav would be cut on center and the other off center 6 or 8 thou, or the HP pin that was off center and at an angle. But the next mould might be right on. It was a crap shoot. I remember calling a now defunct supplier (GAR?) and getting the very last of a particular mould he had in stock. I think it was that big 215 gr 358 SWC/GC, I forget the number. He said then we wasn't ordering anymore moulds from Lyman because of QC. I believe at one point Lyman literally threw all the ancient cherries and drawings away. Economically it probably figures since moulds are probably no where near as profitable as sunglasses, cleaning gear or handgun grips.

 

[Ben]

There was a time when Lyman was " Mr. Big " in the bullet casting industry.
Many of their designs that they allowed to drop into an abyss have now been resurrected by other companies like NOE.

It is a real shame to see this happen to Lyman.

Ben

 

[9.3X62AL]

Lyman moulds are truly a "crap-shoot" these days. I have been pretty lucky on the few recently-made Lyman moulds I have bought, but most of my buys over the past 10 years have been some make other than Lyman. Colt Firearms and Lyman Products are two vendors whose lackluster offerings have been greatly disappointing to me.

Specific to #358477, I yesterday found my new (3 years ago) NOE version 4-banger in "477". I have yet to heat it up, which is indicative of my hobby activity over the recent past. My health improvement and access to a shop site should turn things around properly now. The bullet moulds are among the few hobby-related items still encased in boxes. Rain and colder weather this weekend may prompt some casting activity; it was 86* today, fer cryin' out loud.

 

[Ben]

it was 86* today, fer cryin' out loud.

Been a crazy winter.

 

[Glen]

Actually, Thompson's 358156 (which is indeed a recycled cherry number, the original was a 308156, IH #29-33) pre-dates the 358477. The 358156 was first cataloged in Ideal Handbook #39, which was published in 1953. And the first mention of the 358477 I can find is in the Handbook of Cast Bullets, which was published in 1958.

 

[Bret4207]

Glen, if you have the data there, I stand corrected. I was working on memory, never a good idea for me!

 

[Bret4207]

...it was 86* today, fer cryin' out loud.

You poor thing. My heart bleeds for you...

Warm here too, 14 above and almost no wind! Only took me 45 minutes t get the barn water running after discovering it had froze last night about 10:30PM. The 8-12" of snow forecast for tonight will be followed by sub-zero temps. Did I mention how bad I feel for ya?

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=morristown+ny

Yeah, that map shows Brockville, On, CANADA!

 

[KHornet]

Bret, that area always had the coldest weather in the state. I remember pumping gas just below zero about 50+, years ago, in Western NY, and the radio said the somewhere in your area it was 36 below.