Man, that's a lot of holes!

[Ian]

Is it even on both sides this time?

I hope so, we'll see. Tomme Boy, Starmetal, and I had the three bad ones that I knew of on the run five or so years ago and got prompt replacements. Did you get a bad one too then?

BTW, huge Pat McManus fan, great stuff to read when I was about 10-12 years old. Named my first truck "Rancid" after Rancid Crabtree, inspired by the grasshopper trap episode.

 

[david s]

I had to go looking for the McManus story. It's in the book " Into the Twilight Endlessly Grousing". The story is called "Hunting the Wily Avid". The first paragraph reads "No greater bond exists between two male friends than shared ignorance. It's wonderful. Shared knowledge is fine as far as it goes, but one friend invariably knows more about a given topic than the other, thereby creating an intellectual imbalance. Shared ignorance , on the other hand, provides for perfect equilibrium. It is limitless. There is no end of topics for conversation based on mutual ignorance." It was neutrinos that sent me there, well done.

 

[Rick]

Uh . . . Hhmmm, david it was a joke. Meant as a joke and taken as a joke. Neutrinos had nothing to do with it, only the number of years I've clicked off since I was so fond of those 4 cav brass molds. Damn things are heavier every single year.

 

[david s]

Nothing in Patrick F. McManus's writing is to be taken seriously invariably jest. I got the joke and found it funny. No offence intended.

 

[Tomme boy]

Yes. I had one too. The bullets were almost welded to one half of the mold it was so bad. I contacted Miha and he never got back to me about it. I was PISSED. Especially after how long we waited the first time. That was why I started to look elsewhere on a similar mold and why I came up with the Hunter.

I had one cavity in the 4 cavity that would give me a good bullet on the SIL mold. And it would flat out SHOOT! But when you pay for what he wanted for a 4 cavity and you get 1 cavity that works????

I hope this is good. That SIL mold is not the only mold from Miha that was not right. I had a couple others that had problems too. Mainly the HP molds and the pins being out of spec. for diameter. He had to send numerous sets of pins to get them right. And venting issues. That was taken care of with a little careful file strokes.

 

[Ben]

All of this does not instill a lot of faith
in me to order anything from Miha molds .

Ben

 

[Hawk]

I have six of MiHas four cavity molds in .357, .359, .433 and several in .402 and never had a problem with them.
All of them drop right out of the mold and are of the correct diameter and weight. None are out of shape or oval.
Only mold problem I ever had was an oversized mold from Accurate, which was probably my fault for not understanding the tolerance allowances.

 

[CZ93X62]

I grew up reading and enjoying Patrick McManus as well. His work was the best material to be found in the rod & gunrags of my youth.

 

[Ian]

I had two MP moulds previous to this and both required major work to fix. The 452-200-SWC had bumps, yes BUMPS on the meplat (a physical machining impossibility, but they were there), three on each cavity, which locked the bullets in there solidly against the front driving band. Many hours with an Exacto knife, pencil eraser, and valve grinding compound to get rid of them. After that it was a good mould. I still don't like the 90° front band which has no draft and tends to make the bullets stick a little, but it does ok with an adjustment to the shucking technique. The other was the bad SIL mould, for which I was supposed to get new blocks only but Miha sent me a whole new complete mould. Starmetal got his replaced, too. I never cast with the replacement, I sold it unused to Goodsteel and let it be his problem because the gas check shanks were grossly oversized.

I have borrowed about 5-6 MP moulds from my neighbor and all have been excellent, HP and solid, no problems whatsoever. I swear I'm snakebit when it comes to buying my own NOE and MP, not counting these last two from MP I have not gotten a single mould from either company which didn't have major to fatal problems. On the other hand, I have only ever had one "bad" Lee mould, and by bad I mean a .452" mould that threw a .456" bullet which was of a design that didn't favor that much sizing down. 1 out of 40+ ain't bad from the cheapest mould maker in the universe.

 

[Ian]

Only mold problem I ever had was an oversized mold from Accurate, which was probably my fault for not understanding the tolerance allowances.

Me too, first .30-caliber I had him draw up. He made it exactly like I ordered it, exactly. Between the drawing, the +002" tolerance and my alloy choice on the order I figured on 1.5 thousandths larger than needed and based on my horrific run of minus purchases from Lyman at that time I figured it couldn't possibly be too small. It wasn't! I learned to trust him after that and order exactly what I needed because it would be made that way.

 

[Ben]

Yes, that is exactly my experience with Tom also.
I don't get tangled up in - , +.
I tell him the alloy I am using.
I tell him what I want the bullet to mike.
He handles the rest.

Ben

 

[Rick]

I've got several MP molds and not a lick a of problem with any one of them. John (Winelover) has I think it's the 30 silhouette, I had it over here for a time and it was a little sticky though I don't think I had the problems with it he did. That could simply be an alloy thing, dunno. I also think it was from that original order that folks were having the same problem with but John would need to answer that. If I remember correctly the sticky issue seemed to me to be a square lube groove, had it been made with a slight taper I don't think there would have been an issue.

 

[fiver]

drive bands should have a wall angle of about 30*.
except the very back drive band edge before the gas check, then 15 is fine.

 

[Tomme boy]

I am the same as Ian. Every Miha I have had as was stated has been a problem. 454-270, 452-200hp, 452-200swc, 359-125hp, 311SIL, there was another one I can not remember. All had issues I had to work out.

NOE I had one I had to send back and I had to send back a Accurate one too. Fiver has the replacement. The nose Tom made on that one was 0.298" Supposed to be 0.300" or larger +0.001" was what I spec it at. Tom took it back and paid shipping both ways.

They ALL mess up molds. Some just more than others. But it just seems that I some how find the bad ones!

 

[freebullet]

Tom took it back and paid shipping both ways.

Wow, that is customer service. Unlike, not ever being replied to. Got an idea where I'd buy the next one.

 

[Ian]

Yup. While on the subject, I'd like to bring up the Accurate iron mould again. They're expensive and heavy, but by far the best-casting blocks he offers IMHO. I love me some brass and get great results from aluminum, but his iron ones cast like a dream.

 

[fiver]

298 would have been a killer on that nose until powder coating come along.
without the alloy mucking about I did I never would have got the engraving for the alignment that bullet needs to do what it does in the 308.

 

[JonB]

I've had a half-o-dozen 4 cav MP brass molds...Besides being heavier than I like, I was quite happy with how they cast...I still have a 30 SIL mold from that old troublesome batch (bought it second hand, original buyer never used it), it 'was' sticky and after I Lee-mented it, it cast just fine.

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

I think i have/had 6 of his molds. Only 1 is a problem child. But i found how it likes to be handled, so it is very co-operative now.
My latest is one of his 8 cav. aluminum molds. Unfortunately it casts bullets so fast my 20 lb lee pot can't keep up on its own. I have to have a second pan preheating more lead.

 

[Bret4207]

McManus! Remember the good old days when we could laugh at ourselves without someone or some group being offended that we actually had a sense of humor?