New found favorites.

[STIHL]

I bought a couple new Lymans off of midway a few weeks ago, yes I know prices have jumped, but what can you do if you want it your going to pay. I came across a 457-122 and a 457-193. Finally got them after 10 days in the postal service and washed them down with degreaser and said lets do it. Pulled the pot snd the hot plate out and got it heating up. I started with the 457-122 HP and I cast and cast probably took 50 cycles before I started getting keepers. The nose and HP were great almost from the start, nil the bases and driving bands took forever. Finally after countless pours it gets right and let me tell you, I fell in love with it. It started throwing perfect bullets. I cycled the 457-193 into the rotation to give the 122 time to cool of a hair snd it took 10-15 pours snd it started getting right, by 25-30 it was throwing a beautiful bullet finally got to the point I was struggling to keep the pace and one would cool off a hair too much and take 2-3 outs to get back up. I finally abandoned the 193 and set it back on the hot plate I kept going wit the 122. After all was said and done I ended up with 75 or so keepers on the 122 and maybe 50 of the 193. I was pleasantly surprised they leveled out as quick as they did snd threw the buooets they did. Overall I’m super happy with how they came out. Casted them with pure COWW. I tore the molds down and gave them a good cleaning and leveled and slicked the sprue plates, going to give them another run next week snd see what they will do since a good heat cycle. Overall I have found a new favorite to cast.
Murre are a few pics of the end result. If you see anything that I may need to do differently, even after a few years I’m still learning. Apologies for the pics being side ways doing this off my phone snd I don’t know how to get them oriented correctly.

 

[fiver]

just a tick of frosting, but nothing to get all worked up about.
how do they measure?

 

[Rick]

They look great even if they do make my neck stiff looking at them.

 

[Spindrift]

Good looking bullets!

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Two of my favorites as well!! The 193 is ine of my oldest molds. Casting with that one since the "beginning". Mine is a single cav. I shoot them in both 45/70 and 45 Colt as well as 450 Bushmaster. Mine always dropped small but since powder coating (few years now) thats no longer a worry!

I cast up a couple hundred 122's about a month back. A good friend bought a new 45/70 Marlin and couldnt find bullets. I told him this will do everything you will ever need! He is happy! Diff colors for different loads. (His request)

 

[STIHL]

just a tick of frosting, but nothing to get all worked up about.
how do they measure?

Yea the frosting would hit and I’d let it cool off a tad and it would settle back down. They measured out at .461-.4615 between both molds so a half thou out of round ain’t bad pulled 5 random of each and measured and they weigh in at 342 grains for the 122 mold and 413 grains for the 193 mold.

the molds were brand new and just decreased with some either and went to casting. I’m going to do a thorough degrease and get them set back up and go. The 122 needs an alignment pin tapped in just a hair and I need to take them through a few heat cycles and then give them another run. See if they will level out.

 

[fiver]

461 is much better than I would expect.
heck 459 would have been bigger than I'd have expected.

 

[STIHL]

Yea I was slightly surprised myself they dropped that fat. The old 457-124 I have it drops them around 460 so I’m in good shape on 45-70 molds.

 

[STIHL]

Made another run with the 193 today and it leveled off and started throwing good about 10 in and I continued for about a half a pot. Sprue got hot and one side of mold got cool about half a 10 pounds in. Cast about 2 hours with it and a new 356 mold the 356 did reall well 4-pours in snd we were golden some of the prettiest I have ever cast I believe. All in all a good few hours of enjoyment and aggravation. I’ll get that 193 down to a science with a few more sessions with it.