Lyman Backing Away From Bullet Casting?

[Cholla]

All of the molds on their website are out of stock. The media rep I used to send requests to isn't replying. Lyman/Ideal are my preferred mold makers, so this makes me uneasy. RCBS told me I'm the last of a dying breed. Luckily, I can still look here, on CastBoolits, and eBay.

[Three Foot Johnson]

About three months ago I read they were "trying to fix a mold production line problem".

 

I've got 105 unique molds, plus four or five duplicates - Lyman/Ideal is in 2nd place.

 

33 Lee

30 Lyman/Ideal

19 RCBS

4 NEI

4 Mountain Molds

3 NOE 

3 Accurate Molds

3 Thompson Center

1 Rapine

1 no-name brass Italian

1 Old West Molds

1 Ohaus

1 P-C (No idea, that's all that's on it)

1 Hardline Industries  <https://forums.sassnet.com/index.php?/topic/378317-hardline-bullet-molds/>

 

 

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

I'm glad that NOE is back making molds again, and that Tom at Accurate has held a steady course these last few years.  But if you need molds, now's a great time to support what producers are still in business!   good luck, GJ

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

Buffalo Arms Company has a very good selection. 👍

[T Bone Johnson]

I think Lyman gave up on bullet molds a long time ago. (years). Accurate molds is the best in my opinion on either aluminium or steel. We have purchased several 8 mold sets for Outlaw Bullets to run on the Magma bullet master. All were just as good as when Tom was running it. The new owner is Daniel Croft. When you order from Accurate you need to be specific as possible on alloy so the bullets drop large enough to make complete contact with your intended sizing die. To my knowledge they are the only US based mold maker where everything is custom made to the order. There are several other makers like Steve Brooks who specialize in long range molds but the catalog at accurate is huge, and Daniel will make any changes needed to existing designs or a totally new design.

And like Garrison Joe stated above, we need to support our local mold makers like NOE and Accurate. Life in SASS would be very different without these two mold makers.

T Bone Johnson

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

1 hour ago, T Bone Johnson said:

I think Lyman gave up on bullet molds a long time ago. (years). Accurate molds is the best in my opinion on either aluminium or steel. We have purchased several 8 mold sets for Outlaw Bullets to run on the Magma bullet master. All were just as good as when Tom was running it. The new owner is Daniel Croft. When you order from Accurate you need to be specific as possible on alloy so the bullets drop large enough to make complete contact with your intended sizing die. To my knowledge they are the only US based mold maker where everything is custom made to the order. There are several other makers like Steve Brooks who specialize in long range molds but the catalog at accurate is huge, and Daniel will make any changes needed to existing designs or a totally new design.

And like Garrison Joe stated above, we need to support our local mold makers like NOE and Accurate. Life in SASS would be very different without these two mold makers.

T Bone Johnson

Buffalo Arms moulds are 100% USA made and tops in quality. 

You can specify the dimensions you want......

[T Bone Johnson]

5 hours ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Buffalo Arms moulds are 100% USA made and tops in quality. 

You can specify the dimensions you want......

You are correct sir, but most of what Buffalo makes are large caliber, I went through their website just now and most of what I will call main match molds, 38/357, 44 and 45 colt are made by Lyman, RCBS and Saeco. They may well take a special order in those calibers, I'm not sure. I have cast in Buffalo molds and the ones I used were very well made. And just to go on the record, RCBS and Lyman has been hit and miss on undersize bullets unless your running 5 to 6% antimony. Saeco on average will throw a big enough bullet running 2% tin and 4% antimony. My point was if you know your alloy, I think Accurate takes all the guess work out of knowing what the as-cast size will be. I did not mean to slight any other US based mold makers. 

T Bone

[Rooster Ron Wayne]

All my cheap Lee molds are still working after all these years imagine that.

[T Bone Johnson]

Rooster, I still have to use one Lee mold because no one can cut a custom mold the way they do it. It's the 38-148-button nose wadcutter. I do like the lee designs, every one I have tried were accurate designs. But being a commerical caster the lee won't hold up very long but someone just casting for themselves they would do fine. I go through about six-six cavity wadcutter molds a year, but the amount of bullets I get per mold and the inexpensivie price of the mold I still come out on the good side.

T Bone Johnson