Pretty much livid with Lyman Quality

Last Spring I bought a 31499 and it cast small;
cav 1 was .312 on the bands and .299 on the nose
cav 2 was approaching .313 on the bands and approaching .300 on the nose

I contacted Lyman who informed me they should be .313-314 on the bands and .302-303 on the noses and to return it with some examples of my cast boolits. Fine.

I got back a mold that was now .314 and near .314 on the bands and still .300/.299 on the noses. Also the bases were pretty fat and the gas checks needed a lot of effort to snap over the shank. I tried it in my rifle and it still shot poor compared to a true 314/303 sized down to 312. So in January I recontacted them and sent it back with an explanation of my continued issues.

Nothing at all as of the second week of march so I sent them another email. Got an oh so sorry email and the mold shows up in my mail the day before I went on vacation. The mold was replaced, I think cool I got some from the new cherries some guys mentioned. I inspected the mold and saw that the openings on top looked out of round. I got home and cast some with my alloy in the pot and got worse than the first mold;
cav 1 near .3125 to approaching 313 on the bands and almost a .303 nose
cav 2 .3115 and .302 on the nose.

Those are perpendicular to the seam measurements, they get closer to nominal just off the seam.

I played with temps 680 to 730 F, pressure casting, drop height etc. Same or worse results so I dumped the pot into ingots and went back to another alloy; WW with 5% tin added. No better results.

At least with the first mold before the recut I had a 312299 mismarked, now I got a fat nosed 312299.

You would think with 2 trips back they'd get it right. I paid for the mold and 3 shippings. I could have gone custom for this money.

From here on out it's good old molds and custom cut molds.

I've had similar experiences starting in about 2008. I have several excellent Lyman moulds from before then, but I've been burned twelve times (I'm a slow learner) with undersized cavities, misaligned cavities, cavities cut too shallow (elliptical boolits), and loose gas check shanks. The other features have all been good though, nicely machined blocks, sprue plates, and properly set alignment pins. Useless though, I could care less what the outside looks like, it's the holes in the middle that matter.

Custom or known-good used old moulds for me as well from now on.

Gear

You can't fix Stupid, but you can occasionally head it off before it hurts something. --Stephen Adams

Being able to separate the wheat from the chaff has always been a valuable skill in all of life's activities. --Bwana

Join the club Lance . I'm with Gear on this ... though it didn't take me that many molds to learn . Lyman is now on my "upon approval" purchase list , I tell them to send me a mold to try and if I approve of it I'll buy it . If it doesn't work right I send it back shipping C.O.D . For some reason they won't go along with these terms I just can't imagine why

I bought five at one time a few years ago , all were wrong . but at lease the 314299 could be used for thirty caliber so I kept it . Sorry to hear they are still treating people like that .

Jack

If you still have the mold that is .312 and .299, I'll buy it.

Bill

If it was easy, anybody could do it.

If you still have the mold that is .312 and .299, I'll buy it.

Bill

Sorry Bill, that was sent back and recut to the .313-.314/299-300 with the fat gas check shank. In reality that would have been a fine 312299 mold and I should have kept it as such.

I've been playing around in some of my C&R's today. I think I can make it work I think in the Krag but that's about it. It's not going to be fat enough for the No4Mk1, I'll think I'll get a 316 mold from a custom maker for that one. So much for a multipurpose mold.

I won't buy Lyman molds anymore, their reputation is too spotty for me. Besides, with as many mold makers as we've got on our board I'd rather buy from one of them and KNOW the mold will be right.

Give us this day our daily lead.

Sic Semper Tyrannis.

WWGWD

yep, my downfall is the group buy process takes so long and often the molds I want are slow.

I watch the custom guys' websites for the molds they have on hand for that instant gratification thing. I love the brass molds and got one from MP molds. I think the brass and iron suit my slowness all though I'm getting faster. Heck I read a great tip for popping out those bullets making sticking a non issue, as you open the mold palm a corner of the mold halve with your gloved hand. They fall out easier and it's better than bashing with a wooden club.

I'll give that to Lyman at least this mold drops the bullets pretty well, then again they're wider than they are deep in the cavities.

And here I thought LEE was suppose to be such a bad manufacturer?

No downside timewise to ordering a custom, one-off you design yourself from Accurate Molds, Mountain Molds, or some others. Usually you can get your mould cut Burger King-style and have it in hand in 2-3 weeks.

Gear

You can't fix Stupid, but you can occasionally head it off before it hurts something. --Stephen Adams

Being able to separate the wheat from the chaff has always been a valuable skill in all of life's activities. --Bwana

The ONLY Lymans I'll buy are the ones made in the 90's and earlier.

If God didn't want man to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of MEAT!

The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading
Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt"

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