Whats your favorite mold

Casting for the 1911. what brand is your favorite?  I have a Noe but needs to be pretty hot to fill out.  Curious as to what others are using.

I'm a big fan of Mihec's Slovenian brass moulds.   Just got his 4 cavity version of the H&G 68 mould that cast either 185gr hollowpoints or 200gr solids.   Very, very nice.

Don

Magma brand molds are very nice but they're all 2 cavity steel molds so some people might not like that. The sprue plate design is great and far superior to a RCBS mold I started with.

USSR wrote:I'm a big fan of Mihec's Slovenian brass moulds.   Just got his 4 cavity version of the H&G 68 mould that cast either 185gr hollowpoints or 200gr solids.   Very, very nice.

Don

Do you have a link to this mold?

NOE also makes very nice Brass molds

H&G 68

The original Hensley & Gibbs, SAECO, the custom or boutique makers, the mass makers like RCBS, Lyman and Lee.  In about that order.  All will cast good bullets.  Get a Hensley & Gibbs mold up to temperature and the production is soooo smooth,

I have a lot of Lee group buy molds, plus some Lyman, SAECO and other molds.  As I get older, my back tells me things if I do a long casting session with four-cavity iron molds.  I cast more through the Lee .452" SWC than anything else.

I have a big drawer full of bullet molds of all makes except an HG which I'd dearly love to try.

My current favorite for the 45ACP is the Lee six cavity SWC. I put off buying one for a long time thinking that being as inexpensive as they are, they must not be too good. Actually it is a bit delicate, but if handled carefully it will cast beautiful bullets. Lots of them in a hurry, I might add.

Jim

+1 for Lee 6 cavity .452 - 200 gr SWC. I have a two cavity but tried a 6 cavity Lee for 38 and really liked it over two cavity. Yes delicate feeling but it gets the job done. And doesn't take forever to heat up either. You can get micro grove (tumble lube) version of the bullet or Lee's take on the H&G 68 type with one lube grove.

Are those Lee bevel base?

lablover wrote:Are those Lee bevel base?

My .452 two cavity is. I think.... I'm pretty sure it is.

Yes they are. What I like is that I don't have to size them. I lube them with LLA and Johnson floor wax and shoot them as they come form the mold at .453''. If I was sizing them in my RCBS sizer I might not like them so much, being bevel base. 

Of course because this works for me doesn't mean it will work in your gun.

Jim

RCBS 452-201-KT

My Lee 2 Cavity .452 also dropped em out at .453. They loaded, chambered and fired fine with no mechincal issues when I was using a Springfield Range Officer. But a load of 3.5 gr of Bullseye was snappy. It should have been softer. I didn't like it. It bothered me and left my elbow sore. I felt like it may have created too much back pressure and more recoil. I didn't catch the issue until I had a gun built and they wouldn't even chamber until sized them to .452 using a Lee sizing die. And actually they're coming out on the edge of .4515 and .4520. Still accurate and soft shooting. But a big part of that has to do with the gun I had built. But I did try them in my friends Range Officer and they did not recoil like my old gun did.

zanemoseley wrote:

USSR wrote:I'm a big fan of Mihec's Slovenian brass moulds.   Just got his 4 cavity version of the H&G 68 mould that cast either 185gr hollowpoints or 200gr solids.   Very, very nice.

Don

Do you have a link to this mold?

Here you go.

https://mp-molds.com/e-shop/molds/hollow-points-molds/mp-452-185-swc-hp-pb

Don

Have used the NOE 453-200 SWC and Lee 452-200 SWC.  The NOE dropped very heavy, about 215 grains and I wanted a lighter bullet so went with the Lee 200gr 6 cavity.  Had one several years before and it dropped very close (203 grs IIRC) to weight.  Had to rebuild it twice before it finally died for good after over 40K bullets.  The Lee is a BB and decided I didn't like that so milled the new one down enough to get the bevel off the bullet, so it now drops about 190.  The weight of the mold is a factor for me as well so I really like the Lee.

YEA, I'm using the noe 200 gr swc and its dropping at 215 as well.  Kind of frustrating but not sure how it shoots.  Not sure how I should adjust my powder load as well.  Hope to get it to the range in the next few days.  Fora. range officer as well.

I'm also on the prowl for a new mold in the 160 - 185 range.  Any suggestions?