I have been useing this Lyman mold for several years. When I first got it I just plinked with the bullets with a 4 inch revolver and never worried too much about accuracy. I figured if I hit someting once in awhile, I was ok.
Well, now I am shooting Cowboy Silhouette and got out all of my .358 molds and started getting serious. First thing I noticed was that the bullets from my Lyman mold shoot a shotgun pattern at 50 yards. By the way, it is a 2 cavity, 150gr Keith style SWC. The bullets that I cast from this mold look good so I decided to weigh them. I found that I have two different weghts of bullets from this mold. Out of 160 bullets I have two distinct weights of bullets. One group of 80 weighs 152gr + - .7 gr and the other group of 80 weighs 150gr + 0 .5 gr. They shoot different too.
I have two Lee molds also. A 166 gr SWC and a 148gr WC, both two cavity molds. From both of them all of the bullets weigh in at a + - .3gr.
Are Lyman molds really that bad or do I just have a bad one? Also, are the cheap Lee molds really that good, or do I have a pair of really good examples?
The groups from the Lee molds are pretty good also. The 166 gr mold will group under 2 inches at 100 yards, all day. The 148 WCs group under 2 inches at 50 yards but at 100 yards are all over the paper. I know 2 inches is not real good but this is done with 55 year old eyes and metalic sights. I don't expect my groups to be any smaller on the target than my front sight covers up on the target.
If you have any thoughts or experience on these things I would like to hear them
Thanks, Sixgun