Six holer

[Howard Pippin]

I've been shopping for a new mold, and have really been looking at the 6 hole mold made my Lee precision, diameter .490. Has anyone else ever tried this mold style? Did you have a problem of filling them at one time? How did the heat transfer? If you weighed them, how were they?
Anybody can help me on this? The price isn't all that bad, and I would preheat on a electric hot plate before I even started casting if I was to buy one.
Squint

 

[Blogman]

Go for it. I've got the Lee .451 & .490 six cav and when you work em up for the heat they work up really great, no need for an electric hot plate. I'm not a pro, stick with what Lee says about the soot, the matches and bees wax and all and it comes together. I started with the .451 and before I knew it I had the quality and a BIG bucket of quantity.

 

[mooman76]

I don't have any for RBs but for other bullets. They are well made moulds. Trick is getting them up to temp. They are a big mould so you will go through lead very quick. Have everything ready and close at hand. You don't want to get it going finally and then have to stop to get something to keep going.

I recently tried a new method of casting with the 6x that someone else posted and it worked very good. Start of filling only the first two cavities, then as it heats up and is working good fill more cavities and keep doing that until you are finally filing all the cavities. Have the pot cranked up all the way and if you plan to cast allot, add small amounts of lead as you go to keep the pot filled.

 

[brewer12345]

I have a bunch of 6 bangers for cartridge bullets. Would not hesitate if you want one for round ball. Alternatively, if you haunt Ebay you will occasionally see 4 banger Lyman molds come up. They are heavy, but the very well used one I have in 490 round ball is an absolute joy to cast with despite obvious evidence of use.

 

[YJake]

I use a Lee 6 cavity .457 mold for my 1858 revolver, and it works very well.

-Jake