got notice today requesting payment for the 9mm 130gr solid mold, no lube groove he has been making. they should be in pretty quick.
he didn't say anything about he hollowpoint version i ordered too.
hope he didn't leave me out.

Ron,

Don't know if you have bought any of Mihec's molds before, but they are top notch and you will be pleased. They take a while to receive, but they are well worth the wait. I have 4 of his molds and I ain't stopping now.

Don

i have quite a few of them too.
what's unusual about this one in a way, is i have a link to him on facebook, and an ad appeared for the mold. Went to cast bullets and put my name in. That was within the last couple of months. Shipping this time really quick.
I have waited past a year for some of them.

Do you have his standard 125gr HP 9mm mold already? I bored out the lube grooves on mine recently and it drops at ~135gr with hollow points. Casts better too.

I personally like NOE's brass moulds, top drawer quality and usually in stock or you can get what you want in a month or less sometimes.

I have some Mihec's moulds too but the wait usually kills it for me.

Heard that.

Check for out of round and mis-aligned cavities. When they are in spec, they are good moulds. But I have had a few that were milled off to one side more than the other and the bullets would stick HARD. He has a hard time with 30 cl moulds. They are his worst moulds he makes.

i get emails from him now as i signed up as a friend on his facebook page. Got a email to my regular address he was selling the 125gr .359 hollowpoint and i ordered that a couple of days ago. included pins for pentad and the normal hollowpoint. That one mold ought to cover .38special, .357, and 9mm.

Just a couple thoughts on that bullet:

- The normal hollow point pin is a bit too wide at the tip, resulting in expanded noses tearing off too easily. It can be improved by turning or grinding it to a cone shape with straight sides.
- The penta hollow points look interesting, but ultimately don't do anything better than the standard pins. Fun to experiment with though. I reground my penta pins down to a shallow cone for high velocity 9mm & 357 loads.
- This mold casts a lot better for me with the grooves removed; the lube grooves on mine were too deep, so the bullets sometimes hung up when ejected sideways with the cramer-style hollow point pins.
- It will work great for all of the rounds you mention; it's a good bullet

This is with the deep pins ground to a cone shape, used for subsonic/suppressed 9mm.

i might have to get a hold of you in a while and beg mercy in gringing down the mould and the pins. I would like to use these anyway with powder coating rather than traditional lube.

Any time, just let me know.

I got that 125 mold in with the pins, and ran it today with the hollow point pin. I had thrown into the pot along with my normal stuff some cast bullets of unknown vintage a friend gave me. Some lead free solder, and my wheelweights. Took quite a while to stop getting wrinkles. But. it is a four hole mold, and with no consistancy to one hole, the base of the bullet up on top was not filling out regularly on them.
I would pour, couple would be fine, and for some reason would not get a consistent fill on the top. Couldn't figure it out.
Should be nice and flat after the sprue cutter cut it, not so, and a little in some parts were not completely filled out.
Not sure what was causing that. Only thing i could think of i might have gotten a little of that oil he provides in there...
they cast by the way mostly to 126grains, and .358 to .359.

When I cast heating the mold is key.
the brass molds have to be pretty hot to get the wrinkles out.

poor base fillout is generally caused by inadequate venting, in my experience. First thing to try is loosening the sprue plate; I don't like casting with a floppy sprue plate but sometimes that's what it takes until you vent the mold better.

Another thing I do to all my molds is stone a small 45 degree bevel on the top of the block faces where they contact each other under the sprue plate. This acts as a vent to help base fill. Don't overdo it, a bevel about the thickness of your thumbnail is good, maybe a little more. Use an oiled stone, not a file.

Also, some people swear against it (I don't know why) but smoking your mold with a butane lighter does help fill out, especially with hollow point molds. Most of what I cast any more is hollow points, and I'd like to think I have it down pretty well; if I'm not getting good bullets by the second cast, something is wrong. The first remedies I always turn to are venting and smoking. Do not smoke a mold with matches, wood, candles, or anything else containing wax or oil, only use clean gas from a cigarette lighter.

I'll have to try the smoking trick, though the only mihec mold that gave me fits was a 400 gr .476" mold that I ended up selling.

A propane torch can also be used for smoking a mold. Put masking tape on the air inlet holes and you'll get a nice smoky yellow flame.

Got another one on the way from Slovenia. This one is a reproduction of Elmer Keith's 2nd mold design, but with the Cramer hollowpoint option. It is a 240gr solid or 225gr hollowpoint, and was originally designed for the .45AR. Should make a nice defensive load in my .45 Colt.

Don

i basically got that mold except in the 270saa, but one of the slovenian molds. I fired that hollowpoint at about 1000fps into a four to five inch prospectus, pentetrated completely to a pass through, and expanded to over .90. I don't think much would stand up to that.

Yeah, Ron, know what you mean about the Mihec .45-270SAA. I've had that one for a few years now. Shot a deer with it a couple of years ago, and no surprise, complete pass thru and one dead deer. I figure that bullet is still traveling and probably in orbit by now. There's just no substitute for a heavy, large caliber bullet.

Don

I got the Mihec 452640 mold, need to weigh samples but I think the hp's are around 270 gr and the flat points 300 gr.

Please keep these tips coming. I will go loosen some of the sprue plates I cranked down on in my igorancce and frustration.

the powder coating worked pretty good on those 125gr hp's.
they came out after coating at .360, and ran them through the sizer at .357. second batch tomorrow goes to .356.
those little bullets are easy to size with that coating on them.

i finished up sizing to .356 the rest of those 125grain, projectiles.

Next up, is a mitec 130 solid mold, no grease groove.
i think i am going to cook them with a lot of lynotype and lead free solder, to make them harder. then powder coat.
i am kind of curious to see what distance they will shoot through something.

Ron, The best move I made when casting was to get a hot plate. I put the mold on the hot plate at the same time I turn on the lead pot. I had thos brass molds casting wrinkle free and filled out the first drop.

I am wondering if a real good cleaning out of the problem cavity. Maybe some acetone of other good solvent.

i ran about 600 by count yesterday with the 130grain solid, no lube groove from mihec. Zero issues. Wife was kind enough to let me preheat the brass mold on the stove, zero issues from the getgo.
i think the most likely answer on the other mold as to not completely filling at the base was the sprue cutter on to tight. Next time i use it, gonna make it looser.
that 130 designed for powder coating is pretty slick, sized down real easy into .357 and .356, to use in the 38's, and the .356 in 9mm.
I made them red for christmas.
they weighed a little less than 130 out of the mold, sample was at about 128grains. Size before sizing down at .358 or .359, already forgot.

They drop real easy from the mold without lube grooves, don't they?

they drop real easy, plus, i powder coat, then size down. They run through a sizer die just like they have been greased.
I sized those yesterday for 9mm and the 38 type stuff.
should have left a few unsized, with the powder coating and from the mold they would be just about right for 38smith and wesson.

Yup. Once I went that route, I started wondering why I didn't do it sooner, and why I've left lube grooves in any of my other molds. They'll all be straight shank sooner or later when I get the time.

Got the lube grooves out of a couple .45 hollow point molds last week.