Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Bullet Mold Shortage

I was looking at adding a .36 Navy to my cap & ball collection, which would be my first non-.44 revolver. But I needed a mold for same.

Looking all over Canada, no luck for Lee .375 for Pietta, or Lyman .380 for Uberti/Taylors/ Cimarron. Looking at U.S. suppliers I found only one, and he is rationing his Lee molds one to a customer as long as supplies last.

Considering that cap & ball round ball molds are probably the most widely purchased of all bullet molds, it seems a ridiculous situation.

But without the mold or Hornaday round balls (also not available) what point is there in buying the revolver? I mean, I could buy it on spec and wait until things ever go back to normal, but when will that happen?

No mold but tell me the exact diameter. I think I have a pretty good supply of ball but no 36 C&B. Not sure,but I can check later. Free for shipping if I can ship to Canada.

I checked,most of what I have is 44 & 45cal,but about 75-100 of about .315 ball, Only used a dial caliper,so did not mike them

Thanks saddlesore, but I don't think that it would be too cost-effective shipping-wise., and I want a mold. A generous offer though.

The ball size mold that I am looking for is either .375 or .380 depending on the make that I buy. (.375 Pietta, .380 Uberti/Taylors/Cimarron)

I can get a mold from a reloading supplies outfit in the U.S. but it takes so long now that I am reluctant to order from them.

I did some looking around online a few months ago and discovered what I believe is a huge factor in the mold shortage issue. I was looking for a .429 dia 240 gr. SWC mold for my .44 Mag along with a 158 gr. .357 dia SWC mold for my .357 Mag. and .38 Special wheelguns. I really like their six cavity commercial molds for pistol calibers. At the time due to all the Covid nonsense Lee had suspended production of all their molds and most parts for their products in order to focus on reloading die production. Pretty much every online retailer I went to was out of stock on Lee molds and even the Lee website was out of stock on nearly all their molds. They had a few oddball molds like .357 Sig on hand but not much else.

Out of desperation I went to a couple reseller sites Ebay and Amazon and discovered that it appeared scalpers had pretty much cleaned out mold inventories from most major retailers. The 2 cavity lee molds that were retailing at less than $30 were listed on Ebay and Amazon at around $99.95 and the six cavity molds that had listed around $55 were listing for around $189.95. Lyman, RCBS and Saeco cast iron 2 cavity molds were listing on Ebay for around $200.00

I noticed on many of the listings for the Lee molds were saying that the seller has allready sold 50 or more of the same mold, which lead me to the belief that these sellers were buying up inventory at regular retail and scalping on Ebay at double to quadruple prices. I was finally able to obtain the molds I needed through friends who found them for me at their local LGS.

Wish I could help with the .36 cal. mold but all my C&B revolvers are currently .44's

Took a bit of looking, but I finally got all the stuff I need for my .36 underhammer. The final piece was some felt wads that finally showed up at Midway. Gonna be too hot to wrestle that stuff this week though. No mold yet, but 300 rbs are on hand.

I saw those scalpers selling Lee molds at 3 to 4 times the price.

I can't help but wonder if when they report the number sold, it is just total B.S.

I think they were relisting after each sale and the Ebay site was recording their total number of sales for that item. I saw some with 70 or 80 of the same item sold. Hopefully these items will come back in stock soon and the scalpers will be out of business.

Did TC ever sell a .50 cal Maxi hunter mold?

Maxi-hunter, not Maxi-ball

There's always been a shortage of GOOD MOULDS!!

Get a custom made and be done with it!!

https://brooksmoulds.com

Family member used to cast bullets.
I now have a furnace and proly 30 moulds.
And buckets of lead.

Guess my retirement hobby is planned

While I fully support the use of high quality custom bullet molds, they simply are not required for a round ball mold.

Lyman molds ain't worth spit anymore for accurate dimensions.

Lee molds tend to be annoyingly too close to groove diameter rather than a couple of thou over, as is needed. (e.g. .458" as cast from wheelweight alloy for .45-70 350 and 405 grain)

The custom makers will make a bullet mold whatever diameter that you want, so you can get a .459" or .460" bullet for your .45-70. And Accurate and Mountain molds will allow you to specify multiple parameters.

But the Lee round ball molds work well in C&B revolvers and patched ball rifles and fowlers.