Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Lachmiller 44

Picked up this old mold recently and cast a couple just to see what they were all about. Apologies for the crummy picture. Looks a bit to me like an RCBS 44, which is not surprising given that RCBS bought Lachmiller in the 70s. The good news for me is that they were dropping at .433. I'll probably load a few up just to see.

.433" in what alloy?

COWW and lead (+ a little tin)

Nice!

Thanks Hawk! We'll see how it shoots. Mostly picked it up for its history

That bullet looks much like the Ballisti-Cast 1103.

Creeker,
Thanks for chiming in here.
Didn't Ballisti-Cast buy out Hensley and Gibbs?
From what I've read (I know.. I know..) isn't the Ballisti-Cast 1103 the very same as the H&G 503? Which would *imply* a Keith mold, right? Here, however, with the Lachmiller I have it's round lube grooves and drive bands of different thicknesses..

Have you launched any bullets shaped like this Lachmiller? I'm curious how they worked for you.

Fun - and perhaps a little frustrating - chasing down the history of some of these designs.

That bullet resembles the Lyman “Keith” after they changed it and pissed him off more so than my RCBS 44-250KT that I have. The RCBS of mine appears to have a shorter nose, wider Meplat, and thicker front band.

At any rate it should be a fine bullet. I killed a bunch of stuff and shot a ton of targets with one of the “ruined” Lyman molds.

Yes Dennis purchased H&G or a least a bunch of their stuff. I was in the Ballisti-Cast shop just out of Plaza, ND & he showed me all the "stuff" & there was a pile of it.

The BC 1103 is suppose to be the same bullet as the H&G 503 but keep in mind that all these were cherrie cut so when a cherrie needed replaced it was up to the maker to repeat said cherrie. This hasn't worked well for those such as Lyman but I believe BC, H&G, & Walt at NEI has a good handle on this.

The BC 1103 I cast used a flat bottomed lube groove. The only picture I can come up with at present I'll post at the bottom. The round vs flat debate has raged for many years. I've shot both & can tell no difference on paper.

And yes I've shot a Lyman 429421 which used a very narrow front band. The bullet was used in my SBH Ruger with 21 grains of 2400. It was a tack driver. Guess no one told the Ruger that bullet was worthless. As for Lachmiller, never shot one of their bullets of any kind.

The Ballisti-Cast 1103

That would be just right for how I'd load several of my 44s. They're big enough to fit the throats without needing to be of a larger casting but too hard alloy like linotype.

A good while back I got some appropriately sized molds from Veral Smith at LBT.

The kid
I think you are absolutely right re it resembling the Lyman 'Keith'.

Creeker,
That Ballisti-Cast 1203 looks just perfect!

Mathman,
I'd sure like to see some of those Veral bullets. I bet you are glad you got the molds before the shop burned down.

Thanks all for your contributions. I have a lot to learn and very much appreciate your input

Dan

I haven't cast a bullet in twenty years. Getting that going again unfortunately isn't on my radar for a good while.

The most flexible one I have is a 432-250-LFN-PB.