Grail mold

[.38 Special]

We talk a lot about "grail guns" but not so much about "grail molds".



My first handloads were for the .357 Magnum. It was longer ago than I care to discuss, and I'd read every word that Skeeter had written, so my first mold was the 358156 and my second was the 358156 HP. The 358156 is still in regular rotation, but the hollow point mold dissapeared somewhere around 30 years ago. I'd bought it new and didn't use it a whole lot because, well, hollow point molds. By the time I decided I really wanted it back they had become essentially collector's items and I really didn't feel like paying those prices. I've had several custom molds made to replicate it, and in all likelihood they are better than the originals, but still...

I've had my eBay search set to let me know every time one turned up, and always passed because they were either rusted garbage or priced so high that my eyes rolled. This one finally turned up at an outrageous but not ridiculous "buy it now" price and I got to it first. The pin handle looks like something gnawed on it, but everything else is nearly new, and I am a happy camper.

So... am I nuts, or do you have a "grail mold" too?

 

[forrest r]

Years ago you could special order hp molds from lyman with different sized hp pins. Standard hp pins for the 9mm/38spl/357's were .125". Typically the slower the bullet the larger the hp pin/hole in the bullet. Took a long time to track down a lyman 358125 hp mold with a special order .156" hp. The bullet top right is a .156" 358156 hp, the bullet next to it is a standard 358429 with a .125" hp.

NIB lyman 358431 keith style swc with the hb pin. The standard 358429 and hp versions (358439) are easy to find, the 358431 hb version. Are fairly rare.

Cramer made a 5f mold that was their version of the 200gr swc for the 45acp. When the surplus 45acp revolvers started hitting the market shooters found that a lot of them had oversized cylinders & bores. Cramer put out a hb version of that bullet. The molds are extremely hard to find, cramer molds were $$$ and surplus ammo was cheap.

Another cramer mold, the #26. Lyman molds were cheap and a lot of the hp versions of the keith swc were sold for the 38spl/357, namely the 358439 mold. Cramer put out a version of that hp bullet.

Skeeter's designs have served shooters well with their 35 cal (358156) and 44cal (429215) molds made by lyman. H&G put out a #141 mold that cast skeeter bullet for the 44cal's, a 220gr swc gc bullet & a 200gr swc gc hp.

Those H&G bullets are fantastic for the 44spl snubnosed revolvers (bottom left).

The bullet (top right in picture above) is another hard to find mold, the layman 429422. It's the hb version of the keith style 429421 swc. Keith really liked that bullet and wrote a lot about it.

Anyway, a lot of good molds out there with a lot of them being rare. My egan's aren't ulta rare but I don't plan on selling them any time soon.

 

[PapaG]

429421 HP, which i have. Yours is number two.

 

[forrest r]

429421 HP, which i have. Yours is number two.

Excellent choice!!!
Had a 429421 hp mold and used it for decades. Bought a 429244 (skeeter) mold that was a hp mold from the same era. Both hp pins were the same length/diameter. Ended up giving a buddy 1 of the hp pins and used the other pin I had to cast with both molds. Ended up selling both molds and the 1 pin on the cast bullet website. Didn't use either mold anymore since I bought the MiHec 4c 256 clone and have been casting hp's with it ever since. The 4c mold will cast swc's or small hp/large hp/penta point hp's.


I guess there isn't a lot of people that cast bullets on this website or they haven't been casting very long. I started casting with my brother back in 1975 ( I was 14) and fell in love with the different molds. Back then there was no internet, only papers, ads, gun shows & word of mouth. When I ran across a common mold at a good price I bought it. When I ran across a rare mold (rare to me/my area) I paid thru the nose and bought it. At 1 point I owned over 200 molds & have sold most of them off or turned them into molds that I've been looking for for a very long time.

Any mold is a grail mold if it what you wanted and enjoy. Heck I it's a toss up between the H&G #50 148gr wc and the lyman 358311 158gr rn molds. Couldn't even begin to say how many 1000's of each bullet I've shot over the decades in the 9mm/38spl/357's. Both molds are extremely common and they cast extremely accurate bullets.

 

[PapaG]

I started in 1956 at 12. Favorires: 357446, 358432, 358156, 429421, 429244, 311316,_311291, 454424, 452460, 457124, 50 maxi, and a few others. Fifty more sitting on a shelf getting bored.