Round Ball Mold Recommendations

[Dog Soldier]

I have been casting bullets for over 50 years. I have accumulated many brands of molds over the many years. I remember when the LEE molds came out. They were terrible and a waste of time and money. In the past 20 years they have improved and are very reliable. The LEE Production molds are now my go to molds for handgun bullets.

 

[the count]

Incidentally, I just cast my very first bullets today for a cap and ball revolver in 44. The mold I got is the Lee 90440 and the small Lee pot and ladle. Melted down some really crappy lead 9mm bullets I bought during the ammo scare.
Old bullets create a big amount of smoke and fumes, did this in my garage, next time outside. Anyway, just follow the Lee instructions and degrease then smoke the mold. First couple bullets were crappy but then you get the hang of it. I found out that slightly shaking the mold while pouring helps doing a better job plus it cools way faster that way. Yet again another sub hobby to suck up my time and money

 

[sharps59]

Rapine, if you can still find them, believe they went out of business about 15 years or so ago, excellent molds for casting.

you would need to talk to Moose then I think he has most if not all of Rapines designs. available
Moose is on face book and has a web page also. Moose and Moosette are great to work with. I have one of their molds for my 63 sharps that they made from the bagdon design also had them modify a rcbs mold for my 44-40. .

 

[Noz]

Like my Evil Twin J-Bar, I like the Big Lube 6 hole round ball molds. I normally cast 20+ pounds of balls in a session. I got carried away a couple of years back and poured 46 pounds of round balls only to discover that one of the locating pins in the mold had worked loose and my 454 round balls were actually 465 or so. Very hard to load. Repaired mold re-melted and re-poured them all.

 

[midland man]

I love the lee molds they warm up quick I lay mine on the side of the electric pot to heat it up good and go to pouring bullets! works excellent! plus I also make roundballs for my b/p guns and the lee roundball molds are super and I recommend them!!

 

[robhof]

Don't forget, LBT, Lead Bullet Technologies, if you want precision and price isn't a problem, I've got a couple and they are the absolute best, both are for bullets for modern high pressure pistol loads, but are the best I've found. He makes molds for B/P too and will custom make for a slight more!

 

[DD4lifeusmc]

I don't worry about the heat up time.
I lay the mould on the edge of the pot as the pot is heating up and melting the lead.
By the time the lead is melted the mould is hot too.
I should wear gloves in case of splatter but don't. But thin cotton jerseys aren't very expensive or cumbersome.

 

[sharps59]

Colder weather is just around the corner which makes it ideal to casting bullets. Since I have a large supply of soft lead I want to cast my bullets rather than buying them from the store. .36, .44 and .54 Hawken. Probably .375", .454" and .530" round balls.

Any preferences for bullet molds?

Moose mold.

 

[Noz]

Don't forget, LBT, Lead Bullet Technologies, if you want precision and price isn't a problem, I've got a couple and they are the absolute best, both are for bullets for modern high pressure pistol loads, but are the best I've found. He makes molds for B/P too and will custom make for a slight more!

I have a whole drawer full of molds but the LBT molds are without a doubt the best. Next best wold be a brass mold by Mountain Molds.