How many molds?

[Chainsaw.]

Hey guys, I have a minor confession to make. I have an affinity for bullet molds, and like a woman who can't get enough shoes, no matter what I find my self looking at other new ones wondering if the bullets would look good in my cases. So, does a man act on his urges or does he maintain control of his mold desires?
How many molds do you have? Per caliber?

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Not all that many. When I bought one it was my intentions to use not just to have.

[FrankenMauser]

A fair assortment.
But the real question is: How many molds do I have that have only been used once ... or not at all?

[jaysouth]

How big is your storage area?

10X20
20X40
40X60

You can't be too good looking, have too much money, or have too much shooting/reloading/casting gear.

[reloader28]

I have 4 or 5 in every caliber I shoot from 380's to 30-06, but basically only use a couple in each anymore. The others are where I started. I've been thinking of selling off a few that aint in use anymore and replacing with different ones but cant quite bring myself to do it yet.

[Chainsaw.]

Thats a good point Frankenmauser. I have a .452 long nose SWC mold a friend gave me, Ive cast with it twice...but I dont own any 45s. But I have a box of bullets in case a friend needs some

[FrankenMauser]

My oldest "mold of shame" is an RCBS .308-165 SIL (or however they name theirs).
I bought it super-cheap, used, from a forum member across the country.
Package got wet in transit. Mold cavities rusted a bit.
It's fine. It'll clean up. I just need to do it.

So, of course, the mold has been sitting here for almost 10 years, now, having never even been attached to a set of handles.

That, in itself, is highly ironic considering that I have several molds that were cut as nothing more than one-off experiments for very short term usage.
One of them, I think I only cast 30 usable bullets with, and that was enough to prove multiple theories that I was chasing. (Using hollow, tapered-base 'heavies' in .444 Marlin, without bulging the case body; and the ability for a Marlin 444 to feed and load wadcutters; and more. -- That mold used double-ended designs, with two different cavities. One mold, two cavities, four experiments.)
Learned what I needed. Now it's a paperweight.

[muzzleblast...]

I dunno how many molds per caliber. My molds are mainly handgun molds. .458 rifles excepted. The brands represented include: Lyman, RCBS, Lee, Saeco, Cramer, Modern-Bond, NEI, H&G, and a few various custom molds.

[res45]

I'd have to count them but probably around 25 or so. I have molds by Lee,Lyman,NOE an Accurate an will probably be picking up a couple Arsenal molds I like as well in the near future. I pretty much use them all at some point but I have several that I cast from on a regular basis.

I have a couple Lee molds that I don't use much they belong to my brother who doesn't shoot all that much but I keep him a good supply of bullets at all times.

[USSR]

I've got about a dozen in .38 and .45 caliber. Am a big time proponent of the brass hollowpoint MP moulds made in Slovenia.

Don

[Chainsaw.]

Is that were those are made? Ive been looking at their web site and wondering. They look like really nice molds.

[deserted]

Couple dozen, I'd guess, including .75 RB for the 1/4scale Napoleon, 2.125" (two pound ball) for the half-scale Napoleon, and 1.68" (one pounder) for the golf ball varmint gun still in construction. Single, double cavity, and gang molds in .32 on up.

[USSR]

Yes, made in Slovenia. The last couple I have ordered only took 8 days to arrive here in the USA. You pay using PayPal, which then converts your dollars into Euro's. Once you've cast using his brass moulds with the ability to either cast hollowpoints or solids, everything thing else leaves you wanting.

Don

[USSR]

Here's a pic of probably my favorite mould. With this bullet you can load it in either a .45 Colt revolver or a .45 ACP autoloader. Can't get much more versatile than that.

Don

[Mike / Tx]

I'm pleading the 5th on numbers, but I do have a couple of old ones circa mid to late 30s.

[boatswainsmate]

I have 2 to 5 per caliber I shoot. Here's a pic of my latest mold. Mihec 502-383-GC

[USSR]

Bullet on the left is the same as the one in my pic above. It was shot out of a Colt Gold Cup at ~800fps. Cast them using the right alloy, and they do expand at low velocities.

Don

[gwpercle]

I have honestly lost count....at least 40.
EBay is my downfall...spot something old abused and in need of some TLC and if it's cheap enough I will find myself bidding on it.
I'm a sucker for obsolete moulds and know how to refurbish and bring those rusty looking moulds back to life.
I have always had a mould addiction ... got my first in 1967 and still stumble on a few even now.
The worst thing I ever did was discover NOE Moulds...those are some sweet casters and Al Nelson comes up with some wonderful recreations of obsolete moulds...I order them with no control over what I'm doing...addicted to casting to the max. !

Gary

[Chainsaw.]

Don, nice expansion, really couldnt ask for much better.

Gary, at least Im not alone. Ive got molds for evrything I shoot besides 223 and Im thinking of even going that route, though with trepidation as the alloy has to be pretty spot on for rifle velocities that high. Another 44 mold? Sure! Another 38 mold? Sure! A mold for the wifes .40? Why not????

[briandg]

Five?

[reloader28]

Gary those NOE are sweet, I have 3 and am looking at a couple more.
If you really want to be tempted though check out Accurate molds. I have 1 for 41cal and it is NICE. That guy has as many mold designs as all the other makers combined

[Beagle333]

I have never really counted. I suppose it's a pretty big number. I would suspect quite upwards of 150. If a mold has variants, such as wider driving bands in some or different ogives, nose lengths, or meplats, and also if I want plain base, gas check, and hollow point options, then I might have 6 or 7 of basically the same bullet. For example, I have the NOE 358429, and then they came out with the Keith 358429, and I wanted the HP 358429, and of course then I had to have the MiHec version of the 358429, as well as the Lyman version and one modified by Erik at hollowpointmolds, so just in that one bullet, I probably have 8 molds for it. The 357477 is another one that has different driving bands based on the year Lyman/Ideal made it. I have 7 of those. And then I have my favorites, which I just have multiples of, because I like them, such as the Turtle Buster (358432), and I must have 10 or so of those. And some are just because of different materials. If I had one in Lyman (steel) and then NOE came out with it in Aluminum - I got one, and if then MiHec came out with it in brass (my favorite medium) - I got one of those as well. And in some, NOE only made aluminum molds for years, then I lead a charge of people who wanted brass and then they not only made new designs in both metals, but also offered some of the older molds in brass now, so I got one of those also and duplicated my aluminum one.

[Unclenick]

I haven't counted either. Certainly in the dozens. At least four 6-cavity molds on top of a number of two-cavity molds in .452" for the .45 Auto, alone. Ones that don't get used much are ones that just didn't seem to produce bullets that shot as well as others. For example, I've got a 185 grain RCBS mold with a stubby round nose profile that looks like it ought to shoot fine, but which my 1911's didn't seem to like much. But I kept it, unused, for a couple of decades. When my dad gave me his 25-2 Auto Rim revolver, it proved to be a bullet form it likes just fine, so I started using the mold again. So, it's a little like having a library, I suppose.

[KenT7021]

I should inventory my molds one day.I have a rough idea about how many I have and know I have a couple of duplicates.I'm guessing around 30 to 50 molds.

[FrankenMauser]

I re-inventoried today.
It's exactly 34 molds.
Four of those are essentially different mold block or bullet configurations of the same bullet. (GC/HP, PB/HP, PB/FN, GC/FN ... and more lube groove variations, since some blocks have combinations of those options.)
Another three and a half (no sprue plate or screws on one) are very, very minor variations of the same .432" bullet. (Which I no longer shoot. )
The majority are .44 caliber (.430-.433").
The major minorities are .32 caliber revolver (.313-.316"), and .48 caliber (.475-.478") for rifle and/or revolver.