Lyman vs Rcbs

[george7542]

I am planning on buying a new bottom pour. My question is does anyone have the lyman mag 25 pot and how it stacks up to the rcbs pro melt? Or should i just buy the lee pot thank you for any input
Jesse

[bobanderson]

Based on price alone, I've always gone with the Lee.

If you're a beginner, you'll be disappointed with the quantity and quality of minies from a bottom pour electric pot. It takes a long time to come up to 700 degrees and you only get about 14 bullets per pound of lead.

I cast with a 40 lb (and larger) cast iron pot on a propane fired camp stove. I get tired before I run out of lead.

I use the bottom pour electric pot for pistol and rifle round balls and center fire bullets for other guns.

Another tip, buy a casting thermometer and don't start until your lead is at 700 or higher.

[efritz]

I've only owned 2 Lyman Mag pots in over 45 years of melting lead and I've used them a lot. They're a Timex watch of lead pots. Mind you, you can't bottom pour mini's like the other gent said. Streams are too fast too thin. I do have to top pour with a ladle. If I had to buy another today, it would be a Lyman. Just one guys opinion.

[pastore]

I've only owned 2 Lyman Mag pots in over 45 years of melting lead and I've used them a lot. They're a Timex watch of lead pots. Mind you, you can't bottom pour mini's like the other gent said. Streams are too fast too thin. I do have to top pour with a ladle. If I had to buy another today, it would be a Lyman. Just one guys opinion.

I have bottom poured minnies with a Mag 20 for over 30 years with no problem.

[Ron/The Old Reb]

I have used a Lyman 20 lb. bottom pore pot for years with no problem. The one thing you deed to do is make your lead into one pond ingots. Then as you cast Minnie's preheat the ingots by laying two of them on the lip of the pot while you are casting. As the led level drops add one ingot at a time, and replace it with another, so that the ingots are always hot when you add them to the pot. That way the temperature of the lead will not drop to low and you can keep right on casting. Works for me.

[george7542]

I would like that thank everyone for there input so far. I have used a friends bottom pour for minnies before with succes and i do like that while ladling them i get fewer rejects. I was figuring on carbine rounds and other modern rounds out of it
Jesse

[Fred Jr]

I would recommend the Lyman but I have never used an RCBS. I have used the Lee's when I first started shooting because they cheaper. I have cast minnies, carbine, smoothies, henry and any thing else with the Lyman. Have three of them now, one down here in FL and two up north. The Lees didn't seem to last very long but the Lymans hold up well and you can get some parts for them.

I am able to get very good results with the bottom pour melters. Just have to pour on the edge of the sprue instead of straight into the opening. Only been doing this for 44 years and just my own opinions!

Fred Jr
1097V
12TH PA

[george7542]

However i will have to try running minnies out of first

[Gary Van Kauwenbergh, 101]

I went from a Lee 10 lb furnace to a Lyman Mag 20, then when a nearby Gander Mountain went out of business, bought an RCBS 20 pounder. For the money, I think the Mag 20 is the best buy. The RCBS pot corrodes less than the Mag 20 and Lee furnaces, but other than that the Mag 20 is just as good. Now days, when I clean the pot, I coat the entire inside with mold release, and that keeps things a lot cleaner.

[jonk]

Both the 10 and 20 lb lees are prone to dripping. Also, ANY bottom pour pot... I've never had luck casting minies. The lead flow simply isn't fast enough. One of these days I'm going to make a modification to the old junker Lee pot I have to fix that.

That said, for smaller bullets, round balls, smokeless bullets, bottom pours do great. Also for any hard lead alloys.

Depends what you plan to do. I have a Lee 10 lb with the bottom pour spout blocked with a bolt and the pour assembly removed for minies, using a ladle. Because it heats for ladle pouring as well as anything else. I have a 20 lb model that I use for hard lead applications as I also cast a lot of smokeless hard lead bullets. On occasion when I need to cast soft lead smith bullets, I drain it and fill with pure lead, as it handles the 385 gr solid bullet ok, just not the minie. Don't ask why, that's just how it is. I can drain it of 20 pounds using a 6 cavity mold pretty fast, and have a season's worth in 2-3 casting sessions.

I've worked with the RCBS unit at a buddy's place, very nice unit, but again, he has never had luck with bottom pour for minies.

Never tried the lyman.

The main reason I upgraded from a coleman stove was I wanted to cast indoors with it in the winter. Good ventilation via an exhaust fan to an open window (I rigged a hood feeding into a dryer vent and used an old in-line duct motor for suction) is a must... not so much for the mythical lead 'fumes' (electric pot won't get that hot) as for the smoke from fluxing and such.

Really they are both top notch, and the lee, while it has it's issues, for the price is pretty great.

let's put it like this. I cast about 10,000 bullets a year of all types and hardnesses, and have never felt the need to invest the coin in anything more than a lee.