Jim Taylor
Discovering Things Forgotten
Saturday, December 13, 2025, 10:07

My favorite and most-used bullet in the .45 Colt is the Keith semi-wadcutter Lyman #454424. I have no clue how many thousands I have cast over the years. I shot a lot of these through the 454 Casull. In fact, the first Mule Deer I killed with the 454 was with this bullet. I had loaded it over a stiff charge of H110 which pushed it close to 1500 fps. About a 50 or 60 yard shot in the left side, the bullet went through the heart and on out into the mountain behind. At the shot the buck put his head down and I thought he was going to get a bite to eat! I wondered if I missed and was getting ready to shoot again when I noticed he was wobbly. The buck slowly made its way to a nearby mesquite, laid down and its head fell over.

The bullet mold I used was by RCBS, their version of the Keith SWC. I bought the mold back in the late 1970's and shot a lot of the bullets from my Colt SAA. Sometime between then and the early 1990's I somehow broke the mold! Where the sprue plate screw goes into the mold body broke out to the side.

I redrilled the hole for the sprue plate screw on the opposite end of the mold, threaded it and put a threaded stud in it and it was back in business.

For some reason I later bought a new mold and retired the broken/repaired one. You don't throw molds away. I just put it in safe place.

Last week I discovered it!

I had not seen it in years. So I mounted it on the handles and yesterday I cast a few bullets with it. It makes nice bullets so I am not sure exactly why I retired it. But I will give these a go in a couple of the sixguns and the Shootists Anniversary rifle and we will see how they do.

It's always fun discovering things you had pretty much forgotten about!