I bought an NEI mould for the 348 Winchester a couple of weeks back (ebay), and when it arrived, I discovered that the meplat is too small. The "flat nose" mould is almost a spitzer, to the point that there is no way it would be safe to load these bullets into the Model 71.

So what would you do? Walt Melander is no longer with us, and I have heard horror stories about what is coming out of NEI now, but this mould is just not cut correctly. Would you send it back to NEI and take your chances, try to have someone else re-cut the mould, or would you buy the RCBS special order mould and just consider this an ill-advised purchase?

I am open to suggestions... This is a 225-grain mould, and re-cutting it might get it closer to the originally desired 250 grains, but I suspect trying to re-cut is pretty risky.

Bummer! I'd send it back with a polite letter of explanation asking them to repair it, replace it, or refund your hard-earned money.

I passed on that one,because one could see in the photo that it was "semi" pointed..Bet it could be fixed,though..Iddabul;l

I think that Buckshot has done some good work with retouching molds.
I would probably put it back up on Ebay and maybe order a new mold from Mountainmolds.

have any competent machinist cut a bigger meplat, or mill a bit off the nose and put a top plate on it.

Rich
DRSS

Try bumping a flat on the nose. Put a .38 Special seating die with an SWC nose punch in your press and use a pedestal from a Lee sizer to run the bullet up into the die. You can put a considerable meplat on most bullets without hurting accuracy that I can tell.

That makes a lot of sense... If I can figure out how to make each bullet stop at the same place, it should work just fine.

Thanks. I will give it a try and let you know.

Don't know the history or the purchase or who you bought it from, but If you bought it on Ebay..... it is probably second hand from NEI..... and if NEI is selling it direct on Ebay, then it may have been a "Second" that they were trying out for some reason

Typically, the agreement through Ebay is "As Is" unless otherwise stated in the ad.....

And if they did include a pic -- you did get the correct item described/pictured in the ad.

So it may be a custom one-off with that nose profile.

I would guess that if NEI would take it back for re-cutting, they would charge you.... since you didn't buy it from them.

I might just re-list it on Ebay -- there is probably someone out there who wants that exact mold with the pointy nose.

Best regards

John