The mould I sold to Oscarflytyer is exactly like the one Ben started this thread about, except it has three standard grooves instead of the microbands. These were all made by Lee Precision, back before Ranch Dog closed shop. Michael only made one run of the standard lube groove version with the stepped, short nose like this before he closed. Demand for standard groove versions of any of his designs were very low which is why he made so few runs of any of this designs that way. In my mind, if it wasn't made by Lee and inspected by Michael Reamy himself, it ain't a "Ranch Dog" mould. He really held Lee's feet to the fire of quality.
After NOE started running a few designs, I don't know what went on. I'm not sure if the group buy designs were made by Michael, semi-close copies, or what. I do know that he started participating in the designs later, but not sure about the early NOE ones with the "RD" designation. The brass NOE 311-165 that Rally Hess pictured above is I believe an early copy of the first RD 311-165 which was intended only for Marlins with the large throats, which is not all Marlins and won't chamber in much else that requires crimping in the crimp groove. What I can say for certain about that NOE mould is it will group like no other in one of my Marlins, like half-inch at 100 yards repeatedly using a certain lube regimen, at full-jacketed velocity. Remember Marlins have a 10" ROT. None of my rifles cared for the stepped-nose RD version as much as other bullets or the NOE 311-165 with the long ogive nose and no step. So if the "original, original" RD 311-165-RF by LEE was similar to the NOE 311-165, I can easily believe it is the far better-shooting design of the two in some Marlins.
