I have been using same mold for .38 special. Also have a mold for .44 magnum and one for .45 ACP. I use a gas grill cylinder and a Cabelas camp stove to melt the bulk down to make ingots and then use a lee production pot to feed the molds.
I've had that mold the old style longer than I can remember. Mine cast a little larger than spec. but it's a good shooter especially for practice rounds for new shooter. I dropped using the Alox a few years ago and started powder coating all my tumble lube bullets. I really like the new style molds Lee is producing and have several of the newer ones.
I think this bullet style is one of the original ones offered when Lee started selling molds. I certainly like the new style molds over the old ones, they are much less fussy to use.
Generally Lee products are good. They have made a few things over the years that were a bit lacking, but that's a side effect of them trying to keep prices low.
Thanks for the review on the new-style blocks and handles. My last purchase was a pair of 2-hole molds to make bullets for reloading 7.62x39. As with all my Lee stuff, they've been excellent - no complaints. However, always room for improvement, and it looks like Lee have done some nice adds. I'm looking at getting a 6-banger semi-wadcutter to make bullets for 9mm - with the new handle improvements I might buy a 2-hole as well, just to get a pair of the new-style handles. My first 9mm mold was the basic round nose 2-hole TL (I forget the weight, but it was the most common one at the time I started, recommended by my reloading "mentor"). All have done good service. However, the 6-hole SWC 9mm mold is about to go on sale (or so I'm told), and I've wanted to start casting semi-wadcutters in 9mm. Thanks for another very helpful video.
Good info, right now I use the Semi Wad Lee mold powder coated in my revolver and lever carbine. going to have to order one of these round nose molds to try. Working at my local gunshop has its advantages. What is the Lee product number? I urge you to try powder coating if you want to run cast bullets at full jacketed velocity. I run a near max load of 2400 under a cast powder coated bullet with no lead fouling in my Rossi Carbine
This mold is Lee part #90388. I might try powder coating at some point. I've never had big issues with leading, at least when I'm loading bullets I've made myself. I've loaded .357 Mag rounds to over 1800 fps with no leading, using a conventional lubed cast bullet.
Have you tried powder coating yet? I did and love it. the time is only slightly more than with Alox and it stopped all leading in my 45 Hi-Point completely. I use it with my 308 cat sneeze loads and my 380 now too.
Perhaps someday I might try powder coating, but as I'm all set up for conventional lubing and sizing I don't see much reason to change. COated bullets do have certain advantages (less smoke, feeds in automatic bullet feeders). Leading can generally be avoided by proper alloy hardness, bullet fit and powder selection, and I've not had any big issues with leading in almost thirty years of casting and shooting lead bullets.
It lets you get away with slightly softer alloys in some situations, and also keeps all your reloading dies clean. Tumble lubing still works, but the investment to switch over is $20. ~$15 for some quality powder and $5 for a toaster oven from your local thrift store. Use your vibe tumbler or even a cool whip tub and you are good to go. Labor is about equal, and once you've learned the system, it is pretty much impossible to screw up a batch. Tumble lubing can be a little too thick and be smoky or a little thin and get leading.
I'd be curious to see if your bullets produce any significant leading in your choice gun. I use the 6 cavity mold version and have tried all manner of combinations of hardness, quenching ,non quenching, sizing, fast and slow. I've not found a loading yet for this projectile that does not leave lead in the barrel. :/
Were you getting small traces of lead or were you experiencing severe leading? Also what was the make and model of gun and what was the caliber? Sometimes the dimension of the guns chamber/throat/lead/bore can make successful shooting of lead bullets almost impossible.
Leading is pretty severe in my 2.25" Ruger Sp101 357mag with the unsized Lee 158gr RN over 3.8gr of 231. All five cylinder throats measure out to .358", not sure of the groove diameter as the gun has 5 grooves and lands. I've shot some Hornady 148gr. HBWC with great success, perhaps I should diversify the revolvers diet with something other than cast projectiles. Thanks for your thoughts!
You are probably right. Powder coating with some Harbor Freight Red did indeed bump the overall diameter up to .360", I'll try those bullets out. Thanks for the advice.
TrevorMyrtleBeach that stuff goes on very thick. Probably the only reason to ever use the HF stuff is a gun like yours with a mold that is small for it.
Those look really good. Noticed some pits and wrinkles on some of the bullets. Are pits and wrinkles a big deal or can you ignore them? They bug me on my cast bullets and I reject a lot of bullets for that. I'm wondering if I am just being overly picky and should just ignore them.
Minor wrinkles on the bullets, especially on the nose of the bullet, are not very important. The more important thing to be picky about is the quality of the bullet bases, they must be well filled out or accuracy will suffer. One other defect I cull bullets for are visible voids. I quickly sort over the bullets as I cast them and try to get the bad ones culled out and back in the pot right away, but some get missed at that stage but will be rejected while loading them. I have tested "perfect" bullets against those with minor wrinkles and could not tell any difference in accuracy. Overall the best way to grade bullets is with a scale, but that's too slow for handgun ammo.
Great video just purchased a set myself and this helped a lot. A question you may be able to help with in my reloading I just started learning and I’ve been having an issue with purchased 9mm pullets when trying to seat them either the shell crushes or the bullet Itself crushes. I’m certain it’s the correct size dies any thoughts? Anyone else reading this any tips? Thanks everyone
Lee makes one suitable mold, the C255-55-RF, leeprecision.com/mold-dc-c225-55-rf.html I'm not sure what part of the world you are in but any dealer selling Lee products should be able to get you one.
Some times Lee tries a little too hard to be economical, but I think most of their current bullet casting equipment (molds & lead melters) are pretty decent for the money. Sometimes their molds do need a bit of "tuning" to make them work properly, generally they are worth trying.
I have a bunch of their molds. IMO their 6 cavity molds are hard to beat. Their sprue cutter design makes for faster casting than the other companies, and the quality is on par. I've had to send back maybe 2 molds out of a dozen ish. Given that the dozen molds cost about the cost of any two other molds, and that they gave me flawless replacements, the nuisance of the two flawed molds is still worth while. I do find it annoying that most of their labeled weights on the molds are no where close to what they drop, even with the most conventional of alloys.
six cavity moulds are the way to fly. Why make two when you can make six? Powder coating looks better. you can color code your bullets. super easy. jmho
True, a six cavity gives a lot more production. But I dont always feel like spending the $ on a six when I just want to try a bullet style out, this two cavity cost me less than $20.
@@314299 Hey if it works for you that's all that matters. I go through a buttload of ammo so the five or sixes work best for me. It's a great hobby no matter how you do it. Good shootin to ya sir.
@@314299 hahhaahahahah, a good one , after 4 years of my comment I just bought a Baikal mp 27 in 12 gauge ( nickel receiver) in USA , it’s such a nice shotgun.
I have been using same mold for .38 special. Also have a mold for .44 magnum and one for .45 ACP. I use a gas grill cylinder and a Cabelas camp stove to melt the bulk down to make ingots and then use a lee production pot to feed the molds.
That's a good system, putting clean lead in your furnace is important.
Nice👍👍
I've had that mold the old style longer than I can remember. Mine cast a little larger than spec. but it's a good shooter especially for practice rounds for new shooter. I dropped using the Alox a few years ago and started powder coating all my tumble lube bullets. I really like the new style molds Lee is producing and have several of the newer ones.
I think this bullet style is one of the original ones offered when Lee started selling molds. I certainly like the new style molds over the old ones, they are much less fussy to use.
I do a 50/50 mix of lee liquid alox and minwax paste finishing wax (yellow metal tin) And they dry completely over night and aren't sticky at all.
I've tried that but I ended up with leading that I did not get with just 100% LLA.
Nice video, and it's good to show how you cast bullets.
This is an interesting video.
Thanks!
The casting footage was there mostly to show how nicely this particular mold was working, glad you found the vid interesting.
Thanks, I just bought one of these, looking forward to using it.
I hope yours works as well as mine does.
Nice Video my Friend. I have used only LEE for the last 25 years. Yeap I am still here.
Generally Lee products are good. They have made a few things over the years that were a bit lacking, but that's a side effect of them trying to keep prices low.
314299
I use the semi wad cutter version of this bullet and have found it to be very good. I sure do appreciate Lee's new mold design.
Good video!
That's a bullet mold that I might pick up in the next few months.
Thanks for the review on the new-style blocks and handles. My last purchase was a pair of 2-hole molds to make bullets for reloading 7.62x39. As with all my Lee stuff, they've been excellent - no complaints. However, always room for improvement, and it looks like Lee have done some nice adds. I'm looking at getting a 6-banger semi-wadcutter to make bullets for 9mm - with the new handle improvements I might buy a 2-hole as well, just to get a pair of the new-style handles. My first 9mm mold was the basic round nose 2-hole TL (I forget the weight, but it was the most common one at the time I started, recommended by my reloading "mentor"). All have done good service. However, the 6-hole SWC 9mm mold is about to go on sale (or so I'm told), and I've wanted to start casting semi-wadcutters in 9mm. Thanks for another very helpful video.
Thanks for the comment, my apologies for not having responded until now.
I get a Lucille mold every freaking time!!!!!!!!
I hope she is a diligent inspector.
Lucille LOVES you man.
Hey, that's the same mold I have for my 38s. I liked the bullets from the mold.
Nice and accurate.
They have been making and selling this bullet design for decades, so they must have gotten something right.
Good info, right now I use the Semi Wad Lee mold powder coated in my revolver and lever carbine. going to have to order one of these round nose molds to try. Working at my local gunshop has its advantages. What is the Lee product number? I urge you to try powder coating if you want to run cast bullets at full jacketed velocity. I run a near max load of 2400 under a cast powder coated bullet with no lead fouling in my Rossi Carbine
This mold is Lee part #90388.
I might try powder coating at some point. I've never had big issues with leading, at least when I'm loading bullets I've made myself. I've loaded .357 Mag rounds to over 1800 fps with no leading, using a conventional lubed cast bullet.
Have you tried powder coating yet? I did and love it. the time is only slightly more than with Alox and it stopped all leading in my 45 Hi-Point completely. I use it with my 308 cat sneeze loads and my 380 now too.
Perhaps someday I might try powder coating, but as I'm all set up for conventional lubing and sizing I don't see much reason to change. COated bullets do have certain advantages (less smoke, feeds in automatic bullet feeders). Leading can generally be avoided by proper alloy hardness, bullet fit and powder selection, and I've not had any big issues with leading in almost thirty years of casting and shooting lead bullets.
It lets you get away with slightly softer alloys in some situations, and also keeps all your reloading dies clean. Tumble lubing still works, but the investment to switch over is $20. ~$15 for some quality powder and $5 for a toaster oven from your local thrift store. Use your vibe tumbler or even a cool whip tub and you are good to go. Labor is about equal, and once you've learned the system, it is pretty much impossible to screw up a batch. Tumble lubing can be a little too thick and be smoky or a little thin and get leading.
I'd be curious to see if your bullets produce any significant leading in your choice gun. I use the 6 cavity mold version and have tried all manner of combinations of hardness, quenching ,non quenching, sizing, fast and slow. I've not found a loading yet for this projectile that does not leave lead in the barrel. :/
Were you getting small traces of lead or were you experiencing severe leading? Also what was the make and model of gun and what was the caliber? Sometimes the dimension of the guns chamber/throat/lead/bore can make successful shooting of lead bullets almost impossible.
Leading is pretty severe in my 2.25" Ruger Sp101 357mag with the unsized Lee 158gr RN over 3.8gr of 231. All five cylinder throats measure out to .358", not sure of the groove diameter as the gun has 5 grooves and lands. I've shot some Hornady 148gr. HBWC with great success, perhaps I should diversify the revolvers diet with something other than cast projectiles. Thanks for your thoughts!
It may be that you need a fatter bullet. If your bullets are .358" dead, there's your problem. You generally want .002" over cyl throats.
You are probably right. Powder coating with some Harbor Freight Red did indeed bump the overall diameter up to .360", I'll try those bullets out. Thanks for the advice.
TrevorMyrtleBeach that stuff goes on very thick. Probably the only reason to ever use the HF stuff is a gun like yours with a mold that is small for it.
Those look really good. Noticed some pits and wrinkles on some of the bullets. Are pits and wrinkles a big deal or can you ignore them? They bug me on my cast bullets and I reject a lot of bullets for that. I'm wondering if I am just being overly picky and should just ignore them.
Minor wrinkles on the bullets, especially on the nose of the bullet, are not very important. The more important thing to be picky about is the quality of the bullet bases, they must be well filled out or accuracy will suffer. One other defect I cull bullets for are visible voids. I quickly sort over the bullets as I cast them and try to get the bad ones culled out and back in the pot right away, but some get missed at that stage but will be rejected while loading them. I have tested "perfect" bullets against those with minor wrinkles and could not tell any difference in accuracy. Overall the best way to grade bullets is with a scale, but that's too slow for handgun ammo.
Great video just purchased a set myself and this helped a lot. A question you may be able to help with in my reloading I just started learning and I’ve been having an issue with purchased 9mm pullets when trying to seat them either the shell crushes or the bullet Itself crushes. I’m certain it’s the correct size dies any thoughts? Anyone else reading this any tips? Thanks everyone
Yes it wants to crush because you set to crimp to much raise the pin and try again
I enjoy your channel. What part of Canada are you located? I'm down here in Washing State in the Seattle area. Dave.
Thanks.
I'm in the maritime provinces, on the east coast.
I have the old ones now I want to upgrade :)
$34 on Amazon for the 2 cavity and $69 for the 6 cavity.
I sat through the full ad just for you. Good price.
How can I find a bullet mold for Nato 5.56 from Lee ? Anyone give me a link to buy it. Thanks in advance. It was a good video, I like it.
Lee makes one suitable mold, the C255-55-RF, leeprecision.com/mold-dc-c225-55-rf.html
I'm not sure what part of the world you are in but any dealer selling Lee products should be able to get you one.
I reload but do not cast my own. Lee products, from my experience, are kind of low end. Are their casting products better quality?
Some times Lee tries a little too hard to be economical, but I think most of their current bullet casting equipment (molds & lead melters) are pretty decent for the money. Sometimes their molds do need a bit of "tuning" to make them work properly, generally they are worth trying.
I have a bunch of their molds. IMO their 6 cavity molds are hard to beat. Their sprue cutter design makes for faster casting than the other companies, and the quality is on par. I've had to send back maybe 2 molds out of a dozen ish. Given that the dozen molds cost about the cost of any two other molds, and that they gave me flawless replacements, the nuisance of the two flawed molds is still worth while. I do find it annoying that most of their labeled weights on the molds are no where close to what they drop, even with the most conventional of alloys.
Lee Liquid Earwax!
Looks similar but smells different, which is a good thing.
six cavity moulds are the way to fly. Why make two when you can make six? Powder coating looks better. you can color code your bullets. super easy. jmho
True, a six cavity gives a lot more production. But I dont always feel like spending the $ on a six when I just want to try a bullet style out, this two cavity cost me less than $20.
@@314299 Hey if it works for you that's all that matters. I go through a buttload of ammo so the five or sixes work best for me. It's a great hobby no matter how you do it. Good shootin to ya sir.
Please, everyone is waiting for your Baikal MP 27 12 gauge shotgun shooting video on the range.
I hope they are really patient,
@@314299 hahhaahahahah, a good one , after 4 years of my comment
I just bought a Baikal mp 27 in 12 gauge ( nickel receiver) in USA , it’s such a nice shotgun.
The only way to shoot without a lot of money.
A great way to go if you don't want to spend a lot of money on gear.
Better than Shirley i guess
So far.
nice boolit
Yeah and it's an easy one to make and load.
After 5 years of my comment, Yesterday I found that 2 cavity mold at half price. The old model with long pins and more aluminum on the block.
picture
?