Have been casting 148 wadcutters from a Lee mold for years. It's the standard (non-tumble lube) design, however I use Lee's liquid alox to lube them. It seems I still have a problem with lead shaving from some of them when I load them into the case. I can size them with a Lee sizer, but it seems rather labor intensive. Has anyone used the tumble lube design wadcutter from Lee, and can report on how oversize they run as compared to the regular design bullet? I'm thinking a new tumble lube mold is in order. I have other bullet style molds, both Lee and others, and haven't run into this problem with un-sized tumble lubed bullets.

The bullets you have are just as good, maybe better. The liquid alox should work with either. When you expand them you should have a little bell or flare at the mouth. This will enable you to set them a little bit into the case by hand. I have better luck sizing them. If I don't, sometime they bulge the case, making them hard to chamber. I have both molds andf usually use the TL one, only because it's a 6 holer.

As to the size of your cast bullets, that depends on your particular mold and the composittion of the alloy you are using. Why don't you mike them and find out?

Just miked a dozen unlubed at random. Some are 357 all around, others are 357, and after turning them 1/4 turn, mike 360. Looks like I have one cavity of a two cavity mold out of round?

The 357 ones ought to work fine, the lopsided ones not so good. sounds like it is time for a new mold. My Seaco mold casts bullets that run .359-360 depending on allow, and my Gibbs molds all run about .3585

Check and make sure the faces of the blocks are clean. It wouldn't take much to open the hole(s) from .357 to .360. (You can do it on purpose through a process called "Beagling". Check it out on the cast boolits forum. Used to turn out .360 bullets for the .38 S&W).

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and what his trumpet saith

If you are using pure lead or a light lead, not pure wheel weight go ahead and run the bullets you have. Your sizer will take care of the over sized mould. If you don't have a sizer just lube them and shoot them. You should have no problems.

I use a Lee six cavity mould. After casting I just lube them with LLX and then shoot them. I do bell my cases slightly and don't have any problems with lead shaving off the larger bullets while seating.

Personally, I don't think there is any way that a lead bullet can be too big unless it cannot be chambered. Just me though.

Belling the case more should take care of your problem. Lee moulds usually cast large. Again, in my opinion, this is a good thing.

Now, they can be too soft or too small and either one of those things can be detrimental.

I had a Lee 148 gr. TLDEWC mold that cast out of round bullets with similar dimensions to what you have listed. Following some suggestions I found at the castboolits forum I used some aluminum tape to make the mold cast slightly larger bullets that worked better for me. My favorite Lee TL mold is a 158 gr. LSWC that casts a +.359" bullet. I have to bell the case mouth a little more to get them started but they shoot great out of all my S&W's.

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Andy

A sizer/luber would resolve the problem, and the much more consistently sized bullets would improve the accuracy.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I have a Lyman 450 lubri-sizer, but the reason I tumble lube is to avoid the sizing step. I have plenty of bell, but half the rounds won't chamber because of the bulge. I know I can run them through a case sizer or crimp die again, but another step. I just ordered a wadcutter tumble lube mold, so I guess I'll see how this goes. Thanx for all the help and advice!

Are you using a calibrated mike or calipers? The out of round seems excessive though a lubesizer will fix that. I would replace the mold as I want a 0.358" bullet especially for a target wadcutter.

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Front sight and squeeze