OK, so Why...

Clovishound · #1 10-15-2013, 11:03 AM

Did I wait for several months to order a bullet mold for my 9mm. Add to that the fact that I was too cheap to spend an extra $6 on 2 day shipping. Now that mold is supposed to be delivered today, I am listening for the truck, and checked the tracking info at least a half a dozen times today for an update.

Sheesh.

Next week it will be just another tool in the shop. But at leat I will be reloading 9mm ammo again. Hope my model 10 won't feel neglected.

ArchAngelCD · #2 10-15-2013, 11:35 AM

New toys are always the most fun with brand new... Then they are old toys making room for the newest toys!

Clovishound · #3 10-16-2013, 04:39 PM

Well, the mold finally arrived. First thing I noticed was that Lee has changed the design. The new mold looks better overall. It has a different style of alinement pins. I fired it up and discovered that the new style seems to line things up much better. I was in the habit of setting the bottom of the mold on the bench to line it up when closing the mold. The new one lines up without going through this. Only time will tell whether it will still line up nicely after a couple thousand bullets have been cast with it. Took a while for the back cavity to start filling out. Not sure if it was the back of the mold was still too cold, or if there was some wax that migrated from the sprue plate screw to the back cavity. I also may start preheating my lead over gas. The Lyman electric pot I am using takes a long time to heat, and I'm on full hot, and never get to frosty bullets. After a good while I am getting the puddle on top congealing after what seems to be an appropriate time.

They are casting at a hair over .356, so I will load a few up without sizing and see how things go. Hopefully I won't have the leading problem I did with the TL mold last year. I'm now using a known alloy, and water quenching them, as well as switching to a standard lube band mold.

ArchAngelCD · #4 10-16-2013, 07:17 PM

Sounds like you are happy with the mold so far. Thanks for the report.

gwpercle · #5 10-20-2013, 08:24 PM

I also like the "new" Lee moulds. I got a dbl.cavity C312-185-1R for a 303 British-Enfield and a 410-195-SWC for a 41 magnum. Very nice and were dropping bullets with no trouble after deburring all edges , cleaning twice and getting mould and metal to temperature. Bullets look good too.

I have an old WWII P38 that I'm going to get Lee's 358-105-SWC for and start loading, been hearing it's great in 9mm and I like the new moulds...so why not
Gary

Clovishound · #6 10-22-2013, 03:44 PM

Well, I made up some trial rounds and made it over to the range today. Accuracy was up to par with the commercial hard cast round nose I have used before. Leading was minimal to nonexistent. Did I mention they also make nice looking rounds.

I wasn't sure shooting them unsized would work well, but since the size was right, I suppose that is all that matters. One less operation to go through. I made up a small punch to separate the bullets from the lube in the pan.

I seated them just a little over the top of the lube band. Made for some short OAL, but they fed just fine.