Author Topic: Opinion of Lee Bullet Mold (Read 10974 times)

Darrell Davis · « **Reply #61 on:** November 25, 2011, 07:44:03 AM »

Interesting Frank2,

Brings to mind the best cast boolit groups I have seen - from my efforts - were from a Lyman, "grab bag" mold, which is a mold discounted and Marked "R" by Lyman due to being of an old style, or some other reason which makes it a reject.

This was a .44 mold that was marked to cast boolits of about 325gr. The boolits from this mold were a fair amount heavier, but shooting from a RUGER BlackHawk "Hunter" that combination shot 100yd groups, using a 2X Leupold, that looked like they had been shot with a good rifle. WOW.

However, as to mold quality, I thought Veral at LBT made good molds, and without question he does, but I bought a mold from Bruce - BABore - over on the Cast Boolit Forum - this past spring and he took the quality up another level.

To bad, but sounds like Bruce had been "forced into retirement". He has recently said that he does still have some molds on hand.

Sorry to loose craftsman like this!

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

Frank2 · « **Reply #62 on:** November 28, 2011, 11:08:25 AM »

Crusty Dear Old Coot!
Sorry I missed your post. It's good to see you over here. I too have an LBT mold and one of Bruce's molds. You are right, Bruce is first rate. In the revolver though, I think Veral is well ahead of other mold makers. Who else puts the nose or non-obturating portion far out in front, maximizing grip, stability and powder capacity? Every part of Veral's bullets are designed for a specific reason. I see other bullets that have different features, but what are the reasons? I see NEI molds with sharp shoulders. What good are those? Or Lee's having tumble lube grooves. What is the advantage to that? Tumble lube?

I read you used one of Veral's bullets in your Ruger #1 45/70. Which one was it? I have Lee, but want to upgrade my 45/70 with an LBT bullet. I am thinking of an LBT WLNGC for my BFR.

Darrell Davis · « **Reply #63 on:** November 28, 2011, 05:17:09 PM »

Frank2,

I have the 459 - 350 - LFN mold from LBT for the 45/70

If you want to see the results, send me your personal "E" address and I can send you photographs of the boolits.

Not sure why I didn't get the groups I wanted from the mold, maybe pushing them a bit too fast

, but am presently happy with the 465-.462 and will probably stick with that.

Took one deer with the LBT 355gr, and it was sure effective, but my groups are better with the bigger boolit.

However, other then possibly pushing it a bit too fast, I have made some other changes which are likely also making for the better groups I am now getting.

I am pretty much a one boolit person for my hunting rifles, so will likely stick with the 465gr for plinking/practice and hunting.

Ya think it wil be big enough for little furry ground critters?

?

My LBT handgun mold is the 433 - 300 WLN.

And oh yes. both molds are gas check styles.

Am really enjoying the 45/70, but maybe I should also see if I can collect a critter with the .44.

I am getting a touch over 1300fps with that 310gr LBT boolit and with that big flat nose expect it would also put the hurt of an eat'in critter.

Finished up my Ideeeeeho 2011 hunting season Saturday afternoon, harvesting my third 45/70 - 465gr cast boolit this year. Two deer and one elk and let me tell you that big boolit sure impressed me on the elk! AWESOME.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

.22-5-40 · « **Reply #64 on:** November 28, 2011, 05:38:51 PM »

I just cannot get excited about the Lee mould..I have a few & the materal is very soft. NEI & the now discontinued Rapine, use a harder Aluminum alloy..used for high speed gears. Plus they use steel bushings for alignment pin mating holes. But my favorite are the old iron moulds..I am using original Ideal moulds, both integeral handles & seperate block..some of which are over 100 years old.

Frank2 · « **Reply #65 on:** December 04, 2011, 10:45:11 AM »

Lee molds are fine if they are the right size and design. I can see there isn't a mold in the line-up for .38 & .357 that is RF nose. Even if they come with an RF design, you end up with tumble lube grooves and a poor crimp groove. The price is unbeatable but there is always something lacking. Why compromise?

bfrshooter · « **Reply #66 on:** December 05, 2011, 02:40:30 AM »

I have all kinds of molds and all were bought for the bullet design, never what the mold is made from. I don't like the Lee soft aluminum but I have never worn one out either. Other aluminum can be as tough as an iron mold.
The problem with Lyman and RCBS molds is 95% of them are undersize, it is rare to get a bullet the size the gun needs. I hate having to lap an expensive mold.
I have some tumble lube designs and they shoot great with a good, soft, sticky lube like LBT soft. I don't like Alox in any form because testing lube for years has shown poor accuracy and barrel leading. It needs tempered with beeswax to increase the flash point yet there must be 10,000 better ingredients to add to wax that will work better.
Why auto undercoating was ever chosen for a bullet lube makes my head spin. It is like Z-Bart and every singe car I ever had the stuff put on, still rusted out!

bilmac · « **Reply #67 on:** December 05, 2011, 05:21:17 AM »

On another forum they are proud of a homebrew lube they call 411. It is 4 parts beeswax, 1 part lithium chassis grease, and 1 part dextron ATF. I think I will give it a try. I have hand greased bullets with just lithium grease before, and they made bullets work in my 45-70 that wouldn't work before, both for accuracy and to prevent leading.

Frank2 · « **Reply #68 on:** December 07, 2011, 04:57:25 PM »

I sent a mold back to Lee and they did nothing and sent it right back to me!

Frank2 · « **Reply #69 on:** December 08, 2011, 05:09:01 AM »

bfrshooter:

Quote

I don't like the Lee soft aluminum but I have never worn one out either. Other aluminum can be as tough as an iron mold.
The problem with Lyman and RCBS molds is 95% of them are undersize, it is rare to get a bullet the size the gun needs. I hate having to lap an expensive mold.

I want to lap my Lee mold. What do I use?

bfrshooter · « **Reply #70 on:** December 08, 2011, 08:01:50 AM »

I cast a boolit and drill the base for a screw. Then I use Clover lapping compound on the boolit. I start at about 280 grit if a lot needs removed or go to 320 to 600 depending.
Best to turn by hand or with a variable speed drill, real slow.
As metal is removed, cast another few boolits to increase diameter.
Be aware, it is easy to make the mold out of round because you can't close it tight and there is a lead-lag at the parting line.

Frank2 · « **Reply #71 on:** December 08, 2011, 08:38:07 AM »

Thanks! I'll try it out.

bilmac · « **Reply #72 on:** December 08, 2011, 08:54:25 AM »

Do the bullets drop a lot easier? I think that the bullets are ok, but I would sure like them to drop easier, especially some of my 6 holers are a pain.

Frank2 · « **Reply #73 on:** December 08, 2011, 03:12:13 PM »

bilmac:

Quote

Do the bullets drop a lot easier? I think that the bullets are ok, but I would sure like them to drop easier, especially some of my 6 holers are a pain.

I know, the 6-holer can be a pain. What I have found helped was using a #2 Rowell ladle and keeping the temps up also helps them drop fast. Cold mold means sticky.

Answer to your question: I have read spinning a bullet in the cavity does help them drop easier. But maybe yours is good.

StrawHat · « **Reply #74 on:** December 09, 2011, 12:35:28 AM »

On another web site, the have a couple of threads going about what they descibe as "Lee Menting". It involves getting a Lee mold to produce and drop bullets easily. I have many Lee molds and usually the first thing I do with them after I get them is the Lee menting process. They may not all need it but they sure do benefit from it.

Polishing the cavities is a big part of it. I have used clover compound but only on molds I wanted to enlarge. Otherwise I use a paste of water and sink cleanser, Comet, Bartenders Friend, Bon Ami, etc. Some fellows use toothpaste. The idea is to spin the bullet slowly to polish the cavity and remove any burrs left over from the machining process. Yes, it would be nice if they came from the factory already done but that takes additional time and it would be reflected in the price. I like the lower price and can always find the time to lement the molds. The process also works on iron and brass molds.

bfrshooter · « **Reply #75 on:** December 09, 2011, 04:42:36 AM »

There is one other thing that makes a bullet hard to drop from a mold and it only involves .001" to .002".
That is the cavity might not be centered in the block halves. The circle comes around a little on one half.

bilmac · « **Reply #76 on:** December 09, 2011, 05:32:54 AM »

There was a set of instructions somewhere that described how to take the burs off an iron mold. It involved just very lightly polishing the mold line. I did it to a Lyman 4 holer, and it did make the mold work a lot better. I guess I should quit belly aching about the one or two Lee molds that are trouble and have a go at fixing them.

I use Midway mold release an it helps quite a bit.

Frank2 · « **Reply #77 on:** December 09, 2011, 06:45:23 AM »

Lee molds work extremely well. I like Lee Co. I was weighing 3 different bullets I made from Lee's a few days ago. All are double cavity. All bullets are close in weight. One 45/70 mold bullets were within 1/2 grain and it's a shooter.

Jacko · « **Reply #78 on:** December 26, 2011, 10:07:42 PM »

Old thread I know Folks

I have a Lee .357 158 gr SWC mould and a Lee 310 grain .430 that I am very pleased with. They cast OK out of the box but I took the time too follow the Lee Menting process as mentioned in the Cast Boolits Forum sticky's. It made a huge difference to the performance of the moulds. I placed a 5/16" nut over each Cavity and poured molten wheel weights through this carefully so that it filled the nut to the top.

Next step in the process is a royal pain . You take the finest scribe you can and run it gently down every second Vent Line on each half of the Mould, this does help with Mould fillout. I then used a stout rubber band to hold the Mould handles closed with a uniform pressure and rubbed Gumption kitchen cleaning paste into the proj and cavity's and then gently turned each proj with a socket placed over the nut an equal number of turns. End result was a Mould that casts and drops perfect projectiles as all the Burrs and irregulrities as far as my naked eye was concerned are gone

I did the Gumption polishing trick with a Ranchdog 270 gr .432 6 Cavity Mould which is manufactured by Lee. As sais earlier the 6 Cavity Mouls are better built and it is proving a great Mould. Time will tell how long they will last. I have an Ideal Iron Mould and a Cast Bullets Engineering Brass Double Cavity Mould, hands down the CBE Mould is the better Mould but it cost me over $200 if you count the cost of the Mould Handles where you can buy a Lee 6 Cavity, Mould Handles and a Sizing Die for just over $100 including Postage

regards Jacko

revbc · « **Reply #79 on:** December 30, 2011, 05:07:14 PM »

kynardsj

Check out the Ranch Dog molds. They have a new 357 170gr tumble lube gas checked mold. All are Lee 6 cavity. Custom designed for Marlin rifles, they shoot great in my handi rifles.

I have 2, 190 gr .358 for my maxi & 290 gr .454 for my Casull.

Seem to work great.

goofyoldfart · « **Reply #80 on:** January 08, 2012, 05:29:33 PM »

OK, I'll sound off again. for the people that are into a LOT of cast shooting----well you probably do need to buy the better molds on the market. for what it's worth and being retired, I enjoy working on my molds and have used many of the tricks talked about in Lee-menting and they have helped with some of the Lee molds that have given me some trouble. Most of my lee molds are 30-40 years old and are still working fine. now I shoot maybe 10-20 thousand a year in all calibers. again I also have many other old molds, and they work well also. I like to shoot heavy for caliber, so I am thinking of using some LBT molds and other specialty mold makers molds for 44, 45LC,454 and 357Maxie. the reason is so that I can tailor the boolit for hunting with paper patched lead for knockdown AND accurately placed rounds. Bottom line is that I like to tinker with the whole process--boolit and weapon. and being retired I now have the time to play with my boy-toys (the wild women can all out run me and I don't drink). God Bless to all.

Goofy

bilmac · « **Reply #81 on:** January 09, 2012, 10:56:58 AM »

I leemented my crankiest 6 holer. I cast nuts to the base of 3 bullets and used some polishing media from a rock tumbler and spun the bullets in each hole like Jacko posted. I used a scribe to try to follow the vent lines in the mold, but there was no way, the lines were just too faint. So, I just scribed lines more or less at random from each cavity. Actually you want to do the scribing before you do the polishing so any burrs you make scribing will get polished out.

Wow what a difference. As soon as the molds separated the bullets just flew out. Before I had to shake and sometimes even pick bullets out. Even from the start it looked like I was getting 4 out of 6 perfect bullets. I tried scribing some more lines to the two stubborn cavities. It didn't help much. As the mold heated up they were getting better, but still not perfect. Before I leemented I was lucky to get 50% perfect bullets when everything was exactly right. After thinking about it after I quit casting I went back and scribed 4 lines to each of the stubborn cavities on the top of the mold. I bet that fixes those two holes, but my lead was cool by then so I didn't test the result.

41 mag · « **Reply #82 on:** January 09, 2012, 01:12:24 PM »

I know this is an older thread, but what the heck.

To be honest I have only recently gotten into casting. A couple of folks might recogonize my handle from the CB's site, and a few annoying PM's or emails...

The point I have with Lee is their molds have allowed me to purchase several different types, even in the six banger versions, and begin to produce some VERY shootable boolits. To be honest, I highly doubt that even had I spent the much additional cash, I would have known the differences in what I have cast with and what I could have cast with.

This said, as I get more into this, I have gained quite a bit more knowledge about the whole concept rather than simply buying one mold now and another sometime next year.

I have a BAD habit of jumping into things sometimes WAY too deeply, and for now with the half dozen or so mold I have, I can produce plenty of hunting boolits, and have spent the added cost for a top name mold on purchasing the basic ingredients of lead and gc's.

I am shooting the 300gr RF in my 454, and the 255gr RF in my 45 Colt. I also have a 200gr RF and 230gr RN, which both work very well in my 1911. The others are a 210gr in 41 and the 158gr RF in .357. While I ahve cast a few fro each the overall attention has been centered around my 454 and my 45 Colt. I have to say that if it weren't for the Lee products, that these would simply not be being shot due to being more or less cost prohibitive.

ratdog · « **Reply #83 on:** January 23, 2012, 09:43:14 PM »

swampman + 1 on the lee molds all mine are lee molds steel molds are way over priced the you have to buy the handles gee you get the handles when you buy a garbage can

Darrell Davis · « **Reply #84 on:** January 24, 2012, 06:33:09 AM »

Clearly this is the reason we have so many mold makers available.

There are Those who are delighted with the Lee product, and those like myself that would simply not buy a single or double cavity Lee mold unless the mold was for limited or short term use. Been there and done that.

I have a couple 6 cavity Lee molds, and they are OK for what I paid for them. Not great, but OK.

Of the steel or cast iron molds I have tried, RCBS are much better then the Lyman, as far as quality of construction. I wish they made bigger molds.

I have molds made by LBT and Bruce from the Cast Boolits forum, and yes they are more costly, but worth every penny.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

Rock Home Isle · « **Reply #85 on:** January 24, 2012, 06:45:37 AM »

Quote from: Swampman on October 31, 2009, 07:10:56 AM

I prefer Lee moulds personally. They are light and heat up fast.

I'll second that...

skarke · « **Reply #86 on:** February 07, 2012, 08:59:33 AM »

The key with Lee longevity is keeping that sprue plate lubed, and keeping them clean. If they are both, they'll last indefinitely, but not forever. I have a 45 228 that has many, many casts (probably 20k or more. I shows no sign of slowing. I also have a 358 125 that the alignment pin sleeve has come loose on. They fixed it. I have a soft bristled carding brush from Brownells that I use to keep mine clean, and it works like a champ. Lloyd makes more bullets in a year than most of us will make in our lifetime. His opinion counts to me.

They are less durable, but they are also a joy to work with because they heat quickly, cool quickly, and make bullets fast as can be done by me. Old Lymans, RCBS, etc. make beautiful bullets according to all accounts, but the one I had took me forever to make quantity (2 cavity RCBS 358 148WC).

The bullet designs aren't the best from Lee. The 358 158 is a good one, and the 452 228 feeds well in even my Trophy Match, though it's tight chamber means that seating with no scrapes is critical.

painted horse · « **Reply #87 on:** March 11, 2012, 10:04:38 AM »

I have a few Lee molds. They're alright, not as good as the Lyman and RCBS molds I have and I probably won't buy anymore of them. I can see why folks buy them though, a 6 cavity mold with handles for what, 50 bucks..hard to beat that for sure. But I'd rather spend 85 on what I consider a better quality 4 holer from Lyman that has better bullet designs. As for LLA, boy that stuff will never find it's way on any bullets of mine again. Whew....stinks, messy, I had bad leading with it, clogged up my seating and crimp die........the only thing I see it has going for it is it's easy to apply, after that nothing......

Darrell Davis · « **Reply #88 on:** March 11, 2012, 11:26:00 AM »

I agree on the Lee molds! Have a couple 6 holers because of the price. Will use them while they last.

Lyman and RCBS molds, well, the quality of the RCBS is better then the Lyman, Seems like I need a screw driver in my hand to keep the Lyman operating. Have both brands.

But wait until you get a quality "custom" mold from one of the makers like LBT.

Best molds I have ever used!

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot