LEE .54 round ball moulds?

[Canuck Bob]

The rifle is a Lyman flint lefty Deerstalker in .54.

Wondering about the quality of LEE round ball moulds first. Thier ad info about hobbing with a carbide ball makes sense but.....?

My initial use has been Speer 535 balls. Tight but shoot real well. Now I want to experiment with easier loading light loads. The .54 is a powder burner and can kick some. I was thinking smaller ball and thicker patch might be accurate with reduced loads. I'd like a slap on the starter and a smooth push home for the patched ball.

Are round balls prone to buffeting when travelling through the speed of sound zone like long bullets?

[Dean D.]

I use a Lee .530 RB mould with a muslin or pillow ticking patch in my .54 flinter. The Lee mould casts good balls for the price.

Every gun seems to have it's own preference on what combo of ball/patch/powder to use. For target work I normally use 70gr. FFG. For hunting I've found 90gr. FFG to be very accurate in that gun but if I go higher my groups expand.

Just my experiences, YMMV

[NickSS]

I use Lee round ball molds in several calibers including .311, .440. .454. 490, 530 and .562. I have had good luck with all of them and have used them for both hunting and competition shooting.

[Jim]

I have a GPR in .54 caplock. I started off using a Lee .530 RB. The rifle just refused to work with that, regardless of powder charge or patch type/thickness. I switched to a .535 RB. I finally found the load. 80 grains of 777 in 3fG with a .016 linen patch lubed with straight b'wax. Off the bench, I can put 'em in a 6 inch bull all day at a hundred yards.

[iron brigade]

i have several lee molds and they are easy to work with.

[kjg]

Lee molds are easy to use and care for and reasonable, just follow the recomended lube practice and they'll work for a long time. Kjg

[Fly]

I have a Lyman GPR in 54 cal & use a lee .530 mold with a .018 pillow tick patch.I will
shoot a tick off a deers butt at 50 yds.
Fly

[Gunfixer]

I ended up with a lee .527 and .015 patch in my lefty 54 TC New Englander. easy as has been said, cheap, and it shoots 3 into a quarter size hole at 50yds.

ps if you ever want to git rid of that flinter, let me know

[northmn]

For round ball Lee molds are pretty good. I bought one for my smoothbore that was only .002 out of round as compared to the .004 of another one I had. They are all a little out of round. When I shot competition I used Lee molds and had some very tight groups. Often one big hole at 50 yards off X sticks. Using Lee molds, for nit picking accuracy I would cast from one cavity out of the double cavity mold. All molds can also vary between cavities. For off hand work and normal use, cast from both cavities. All I can say about the speed of sound thing is that ML's with RB all generally are shot over the speed of sound. Most quite considerably.
DP

[Canuck Bob]

Thanks guys, a LEE it is. Casting ingots this weekend for the first time. Casting soft lead ingots next week and then some 54 balls (always feel a little odd writing round balls, kinda like Twain's comment about senators and idiots).

[45-70 Chevroner]

Canuck Bob: I have Lee molds for all my ML'r. I have found that most of them drop balls that are more round than either of my RCBS and Lyman RB molds