lee .303 mould

[flyingstick]

Hi folks, I'm new to the forum and new to casting bullets for use with smokeless powder. I have a No.1 Mk3 .303 enfield that I've been reloading for years and since I've been casting my round balls and conicals for my muzzleloaders I thought I would enjoy casting .303's. Anyway, I slugged the barrel on the enfield and bought Lee's .303 185-R mould. The bands on the cast bullet measure out
.312 but the front of the bullet from the top band forward only measures .300 .
Is this mould designed this way? or did I get sent the wrong mould?
:confused:

[grumpy one]

Most bullet moulds have a body (where the driving bands are) and a nose. The driving bands are separated by lube grooves. There are no lube grooves on the nose.

There is a specific type of bullet which has no nose - the driving bands and lube grooves continue to the front of the bullet. This type is called Loverin after its designer/inventor.

I won't get into the relative merits of the two types - there are serious experts on the subject on this board. Regarding the most common type, with driving bands and a nose, the nose is nominally supposed to be the same diameter as the bore. That way it can support the front of the bullet but does not require lube grooves. Lube on the part of the bullet that projects beyond the case neck is a bit of a pain because it catches dirt, which is bad for the barrel. I won't go into the concept of not putting lube on these front grooves, which may be controversial.

So, your bullet nose should fit the bore of your rifle, not the groove diameter. In theory the bore is about .303, so the nose is a bit small. Whether this matters depends on how long the unsupported nose is relative to the length of the body (i.e. the part with driving bands).

[grouch]

My Lee 303 mold has a .303 nose. I suspect they sent you the wrong mold.

[longbow]

You should slug your barrel to find the bore and and groove diameters.

Personally I think the bore riding nose needs to be well supported so should be a tight fit in the bore and preferably engrave a little. The driving bands should be slightly over groove diameter (0.001" to 0.002").

I have been working up loads for a couple of .303's and found that one is 0.303" bore and 0.314"groove. The other is 0.304"+ bore and about 0.314" groove.

I have tried the Lyman 31141 which drops from the mould at 0.311", a borrowed Lyman 314299 which cast at 0.312" and I purchased a Lyman 314299 which cast a little larger at 0.313". None give very good accuracy with any load tried so far. All were loose fit of nose to bore.

I have since lapped the Lyman 314299 to 0.305" nose and 0.315" body. This is showing promise and groups are shrinking.

Also, I have been using air cooled wheelweights which are probably too soft. I will be heat treating some bullets for testing soon.

My .308 shoots well with the Lyman 31141 of air cooled wheelweights, gas checked and over 22 gr. of 4227. My .303's are definitely harder to please but I'm pretty sure bullet fit and hardness are the issues.

If you haven't seen it check out this site: http://www.303british.com/ lots of good info.

Good luck.
Longbow

[flyingstick]

Thanks for the information. Lee's website said you can lube paper and apply to each end of the mould and open it up to .010 more without any change to accuracy. I did this and enlarged my nose to .307 but the gas checks won't seat now. Back to the lead I guess.

[grumpy one]

You can lap the mould to increase the diameter of the nose without changing either the driving bands or the gas check area. However it does sound as if your mould may not be to specification, and talking to Lee might be a better option than lapping, which is more or less advanced work - not all that difficult, but a one-way trip that ruins your mould unless you do everything correctly the first time.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I have a set of six original BSA 303 bore gauges. These range from .300 to .305. Among my 17 x SMLE's most gauge in the 302/3 range, I have a near new No4 barrel (2 groove) that gauges 300 and my cast boolit rifle that gauges 301.

I use a CBE 190gn boolit that has a nose 303 and body of 314 (Shown Center) The additional grooves on the nose are engraved at loading.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/Rifle_Cast.jpg

[longbow]

Those are nice looking bullets!

[Ricochet]

Yeah, they do look cool!

[KCSO]

I too bought the Lee mould for a 303 many years ago and have found few rifles the mould will work well in without serious modification. The nose is too small and for most 303's the body at 312 cast diameter is to small as I want at least 1-2 thou over the barrel diameter and a 313-317 bullet is what is needed in most cases. I lapped and beagled my mould and got the body up to 313 and then i made a reamer and re cut the front of the mould to a 303 dia round nose. I figure that with the labor and such I could have bought a custom mould and saved money. The Lee mould is about perfect for a tight 30 cal such as the Swiss.

[nelsonted1]

I had to jump to an 8mm .326 mold and force the bullets through a .315 sizing die to get my 303 to shoot. Worked surprisingly well.

[PPpastordon]

nelsonted1;
I know quite a few things that have turned out "surprisingly well." But, in truth, some were actually pretty crappy but did not murder or injure anyone - and that made it, well, surprisingly well!
Can you tell us a little more about this particular "surprisingly well?" Like, maybe, accuracy?

PPpastordon

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Those are nice looking bullets!
:roll: Oops they are actually samples from my rejects!
7mm RCBS has wrinkles on the nose, 303's have rounded grease grooves, likewise 180gn RCBS on the right.

[wdm004]

Thanks for the information. Lee's website said you can lube paper and apply to each end of the mould and open it up to .010 more without any change to accuracy. I did this and enlarged my nose to .307 but the gas checks won't seat now. Back to the lead I guess.

fly,

I just ran across this on another forum (link below). He had a .303 mould that needed added diameter. So, like you, he opened his mould up to fit his bore and found that his gas checks wouldn't fit anymore. He used a round-head screw chucked in his drill press to open up his gas checks. Voila! The .30 caliber gas checks now fit his widened .303 boolits. Scroll almost to the end for gc text/pics.
Link: http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting/castingcouch/index.asp

enjoy,
Dan

[flyingstick]

Thanks 004, that is a neat idea I'm sure I'll use in the future.