Lee 358-125gn rf

[sig2009]

I finally got a Lee mold that casts larger diameter bullets. Got the new Lee 358-125gnrf 38 spcl mold yesterday. Casted a bunch today and to my suprise they all cast at .360-.361. I plan on loading these for 9mm sized at .357/.358 seeing that the Lee .356-120 tc would never cast larger than .356. They are perdy!

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c280/jsenuta/IMGP0979.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c280/jsenuta/IMGP0981.jpg

[theperfessor]

I love that bullet over 6.8 to 7.0 grs of Blue Dot in my HiPower. Hope you have success with it also.

[sig2009]

Keith. I hope I have better luck with these. Your 9mm flat point punch that I bought from you should work with these? What diameter did you have to size for the Hi Power?

[SlowSmokeN]

What is your OAL for this boolit in 9mm. Loaded some up and was getting some jams. Not sure if it was my OAL or just a problem with the flat point.

Going to this round also ended the leading problem I was having.

[hardy]

They surely are good looking.May I ask where You got the mould?Reason I ask is your Picture Looks a little different(nose profile& Flat base) compared to Lee,s & Grafs Pics.
Have Fun,Mike.

[sig2009]

What is your OAL for this boolit in 9mm. Loaded some up and was getting some jams. Not sure if it was my OAL or just a problem with the flat point.

Going to this round also ended the leading problem I was having.

From what I understand these have to be loaded short due to contacting the ogive too soon. I have not loaded any. Probably tomorrow. I am thinking somewhere around 1.050. I'll have to do the drop test in the barrel to see what works.

[SlowSmokeN]

When you find out please post

thanks

[sig2009]

They surely are good looking.May I ask where You got the mould?Reason I ask is your Picture Looks a little different(nose profile& Flat base) compared to Lee,s & Grafs Pics.
Have Fun,Mike.

Got the mold from Grafs. Lee 6 cavity. If you look on the Lee website at their mold profile it is the same as the mold I got.

[sig2009]

What is your OAL for this boolit in 9mm. Loaded some up and was getting some jams. Not sure if it was my OAL or just a problem with the flat point.

Going to this round also ended the leading problem I was having.

I sized some today to .357 and loaded a dummy round to 1.010. At that point it is just above the crimp groove. I did notice something interesting that I didn't expect. I bought the Lyman .358 sizer and I noticed when I sized the bullet it was swaging the lead just above the crimp groove on the bullet. I adjusted the sizer die rod to the highest position and it was still swaging the lead on the bullet itself. When a changed to the .357 swage die it swaged the bullet just above the crimp groove a little more. I don't know what to make of this!

Also I pulled a round I had loaded to check to see if the case swaged the bullet down and it did indeed to .355. So I guess tomorrow I will have to swap out the powder funnel/belling die to the 38 spcl and go from there. If the 38 powder funnel expander does not work it looks like reloading cast lead for the 9mm will be a thing of the past because nothing else will work and it will have become more work that it really should be to get this to work!

[SlowSmokeN]

I used a 38/357 die to seat the boolit. if you use a 9mm die it could or will swage the boolit. When I loaded 49 of mine for a test I seated at the base of the crimp groove. I think I was at 1.050. I was having a problem with them jamming at the ramp.

It made me think I was seating them to deep. I wonder what would happen if they were seated right above the lube grove giving a 9mm factory OAL.

I was given the boolits and don't have the mold yet. Hoping to order this week. I was nice to shoot and not have lead in my barrel.

[runfiverun]

ryan:
if you are talking about the ones i sent you, they are different than those ones.
the mold pic i showed you [the lee] is the closest to the mold i have that i could find.
the pic did look to have more of a flat and a slightly shorter nose than the ones sig is showing.
the concept will be the same though.
diameter,oal for feeding,loading technique, and load development.
then luube if there is an issue.

[NuJudge]

I size them .358" or .359" for my Beretta barrels.

I do have some other 9mm pistols that will not chamber a cartridge loaded with a .358" bullet. Nine millimeter loading dies have given me no difficulty with .359" and .359" bullets.

I use these bullets with a light charge of WW231, and get stellar results.

[338RemUltraMag]

Glad to see people are having success, I got some of these off my grandfather and seated them to 1.080 if I remember right, (i know the case is in the middle of the driving band behind the crimp groove), at that OAL they feed from my mag good and when ejected you can just see 4 marks of the rifling. This is gonna be lit off with a 5 gr charge of true blue. I will try to post the results in this thread if I can find it again

[theperfessor]

I had that in a two cavity version that dropped right about .357-.3575 below the crimp groove and just a hair smaller above the crimp groove. I seated them with the crimp groove flush with case mouth and all was good. Like it so much a bought a six holer. Oops! It drops about .001 larger all the way and when I size it down to .3575 it sizes up past the crimp groove. It's just enough to hang up on chamber mouth. I had already disposed of the two holer so now I have to seat deeper than I'd like.

Plan to make a die that I can run a seated round in to reduce nose by another .001 w/o sizing rest of bullet down. Right now I'm buried up to ears in job and in spare time finishing group buy on nose first sizer sets but (famous last words) one of these days...

Yes I do use one of my own flat nose punches in my old 450 for sizing.

[sig2009]

Keith,
So when you loaded these you had the crimp groove fully exposed to the case mouth or covered the crimp groove completely? If I load these with the crimp groove totally covered the oal is 1.010 which seems a little short. If I load them with the crimp groove totally exposed they would be oal around 1.050 which would be in the range of the Lee 356-120 tc bullet. I'll have to experiment today and see if the longer oal will chamber.

[runfiverun]

i always go as long as i can get to feed reliably.
a brass flinger isn't much good if it won't get them in the chamber.

[sig2009]

I sized some today to .357 and loaded a dummy round to 1.010. At that point it is just above the crimp groove. I did notice something interesting that I didn't expect. I bought the Lyman .358 sizer and I noticed when I sized the bullet it was swaging the lead just above the crimp groove on the bullet. I adjusted the sizer die rod to the highest position and it was still swaging the lead on the bullet itself. When a changed to the .357 swage die it swaged the bullet just above the crimp groove a little more. I don't know what to make of this!

Also I pulled a round I had loaded to check to see if the case swaged the bullet down and it did indeed to .355. So I guess tomorrow I will have to swap out the powder funnel/belling die to the 38 spcl and go from there. If the 38 powder funnel expander does not work it looks like reloading cast lead for the 9mm will be a thing of the past because nothing else will work and it will have become more work that it really should be to get this to work!

I tried using the 38/357 powder funnel to bell case mouth on the 9mm cases to prevent the lead from swaging as it is being seated. Unfortunately by the time the die is screwed down far enough for the powder funnel to bell the case it is already sitting on the shell plate. So that does not work!

[Bardo]

I tried using the 38/357 powder funnel to bell case mouth on the 9mm cases to prevent the lead from swaging as it is being seated. Unfortunately by the time the die is screwed down far enough for the powder funnel to bell the case it is already sitting on the shell plate. So that does not work!

Here is a sticky on the mod. for the 38/357 to 9mm.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=124464

Bardo

[sig2009]

Here is a sticky on the mod. for the 38/357 to 9mm.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=124464

Bardo

Ya. I read that but unfortunately do not have the tools to go that.

[SlowSmokeN]

This is a great boolit. Loaded up 50 of them and shot them out of my 1911 with no leading. I should have started with this mold.

[wtfooptimax200]

Has anyone tried this bullet in a 38 Spl? I was thinking about buying the mold to try it, it seems like it would work well in that application.

[sig2009]

Has anyone tried this bullet in a 38 Spl? I was thinking about buying the mold to try it, it seems like it would work well in that application.

I have a bunch of these cast for 9mm that I won't be using because if they are sized they start swaging lead from the base of the bullet just above the crimp groove if sized to .357 or .358. I am going to get a .359 sizing die and see if that takes care of the problem. If it does I will size to .359 and use for 38 spcl.

[reloader28]

I love this boolit.
Works great in 380, 9mm and 38spl.
I only tried one load in 38spl and it was about 4gr Bullseye. It shot very good to start with.

[TCoggins]

I use a similar bullet from Dardas and Missouri Bullet Co for 38 specials. I am thinking about buying the two cavity version of that Lee mold, and trying my hand at casting.

If they work as well as the store bought bullets, I'll be pleased.

Tim

[crabo]

Has anyone tried this bullet in a 38 Spl? I was thinking about buying the mold to try it, it seems like it would work well in that application.

Works great with 3.5 of bullseye in a special case.

[rollmyown]

Are you guys substituting the whole sizing die for a 38/357 die or just the expander ball?

[mistermog]

Wow those are beautiful casts... very shiny and uniform looking. I'm jealous.

[SlowSmokeN]

Are you guys substituting the whole sizing die for a 38/357 die or just the expander ball?


I am only substituting the seating die. I find the 38/357 works better to seat the boolit. For some reason when I was using the 9mm seating die the case or boolit would hang up as it was coming out.