356 LEE molds wont fit my 9mm pistols

[WasrNwarpaint]

Gentlemen Im having a little issue........
seems like the LEE 9mm molds are all 356 dia, I have tried the round nosed parabellum and the cone shaped LEE molds to cast 9mm
neither of these will reliably fit my pistols they seem to hit the beginning of the rifling and and some will jamb the slide from closing all the way, some bullets I cant manually eject by pulling back the slide, it pulls the bullet out of the case and the lead slug stays in the barrel.

Its not the AOL I have matched the length to the jacketed manufactured bullets that ALL work....I have also reduced the AOL to no avail.

its seems its the dia as the store bought ammo 354 dia. jacketed give me NO trouble
is there an alternative to buying jacketed bullets to reload my own....I have 600-800 lbs of lead and it tweaks me to think I need to buy slugs

thanks for looking

[Packy]

Might be a crimp problem. I have 6 9mms, I size 357 or 358. Crimp enough to get rid of the flare, and they all work. How are you sizing the bullets?

[Tar Heel]

I will save you a LOT of time. Get a Lyman 120gr TC bullet mold. Remember this reply 9 months from now.

144995

[stubert]

If you are pulling out the bullet when ejecting, they are to long, or to fat, or to large an expander, or not enough crimp.

[gwpercle]

Need a few more details and photo's of you reloads would also help.
What gun are trying to load for, what is your load, diameter of boolits, sized and lubed or powder coated, type of dies?
The 9mm can be troublesome , but once you get it figured out then things will be fine. The 9mm is the only round that gave me trouble getting to work. My first big mistake was undersized boolits, my second error was not seating them deep enough...AOL be hanged, if they pull out upon ejection and if they keep the slide from closing ...they aren't deep enough. They have to go deeper .
I use the following Lee boolits: 105 gr. SWC, 120 gr. TC , 124 gr. RN. , all sized to .357 and seated deep enough to pass the plunk test and to be ejected properly. I put 5 or 6 in a magazine and manually work them through the gun, if they feed and eject, then we go to the range.
At first I didn't seat deep enough because I was afraid of compressing the powder but there is more room in there than you think, you have to seat them deep enough to work .
Gary

[fredj338]

Gentlemen Im having a little issue........
seems like the LEE 9mm molds are all 356 dia, I have tried the round nosed parabellum and the cone shaped LEE molds to cast 9mm
neither of these will reliably fit my pistols they seem to hit the beginning of the rifling and and some will jamb the slide from closing all the way, some bullets I cant manually eject by pulling back the slide, it pulls the bullet out of the case and the lead slug stays in the barrel.

Its not the AOL I have matched the length to the jacketed manufactured bullets that ALL work....I have also reduced the AOL to no avail.

its seems its the dia as the store bought ammo 354 dia. jacketed give me NO trouble
is there an alternative to buying jacketed bullets to reload my own....I have 600-800 lbs of lead and it tweaks me to think I need to buy slugs

thanks for looking

Well you can't use factory jacketed OAL, the bullets aren't the same. OAL, always bullet & barrel specific. This will be a problem with any lead bullet, not just those from Lee. Adjust the OAL so the bullet fits. If there is still an issue, are you sizing? If the bullets are coming out much more than 0.3565"-0.357" as cast, they need to be sized to that.

[WasrNwarpaint]

Well you can't use factory jacketed OAL, the bullets aren't the same. OAL, always bullet & barrel specific. This will be a problem with any lead bullet, not just those from Lee. Adjust the OAL so the bullet fits. If there is still an issue, are you sizing? If the bullets are coming out much more than 0.3565"-0.357" as cast, they need to be sized to that.

I have shortened the AOL till It cant be shortened any more!.....

seems I have been too naive thinking these 2 LEE molds I bought measured in thousands would be the correct size I need..so I need more tools to get to the size of the molds I bought hmmmm. I found a LEE 9mm whack a mole reloading tool in my dads old gun case....the more I read the more $ I need to invest to make reliable 9mm reloads...frankly I wont live long enough to recoup the all the expenses that will be incurred to accomplish this....Im going to just buy my bullets , this isnt worth the money ive spent to date for me personally ..

thanks for the replies

[Larry Gibson]

The fact the Lee moulds are listed at "356" is not really mean they will cast out that size. Are you sizing your cast bullets? If so what are you sizing your cast bullets at?

Larry Gibson

[stubert]

Don't give up so easy, You have a mechanical issue. They are the easiest to fix.

[Ausglock]

don't load your ammo to match factory jacketed ammo. Load to suit your gun. The throat of your barrel will determine the OAL of your ammo.
Seat the bullet until the slide will easily close on the ammo and the loaded round can be easily ejected by racking the slide.

Do this with dummy rounds......

[WasrNwarpaint]

yes thanks guys......
just mic'd the lead out of brand new molds neither molds are even close slugs are out of round 6 thou
I have no desire to invest a small fortune in reloading press and sizing dies etc just to get a bullet the correct dia....
again I wont live long enough to recoup the investment...I just thought the LEE tools would actually work
thanks again

[bedbugbilly]

What do your loaded cartridges measure at the throat? Are they within spec? Revmove your barrel and try the plunk test. If you are having problems - hey won't pass that either. Use a felt marker and mark a loaded cartridge - on the slug and on the neck - put it in the barrel and see where it rubs - that will tell you a lot.

I'm betting it's a crimp problem. If it's a short chamber throat - that will show up on your slug - IF your are loaded to the correct OAL. What diameter boolit are you using. Just because it's a 356 mold, doesn't mean that they drop at .356. My Lee 356-120 - TC drops at around .358 or a tad over.

Do you have a "cartridge gauge"? If not - one would be very helpful. It will tell you if your loaded cartridge is within specs. If it is, it should work. What are you using to take your measurements to compare the "store bought" to the "home made"? Calipers or micrometer? The micrometer will give you a much more accurate measurement.

If you cast are dropping too big . . . you may have to size them down.

I load my Lee 356-120 TC to a COAL of 1.055"
I load my Ideal/Lyman 358-242 121 gr RN to 1.045"

They cycle just fine in my SR9 and Shield.

You may be loading you cast to the jacketed COAL - but remember, they are not the same bullets nor are the profiles exactly the same.

I'd start from scratch - check you cast diameter and size if needed. Then load some dummy rounds (no primer/no powder) and see if they chamber when loaded to the correct COAL for the boolits you are using. Check your dies to make sure they are adjusted correctly. Seat and crimp in two separate operations. First make sure you are seating to the right depth, then when you go to crimp, slowly adjust your crimp die/stem - take the dummy round out of the press and check it in your barrel or a cartridge gauge - then keep adjusting the crimp until it passes the plunk test or seats in the cartridge gauge with the base flush with the top of the gauge. I'm betting it is more of a crimp problem and seating depth problem more than anything else. I not longer size my TC or RN - they drop at .358 or so and I just load 'em and shoot them.

Don't get frustrated - you'll figure it out and once you do, save your dummy rounds that are seated and crimped correctly to use whenever you set your dies up again. Good luck!

[WasrNwarpaint]

my time is worth waaay more than this, I will run a local ad for a reloader that wants to trade my supplies and lead for finished product thats reliable fitting

this is my fault I didnt do my homework, I found a cheapo reload kit and thought it would work if I bought a mold

thanks again for all the replies

[Artful]

I would start with store bought cast or plated just to make it easy on yourself

[jmort]

No matter what mold you are using, you need to be able to size your bullets. Sounds like casting is not a good fit for you as it is unrealistic to avoid sizing 100% of the time. I like to run all my cast bullets through a sizer.

[rsrocket1]

my time is worth waaay more than this, I will run a local ad for a reloader that wants to trade my supplies and lead for finished product thats reliable fitting

You already have a press.
You don't want to invest about $17.98 for a 0.356" sizing kit (http://www.titanreloading.com/lube-sizing-kit/356-lee-bullet-lubricating-sizing-kit) and are willing to give up on casting because you don't want to spend a little time to make your bullets work?

You should stick with plated and jacketed bullets. Clearly this casting stuff ain't for you.

If you want help, feel free to ask, I am sure you can get that mold to work if you have the patience.

It may be you have lead splashes between the blocks, it may be your casting technique needs refining. There is enough knowledge and experience on this board to figure out just about any problems you already have with your casting as well as any other problems you will have if/when you shoot them, but fixing attitude is not one of them.

Casting is not worth the time for someone whose time is way more valuable than saving 10 cents a shot.

[WasrNwarpaint]

You already have a press.
You don't want to invest about $17.98 for a 0.356" sizing kit (http://www.titanreloading.com/lube-sizing-kit/356-lee-bullet-lubricating-sizing-kit) and are willing to give up on casting because you don't want to spend a little time to make your bullets work?

You should stick with plated and jacketed bullets. Clearly this casting stuff ain't for you.

If you want help, feel free to ask, I am sure you can get that mold to work if you have the patience.

It may be you have lead splashes between the blocks, it may be your casting technique needs refining. There is enough knowledge and experience on this board to figure out just about any problems you already have with your casting as well as any other problems you will have if/when you shoot them, but fixing attitude is not one of them.

Casting is not worth the time for someone whose time is way more valuable than saving 10 cents a shot.

its easy to see you didnt read my post, I dont have a press

[dudel]

You already have a press.
You don't want to invest about $17.98 for a 0.356" sizing kit (http://www.titanreloading.com/lube-sizing-kit/356-lee-bullet-lubricating-sizing-kit) and are willing to give up on casting because you don't want to spend a little time to make your bullets work?

You should stick with plated and jacketed bullets. Clearly this casting stuff ain't for you.

Casting is not worth the time for someone whose time is way more valuable than saving 10 cents a shot.


He doesn't have a press. He's using a Lee whack-a-mole. Add another $30 for a small Lee C press to the cost of the sizing kit.

Whack a mole works, but it's not a great way to make quantities of ammo if your time has much value.

If you want to reload at low cost, I see two options. 1) use plated bullets (don't get a press or sized, sell off molds, lead, etc) 2) Spent another $50 for a small press and Lee sizer. Note, that if you don't know the bore size, a standard Lee sizer may not be the correct size to avoid leasing. First option is probably easiest.

[Artful]

its easy to see you didnt read my post, I dont have a press
Then what are you using to reload your ammunition on?

[rsrocket1]

Sorry, I thought you loaded these boolits. It appears you are only using the Lee whack a mole hammered loader. For 9mm and you don't want to waste time???!!!

I assumed that in your first message that you loaded these on a press and not the whack-a-mole.

I still stand by my statement. If you don't want to do this the right way and would rather rant, reloading and casting especially is not for you. If you want to learn, this is a good place.

Honestly, once you get the casting down right and the bullet fit right, you can cast over 500 bullets in an hour using less than 10 pounds of your lead, powder coat and size them in another 2 hours and load 100 bullets for a cost of another $4 for powder and primers in about an hour (with a single stage press, not the whack a mole). With a progressive, you can load those same bullets in about 15 minutes.

It's fun and gratifying to successfully cast and load your own ammo, but there is a learning curve and it does require patience and it's not for everyone.

[DougGuy]

OP, you could quite possibly send the barrel and have it throated. It would then gladly accept your cast boolits and the cost is cheaper than a sizing die! As long as the barrel isn't one of the black oxide Tenifer hardened barrels I can throat it. They shoot quite well afterwards.

This is a .45 barrel but it will serve the same purpose to illustrate what "throating" the barrel does. Stock barrel on left, you can see there is virtually no "freebore" and the boolit will jam right into the leade in to the rifling, and what freebore is there, will not accept a boolit of .452" diameter. The right side photo is the same barrel after it was throated with a Manson throating reamer, the freebore is on a 3° taper, it is .4525" in diameter and the longer freebore does promote less pressure and a little greater velocity simply by virtue of the fact that there is less resistance when the boolit begins it's movement into the bore, there is considerably less leading and groups shrink appreciably. This procedure will fix your 9mm barrel for shooting cast boolits up to .358" if you want to go that far.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Cylinder%20Services/Both1_zps194dd462.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Cylinder%20Services/Both1_zps194dd462.jpg.html)

[dudel]

Sorry, I thought you loaded these boolits. It appears you are only using the Lee whack a mole hammered loader. For 9mm and you don't want to waste time???!!!

I assumed that in your first message that you loaded these on a press and not the whack-a-mole.


No reason for dinging the OP because he's using a whack-a-mole. He did specify that he was using it. I have a few whack-a-mole loaders myself (as do many here). I enjoy using them time to time for working up test loads. The whack-a-mole just limits your options. Like using a camera phone vs a DSLR.

OP's just trying to shoot more and spend less (like most of us).