which mold?

[Greg_R]

Going to start loading for a SKS, Yugoslavian if that makes a difference. Which Lee .312 mold do I need, the tumble lube or the standard lube groove one? I believe the standard lube one is preferred, but I have been transitioning to TL?

[GhostHawk]

I have and shoot both the Lee .312 155 gr and .312 185 gr both gas checked and traditional lube grooves.

In my Yugo I have had my best results with the big 185 grain over mild charges of IMR 4895.

But, I also have been using more and more tumble lube. Especially Ben's Liquid Lube.

Slug your barrel, size bullets a thousandth or 3 larger, and any of those molds will work.

[Greg_R]

I have never shot a gas checked bullet, these will be. I am hearing that on the tumble lube bullet, it is longer and the gas check in out of the neck and in the body, which is an undesirable condition?

[Yodogsandman]

Seating the boolit below the case neck is undesirable but, not that big of a deal. What small difference there might be, will never be noticed in an SKS.

Please slug your chamber before deciding which boolit would be best. I found that my Yugo SKS chamber slugged at .315". I'm currently experimenting with the NOE 314-160 Harris designed boolit.

Don't be afraid of using regular lube groove boolits with tumble lube. I just did a mini torture test with Ben's Liquid Lube (BLL) using the Lee 312-155-2R, oven heat treated, at an estimated 2500 FPS in a FR-8, 7.62x51 with no leading.

Best loads for me, so far with the Yugo SKS's, have been with Reloader 7 and IMR4895.