Great Lee 356-105-SWC

[Cloudpeak]

This Lee 6 cavity is the best Lee I've owned, yet. Uniform bullets that drop easily with no smoking. Here's a group I shot the other day, 5 shots at 7 yards offhand with my new CZ Compact 9mm. I really like the CZ! Bullets are sized .358 and COAL is 1.02". Nice target/practice round for steel plates:-D

Cloudpeak

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v620/WyoBob/Targets/DSCN1581.jpg

[leftiye]

Excuse me but - da#%!

[Buckshot]

...................Isn't that just the cutest boolit[smilie=l:

...............Buckshot

[Lloyd Smale]

its allways been my favorite 38 bullet.

[Cloudpeak]

...................Isn't that just the cutest boolit[smilie=l:

...............Buckshot

He is a cute little guy, isn't he?

Lee says in it's literature this bullet, "Works great in 9mm Luger". Seems to sum things up pretty well:-D

I shot this bullet in my M&P and got a 4 shot group of .383" with the 5th shot being my standard flyer (in the M&P).
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=28262

I shot both tight groups without having any coffee in the morning. It's amazing what an effect coffee can have. I went out a day later with my normal "load" of coffee and the groups opened up.

BTW, I did the online trigger job on the CZ (I just polished the roughly machined surfaces. Didn't file or change angles on sear/trigger hooks) and my group sizes were cut in half. I didn't think the CZ trigger was that bad out of the box but it must have been.

Cloudpeak

[TexasJeff]

Excellent shooting. Looks like you have a good combination there between gun and boolit and load.

I just got in the Lee .358 105 SWC mould and am prepping it this evening. I plan to load some light occasional practice loads for my wife's S&W Airweight. Don't want her to shoot it much, but shoot it enough that she knows the trigger pull, aimpoint, etc etc. It's her carry gun. I have Model 19 she practices marksmanship with.

I'm also thinking of running those boolits through my .356 sizer and trying them in 9mm.

Jeff

[Cloudpeak]

Excellent shooting. Looks like you have a good combination there between gun and boolit and load.

I just got in the Lee .358 105 SWC mould and am prepping it this evening. I plan to load some light occasional practice loads for my wife's S&W Airweight. Don't want her to shoot it much, but shoot it enough that she knows the trigger pull, aimpoint, etc etc. It's her carry gun. I have Model 19 she practices marksmanship with.

I'm also thinking of running those boolits through my .356 sizer and trying them in 9mm.

Jeff

Jeff,

I'm going to shoot some of these little guys in my SP101 when I get time. I'm pretty sure the gun will shoot low with them but I'll see.

I sized the 105's to .358" and shot them in both the M&P and my CZ. The CZ slugs .356.

I hope your mold drops great bullets like mine does and they shoot well for you.

Cloudpeak

[Ricochet]

Wonder if that'd feed in an old WWII Star Model B?

[Lloyd Smale]

feeds in my sti trojan like butter

[JIMinPHX]

Wonder if that'd feed in an old WWII Star Model B?

The Lee RF boolits feed well in Star 9-largos. What caliber do you have?

[Ricochet]

9mm Parabellum. Largo's the Model A, Para's the Model B.

I just ordered a TL356-124-TC mould. Similar nose profile. Truncated cone bullets were common in early 9mm Para loads, so I expect Star would've been aware and made their pistols to handle it.

[JIMinPHX]

I lost track of the letter designations on Stars a long time ago. Some of the letter designations came in multiple calibers, others were single caliber only, but I forget which were which. The one model designation that I do remember to look for it the “super” variant, like a M-Super, B-Super etc. The Supers have a take down lever on the right side that you flip 180 degrees to release the slide from the frame. Disassembly of those is a snap. I think that they were also the only ones with the cam path barrels in place of the toggle link barrels, but I may be wrong about that.

In general, the old Stars are usually really good shooters, in any caliber, Super or standard variant. They are really nice guns & I don’t understand why they go for such reasonable prices so often.

One thing that I had to watch in the Largo Star, is that it was made with pretty tight clearances in the magazine. If I stuffed a heavy slug down to max COAL in the case, sometimes the brass (which is tapered in that caliber) would bulge slightly & no longer fit in the magazine. Cartridges that chambered with no problems would frequently not feed from the magazine if they had the heavy bullet bulge. I had good luck with 124-grain slugs, but no feeding from 147s. The 147s did fly fine if I loaded them one at a time by hand.

[JIMinPHX]

I just went back & looked up the Star letters

A, AS, Super A - .38-Super
B, BM, BS, Super B, 30M, 30PK, 31P, – 9 Parabellum
CU - .25 Auto
F, FM, FR, FS, FRS, HK - .22LR
H, I, SL, Super SL - .32 Auto
HN, IN, S, SM, Super S - .380
M, Super M – 9-Largo or .45ACP
P, PD, Super P - .45ACP

It’s a regular alphabet soup. That doesn’t even include the Firestars.

[JIMinPHX]

You can look up the year of manufacturer on a Star by the proof code numbers that are on it.

Spanish Year of Proof Codes
Proofmark Year Proofmark Year Proofmark Year
A 1927 A1 1955 A2 1981
B 1928 B1 1956 B2 1982
C 1929 C1 1957 C2 1983
CH 1930 CH1 Omitted CH2 Omitted
D 1931 D1 1958 D2 1984
E 1932 E1 1959 E2 1985
F 1933 F1 1960 F2 1986
G 1934 G1 1961 G2 1987
H 1935 H1 1962 H2 1988
I 1936 I1 1963 I2 1989
J 1937 J1 1964 J2 1990
K 1938 K1 1965 K2 1991
L 1939 L1 1966 L2 1992
LL 1940 LL1 Omitted LL2 Omitted
M 1941 M1 1967 M2 1993
N 1942 N1 1968 N2 1994
Ñ 1943 Ñ1 1969 Ñ2 1995
O 1944 O1 1970 02 1996
P 1945 P1 1971 P2 1997
Q 1946 Q1 1972 Q2 1998
R 1947 R1 1973 R2 1999
S 1948 S1 1974 S2 2000
T 1949 T1 1975 T2 2001
U 1950 U1 1976 U2 2002
V 1951 V1 1977 V2 2003
X 1952 X1 1978 X2 2004
Y 1953 Y1 1979 Y2 2005
Z 1954 Z1 1980 Z2 2006

[JIMinPHX]

That 356-105-SWC is one that I would really like to get. Unfortunately, I just can't justify buying another mould right now.

[GrizzLeeBear]

Great boolit! Very economical on our precious lead supplies. My GP-100 shoots groups like that at 50 feet with that boolit (I use it for indoor Bullseye competion). They drop right at .358 from my mold so I just tumble lube and load 'em. They shoot great out to 25 yds. but not at 50 yds. I switch to the 158-RF for 50 yd. bullseye targets and silhouettes out to 100 yds. Even in outdoor bullseye we shoot twice as many rounds at 25 (timed & rapid) as we do at 50 (slow fire), so I still shoot lots of these.

It's actually listed as a 358-105-swc, isn't it?

[Larry Gibson]

Wonderful little bullet that is extremely useful in semi autos like .380, 9mm and .38 Super. Would be great for the obsolete military 9mms also. My mould drops them at 361-362 when cast of a harder alloy. Makes it great for the 9mm Makarov and the .38 S&W. Cast of pretty soft alloy it is great in the .38 Special. Does really well in my Spanish Destroyer that I've set the barrel back so it is a .38 Super now. A very good mould.

Larry Gibson

[Ricochet]

Thanks for the proof codes, Jim! Mine is a D (I think, funny script), making it a 1931.

[armoredman]

I might try that boolit.

[Dale53]

That Lee 105 gr bullet works well in a couple of .380's I had. No feeding problems at all and seemed to get the accuracy that was in the pistols (they were a bit limited in that regard).

However, I have a friend with a Walther PPK that shoots match quality groups at 25 yards off a rest. I could never shoot mine long enough to find out. The blood loss precluded that (the slide made railroad tracks into the meat between thumb and forefinger). I traded the Walther for a Sig-Sauer P230. The Sig is a bit larger but it doesn't cause more damage to me than the target.

Unfortunately, the Sig doesn't shoot as well as my friends Walther (German). S&W new "Walthers" seem to have solved the problem with a redesigned grip. Good for them!!

Dale53

[Ricochet]

OW! Slide bite's a lot worse than hammer bite!

[Dale53]

OW! Slide bite's a lot worse than hammer bite!

You got that right!!:roll:

It's a real shame. Money was tight in those days and I had saved for a Walther for a long time - just to learn that I couldn't shoot it, anyway:(:(.

Guess that goes back to "Be careful what you wish for?"

Dale53

[Ricochet]

I'd thought about that recently while looking at some of the tiny pocket .380s, like the Cobra Freedom CA-380. Not sure how well my big hands could hold onto that.

I have a scab on my hand right now from my Star Model B's hammer.