Want to trial Lee Precision TL356-124-2R projectiles

[Fusedbrain]

Hi, I'm looking to start casing Lee TL356-124-2R for my CZ Shadow 2. I'm hesitant to buy the 6 cavity mold until I've had a chance to trial it in my Shadow 2.

I'm wondering if anyone would be willing so send me some unsized, uncoated samples from their mold.

I would of course cover all costs.

Thanks,
Fusedbrain

[poppy42]

I would be willing to cast some and trade with ya. Send me a pm with how many ya want and what ya have to trade. If ya are interested. I have the Lee 356-124-2r mold. A Lee 356 -124-TC mold both with tumble lube groves. And I also have Lee 356-125 grn-2R older mold with conventional lube groves! I can size at .356 and tumble lube with Ben’s liquid lube or if you would rather have the 125 grn boolets I can size at .356 and lube with Ben’s Red on my Lyman 45. Just pm me with what ya want, how many ya want, and what ya got to trade.
I look forward to hearing from ya,
Ray Jankoski
Poppy42

[Al_Bundy]

i'd be willing to help ya out as well as someone on this forum did for me in the past. Great community to be a part of. i have mine powdercoated and ready to be seated.

[Fusedbrain]

Hi, poppy42 and Al_Bundy. Thank you for reaching out. I've been lurking on this site for a bit now. I decided to finally register recently. The information on these forums in amazing.

[poppy42]

Hi, poppy42 and Al_Bundy. Thank you for reaching out. I've been lurking on this site for a bit now. I decided to finally register recently. The information on these forums in amazing.

Like I said I’ll be glad to help out just send me a pm!

[DougGuy]

I might as well weigh in here before someone suggests having the barrel throated if it doesn't plunk the loads you assemble for it. This would be the proper thing to do with most any auto pistol barrel so you can load out to the COA you want to, and also the diameter boolit you want to size to.

Unfortunately with the Shadow 2, CZ chose to case harden the barrels, and it is V E R Y difficult to throat. The surface hardness of these barrels makes Glock salt bath hardening look like mild steel by comparison.

In cutting the crown for this barrel on the lathe, I used a new carbide cutter and when applied against the muzzle, it SQUEALED very loudly and did nothing more than shine the muzzle until it broke through the casehard.

The difficulty in the throat arrives in using a carbide reamer the leade ins to the lands is rather easily broken down and cut into the softer steel under the hardened outer layer. However, the freebore, which needs to be larger in diameter and also longer in length, is very difficult to get a reamer to take a skim cut, a shaving if you will, as there is not enough of a cut being made for it to get a good bite, it never breaks through the case hard layer and the reamer basically spalls the cut edges, rolling the edge itself over and now I have a $300 carbide reamer that is pretty much ruined as it won't cut properly in other barrels that are hardened with salt bath processes.

I throated one Shadow 2 barrel with a brand new carbide reamer and it never even cut the freebore at all. I am quite reluctant to take in another one. It just is too difficult to make it practical. A different process that would use a small internal tool post grinder would work in this case, but I have not perfected this process and even fabricating a mount and buying an air driven mandrel and mounting it on the tool post of the lathe would be cost prohibitive, and then I would have to use shaped abrasives to get the right taper and leade ins to the lands. It basically involves mounting a high precision high torque dremel tool to a lathe, and then carefully and slowly guessing at it until it looked and measured like it should.

The time involved in coming up with the tooling and the cost to do the r&d, and then the machine work to the barrel would make the cost of an expensive aftermarket barrel look very attractive.

I put up this post not to deter loading for the Shadow 2, but to outline the difficulties in modifying this particular barrel to plunk and shoot .358" boolits seated to a decent COA. This is definitely one that I would urge the owners to use every resource at hand to make it work as issued from the factory. Or install an aftermarket barrel that will very easily respond to throating it to shoot the loads you would like to assemble instead of being forced to live with the limitations of the factory Shadow 2 barrel.

[Taterhead]

Wow, Doug Guy that was an informative read. I've learned much from you, Sir, in my short time as a member at CB.

Regarding the 2R mold, if your pistol has minimal throat, The 2R must be seated extremely short. Like 1.05". Some guns just don't feed well seated with a RN that short.

I've had better results with the 356-120-TC in guns with minimal throat. Bullets are seated with just a whisker of exposed shoulder, but the nose is long enough to facilitate tip in angle as the cartridge feeds from the mag. I stopped using the 2R in favor or the TC.

[Fusedbrain]

Thanks DougGuy, that's really good information. I won't consider getting the barrel throated. I appreciate the advice.

Taterhead, I will take a look at the 356-120-TC. I haven't considered that mold as of yet.

Thanks for all the input guys, this site is simply amazing.

Fusedbrain

[psweigle]

I have that mold. If you haven't gotten any, pm me your address and I will send you some.

[Fusedbrain]

Gents, I should have mentioned that I was located in Canada on my original posting. When I posted my request I thought it was possible to send projectiles across the border into Canada from the USA without any complications or legal issues. However I'm aware now that reloading components are also somewhat restricted for export.

Maybe there are some Canadian casters on this forum. It's a long shot but it's possible. I might just bite the bullet and buy the mold and see if it works for me.

[gwpercle]

Can you get a 2 cavity mould in Canada to try before committing to a 6 cavity .
I've done this a few times . The two cavity can later be traded , loaned out or gifted to a beginner.
Not a bad idea to have a 2 cavity loaner mould on hand ... I would never lend one of my 6 cavity or custom moulds out...but a 2 cavity Lee wouldn't be a big loss.
Gary

[JBinMN]

I use that mold. among others, like the TC that is conventional, the TC tumble lube, & even the conventional lube groove 120 TC, in my SR9. I have cast & reloaded many of them to shoot. It took a little time for me to work out the issues I was running in to, but after a short time of reading & dinking around, making sure to be checking things, I got a handle on things & have no longer any problems with this mold or any others.

You might try looking at this recent topic, as well as the sticky about 9mm cast boolits. Both are in the links below:

Recent topic with same boolit( Lee 356-124 - 2R): http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?387812-Cast-9MM-keyholing

Sticky: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?121737-Setting-up-for-boolits-in-a-new-9mm

Don't give up, unless you are a quitter, ;)
:kidding:

It can be done, if you take the time to do things right.
:)

G'Luck!
:)

[JBinMN]

P.S> - I have already offered in that other topic to buy his mold, but you are welcome to do the same.
;)