Question on Lee TL358-158-SWC Mold

[Lutzy48]

I have a question about the Lee TL358-158-SWC bullet. As many of you know the Marlin Cowboy, at least in .357, does not chamber SWC bullets very well. I want to use a Lee Micro Banded bullet with the Lee Liquid Alox lube. Has anyone had any experience with this bullet in a Marlin chambered for .357? I did not want to buy the mold only to find out it doesn't chamber well.

I am currently casting bullets with linotype in the Lee 358-158-RF mold. Does this Micro Banding really make any difference with the liquid Alox? If not, I'll stick with the RF bullet.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[1stSkink]

Not sure about the bullets, but does the Marlin have a Micro-Groove Barrel? I have heard that micro groove and Pb bullets don't get along very well. Anyone know?

skink

[GrizzLeeBear]

I am currently casting bullets with linotype in the Lee 358-158-RF mold. Does this Micro Banding really make any difference with the liquid Alox? If not, I'll stick with the RF bullet.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Do you mean for tumble lubing? If so, you can tumble lube any boolit. The microgooves on a TL boolit are just designed to make the boolit hold on to more of the LLA. Are you tumble lubing the 358-158-RF? I don't have a .357 lever gun, but it would seem to me, the RF boolit would be a very good boolit for a lever gun.
Also, do you have any other lead, like pure or wheel weights that you could alloy with the linotype. Lino is probably way harder than you really need for a .357. Seems like a waste of precious antimony to me.

[GrizzLeeBear]

Not sure about the bullets, but does the Marlin have a Micro-Groove Barrel? I have heard that micro groove and Pb bullets don't get along very well. Anyone know?

skink

Do a search. Micro-groove barrels not working with lead boolits is "urban myth". There are MANY poeple here that shoot cast in their micro-groove barrels. I used to have a 336 in 35 Rem. with micro-groove barrel that shot fantastic with near full power loads with cast boolits. Micro-groove barrels tend to be slightly on the large size for caliber. Like .358 - .360 in .35 caliber. As with ANY gun, slug the bore and size .001 to .002 over bore dia.
Where the "myth" comes from is that someone will buy some commercial cast boolits that are .357 dia. and shoot them in a .359 barrel and get lots of leading and poor accuracy. Then say micro-groove barrels won't shoot cast. Shooting undersized, hard, poorly lubed boolits is a sure recipe for leading and no accuracy. Shoot .359 - .360 sized boolits with a good lube in the same barrel and its amazing how accurate they can be.

[Recluse]

Out of all the boolits I cast, believe it or not, the Lee TL158SWC is my Number One Boolit for accuracy. I tumble lube with a mixture of LLA and JPW, thinned just slightly with mineral spirits. I tumble lightly, let dry, run through the (appropriate) selected push-through sizer, then tumble lightly again, let dry, then store/load.

I've experimented with increasing the hardness of the alloy by going from straight WW that was air-cooled, to WW that are water-quenched, to WW with varying levels of linotype and tin added and then water-dropped.

For the .357, I made up some "special" alloy that was a bit higher in linotype content than normal. Also added a bit more pure tin. Dang if those boolits weren't the prettiest things you ever saw coming out of the mold. Looked like friggin' werewolf killer silver boolits.

Got some very high, hot velocities in .357 through a long-barreled S&W with zero leading and suberb accuracy. Friend of mine out in West Texas loaded some up and shot them out of his Marlin lever-action .357 with zero problems--no leading and fantastic accuracy.

Of course, with that much linotype in the boolits, they're not good for anything, really. Too brittle I would suspect.

My next step is to start "softening" the alloy mix and see where I can get perfectly formed/looking boolits, loaded for max magnum loads, and still get fantastic accuracy with no leading.

Gotta love a challenge.

:coffee:

[truckmsl]

I use that SWC boolit for my marlin .357 levergun. I've found it to be more accurate at higher velocities than the Lee roundnose flat point cowbow boolit. The cowboy boolit through my gun seems to loose accuracy after around 1150 fps. My marlin feeds .357 SWC and .38 spl full wadcutters just fine, if I load the full wadcutters about 1/8 inch outside of the case.

[Lutzy48]

Sorry I am late responding. Been out of town on business. The Marlin I have is new and does not have the Micro-groove barrel.

The reason I am using the linotype is I have about 250 lbs. of the stuff that I bought at a yard sale years ago for about 50 bux. That's a lot of bullets (over 10,000).

My Marlin will not feed the standard 158 grain wadcutters I had bought some time back. The shoulder on the bullet catches on the upper end of the chamber. That's why I was asking about the Lee TL358-158-SWC bullet in particualar, as it looks (from the catalog) as if it has a smaller shoulder to jam on feeding. Also this bullet was designed for tumble lube, which I currently am doing. I was trying to keep my cost in equipment down.

Thanks for all the great responses!

[Lutzy48]

truckmsl,

What number bullet mold are you using for the SWC's that work in your Marlin?

[kyle623]

actually grizz, its not so much urban myth as marlin has it in faq section ontheir website. they recomend not using cast bullets in their microgroove barrel. many people do it anyway,

[Gohon]

actually grizz, its not so much urban myth as marlin has it in faq section ontheir website. they recomend not using cast bullets in their microgroove barrel. many people do it anyway,

I just looked at Marlins FAQ section and I don't see that statement. What FAQ number on their site did you read that in?

[truckmsl]

truckmsl,

What number bullet mold are you using for the SWC's that work in your Marlin?

Lutz - I don't have the lee number in front of me but it's the only 158 grain tumble lube semi-wadcutter mold they offer in 358 I believe - no gas check . I've got the 6 cavity mold.

[Lutzy48]

Thanks "truckmsl" that's the bullet I was asking about (TL358-158-SWC). The "shoulder" seems to be much smaller as best I can tell from the photo than the SWC bullets I had here that did not work out. I think I will order one of those molds and give them a try.

[SciFiJim]

Originally Posted by kyle623 View Post
actually grizz, its not so much urban myth as marlin has it in faq section ontheir website. they recomend not using cast bullets in their microgroove barrel. many people do it anyway,

I just looked at Marlins FAQ section and I don't see that statement. What FAQ number on their site did you read that in?

In the manual for my rifle they actually recommend not using reloaded ammo.

Like THAT'S going to happen /sarcasm

[Sprue]

Sounds like the mold for these boolits:

I don't know your reasoning but I don't see the point (in my applications) in stuffing 357 cases with lead boolits unless used with a GC. I do have GC type boolits but still only load in 38 spl with max load data.

I have way more 38 spl cases than 357's. I save those for full bore 357 loads and jacketed.

Speaking of Micro Grooved rifling, what I gather from reading, is that they shoot just fine, that you need to use larger than normal sized boolit. 2-3 thou over if I remember correctly.

Anyway, in my 357 Lever rifle, all that I shoot is the 38 Spl SWC. Not the one shown in the pic, ( I got away from TL - but still have the Lee mold ) but ones cast from an RCBS mold w/single lube grove. With the 38's I have no feeding issues at all with the 38 SWC however, I can't comment on your 357 loads nor function.

If needed, I could send you a few of the ones pictured (unsized or lubed) to try.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh266/spilihp_2007/358158TLSWC.jpg