Converting a Lee TL mold to 380?

[Marlin Hunter]

(Lee doesn't have a TL boolit for the .380)
I was thinking about converting one of my Lee tumble lube molds so it can be used in a 380. I would use either the TL356-124-TC, or the TL358-158-2R molds (for 9mm and 38/357). The TL-356-124-2R would NOT work because the ogive section is longer than .304, which is the length between the end of the brass (.680) and the OAL (.984) of the cartridge. Both of the mold I would use have a thick section between the base and the first (or last) lube groove. If I milled the mold blocks down to get a bullet weight of around 105 to 115 grains, the thick section would be removed. DO you think this would effect sealing? The PSI of the .380 is 1/2 the PSI of the 9mm, but just a little less than the 38 special.

[geargnasher]

I would *speculate* that removing the base band would create problems not only with gas-cutting the boolit up the land engravings, but would affect accuracy as well. The fix, I would say, is to either see if YOUR .380 can actually function with dummy rounds made with unmodified boolits seated a tad deeper or over SAAMI listed max COAL, or mill the blocks and CAREFULLY cut new base bands with a .358-60" drill bit turned by hand with a tap wrench.

In one specific application, I seat a boolit .002" under what binds in the magazine (quite a bit over SAAMI Max COAL) to get best accuracy.

Gear

[Marlin Hunter]

or mill the blocks and CAREFULLY cut new base bands with a .358-60" drill bit turned by hand with a tap wrench.

Gear

I might try that with a hand reamer, but then I wouldn't get the slight bevel that would make the boolit easier to enter the brass.

thanks

[DLCTEX]

I for one would think that no bevel would be a positive. If it were mine, I'd go for it.

[XWrench3]

just so you know, the 38 caliber 105 grain swc lee boolit mold boolits will work in your 380. i bought a six cavity mold (and a .356 sizer to bring them down to size for my 380) to use for my wifes 38 special, and loaded up a couple of dozen into my 380. they work fine (except i got to much liquid alox on the boolits and the gun started to jam BECAUSE of the alox). i washed off the alox and recoated another 2 dozen with one coat of thinned lla, and those functioned just fine.