New Lee 356-125-2R 6 cavity mold

[Cloudpeak]

Over the last two days, I've been "breaking in" my new New Lee 356-125-2R mold. This mold drops a nominal diameter of .3585". I think these bullets will work in both my 9mm and my new S&W 620 (7 shot .357). Hot dog!

I led a friend down the 1911 (Trojan 9mm) path after he shot mine he ordered one and I told him if he ordered the lead, I'd cast him a few bullets. He brought over 60 lbs. of their "Hardball" (1 BN point harder than Lyman #2) so I cast the whole works. Should be around 3,360 bullets. I spent 5.5 hours casting. I'll be shooting some test loads next week to see how they do. The Lee 124gr RN TL bullet shot very accurately in my STI but I used wheel weight lead. This Roto Metal alloy is harder so it will be interesting to see how it shoots and if I'll have leading problems as I shoot reduced loads for practice and steel.

The bullets drop out of this mold much easier than the TL design. I think that the grooves in the TL bullet have more surface area to "grip" the bullet. The cavities seem to cast uniform diameters and this is the best Lee mold I've owned yet.

I did have occasional "finning" out of the cavity nearest to me, maybe one finned bullet out of every 5 or 6 casts. The handles are loose & the molds close well and there's no daylight between halves, the alignment pins are fine and there's no lead on the mold face. No big deal but kind of puzzling. It appears the nearest cavity is running cooler.

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures. One of the mold & bullet and another of what 60lbs. of Roto Metals looks like after it's "re-formed":-D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v620/WyoBob/Guns/DSCN2122.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v620/WyoBob/Guns/DSCN2124.jpg

[runfiverun]

i notice the one on the far left also don't have the used look to it yet.
try swapping fill directions every 4th cast.
it helps my lyman 4 cav's maintain a bit more even heat.

[lwknight]

Thats exactly the mold I got last week. It works great. Mine is dropping .360 and very round boolits. Mold release is pretty good compared to some molds. So far I have cast about 3000 from 92-2-6 alloy weighing average of 126 grains.
I got this mold to casr for 9mm pistol and I'm thinking of trying these boolits in a 38spl for plinking. I'n not sure if its a good revolver design or not but, I shall see.

[Cloudpeak]

i notice the one on the far left also don't have the used look to it yet.
try swapping fill directions every 4th cast.
it helps my lyman 4 cav's maintain a bit more even heat.


I forgot to mention in my post that the cavity on the left is the one nearest to me.

I tried pouring far to near. It was ugly. Muscle memory from doing it the other way thousands of times has doomed me. I can't pour a straight line doing it backwards:roll: I guess I need more practice.

I've cast with four other Lee 6 cavity molds and this is the first time this has happened. No big deal. While I wait for the sprue to harden, I look at the just dropped bullets and cull the one that was "finned".

[Cloudpeak]

I loaded up 100 rounds of the 125 gr RN (Roto Metal Hardball alloy) using 3.6 grains of W231 which is the same load I used with the TL 124 RN (wheel weight alloy). The 125 is the exact shape of the 124 and no adjustment of the seating stem was needed.

I shot a couple of groups offhand at 7 yards and the best one was .66". I shot the rest for plate practice and to see if I'd have a leading problem. The harder alloy was actually cleaner than my TL loads. I used XLOX thinned with mineral spirits and the bullets were sized .357.

Bottom line? I'm happy with the mold and the bullets they produce. Good thing, too, as I'd cast a bunch of them[smilie=1:

[lwknight]

That hardball is a good mix. I still have not shot any of my 356-125 RNs yet due to snow up to knee deep everywhere or rainy cold drizzle weather. Global warming has caused oner a foot of snow in N.Central TX.

[Cloudpeak]

That hardball is a good mix. I still have not shot any of my 356-125 RNs yet due to snow up to knee deep everywhere or rainy cold drizzle weather. Global warming has caused oner a foot of snow in N.Central TX.

You'll have to move north a few states to get out of the snow belt.:lol: It's a balmy 35 and no snow on the ground. A high tomorrow of 25 for our plate shoot. Bummer.