Lee .451 RB mold ??????????????

[melloairman]

What size are they known to drop and with what lead {pure or alloyed like WW. } Also is your mold a new or old design DC. ? Marvin

[bedbugbilly]

I can't speak for the .451 mold but I have had and do have some Lee RB molds. All I cast is pure lead (or as pure and soft as I can get) as the RB is intended to be used in muzzleloaders. The only exception would be for "gallery loads". My Lee RB molds drop spot on the size they are supposed to with the soft lead that I use. But . . those are my particular molds. YMMV And . . . some of my molds are the "old" style and some the "new" style. .350, .375, .440, etc.

[melloairman]

Thanks for the info . I ordered one today .Will see what happens .Marvin

[SniderBoomer]

I have many Lee RB molds, I can say ALL my 'old style' 2-cavity molds drop, with the best pure clean lead mere mortals use (virgin roofing sheets)- absolutely on spec (hot mold and hot Lead)

I have some of the custom-services 6-cavity RB molds Lee supply to various re-sellers, newly made. Sadly, the 457 'six' drops at 453-454. The 454 'six' drops at 450-451. However, a 0.310 six I also bought, drops exactly on spec. The '44's I have, seem to have a problem in the batch I ordered from. Maybe the tungsten-balls were mixed up. Who knows.

I wrote to Lee. They can't explain the gross undersize on these 6-cavs. Nor can they fix, as they only supply 6-cavs as special order. To Lee's eternal credit, they always offer full refund, but I am overseas and so I tend to make do, so the '457' is my new 454 mold, the '454' is my new 451 mold. I have given up hope for a 6-cav that really does drop at 457.

Most of my 'new style' Lee 2-cavity molds, are literally falling apart. Alignment-Pins dropping out is very common.

I regard the 'old-style' reliable 2-cavity molds as gold-dust and snap them up when I see them for sale.

I wish they'd go back to the 'old style' molds. Maybe make a thicker sprue plate and fit a sprue-hinge grub-screw and they'd be right up there.