Lee mold 356402 vs. Lyman 356242

[ananke]

Greetings all!
I have been shooting and reloading using Lee mold 356402.
It is .356 TC 120 grain. I size them in Lee 356 sizing die on a single stage Lee press. I reload them in my Dillon 750 and shoot them all the time. Using Unique.
Want to expand my reloading to include 38 Special and 357 Magnum and 380 ACP.
Studying the Lyman Cast Bullet (boolit) Handbook I have seen the following.
A Lyman mold, which I do NOT own, #356242 gives data for 380acp and 38 special and 357 Magnum.
The mold is 120 Grain. Two of the three also show Unique.
I have the dies for 380acp 38spc 357mag.
So my questions are as follows.
1/ Can I use the Lee mold to cast the 120 grain boolits for the 380acp/357mag/38special. Same mass 120 grain.
as the loading data shows the Lyman boolit. Yes, different shape. Length. I get that.
2/ If I can, what about SIZING? Would I size the 357mag/38special to .357?
3/ How would the sizing work as the Lee molds casts .356

Do I make sense lol? I sure hope so.
Please let me know. I appreciate everyone and anyones help.
KEN

[sigep1764]

1. You answered your own question. It can be used but you are gonna need to make dummy rounds to ensure feeding from the magazine and a plunk test. Gonna have to be careful with your powder metering, it’s a very small space in a 380 case after shoving 120 grains of lead into it.
2. Size to each gun. Size some boolits to fit each pistol.
3. Powder coat the boolits or you could try Lee-menting your mold to open it up a bit. Maybe add some tin to get fatter boolits

[fecmech]

That bullet is an excellent one in the .38spl sized@.358, very accurate. I've shot thousands of them over 4.2 Bullseye in my K38 and Rossi .357 rifle. In the .380 they are a bit much. I cracked the slide in my Keltec P3AT using them. Fortunately KelTec replaced the slide for free. I would recommend getting a lighter bullet for the .380. Just my$.02

[Bazoo]

Howdy, welcome to the cb.gl forum!

I happen to have both the Lee 356-120-TC and the Lyman 358242, so I took a picture of them for you. I can provide any measurements you need also.

[ananke]

Yes!!
Needed some reassurance, so thanks!!

[ananke]

Awesome!!!! Huge help.

[ananke]

Ya, will go with a smaller for 380 then. Thought so!!!

[Minerat]

I have the Lyman 356-402 and it drops .356 bollits but about every 3rd one keyholes at 10 yds. out of my Beretta nano. I'm going to try PCing some to see if that will stop the keyholing from the nano and then try them in my S&W 659 or the Taurus G2. I will say that mould, once heated, rains great boolits, they just don't shoot worth a tinkers damn as cast.

[sigep1764]

Also, Accurate Molds has a 35-120B mold. It is an almost exact copy of the Lyman 402 boolit, but you can specify that it drop .358 sized boolits when Tom cuts the mold for you. This will also allow you to get a 5 cavity aluminum mold.

[quack1]

Lyman 358242 was made in two weights 120gr and 92gr. The only difference was the 120 had two lube grooves and the 92 had one.

[ananke]

Thanks

[jdgabbard]

So, here is the thing, it'll work for those calibers. BUT, you're not going to be satisfied with either bullet in the 380acp. They're just too heavy. That said, the 92gr version of the 358242 is THE bullet for the 380acp. Powdercoated, sized to .357, and loaded to .980 is the way to go. I don't have my data handy, but it likes Red Dot, Unique, and Bullseye. Powder charge for all three is around 2-2.5gr if I'm not mistaken. So it's a very economic round.

But back to my point, both of those bullets are just too heavy for the 380acp. Anything over 100grs is really too heavy...

[Bazoo]

So, here is the thing, it'll work for those calibers. BUT, you're not going to be satisfied with either bullet in the 380acp. They're just too heavy. That said, the 92gr version of the 358242 is THE bullet for the 380acp. Powdercoated, sized to .357, and loaded to .980 is the way to go. I don't have my data handy, but it likes Red Dot, Unique, and Bullseye. Powder charge for all three is around 2-2.5gr if I'm not mistaken. So it's a very economic round.

But back to my point, both of those bullets are just too heavy for the 380acp. Anything over 100grs is really too heavy...

Excellent post right there, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[jdgabbard]

Excellent post right there, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Just trying to pass along what I had to figure out on my own. Maybe one of these days somebody will offer a 6cav version of the 92gr 358242. Until then, I'm stuck with my slow to cast 2cav... Meaning I shoot 380 much less than I would like to.

EDIT:

Actually, I wouldn't mind a 8-Cavity MP mold in this boolit. I'd literally shoot 380 at the range from here on out. That's how good of a boolit the 92gr version is for the 380...

[20:1]

Any of the bullets you've asked about can be used in 38/357 as long as the bullets cast large enough to be sized to .358 or better. The don't have crimping grooves so you'll have to crimp into the bullet itself. BTW, Lees design is not 356402, that's a Lyman number for a similar bullet. Bazoo has the Lee design correctly ID'd in post #4. 356402 doesn't have a bevel base, the Lee bullet does.

And post #12 has great info on .380, bullets much heavier than 90-92 grains don't work well in that application.

[ananke]

I agree (now lol) 100% and thank you.
Will use 95 grain for the 380acp.
Happy New Year!

[Bazoo]

I agree (now lol) 100% and thank you.
Will use 95 grain for the 380acp.
Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you too!