Lee 105 SWC , 38/357 Mold

[Ben]

I have many 38 Special and 357 Mag. revolvers. They have always shot the Lee 105 gr. SWC very well.

I recently purchased a Marlin 1894 , CBC, 38 Special lever action rifle.

I had a Lee , 2 cav. 105 SWC mold on hand and cast about 200 bullets that I tried in the rifle. The rifle shot the Lee 105 SWC so well that I decided that I needed to get the Lee 6 cavity mold in the 105 SWC.

This is about my 8th or 9th Lee 6 cav.mold. Every one of them are a joy to use.

I cast these bullet today ( in about 35 - 40 minutes ) after the mold was 101% clean and up to temp and HOT !



You can see that my rifle really likes the 105 SWC, sized to .3585 ". This is a group fired with Russian Unique at 50 yards with my Marlin 1894 CBC , my particular rifle has Ballard style rifling, not micro- groove rifling :



A very nice mold :







This should keep my lever rifle fed for sometime to come :

[HeavyMetal]

Those are some nice boolits!!

[Cloudpeak]

Beautiful job on the bullets, very nice rifle and a really good group!

I love the little 105's. My 6 cavity mold doesn't look as nice as yours. I've probably cast 40-50,000 bullets with it and it shows it. This bullet has been accurate in every 9mm I've owned and shoots very well in my S&W revolver, too.

[sargenv]

Wow.. well, I am in the process of getting a marlin 1894C in 38/357 and I just so happen to have one of those 105 SWC 6 cavs (for a different reason) and I can hardly wait to try them out. Are you shooting quenched WW's or something softer or harder?

[Elkins45]

Wow, that little boolit looks nice. I'm a little surprised that a boolit that light shoots as well as it obviously does. What a great way to conserve lead and still get great results. You can cast almost 3:2 of those compared to 160 grainers. I may have to pick up a new mold.

Russian Unique? What's that?

[crabo]

Ever shot them at 100?

[MtGun44]

Perfect analog of the .45 ACP H&G 68 in 9mm. Works very well indeed for that
application.

Bill

[Ben]

Responses to your questions :

Q. Have I shot at 100 yards with this load
A. No, only 50 at this point in time.
________________________________

Q. What is Russian Unique.
A. Several Surplus Powder dealers are selling a powder called Salute, it is very similar to Unique in it's burn rate, hence the name " Russian Unique ".
________________________________

Q. What alloy
A. ACWW's
_________________________________

If you'd like more bullets from each pound of alloy for target work, I'd strongly suggest you looking into getting one of these molds.

I started out with a 2 cav. mold, but graduated up to a nice 6 cav.

Ben

[excess650]

I bought a 2 cavity about 25 years ago and cast lots of bullets with it. My S&W Model 14 loved them, and I shot them in my PPC guns. I found that the K38 would shoot them sub 2" at 50 yards over 5gr Bullseye and became my squirrel load.

Thats a nice group from the Marlin. What was your powder charge, cases, primers, lube? I would like to try and duplicate that in my non-microgroove 1894C.

[Ben]

excess650 :

A PM has been sent to you answering your questions.

Ben

[Cowboy T]

I have that same 6-cavity mould and have cast about 10,000 boolits with it. Great mould, works very well in every .357-caliber firearm I've ever tried. I don't really have to size 'em either, because they drop at 0.3575 to 0.3585 right out of the mould. Responds very well to tumble-lubing, too.

Here are some lubed boolits (LLA), my mould, and the resulting .38 Spl ammo from it. As you can see, the mould is well used. The .38 Spl ammo is a powder-puff load that I developed for my g/f; she can shoot hundreds of these and her hand isn't sorry the next day.







Oh, also works well in Ruger SR9's when sized to 0.356".

This mould is STRONGLY recommended for anybody shooting anything ".38" caliber or a 9mm. During one winter casting session, I banged out about 4,000 boolits in right about 6 hours, with very few rejects. This thing lets you cast FAAAAST!

[evan price]

I did a package deal buy from someone for a 6-cavity 105 SWC and a 6-cavity 140 SWC and a set of handles. The seller told me they were junk and cast crappy no matter what he tried. He had bought them on eBay and they were his first molds, and he was going to Lyman iron molds since they were so much better than the "Cheap Lee ****".

Well, once I cleaned out the lead stuck between the blocks and did a little bit of repair where someone had hammered on the sprue plate, they both make some nice pretty boolits. That 105-SWC at first wasn't something I was planning on using, but once I saw how nice the boolits were and did the maths about how much less lead I would use, let's just say that it is not going to gather dust!

[StrawHat]

I still have my old 2 cavity mold for this boolit. I will have to see how it performs in my S&W M15 and my older M&Ps.

Another reloading project...just when I thought I had my 38 loads all worked out...oh well...at least it will be fun.

[Jon]

Anyone have a load that comes close to the 158gr trajectory? They shot 3 inches high at 15yds in my wifes S&W Ladysmith. Should I bring the powder charge up or down?

[Edubya]

What powder, boolit and charge are you using?

EW

[Jon]

Sorry, I was using Bullseye. I believe it was 3.5gr with the 105gr bullet in a 38spl case. I wanted to make some light plinking loads for my wife, but the POI was way off.

[Finster101]

Would any of you consider selling a few boolits? I would like to see if they function okay. This would be an excellent mold for me if they do. Thanks

James

[GrizzLeeBear]

Anyone have a load that comes close to the 158gr trajectory? They shot 3 inches high at 15yds in my wifes S&W Ladysmith. Should I bring the powder charge up or down?

Thats weird, light boolits usually shoot low in fixed sighted guns don't they? They do in mine, which is why I'm moving back to 158 gr. boolits in my 38's.

It's not the tradjectory thats the problem. The 158 gr. bullets produce more recoil and have longer barrel time than a faster, lighter bullet. So the muzzle rises more before the bullet exits. Its usually just about impossible to get a lighter bullet to shoot to the same POI. But if yours shoots high you might be able to get a load that will do it.

[Recluse]

I love the little 105's. My 6 cavity mold doesn't look as nice as yours. I've probably cast 40-50,000 bullets with it and it shows it. This bullet has been accurate in every 9mm I've owned and shoots very well in my S&W revolver, too.

Yep, and thanks to you and some pictures you posted several years go, I went and bought that mould (two-banger, though. . . still haven't warmed up to the six-bangers all that much. . . yet) and that is one of my favorite all-around all-purpose boolits.

Great fun, great shooting, great economy!

[509thsfs]

Picked up the Lee 105 mold a few months back, looking for a light load in the wife's S&W M36. Worked great. At 25 yrds it shoots about 8 inches low (as expected). But the M36 mainly being a close in PDW, it works great and shoots POA at 7 or so yds. Great for practice.

Tried it in the S&W M15 last week at 25 yds. She fired the 1st six rounds offhand and kept it under 3 inches. And right at POA for her, so not going to have to move the sights at all. I do want to see what she can do benching it. She enjoyed shooting that load so much she shot a box all offhand and kept them all in the black so never put it on the bench. That little slug makes the .38 M15 feel like you're shooting a .22 haha