Modifying a Lee to Cast a WFN

[KLR]

Where else can you have this much fun for $20?

Step one: Cut a channel in the bottom of your mold. I started with a router table and carbide straight flush cut bit and finished with a 1/4" solid carbide two-flute spiral up-cut bit in a laminate router. Take light cuts. Getting greedy will cost you.



Step two: Make some flat bars. Drill and tap mold. I used 8-32 screws. I sanded them flat using a sheet of sandpaper on a piece of glass. Put a slight taper on the edges so that they meet on the bottom. This makes it easy to get a tight fit. Make the hole for the screw big enough for some adjustment. I haven't yet, but I'm planning on closing the mold on a feeler gauge and then bringing the bars together. That should let me expand the mold without any tape, and I can vary the feeler gauge thickness if I want a slightly different size.




Step three: Cast. I now have a .250 WFN on a Lee c309-170. It remains to be seen how they will shoot, but they are dimensionally even. They are now 163 grains. I'm sure the nose will get beat up some upon feeding and chambering.

[btroj]

Wow. Whatever it hits will stay hit.

[BNE]

Nice work.

[Ia.redneck]

Ahhhh.........good old American ingenuity there! Great idea.

[Outdoors]

Brilliant!

Pat

[KLR]

Thanks, guys. Hopefully my rifle likes it.

[richhodg66]

Have you shot any of these yet?

The thought occurs to me tha this might be a good mod to that Lee super heavy designed for the fast twist in the .300 Blackout. Taking a little off the nose of that one might make it stabilize in standard 1 in 10" twist .30 calibers.

[Deep Six]

Ok - what am I missing? You screwed some plates to the bottom of the mold and that made the cavities into a WFN style? I don't get it.....?

[Deep Six]

Ok. I figured it out. You cut the cavities short and the steel forms the new boundary at the meplat of the cavities. I'm a little slow sometimes.

[Hamish]

Congratulations for coming up with a cheap, fairly simple way to create what Lee should have in various calibers a long time ago,,,,,,,,

[KLR]

Have you shot any of these yet?

I just finished this one tonight after it was too dark to shoot. I did load a dummy round and the shortened nose lets me seat the bullet out far enough so that the front driving band starts to engage in the rifling. I did this mod to a Lee 312-155gr and my Mosin shoots it very well.

Deep Six - Yes, that's what I did. You can vary the nose diameter by how deeply you cut the mold.

[stubby1]

Ahhhh.........good old American ingenuity there! Great idea.

yup, good job there and let us know how this shoots !!

[Michael J. Spangler]

this thread is a perfect example of why i love this forum and it's members

[Bored1]

Ok. I figured it out. You cut the cavities short and the steel forms the new boundary at the meplat of the cavities. I'm a little slow sometimes.

I'm glad someone else posted this, I was lost trying to figure out how that worked. Between the algebra, anatomy, and my 10 page english paper I was lost. Think my homework has turned the brain to mush instead of improving it! At least tonight!

[KLR]

Here's a shot from inside the mold with an original bullet for comparison.

[jmort]

Now it makes sense to me. I am slow on the uptake. If it stabilizes, it will be a hammer.

[KLR]

If it stabilizes, it will be a hammer.

I think it will. I shot these four this morning. 1.75" @ 55 yds, 1950 fps, Winchester 94, 25 degrees with snow flurries blowing sideways, shooting quickly.
Third shot is the one on the right, fourth is the one on the bottom. I know one example doesn't mean much, but I haven't spent much time with the original bullet, but this is about what it was doing. I need to open the mold some to match my bore.

[cga]

Looks promising.

[patrick_sween]

Not exactly the same, but I just modified a Lee 314-90 pistol bullet into a wider meplat SWC with more weight. Your approach looks great if you want to keep the weight down, where I wanted to add more. Love to see all the ideas for tinkering with these inexpensive (but not 'cheap' in my limited experience) molds. I won't repost the pics, but if you want to see the other approach I tried, just search 'First mold mods' on this page.

Patrick

[HARRYMPOPE]

Veral Smith of LBT did an article in the cast bullet association Fouling Shot about making LFN's from lee molds the same way about 30 years ago.that was before he was making molds and how his LFN came about i beieve.