Bubba w/a 45/70
01-14-2007, 03:49 PM
I picked up one of the Lee 457-325-F molds from their surplus page and am very happy with the initial casting results. The boolits come out of the mold looking good when cast at 675+/- degrees. The only small complaint that I have is that the boolits really like hanging up in the mold on the sprue plate side. I'm going to have to work on that point. Any suggestions for a fix?
If I could post pics that were worth a darn, I would. My camera doesn't have any fresh batteries, and doesn't take good pics without 'em, so I can't show you any finished product. I will say that the mold is dropping my boolits at 329.8 to 331 grains with WW, and the boolits are measuring out at .4595 - .4602 diameter with a length of .832 from base to nose. As far as I can tell, the boolit design is very close to their 457-340-F boolit. Mine seems to have a bit larger grease grooves, according to the pictures in their catalog. This one looks like it should shoot pretty good from my Marlin 1895ss, and will be just right for killing those steel targets at our levergun shoots!!
If I could post pics that were worth a darn, I would. My camera doesn't have any fresh batteries, and doesn't take good pics without 'em, so I can't show you any finished product. I will say that the mold is dropping my boolits at 329.8 to 331 grains with WW, and the boolits are measuring out at .4595 - .4602 diameter with a length of .832 from base to nose. As far as I can tell, the boolit design is very close to their 457-340-F boolit. Mine seems to have a bit larger grease grooves, according to the pictures in their catalog. This one looks like it should shoot pretty good from my Marlin 1895ss, and will be just right for killing those steel targets at our levergun shoots!!