Quality of Lee Molds

[BAMB]

I am brand new to casting, and am looking to buy a mold for a flat nose .308win boolit in the 170gr range. Everyone seems to think the Lyman 311041 is the way to go, but the Lee molds are so cheap! Anyway, I am just wondering what kind of experiences you guys have had with the Lee molds? Are they worth a try, or would buying one just be a waste of time and money?

[jblee10]

I personally don't like the 2 cavity Lee molds. They just don't seem to close right for me without really paying attention. Not that paying attention is such a big deal. But I do like the six cavity molds and think they are a great value. The problem is the six cavity is not offered in all designs.

[smokemjoe]

I have used a good no. of them, I check them for burrs on the parting lines, Deburr the top of the molds for they dont get deep marks on top of the mold. Wash out good with hot soap and water, Put graffited on the top of mold and spruce plate, When hot use bull plate lub. on the spruce plate now,and line up pins, Some molds it help to lightly smoke, Even if you dont hardly see it, If they hang up I lap them very lightly, tooth past will work for it,Treat them with care and I have a no troubles, I have 2 gang molds and doing the above they have casted thousands of bullets, I have molds I paid over $100.00 for and you have to take care of any of them, Hope this helps, Joe

[badbob454]

i use the 170 gr fn 30-30 mold lee makes , it casts nice i reccomend if on a budget , im getting into the NOE( night owl enterprise ) molds , they seen to come out with a mirror finish on them

[462]

My experience with Lee two-cavity moulds has been one defective and returned mould for every two that require a lot of TLC for them to remain keepers. Considering the time involved, to get them to cast properly, Lee two-cavity moulds are not as inexpensive as they seem. I'm not disparaging them, just saying that they lack no little amount of quality control.

If you decide to buy one, do a Leementing search so that you become familiar with what it will take to get it to cast to its potential, and to make sure you have the patience and necessary equipment to do the job.

An excellent .30-caliber, 170-ish boolit is Lyman's 311291. It was originally designed for the Winchester Model 1894, has been available for 100+ years, and should not be overlooked for use in bolt-action rifles. My '03-A3 is in love with it.

[JIMinPHX]

I've used the 150-gr Lee 2-cav flat point .30 cal mold for years with good results. The Lee mold is not quite as easy to get good results from as some of the higher priced molds are, but if you do a little prep work when you first get it & continue to do your part as you use the mold, good results can be had.

A lot of guys go for the higher priced molds for rifle boolits because rifle work is usually a lot more precise due to the longer ranges involved. There is some wisdom in that line of thinking, but I've managed to get my Lee boolits to shoot more accurately in a .30-30 than factory ammo did at the same speed. I'm sticking with my Lee mold, even though that particular one is a little fussy about dropping well sometimes.

[BAMB]

Sounds like trying a lee mold might be worth a try.

[Mykos]

I'm just getting into casting, and so far I'm happy with the LEE molds I've got.

[williamwaco]

I use the Lee two cavity .30 cal 172 grain fp It is a virtual clone of the 311041.

Try it. You will like it.

I got a flyer from Midway today. They have a special on the Lee two bangers for 17.50.

[mooman76]

If Lee mould weren't any good they would be able to sell as many as they dor or sell them very long. Yest they aren't the quality of the higher priced moulds but what do you expect fro less than $20. They enable people on a budget to cast bullets that otherwise may not be able to. I have allot of Lee moulds and some others too. They all put out good bullets. Occationally you do get a Lee mould that is troublesome but over all good quality for the money.

[shredder]

I love my Lee moulds. Personally I cast the 160 gr roundnose in .30. Sized and gas checked they group very nicely out of my 30/06 at 1450 fps. Highly recommended for the dollars. I have 3 Lee moulds for about the price of one from any other brand and when you start adding up handles that are not included... Well, make up your own mind.

[grouch]

I had good luck with Lee's single cavity molds, but not with double cavity ones. Troublesome to cast with, and by the time I sort for cavity, not worth the trouble
Grouch

[skeet1]

For the money Lee moulds can't be beat. I have used a number of 2 cavity moulds from Lee and all of them have worked OK. The newer Lyman moulds I have purchased in the last few years have shown much poorer workmanship than the Lee and they cost three to four times more. Lee is a great place to find out if you like to cast Boolits.

Ken

[DLCTEX]

I like Lee moulds and have the 170 and 150 gr. FP in 2 cav. that have worked well for me. I use Bullplate lube and no smoke. I have not had to lap those two, but have other Lee, Lyman, and RCBs moulds to get them to drop well. I have used a flat surface to set the mould on when it was giving alignment problems, but today I tried the method recommended by a fellow poster on an old Lee mould. As the mould is closed, tilt the handles up and back to let the blocks hang in the opposite manner of normal, worked like a charm.

[pdawg_shooter]

I use the 309170 Lee and a couple dozen others too. Best value on the marker IMHO.

[geargnasher]

If Lee mould weren't any good they would be able to sell as many as they dor or sell them very long. Yest they aren't the quality of the higher priced moulds but what do you expect fro less than $20. They enable people on a budget to cast bullets that otherwise may not be able to. I have allot of Lee moulds and some others too. They all put out good bullets. Occationally you do get a Lee mould that is troublesome but over all good quality for the money.

I have to agree fully with this post. I think it puts the whole thing in perspective. My mould collection includes a great number of Lee moulds, both six and two cavity versions, and I've determined that with the use of Bullplate sprue plate lube or similar, and if the caster does his job both of mould prep and care when casting, the Lee moulds can make boolits as good as any other mould.

Most of the issues with Lee moulds come from lack of experience casting and from improper use.

The 170-grain Lee flat nose gas check boolit is a very good design for most .30 caliber rifles. An exception would be some of the Winchesters and Marlins that have .301" or larger bores, as they don't support the nose of this boolit design.

Gear

[fredj338]

My exp w/ several Lee molds; get a good one, they work fine, get a bad one & they are krap. They have always had QC issues, but what do you expect for such a cheap price. If you want better, you'll have to pay for it. MM will make you a great casting mold for 4x the cost but it will be really nice to cast with. Lee could make some small changes, double their price & improve their quality 100% but it isn't going to happen.

[BAMB]

It is decided, I will try Lee. Sounds like everyone has found them to be more than serviceable.

[doctorggg]

Where is a good source for bullplate? Thanks

[JIMinPHX]

Where is a good source for bullplate? Thanks

Bullshop is the only source for Bullplate.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=100396

[SquirrelHollow]

Lee 2-cavity and single-cavity molds are absolute trash*. All they do is cause the user frustration, and extra work.

But, if you're willing to deal with that frustration, they get the job done quite cheaply.

Lee 2C molds outnumber my other molds 2 to 1. They're trash, but they get the job done. Once you buy a real mold from another source (RCBS, Lyman, NOE, SAECO, etc), you'll understand.

*Seriously? The "C-word" for poop is filtered here, but bitch and rape (almost universally filtered elsewhere) are not?

[skimmerhead]

lee 2 cav molds are hit and miss, i just recieved 2 of them 2 weeks ago as i wanted to try the boolit type to see how i liked the boolit. one was 9mm tumble lube and the other was .358 round flat nose 125gr non tl 9mm worked perfect, the other was having trouble closeing. i casted with both, both casted good boolits after temp was rite. after casting i decided to look at that mold and try to figure out why it wasn't closeing properly. what i found was when i turned the mold up side down and looked at the blocks one was tilted on the handle, now there is some play between the mold block and the handle as you can move the blocks quite a bit. when i turned the mold rite side up the mold was binding against the handle pin preventing it from moving to line up with the other mold half. solution, took the bolt out of the handle, took the handle and clamped in my vise on my mill and with a grip plier twisted the mold handle just enough so the mold block would move freely to line up with other block half. works great now. that is easy enough fix for twenty bucks and not something i would tolerate on a mold costing five times as much. twenty bucks! it is what it is a mold that you may have to tinker with a bit but it does the job. now the six cavitiys work a lot better as they have a different pin system for opening and closeing, and can produce a pile of boolits in a short period of time. thats my 2 cents worth so i'll shut up now.

skimmerhead :Fire: :grin:

[MikeS]

To throw in my .02 I will say that while it's possible to get a perfectly usable Lee 2 cavity mould, there's also a good chance that it will either need some work to get it working good (see the posts about Leementing a mould), or every once in a while you'll get a mould that just won't work good no matter what you do.

If you're a new caster, and find that you can't seem to make good boolits, before throwing in the towel, and deciding that casting isn't for you, that you try another mould. Either just another Lee mould, or preferably a better mould, possibly a used NOE or Mihec mould from a member here being sold in the 'for sale' forum. If you still have trouble after using a few different moulds, THEN you can decide you don't like casting, but please don't jump to that conclusion after using only one Lee mould.

[JIMinPHX]

*Seriously? The "C-word" for poop is filtered here, but bitch and rape (almost universally filtered elsewhere) are not?

Perhaps someone on the board may choose to chat about breeding their female dog, or perhaps someone might choose to try using rape seed oil as an ingredient in boolit lube, or perhaps someone might choose to discus the way that certain hunting lands in this country have been raped. I find those words to be useful in productive discussions.

[jsu]

I use the Lee two cavity .30 cal 172 grain fp It is a virtual clone of the 311041.

Try it. You will like it.

I got a flyer from Midway today. They have a special on the Lee two bangers for 17.50.

Natchez shooting supplies has them for$16.50 but they do charge$3.99 handling fee for every order but on big order you will save money their the cheapest prices on lee stuff i could find. I own alot of lee stuff good value stuff. I lightly tap the molds with my spru stick just to make sure their tightly closed.

[MT Chambers]

What set of criteria did the OP use in selecting a mold manufacturer? I think that you get what you pay for, and I would certainly recommend the Lyman 311041 over the Lee mold, just from a frustration standpoint. I always end up with Lee mold parts at the bottom of my melt, or amongst my bullets.

[cgm]

Sounds like trying a lee mold might be worth a try.

I only have one Lee mold so, I'm no expert. however...... worked fine from the first try:!:

[sig2009]

The last 2 Lee 6 cavity molds I bought both were shipped back because of pitting in the cavities after about 1000 rounds cast and what did Lee say? "weve never seen this before."

[sig2009]

Natchez shooting supplies has them for$16.50 but they do charge$3.99 handling fee for every order but on big order you will save money their the cheapest prices on lee stuff i could find. I own alot of lee stuff good value stuff. I lightly tap the molds with my spru stick just to make sure their tightly closed.

Anything Midway sells can be had cheaper from other companies. I don't buy anything from them anymore!

[DLCTEX]

The last 2 Lee 6 cavity molds I bought both were shipped back because of pitting in the cavities after about 1000 rounds cast and what did Lee say? "weve never seen this before."
And neither had anyone else here. Can't really say it was Lee's problem without knowing what caused it. If it were a common problem we would have heard about it. I have 24 Lee moulds with more than 2000 casts on each one with no pitting.

[doctorggg]

Thanks JIMinPHX I am sending a check for 4 bottles tomorrow. doctorggg

[monge]

Lee molds work great follow the instruction that come with them and you will not have trouble. cast on! Joe

[DrCaveman]

One more vote for Lee molds, from my beginner's perspective. I had immediate success (casting with a cast iron saucepan & soup ladle) with no personal instruction. Just followed the directions, including those in lee modern reloading 2nd Ed. Truth be told, it took me about 6 pour-n-drops to get full, clean boolits, but that was much faster than I expected. At the end of my self-taught reloading session, I had a few hundred awesome boolits for loading.

Maybe time will prove that the Lee molds do not hold up as long. I'm not there yet, but my success vs expense has gotten me highly enthusiastic about casting. I have already paid for the mold 4x over in boolits cast, so I bought a 20 lb Lee furnace. I have already paid for that about 2x with my newer, better castings so I went ahead and bought a few more 38/357 molds and a couple rifle molds. In the mail, $100.

Man, I used to spend that same amount of money on ammo in one weekend! Now I basically only spend money on primers, particularly with my ramshot competition plinking loads. Next step: make our own primers!

[afish4570]

Just got to use the 175 gr FP mold for the first time....... Cleaned with brake cleaner and Q tip. Dried it and lubed with Bull Plate and lubed cavities with Kroil. Heated mold on top of 10# Lee Bottom Pour Pot. Ran a 2nd Pot to melt lead to refill my Lee Pot. Then I ran my older 6 cav 358 Lee 150 gr. SWC..........Ran about 5 hrs non stop except to get a drink and p...I did water quench adding snow to help keep the water chilled.The new Ranch Dog 175 gr. ran flawlessly. I did lube the two block pins and spot where the sprue remover hits block........Really impressed with the quanity of action pistol and Marlin carbine bullets. While not bullseye match quality they were really nice for what I use them for.....used 64# of ingots for about 2700 bullets. Impressive to me my largest yield. Don't use my two cav. molds much anymore. afish4570:cbpour::cbpour:

[skimmerhead]

Perhaps someone on the board may choose to chat about breeding their female dog, or perhaps someone might choose to try using rape seed oil as an ingredient in boolit lube, or perhaps someone might choose to discus the way that certain hunting lands in this country have been raped. I find those words to be useful in productive discussions.

+1 on that!

skimmerhead:drinks:

[JIMinPHX]

The last 2 Lee 6 cavity molds I bought both were shipped back because of pitting in the cavities after about 1000 rounds cast and what did Lee say? "weve never seen this before."

By chance, were you using acid core solder as a source of tin? Did you clean the mold with a caustic type grease remover?

edit: Were you casting with battery lead?

[SquirrelHollow]

Perhaps someone on the board may choose to chat about breeding their female dog, or perhaps someone might choose to try using rape seed oil as an ingredient in boolit lube, or perhaps someone might choose to discus the way that certain hunting lands in this country have been raped. I find those words to be useful in productive discussions.

I understand the reasoning for them not being filtered, even though 99% of the forums on the internet do block those two words. What I don't understand, is why the "c-word" for 'poop' is filtered here.

It's like allowing the word "garbage", but blocking "rubbish".

[Single Shot]

When I retired, I started casting bullets for sale on eBay. I used Lee six cavity molds. Several customers wanted 5000 a month. They commented that they were the most accurate bullet they ever used. That was the max of 45acp I could get into a flat rate box using reinforcement in the box because of the weight.

I did size and lube them in a Saeco lubrisizer.

[stubshaft]

I just bought mold #119 today. I visited the local gun shop to pick up a few pounds of SR4759 and saw an old lee box hidden in the corner of the shop. It was a 7mm - 130 single cavity Lee, which works out fine as I am putting together another 7BR handgun to play with. Long story short, I left the shop with it after paying $10.00. Got home and spritzed it with Kroil while the pot was heating up. Cast a couple of test boolits and they measured .286". Let the mold cool down then lee-mented it with the test boolits and Colgate just to remove any burrs. Went back out and cast about a hundred boolits.

There is no doubt that it is slower than a double, cavity, but the boolits have very little runout and I don't have to worry about any variations between cavities. The thing is that, being a single cavity I knew that it was made when Lee still gave a hoot about quality.

[sig2009]

By chance, were you using acid core solder as a source of tin? Did you clean the mold with a caustic type grease remover?

edit: Were you casting with battery lead?

No solder or battery lead. Range lead only.

[Elkins45]

Thanks JIMinPHX I am sending a check for 4 bottles tomorrow. doctorggg

You'll probably pass at least one of them on to your kids. A little Bullplate goes a long way.