Is this Lee swc boolit style any good?

[MBTcustom]

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/232646/lee-6-cavity-bullet-mold-tl452-200-swc-45-acp-45-auto-rim-45-colt-long-colt-452-diameter-200-grain-tumble-lube-semi-wadcutter
I run a 1911 slide iron.
I am seriously about to order this mold because I love my 230gr RN TL to pieces and I hate wasting time on my two cavity RCBS Lyman and H&G SWC molds. I realy want this puppy because I can run off so many boolits in an hour, but is the profile any good compared to the H&G #68 or the Lyman SWC?
hep me! hep me!
I could also do this one:
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/336035/lee-6-cavity-bullet-mold-452-200-swc-45-acp-45-auto-rim-45-colt-long-colt-452-diameter-200-grain-semi-wadcutter
but I TL all my pistol boolits so it realy doesn't matter.
Which one is better?

[Atakawow]

I have great luck with the Lee 200 SWC non-TL design. I tumble lube and size to .452.

Never tried the TL version so I cannot comment on it.

[MBTcustom]

Thanks Atakawow, duly noted.
Just judging by the picture, the non-TL design seems a lot closer to the H&G #68 than the other. I am leaning that way for sure. Its just that while a non-TL design works fine with TL, It seems that a TL boolit is just a little better at keeping the leading to a minimum. Heck it could just be my imagination.

[garym1a2]

The standred groove model works great. I use it with a rcbs lam. Already made over 4k of them and they shoot out of my 1911 very accurate.
Never a feed issue.

[DeanWinchester]

I've had some of the best results in a long time with a 200g boolit. Mine happens to be a Lee single cavity I bought from a member here. It was actually a .450 muzzle loader mold that I lapped open to .454 so I can use in both 45 acp and 45 Colt.

[skeet1]

I have the Lee non- tumble lube design in a six cavity. This the my favorite mold for the .45 Auto It shoots great. I have a 452488 and a 452460 and like them very much but did have an occasional failure to feed with them. The Lee 200 SWC with regular lube grooves has a longer nose than the other two and longer than the tumble lube Lee variety and I think that this helps with the feeding because it feeds perfectly. It is also a very accurate bullet when I load it with light loads of Unique and Bullseye. I lube with White Label 2500+ and get zero leading. As I said my mould is a six cavity which is the way to go for high volume casting.

Ken

[MBTcustom]

Thanks for the info fellers! Looks like the regular lube groove is winning.

[HeavyMetal]

another vote for the standard lube groove boolit!

I have a pair of these and make a large batch of these when I run low then feed them trough a Star!

[MBTcustom]

As long as I am asking, has anyone tried that Lee flat nosed 45 boolit?
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/110378/lee-6-cavity-bullet-mold-452-200-rf-45-acp-45-auto-rim-45-colt-long-colt-452-diameter-200-grain-flat-nose
What do you think about this one?
Looks like it would be a wicked hunting boolit, but I dont know how it would feed in a 1911.

[41 mag fan]

I've got an NOE mold thats similar to the Lee 200gr SWC. Except mines the 196gr SWC.
One thing I've noticed on mine, is I had to seat them to 1.170 to feed reliably thru my Kimber Pro Carry. So far that's the only 1911 of mine I've tried them in.
Way too many other projects going on.

[chboats]

goodsteel - several of us tried the 200 rnfp in various 45s. It worked great in all of the standard barreled guns but would not feed in the ramped barreled guns. We tried them in two different brands of ramped models. Had feed problems in all of them. We didn't try to figure out why because we had other boolits that worked great.

Carl

[MBTcustom]

That's good enough for me. I'll get the SWC. Is that an exact duplicate of the H&G#68? It looks bad close in the pictures.

[Beerd]

close, but no ceegar

[rsrocket1]

If you have already tried and succeeded with commercial SWC's then you may not have a problem. I love the nice clean holes that SWC's punch in targets, but can't get them to reliably feed in my picky old 1911. I keep getting 3 point jams.

If I insisted, I could probably do a lot of work and make it feed reliably, but now that I got the 6 cavity TL401-230-TC's, I have no reason do try unless I had nothing better to do. Those big slugs feed perfectly in my gun and punch an almost as clean a hole in the target as the SWC's and feed perfectly.

I'm not putting this mold down, I just want you to be sure that your 1911 reliably feeds bullets other than RN before you go and get other shape molds.

[Cowboy T]

A buddy of mine uses that flat-point 452-200-RF in his 1911 that doesn't like SWC's. The flat-point seems to feed well. It also works very well in .45 Colt, and I use it for this purpose.

Always remember: you can tumble-lube a traditionally grooved bullet, but it's harder to do the other way around. I TL all my boolits.

[Larry Gibson]

Wow, appears Lee has dicontinued my favorite; the 452-190-SWC. I've been using this in all 3 of my M1911s, my M1917, Contender and M98 Mauser in .45 ACP and it feeds and shoots as good as any cast bullet ever has. I also use it in both my Uberti SAAs and my Rossi M92 in .45 Colt but it does not feed in the M73 (no SWC does).

I also have the lee copy of the H&G #68 and if tuble lubed they are fine but being BB'd they are a PITA to lube in a lubrasizer unless one uses a foam or card gasket under the bullet. They do shoot very well though. I've also tried the Lee 200 gr RNFP and as mentioned it feeds fine in my standard M1911s but doesn't in the ramped P14.

No experience with the TL soo gr SWC in the .45 ACP but I don't see any reason why it would not work well.

Larry Gibson

[Iron Mike Golf]

That first TL SWC looks very similar to a Lyman 452460 (apart from be TL, that is). I have found the 452460 to be very accurate in both my Series 80 and my buddy's P90.

[SCIBUL]

Hello all !
I have this mold in 2 cavities since 1997 and love it. It shoots very well in my Remington Rand (1943) and my custom Government serie 80 (1" @ 25 meters). So I bought the six holer for productivity.

[Jailer]

The Lee 200gr SWC is very close in profile to the H&G 130. The regular lube groove version is a H&G 68 copy.

[Elkins45]

The TL version is one of the first TL bullets Lee put on the market. I have a six cavity that I bought in 1989 and it's essentially the only 45 auto bullet I shoot anymore. I've had uniformly good results with it from a wide variety of guns.

[1bluehorse]

Goodsteel, I don't have a 45acp but a guy gave me about 500 of those bullets that look like that non TL bullet, they weigh in around 198gr. They have some kind of black lube on them. (Pretty sure they're a commercial bullet) I thought I'd try a few in my 45 colt (I've never had much luck with 200gr bullets for accuracy in the colts) Surprise, surprise, they really shot well, didn't chronograph them, and I don't remember what I loaded them with, but they were very accurate at 25yds.

[MBTcustom]

Thank you for the opinions one and all. Good info.

[geargnasher]

Goodsteel, I'm late to the party but have shot most of these Lee boolits in various .45s. Here's my take:

200-swc: Same gripes as Larry, bb is a pain. They fed fairly well and were reasonably accurate if the castings were perfect.

200-RFN: Loves to jam, the meplat is too big for most of my autos and jams against the barrel hood.

TL 230 RN: Very good design, probably Lee's best, but the TL grooves didn't shoot very well with most of my guns, even with .45/45/10 lube.

228-2R: Don't bother. The nose is too fat at the base and too short for a good fit in my guns, it rattles around in the mag due to short COAL needed for chambering, and tends to trip the slide lock lever prematurely due to the nose profile.

My solution was to copy the nose profile of the TL230-RN and have an Accurate Mold made with two lube grooves and a flat base, it works great. That nose profile is a winner.

The MP 200 SWC is probably the best H&G #68 copy out there, it works like a champ, especially the PB version.

Gear

[MBTcustom]

The MP 200 SWC is probably the best H&G #68 copy out there, it works like a champ, especially the PB version.
I checked Lee, Accurate Molds and a google search. I can find no mold labeled as "MP 200 SWC"
I think your post is getting lost in abbreviation. Can you clarify what that last mold you mentioned is?

[geargnasher]

Sorry Tim, that's the Miha Previc (MP Molds) version of the Hensley and Gibbs #68 which was a .45 caliber 200 grain semi-wadcutter, as shown in Beerd's post #13. MP Molds might still have some in stock, we did a group buy last year that was a huge success. The boolit was offered in .452" and .454", plain or bevel base, and with a HP option.

The Accurate Molds # for the one I designed based loosely on the Lee tumble lube 452-230-RN is AM-45-230L.

Gear

[MBTcustom]

That explains it. I have never heard of that mold maker. Are they still in business (Miha Previc that is)? That sounds European or something.

[Beerd]

Mihec is a Vendor Sponsor here.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=143551
http://www.mp-molds.com/
..

[DLCTEX]

I have a 2 cavity Lee 200 SWC that has been great in all the 1911s I cast for. I also have a Lyman in the same general configuration that does well. The 200RNFP I have in 6 cav is TL and no BB. It has worked well in most, not all the guns we cast for.The BB has kept me from buying the SWC in 6 cav. as it's no longer made without it. I may have to get one and remove the BB. Also, I lube the TL 200 RNFP in my lubesizer sized at .459 with good results.

[williamwaco]

I use the second one ( conventional lube ) with LLA and have been quite happy with it.

[AndyC]

Just be aware that the Lee is a longer-than-traditional SWC - I had issues getting it to feed until I crammed it really deep into the case, but by then it had hacked me off so much that I sold the mould. I'd strongly suggest begging/borrowing some first and load them up before buying the mould - I took that pic on the first page to illustrate the differences between the Lee, H&G and Mihec (MP) moulds which I had.

[skeet1]

I have seen several comments about not liking the bevel base on the Lee conventional groove 200 gr. SWC mould and I was not sure that I would like that either but have not found it to be a problem with lubing, loading or shooting. The bevel base is not as as obvious as the the photo in the catalog shows and I just lube like any other bullet. When I load the bullets I just wipe the base edges and base with a paper towel like I do with regular bullets because I seem to get lube on regular based bullets as well. Also when I load these bullets I seat them to about a 1/16" from the front edge and and crimp. In my .45 they function flawlessly.

[MikeS]

As has already been said, the Lee 200gr non TL boolit is basically a copy of the H&G #68 (I'm not getting into how good or bad of a copy it is, but it IS a copy). The TL boolit is basically a copy of the Lyman 452460, but instead of the 2 conventional lube grooves of the Lyman, it has Lee's TL grooves on it. I had a Lee copy of the #68, and now have a Mihec copy of the #68, and they both shoot identically in my PT1911. I also own a Lee 6 cavity mould of the TL boolit, as well as a Lyman 452460 4 cavity mould, and likewise, my guns can't tell the difference between them.

So, if I had to say which one to get, I would say get the copy of the #68. It will feed better in my 45's than the other, and if can be TL'ed or lubed in a conventional method. And for all those that cry how the Lee is not a clone of the H&G #68, I only have 2 things to say, first off, as was shown by a member here, H&G over the years has made #68's that didn't look much like each other (I don't remember the post, but the member showed a #68 from the 1930's and one from the 1940's, and while they had generally the same shape, they WERE different, so perhaps Lee copied a different #68 than you own. And secondly, there are very few people that can look at a handful of loaded cartridges, and say "this one was made from an H&G mould, this one was made from an MP mould, this one was made from a SAECO mould, this one was made from an RCBS mould, and this one was made from a Lee mould" so that being the case, I would say the Lee mould qualifies as a copy of the H&G #68. And if you H&G snobs can't stand the idea that your loving H&G design can be bought for $20.00 in a Lee 2 cavity mould, or $40 for a 6 cavity mould, then I would suggest you go cry over your H&G collection, then cry over a Lee collection, and see which one rusts first!

[MBTcustom]

I like H&G molds just as much as the next guy, but the fact is that my order of priorities is as follows:
a shooter first.
a reloader second
and a caster third.
If I were the type of guy that takes more than 50% of my firearms related pleasure from casting, I would be a H&G purist because nothing is as sweet, but seeing as I cast so I can reload, and I reload so I can shoot cheap, I want the mold that drops usable accurate boolits the fastest with the least amount of fatigue. I don't know of another aluminum 6 cavity mold that is not a custom order or group buy item. furthermore, the Lee 230-RN-TL mold that I have now is an absolute pleasure to work with! #3 always sticks on the right side, but other than that, its a dream come true. I open the mold and boolits fall like rain every time. I love the H&G, but in the same amount of time, I only cast about 20% as many boolits. Part of this is because the H&G doesn't like to run as fast as the Lee. All in all, the lee gets me loading and shooting faster and thats what I am after. (I still carry H&G #68s in my SD 1911 just for nostalgia)

[Chihuahua Floyd]

I ran a bunch of the 200g tumble lube design thru a 1911 this morning, ran fine.
Six cav mold and just crank em out, LLA, size, LLA and shoot.
use same bullet in 45 ACP and 45 Colt. Have also shot the same bullet out of a Marlin 1894 with no problem.
CF

[lead chucker]

The second 200 gr Bevel base with single grease groove you posted does not feed reliably in my colt 1911 or my buddy's 1911 I would not get that one. It does shoot real good in my black hawk convertible.