9mm Lee 6 cav issue? or sizer?

[saint_iverson]

Good evening guys!

I have the 125 gr 6 cav .356" lee (356-125-2r)

It's been casting heavy at 128.5 and drops between .3565 and .357, weighing 130 after sizing/lubing. I can look past the slight overweight on the 9mm but my issue is 2 fold,1. When sizing in my .356 rcbs it cals at .354, I believe this is causing small plateaus at the point where the booilt tapers in! Issue 2. I am left w a "halo" in the top of the boolit, the TP is an rcbs 115, lead too soft? Wrong TP? Too much pressure?

Should I just say the help with it and use a push through and tumble lube em?

[fatelk]

Have you slugged your bore to see if you need to size them at all? It sounds to me like they are about right unsized. My Canadian Hi-Power needs them to be .358".

Also, if your lead is soft/pure, they will come out heavier.

[saint_iverson]

Pure coww quenched...

[saint_iverson]

I've got 2 9mm I'm casting for, with buddies soon to be in. My thought is to size to 356 and call it a day.... I know I have a looser bore on my P1 but at 356 its a good enough fun gun out to 25.

[saint_iverson]

Note that I found data on the 115 top punch from rcbs... In the 9mm its more designed for a truncated cone, that would explain the halo! More to come... Need to find the actual TP that will best fit this boolit

[fatelk]

My 6-cavity 9mm Lee mold also dropped about .3565+. I tried some as cast, tumble-lubed twice, in my Hi-Power. 15 rounds leaded up the barrel real bad. I tried some at .358 and no more leading. Generally, a little too big is better than a little too small.

[saint_iverson]

Noted! Although this issue will be unique to all barrels, I'm just trying to stay within a general gaussian distribution of likelihood. I have a hi power as well, known off, but very tight, chokes to .3558-ish. Just never heard of a sizing die dropping 2/1000's off as consistantly as this. (if its the die)

[MtGun44]

How are you measuring? If with calipers you are wasting your time. You need to
have an instrument capable of 0.0001" accuracy (micrometer) to do this sort of
work. Calipers are +/- .001 or .002, useless for this work if you actually care about
the sizes. It is necessary to have a measuring tool that will accurately record at
least 4X smaller than the tolerance needed. You need to know to better than
.001", so you need MINIMUM .00025 capability, the real world solution is the .0001"
micrometer, available for $35-50 at online tool sellers like Enco.

* Normally molds will cast about .002 larger than nominal, but MANY do not.
* Alloys and temps have effects on diam.
* Most 9mms require .357 or .358 boolits to shoot accurately and not lead.
* TL is very often a failure with 9mm.

Strongly recommend Lee 356-120 TC lubed with NRA 50-50 or LBT soft blue at .357 or
.358.

This might be helpful.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=121737

Bill

[saint_iverson]

Thanks for the heads up Bill, my P1 does the same thing, and with the way this Lee mold is dropping, I will likely attempt to TL this batch w 45/45/10 and try em out unsized. Just don't like having too many different bullet types around that are so similar.

Upon a mic inspection I agree that the +/-.002" is correct, i mic'in at 0.3563" +/-0.0001"... So the sizing die is "good enough" for me. Need a new top punch tho, and will give it another shot in my tighter HP

[MtGun44]

Best of luck. Hope you get the TL to work, many have succeeded with it, but many
have failed. Near run thing with this cartridge, apparently.

Bill

[GP100man]

I have that mold & load em in lite 38spc. I use a Lyman 311 TP, but in a pinch ya can fill the TP ya got with hot glue & stik the nose in it to form it , I use a bit of boolit lube for a release agent.

In reality if the little flat & the halo are uniform/consistent the only damage is asthetic as long as they cause no feeding problems.

[saint_iverson]

it is only aesthetic, but want good, clean looking boolits for my buddies I cast for... Versatile mold! Just have to make all these things work for me!

[PS Paul]

I would kill to get a couple problem moulds to drop oversize as yours does.....

[saint_iverson]

I believe the reason my mold drops large is because i smoked it heavy with a candle. The residual wax/parafin between the blocks leaves an oversized boolit. Maybe an accidental discovery by me, but I am dealing!

[Doby45]

PS Paul you could easily beagle your undersized molds. Lots do and it works great.

[lesharris]

Buy the top punches from THE PROFESSOR on this site and eliminate the marking problem.
that is what I did.
Also bought his lubrisizer nut wrench worked perfect on my RCBS.
No more cross threading.
Les.

[theperfessor]

I can help with the top punch issue. See my sig line.

[Shiloh]

That mold, LEE 125 gr. 2R is the only 9mm mold that drops large enough to work in my 9mm.
They weight around 129 sized and lubed. My LEE 125 gn RF mold boolits weight the same depending on alloy.
I do traditional lubrisizer lubing, as well as tumble lubing. Lately they have been run through the LEE
.358 push through sizer and tumble lubed. I can size and lube a mountain of boolits in a hurry.

I get no leading at all, and accuracy that will shoot the center out of a B-2 50' target.
I use the TL method as I often shoot LOTS of ammo at the falling plate range.

Fired 130 or so 9 mill yesterday along with .38 and mild target .357's

Shiloh

[saint_iverson]

Guys,

Finally have my issues settling out, +1 with Keith's Top Punches ->100% recommended. I have bee using my LAM II in .356 and they have been dropping perfect now, after cleaning up the mold. I only used 4 ofthe 6 cav's in my last casting session though, one cav sticks and the other appears to have debris in it, more to come on that though. Even at 4 cav's I am content for now, my buy a new one in the future to "start from scratch" since this mold appears to have been abused before.

Shiloh is right on th weight, COWW for me drop between 128-129grs. I will take this batch of fresh cast out soon and update accordingly.

Cheers!

[Martel]

You can clean out the mold and probably use those cavities with a little elbow grease. I had a particular cavity on the exact same mold that you're using that was giving me problems and after casting a few hundred boolits and smoking the mold properly with a wooden match (actually several before each casting session) it works perfectly. I also TL my 9mm boolits and had leading before I learned to put two good coats on 'em. Also, my mold drops them at .359, so once I size them down to .356 the little TL groves are almost flat. Thinking seriously about sizing them larger....

[Martel]

Oh and mine is also dropping them at 128-129 grains.

[JIMinPHX]

A mold with the "problems" that you describe, would be a welcomed addition to my collection. If you decide that it needs a new home, please shoot me a PM.

That aside, I suspect that you will come to like that mold, just the way it is. It's probably best to not be hasty when passing judgement on that particular set of blocks.

[saint_iverson]

I've loaded up about 100 rounds under test charge to verify. We will see this wkend if there is any appreciable leading. Also, I'd like to point out that this was my first pistol mold, I had some black powder Lee 2 cavs before (which got me hooked), but I bought this one about 3 years ago. I cast from this mold only once in fact! Over 10 molds later, I'm back, and if I can get those other 2 cavities going, I know I will roar through em!

[saint_iverson]

BTW, here was what they were looking like to start with!