Lee Mould

[tbierley]

I ordered a Lee Mould 459-500-3R and would like to know has anyone had any proplems with this mould? I have a 405HB Lee mould and works very good and shoots better.

[Don McDowell]

It won't last very long, there isn't enough material in the blocks to hold up for casting many of those big 500 gr bullets.
I also found that 500-3r bullet to have some serious stability problems beyond 400 yds especially in a crosswind.

[Chill Wills]

I was excited when the Lee 500BPCR came out. It offered an entry level mould that looked like it had a few of the things that BPCR bullets should have.
I agree about the mould not holding up to lots of use and the bullet not holding up to distance. Too bad as I think they almost got it right. If, in my opinion, they had designed/made it the exact same way in all respects save for the very small radius nose, and used a DanT 50% of caliber hemisphere up front, It might have been good to the Rams. And, very inexpensive to try!
As it is, it is an OK chicken/ofhand bullet for the 45-90.

[Don McDowell]

I'm thinking if the thing had 4 lube grooves instead of the 3, it may hold up better at distance. Gotta beef up those blocks tho...

[John Boy]

I haven't shot the Lee bullet in a long time. But at 600yds, it grouped well and needed 8 MOA less than the Lyman 456132 with 70gr of Swiss 1.5 at 1223 fps

Lee 459-500 3F 500 Starline Br2 Express FFg 68 Felt 1239
600 yds - 81 MOA

[oldracer]

I have 3 of the double cavity Lee 500 grain molds and use them at the same time when casting. That works well as I fill one, fill the next then fill the third and by then the first is ready to empty. After 5 or 6 pours they make good bullets and with molds the number of bullets builds fast! I did do the set screw mod on all my Lee molds and use graphite on the plate.

[mdevlin53]

I have this mold and i found that my 10 pound bottom pour lee pot is not up to the task of filling the cavities. i get real poor fillout boolits but when i ladle pour they come out nice and sharp. If you load them to the crimp I can only get 60 grns of 2F in the case.