Lee 6-Cavity Bullet Mold 452-300-RF

[Ed K]

Am I correct in understanding this mould to be one of the group buy molds that Lee decided to standardize on?

Secondly I thought I remembered reading somewhere (this forum or elsewhere) that the current production does not resemble the RF/wide meplat that is pictured in Lee's literature. Could they have compromised the design in the interest of production? Hope there is no truth to this...

I'd like to get setup with this design for a heavy in my FA mod 83. The cylinders are less than generous in these guns - anyone know the nose-to-crimp dimensions on this boolit? I see there are two grooves. The FA mod 83 needs a nose length under 0.400"

Thanks in advance to anyone who can contribute - Ed

[454PB]

I use this boolit (from a two cavity Lee mould) in my FA 83. It fits seated to crimp in the rear groove, but there's not much room left. As long as it's seated and crimped well enough to prevent forward movement, it works great.

[Ed K]

Someone else just mentioned to me via PM that the crimp groove is shallow and can cause problems over 1200fps in a 45 Colt. You seem to allude to this and apparently you are able to deal with it...

[Dale53]

The .452 - 300 RF is an outgrowth of the C430-310-RF that Frank Siefer and I designed for Lee (actually for Frank then Lee put it into production when so many happy people wrote back). Lee later designed a similar bullet (the .452-300 RF) for the .45 Colt and .454 Casull cartridges.

I have only fired the .44 caliber version but had absolutely NO problems with it in heavily loaded .44 magnums.

I have a Lee mould for the .45 version to use in my .454 Raging Bull but have not yet got around toit.

Dale53

[DanWalker]

I can tell you for a FACT that the 6 banger moulds and the 2 cavity moulds don't cast the same boolit. I got 2 different 6 cavities from LEE, thinking I had gotten a different mould by mistake. BOTH moulds I received cast a much more rounded nose profile than what my 2 cavity produces.
That's why we started the group buy for the 6 cavity 300 grainer in 458 caliber, as a light hunting boolit for 45/70 that could be sized down to be a heavy hunting boolit in 45 colt.
I have shot many hundreds of the 300 grainers from my 45 colt blackhawk and win 94 trapper. It is by far, the hardest hitting hunting boolit I have yet used in 45 caliber. The wide meplat really transfers energy well and produces great wound channels. It also has sufficient weight to break big bones if you have to.
I've never had one stay in a whitetail or hog. When I go caribou hunting in the next year or two, it will be the boolit loaded in my blackhawk.
I've loaded these boolits to over 1500fps in my trapper, and haven't had any trouble with leading. They actually seem to group better, the harder you push them. My limit was reached due to my recoil tolerance. That little winny comes back and smacks you pretty good when you start launching those heavy slugs real fast.
I've since settled on 18.5 grains of 2400 for my heavy hunting load with this boolit.
6.5 grains of Red Dot pushes these out at 850-900 fps from the 5.5" barrel of my blackhawk, with wonderful accuracy. On Monday,I intend to see what happens when one of these slugs collides with an antelope at that velocity.

[DanWalker]

Am I correct in understanding this mould to be one of the group buy molds that Lee decided to standardize on?

Secondly I thought I remembered reading somewhere (this forum or elsewhere) that the current production does not resemble the RF/wide meplat that is pictured in Lee's literature. Could they have compromised the design in the interest of production? Hope there is no truth to this...

I'd like to get setup with this design for a heavy in my FA mod 83. The cylinders are less than generous in these guns - anyone know the nose-to-crimp dimensions on this boolit? I see there are two grooves. The FA mod 83 needs a nose length under 0.400"

Thanks in advance to anyone who can contribute - Ed
Want some to try out?
I'd be glad to send you some to try, for the price of postage.

[454PB]

Someone else just mentioned to me via PM that the crimp groove is shallow and can cause problems over 1200fps in a 45 Colt. You seem to allude to this and apparently you are able to deal with it...

Yes if I could change anything about the design, it would be the shallow crimp grooves. They work, and I've not had problems with boolit movement in recoil at speeds over 1500 fps., but they do require careful crimping. I would like to see them with a little more angle and depth, similar to those on the Lyman 452651. That is another very good gas checked design with two crimp grooves and weighs about 330 grains in WW metal.

[Ed K]

Thanks for all the feedback and especially the kind offer of sample boolits from Dan. Too bad I'm hearing that the 6-cavity is the more rounded/compromised of the two as I do not find the Lee 2-cavity moulds nearly so appealing. That together with the shallow crimp groove comments is making me want to hold off for a group buy or custom mold that will really be great in my 454.

I do have a RCBS 45-300-FN that I have tried sizing for pistol use and find I don't really care to do that although it will get the job done and it is more or less a LFN design. Again, I think either patience is in order for a group buy or custom it will be.