Lee 9mm mold casting .356 ?s

[Capnjack98]

Soo i bought the Lee 2cav. TL356-124-2R hoping like hell this would drop .358ish. Nope. .356 is what it has been dropping. Now this is my first goround with casting and the such, but ive atleast lurkd long enuff to know most9mm bores preferr .358.

Im using a lyman 10poundpot with a unknown leadsource,adding tin and fluxing. I must admitt for my first time they didnt come out to bad once i got rollin. Some are wrinkled and some frosty,but i think im gettin a good foundation thanx to u guys here.

My ? is, why in the hell if the molds drop what they say,they just dont make .358 the standard mold size for 9mm?
Im just plinking with anything i shoot,is it ok to keep on crankin these out and using them?

Samething with the .45TC mold i bought,it drops .451 I know the .45s arent as picky,but still this is buggin me.

Id be using the 9mm in a Stoeger Cougar.

[DLCTEX]

You may incur leading, may not. The Lee moulds are easy to enlarge a bit using abrasive on a boolit and a screw in a hole drilled in the base, then turned slowly with a drill. Beagling would also work.http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/MoldMods/BDE.pdf Leementing a mould http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?47669-More-quot-Lee-Lementing-quot&highlight=Leementing and this one http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?3172-Sticky-Lapping-301-Changing-LEE-feature-diameters

[ku4hx]

Lube, load and shoot 'em; they may surprise you. Nothing is certain. My guns handle .356" boolits quite well.

I have two Lee molds for 9mm and both drop boolits right at .358". Manufacturing processes and their inevitable tolerances will always make products that may not precisely match what's advertised. Alloy, temperatures and etc. can also affect as-dropped boolit size and weight.

At seating, my cases resize my .358" boolits to .357" and they too shoot well. So well in fact, I stopped actively sizing them prior to loading many thousands ago. My alloy is essentially the same as commercial "hard ball".

[Buzz64]

Slug your barrel - might just find it suits your .356 boolits just fine. Both my S&W shield and CZ75BD both slug right at .355. I'm slinging .356 COWW lubed and sized with White Label Carnauba Red without any leading and great accuracy (at least to 21 yards). If you must go larger and don't want to mess with enlarging your Lee mold, check out the group buys or other custom mold makers - you'll find diameters in any size you want - with group buys / custom makers it might take a while but you'll get exactly what you want.

[Shiloh]

Common.

Especially in 9mm molds. Molds for this caliber are made for the supposed .355 bores. Many 9mm however have bores larger than that.
Run an undersized boolit down the bore is a recipe for leading and poor accuracy. Mine need .358 boolits.

Shiloh

[khmer6]

I find my Lee molds are pretty close to advertised. Largest is only. 001 oversized. I was hoping for a Tad bit larger for my. 311 and. 312 molds

[orbitalair]

I have that mold. Mine drops 0.357.
BUT its your alloy. You have too much tin(or some other material) giving too much shrinkage. Leave about 25% of your current mix, add the rest as your unknown ww lead, and try again.
IF possible, try just some plain ww lead. I bet you get a little larger dia.

Contrarily my Lee Mak mold is like 0.003 over what I need, with the same alloy.
But that was likely done on purpose with most Maks being surplused firearms, and bore dias being much more varied.

[.429]

i had the exact same issue with a .429 mold. i ended up beagling and lapping the mold. now my bullets are plenty big and i now size them down to .430 beagling and lapping are both very easy to do

[freebullet]

Shootem see what happens. Mine will cast bigger if ya run the mold hot hot hot. Warmer it gets metal expands more. On mine it will cast .360 just around frosty bullet temp.

[Capnjack98]

Thanx for all the input guys! It def. could be the mix because its a unknown source of lead. Tin wise im adding roughly 2in. of solder per 10pound pot( which did help alot)

Hopefully the Stoeger runs smaller then bigger.

[Larry Gibson]

My ? is, why in the hell if the molds drop what they say,they just dont make .358 the standard mold size for 9mm?
Im just plinking with anything i shoot,is it ok to keep on crankin these out and using them?

You are adding too little tin with the 2" of solder bar; try adding 2% tin wich is 3.2 ounces of tin for the 10 lbs of alloy in the pot. Using a permanent marker divide a 1 lb bar of 50/50 solder into 16 pieces (1 ounce per); cut off 6 1/2 pieces and add that to the 10 lbs of alloy. You should get .357 or maybe .358 cast bullets then.

To answer your question; because .356 is the standard size for the 9mm (contrary to what is recommended here) which is why that mould intended for the 9mm is a 356-120-TC.

I have shot thousands of .356 sized 356402s through numerous 9mm handguns and a few subguns with nary a problems and as good accuracy as they were capable of. Since reading all the internet advise I've sized my own 356-120s at .357 and .358 and ya know what? Nary a problem and as godd accuracy as the guns are capable of. Never had any leading with any of the sizes.........accuracy? Sizing to any of the 3 made no difference.......

Suggest a good soft lube such as BAC or Lars NRA 50/50 lube.

Larry Gibson