What the heck, I'll try a Lee mould.

[Vulcan Bob]

Hi there guys and gals, I've been looking for a plain base 405 grain mould for my 45-70 and was a bit frustrated by RCBS's lack of the same, they only have a gas check mould listed. After some real disappointments with new Lyman moulds that sorta left them off the list, so I checked out a Lee. What the heck, if it turned out to be a bad venture I'm only out twenty bucks. Well I ordered a 457-405 two cavity (wish it was a .458") and a Lyman .458" sizeing die and already had the correct seating punch. Well I got it a few days ago and got to work, I was pleased to find it was the new style mould with pins and sockets rather than the old wedge style. Cleaned it up and lubed it up with graphite and had at it with a straight COWW + 2% tin alloy and it cast nice boolet's right from the start with no drama at all. They dropped at 410 grains and a half thousand under .458". Ok, lets try a 50% COWW 50% pure with 4% tin alloy, dropped at 412 grains and the same dia. The only things I didn't like about the boolit's was the small meplat and that the grease grooves were a bit narrow and shallow and would prefer they carried more lube. Sized them with the .458" die and being just a tad small the die just touched em up a bit and didn't squirt the SPG lube up past the grease grooves. Well I loaded up twenty of each alloy using my favorite load of Accurate 5744 and off to the range I went. Well my Marlin 1895 Cowboy didn't seem to notice the slightly small diameter boolit's and shot both weights and alloys quite nicely. My concern about the small lube capacity turned out to be valid but only to the point of some very lite bore leading the last couple of inch's of the barrel that scrubbed out with a few pass's of a bronze brush. Overall I am pleased with the Lee and with proper care I think it should provide me with many boolit's to come. Thanks for looking and hope I didn't bore anyone too badly!

[AlaskanGuy]

For the money invested in lee molds, hard to go wrong... I can buy several lee molds for the same money from the other guys... Much easier to live with at times when money is short and the salmon supply is low....lol

[jmort]

Get one and if you don't like it you can sell and and be out little to nothing. For the $$$, Lee Precision molds are a smoking deal.

[farmerjim]

Their molds are cheep, and good to try out new boolit styles or for those shoulder ponders like the 45-70 that you don't shoot too many of they are great. I read that many of the members here cast 10's of thousands on their Lee molds. I wish that I had that gentile touch, but I don't. I have destroyed some Lee molds in less than 200 boolits, some I have a couple of thousand on, but they are not in the best of shape any more. Just me, I can't spell and I can't do anything neat. I can do precision but never neat. Aluminum molds are just not for me.
My loss.

[btroj]

Destroyed a mould in 200 bullets? How? It isn't about "neat", it is about not abusing the tool.

This is why I don't loan moulds to anyone I wouldn't loan my wife to.

[Bucking the Tiger]

I recently purchased Lee 45-70 molds in 340 grain, 405 grain, and the 500 Postell style. They have made good shooting bullets for my H&R Buffalo Classic. I can make 50 340gr/20 gr 2400 rounds for $8.36 and 50 405gr/ 20gr 2400 for $9.23. That is cheap fun!
The lube grooves on the 340 and 405 are skimpy, but at my velocites they work fine. The 500 has bigger lube grooves and looks like an artillery shell.( not a good choice for repeaters).
I have had good luck with the Lee molds.

[Lefty Red]

Had only one issue with a Lee mold out of the 57 I had. I just bought three more and one is messed up and its my fault. I have had Lyman and T/C and others. Loved them too. But usually sell them if I can get the same one in a Lee. But will never part from my Lyman 358-170gr Keith bullet dropper!

BTW, might want to try double dipping those 458s in Alox, Lee's snot. Never had a leading issue with it!

Lefty/Jerry

[Vulcan Bob]

I recently purchased Lee 45-70 molds in 340 grain, 405 grain, and the 500 Postell style. They have made good shooting bullets for my H&R Buffalo Classic. I can make 50 340gr/20 gr 2400 rounds for $8.36 and 50 405gr/ 20gr 2400 for $9.23. That is cheap fun!
The lube grooves on the 340 and 405 are skimpy, but at my velocites they work fine. The 500 has bigger lube grooves and looks like an artillery shell.( not a good choice for repeaters).
I have had good luck with the Lee molds.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the velocity's of my Accurate 5744 loads are around 1,300 fps. The big boomers are fine but a nice easy on the shoulder load is fun too!

[Hamish]

Sounds like you have a good candidate to either Beagle it or lap out the bands.

[cbrick]

For the future if there is a GC mold that you would prefer PB such as this case with the RCBS another option is Erik @ hollow Point Bullet Molds. He is a master at turning GC molds into PB as the following picture shows.

88526

This is the RCBS 300 Gr 44 GC flat point. With two molds one was turned into Cramer style HP with the gas shank check removed from one cavity. The second is the same mold without HP'ing and with the gas check shank removed from one cavity. The result is four cavities and four different boolits.

HP gas check
HP Plain base
FN gas check
FN Plain base

With literally thousands of different boolit molds made over the years it's still not possible to produce everything that everyone may want, such as your case with the RCBS plain base. Doesn't mean you can't get what you want.

Erik BTW is not only a skilled craftsman he is reasonably priced. Not all that expensive to experiment away.

Rick

[Wally]

I have many Lee molds as well as other brand molds. I use Lee molds the most and have yet to wear any out. Some are over 30 years old. Frankly I don't treat them any gentler than I do an RCBS or a Lyman; they seem to hold up quite well for me. I like them because they are light and IMHO have a better "balance"....



Destroyed a mould in 200 bullets? How? It isn't about "neat", it is about not abusing the tool.

This is why I don't loan moulds to anyone I wouldn't loan my wife to.

[RoyEllis]

Destroyed a mould in 200 bullets? How? It isn't about "neat", it is about not abusing the tool.

This is why I don't loan moulds to anyone I wouldn't loan my wife to.

Guess that leaves me out...I wouldn't be so brash as to ask to borrow your wife but I'd crawl thru broken glass for the chance to pilfer thru yer mould stash for an hour!:lol:

[Janoosh]

If the problem that caused the trashed Lee mould was sticking boolits.....Leementing....It Works! I have a Lee 312/185 sc that was giving me problems, sticking boolits,.....read the sticky, Leemented, no problems anymore.