Lee .358-105 SWC

[alamogunr]

This boolet has been recommended several times for use in 9mm. I have used it in a couple of 9mm Rugers but only to see if it would cycle and hit a paper plate before I gave the pistols to my sons(both grown but busy). Now I decided to cast up a bunch and try it out in both 9mm and .38 Spec.

It had been a while since I used this Lee 6 cavity mold and I wasn't sure what to expect. Boy! Was I pleasantly surprised. I charged the pot with WW + about 1-2% tin and set the mold on the hot plate. When everything was ready, I started pouring. I got good boolets on the first pour. I've never had it happen that every pour was 6 good boolets. The sprue plate was trying to hang on to the sprues and this caused the mold to cool a little so some of the boolets had some very slight wrinkles. Not enough to reject since the bases on every boolet were nice and sharp.

This mold may be a candidate for Red River Rick's sprue plate. I'm going to have to check and see where that stands.

It didn't take long before the pile was about to run over the towel I was dropping them on. I quit, recharged the pot for next time and counted the pile. Almost 500 beautiful little ones. I sure hope I can use them in both the 9mm's and .38's. It sure wouldn't take much lead for a lot of shooting.

[tazman]

This boolit has an excellent reputation in 38/357 for function and accuracy. It is a sometimes thing in 9mm.
When you get the coal just right for your particular 9mm it will work and shoot wonderfully. If you can't find the right length it will cause failures to feed at an annoying rate. Sized properly, it is a very accurate boolit.

[Pablo 5959]

The 105gr SWC is my favorite round in my 9mm sig and 92fs. I love the sharp crisp holes they put in the targets.
No problems cycling no matter what depth I set it.
I just seat to the crimp grove and leave the calipers in the drower.

[Old Caster]

Much to my surprise I found the 105 to be more accurate than I expected in my 14-2 smith 38. I get the best accuracy from a RCBS-150 or a Lyman 358477 that I gave away. I didn't want to go through so much lead if I was shooting steel plate challenge and I hoped for less recoil plus a 6 cavity is a lot faster than a two. I didn't work up a special load for accuracy because I was going to only shoot them in my 4 inch model 10 smith and the farthest target is 25 yards plus it is a full man size silhouette. Once when I had my 14-2 with me I shot 10 of the 105's off the bench just out of curiosity at 50 yards and got a group of about 4 inches when the RCBS will only get down to 2 inches in a Ransom Rest. I was also surprised when someone gave me some 70 grain wadcutters that are wider than they are long and they shot about as well as the 105 gr. bullets. Sometimes little bullets do a lot better than one might expect and you don't know until you try.

[ACrowe25]

^^

Just got this mold. Loaded up 100 for load dev. Throw 2 cyclinders full down range if each powder charge will give me a nice representation of what works best I hope. Hope to see I get similar results to you old caster with hp38.

[Old Caster]

I think they will work fine with HP38. I used 3 grains of Clays but I think in general any powder in the correct range will work as long as you hit the sweet velocity, whatever it happens to be in your gun. I was looking for light recoil and if I drove them faster and actually worked a load up for the bullet, they might be even more accurate. My K38 is even rather particular when it comes to bullets as it won't shoot HBWC's very well and if I shoot a commercial bullet of any kind accuracy goes to pot. I even shot .357, 358, and .359 158 grain bullets from Dardas and they shot terrible. I blame the pickiness of the gun and not Dardas. Just to be contrary, my Python shoots HBWC's the best of all I have tried and a couple of 28's and a 27 shoot everything poorly.

[sandman228]

I load this bullet sized at .358 in a 9mm case over 3.8 gr of pb and shoot it from the 9mm cylinder of my ruger Blackhawk 357-9mm convertible. I loaded some in 357 cases with a few different powders with mixed results. I sized a few at .356 and loaded them in 9mm cases tried to shoot them out of my sr9c , it was a mess . well I guess it would have been ok for someone who likes having a single shot 9mm handgun. but the 9mm pb load out of the revolver shoots great

[mainiac]

Much to my surprise I found the 105 to be more accurate than I expected in my 14-2 smith 38. I get the best accuracy from a RCBS-150 or a Lyman 358477 that I gave away. I didn't want to go through so much lead if I was shooting steel plate challenge and I hoped for less recoil plus a 6 cavity is a lot faster than a two. I didn't work up a special load for accuracy because I was going to only shoot them in my 4 inch model 10 smith and the farthest target

is 25 yards plus it is a full man size silhouette. Once when I had my 14-2 with me I shot 10 of the
105's off the bench just out of curiosity at 50 yards and got a group of about 4 inches when the RCBS will only get down to 2 inches in a Ransom Rest. I was also surprised when someone gave me some 70 grain wadcutters that are wider than they are long and they shot about as well as the 105 gr. bullets. Sometimes little bullets do a lot better than one might expect and you don't know until you try.

Ive about settled on this little boolit in my 14. Seems to shoot just as well as the 148 wadcutter,maybe a little bit better in fact,,and it has almost no recoil,front sight hardly rises from 6 oclock hold,,nice!
Hate diggin the little suckers out of the lube-sizer though.....

[fcvan]

I originally bought that mold for use in a .380 after reading an article about it in Guns and Ammo (I think). It worked very well in the Berretta M70 I had at the time. Then I tried it in my S&W 459 as well as a few other 9mm pistols. I found that by sizing to .358 and seating to where the case mouth was half way between the front of the shoulder and the crimp groove was the bee's knees in every 9mm I've tried. Great little boolit in the 9mm and my .38/.357 revolvers.

[alamogunr]

Ive about settled on this little boolit in my 14. Seems to shoot just as well as the 148 wadcutter,maybe a little bit better in fact,,and it has almost no recoil,front sight hardly rises from 6 oclock hold,,nice!
Hate diggin the little suckers out of the lube-sizer though.....

I was going to try 45-45-10 tumble lube first in a couple of S&W revolvers. Reports of using this boolet in S&W Model 14 have me wanting to try it in the Model 28(Highway Patrolman). With a light load, it should be less than a .22 with respect to recoil.

[Fishman]

It does work great in a couple of .380's I tried it in. I only have an old single cavity though, and I've just cast enough to test it in a few calibers. It does well in .38 too. I may have to get a 6 cavity and give my dad back his mold :)

[alamogunr]

I have the six cavity and per my OP, it did great. The sprue plate was a little rough but the boolets came out almost perfect. Doesn't take long to get a pile either.