Suggestions for 9mm mold

[jjcoe2001]

Ok, first post and a noob question. I am looking for suggestions on a good 9mm mold. I hope to be feeding a couple different autoloaders for practice ammo. I have been casting for about a year and have been lurking around here even longer. I tried the search function, with little result. I have looked at many different molds for the 9 (NOE, lee, lyman), but I figured it would never hurt to get some advise as to where to plunk down my cash. Thanks in advance. BTW, I really appreciate all the info you guys put out here, who knew lurking could be such an educational experience. :wink:

Jason

[Moonman]

ACCURATE Molds, Hardline Industries, MiHek,
Ya Pays Yo Money and picks a moldmaker.
Good molds COST MONEY, they make top notch products too.
They are far above LEE molds in COST and QUALITY.

You already mentioned N.O.E.

[Bohica793]

MP Molds 359-124. Casts hollowpoint or flat point depending on how you set it up. Bullets fall out with the slightest shake. PM Mihec as I think he still has about 15 of them.

[reloader28]

We've shot alotta the Lee 358 125gr RF in several different 9mm's.
Works great, is cheap and is a fairly popular 9mm mold.

[Artful]

jjcoe2001 have you slugged the barrels of your various pistols?

did you check out
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?121737-Setting-up-for-boolits-in-a-new-9mm

[tomme boy]

Just getting started I would get the LEE 120 TC 6 cavity. You might not ever get another mold for 9mm again. It shoots that well. Stay away from the TL version. It has way too many failures from everyone to even try it.

[jjcoe2001]

Artful, I haven't slugged the barrel yet, but I did read the sticky you mentioned. Good info. An afternoon of slugging is definitely in order. Thanks for all the replies.

[bangerjim]

Slug that puppy! Then for your 1st mold I would seriously look at a Lee mold. Starting out it gives you excellent experience at a VERY low cost! There are not that many 9mm molds variations out there, so some use 38's and size down as I do. Hollow points are a bit tricky to start out with. For $19 you can get a standard Lee 2 banger.

I have over 2 dozen Lee molds and really like them. They are readily available from many on-line vendors with no waiting. And are always in demand if you want to sell them!

banger

[jjcoe2001]

I appreciate all the advise. For the cost, I think I will try the Lee. I own several Lee molds already and have had good luck so far. I also own a couple of NOE molds, the quality is much better, but until I see how these pistols will handle the cast I'll save that C-note. Thanks for the heads up about the tumble lube mold.

Jason

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I have lots of molds...but for 9mm, I keep going back to the Lee 358 125gr RF and sizing to .357 works well in all my 9mm guns.

[RKJ]

Just getting started I would get the LEE 120 TC 6 cavity. You might not ever get another mold for 9mm again. It shoots that well. Stay away from the TL version. It has way too many failures from everyone to even try it.


I got this mold awhile back and really enjoy it. It drops very nice boolits right from the git-go (3 drops, if that) clean and ready to use.

[Frank V]

I also use Lee moulds & find if you are careful with them, follow the directions about lubing the sprue hinge, locater pins, & edges of the mould where they groove together, they cast nice bullets.

The one thing I've found is sometimes the pin holding the handles together will loosen.

[Cherokee]

Just getting started I would get the LEE 120 TC 6 cavity. You might not ever get another mold for 9mm again. It shoots that well. Stay away from the TL version. It has way too many failures from everyone to even try it.

Agree !! Works great in all the 9's I've shot with it and the 6 cv conventional is easy to cast.

[MtGun44]

Lee 356 120 TC conventional lube is a very good design. Buy a 2 cav to start
and learn on. If you like it, in a while you can upgrade to the 6 cav, if you
are shooting enough to need it.
Check out the sticky on "Setting up a new 9mm for boolits", may save you some
time.

Bill

[mikeyman]

I have had good success with this NOE mold in several cz75's

358 121Gr. RN 5 cavity PB (358242)

It is my 4th noe mold and they are all great...

[Ed_Shot]

You will not go wrong with either (or both) the Lee 356-125-2R or 356-120-TC. I'd also recommend you start with 2 cavity. You can make a lot of high quality boolits cheaply with them.

[tazman]

I have a number of different molds for the 9mm.
95gr ranch dog copy
120 gr tc from Lee
125 gr round nose
135rf from NOE
153 gr rn from Lee
I also use the 358-125-rf and 358-105-swc from Lee in the 9mm on occasion.
They all shoot well. My pistol likes heavier boolits a bit better. At the moment the 135 rf from NOE is my favorite.

[xacex]

+1 for the Mihec 359-125 9mm mold. There was just a run on them, and they are a great, accurate hollowpoint mold. Runner up for accuracy is the Lee 120 TC mold with standard lube groove. I recommend looking at the coating section, and tumbling them with powder coat, with black airsoft bb's, in a cool whip container, and baking at 400F for 20 min. It will save you some frustration with the 9mm in particular. I size to .357 and they feed in everything that I have with no leading. If you have a european gun I suggest slugging your bore. Some may need the full .359 to prevent leading even with powder coat jackets.
9mm can be some work to get right due to the taper in the case swaging your boolits down, and the difference in bore sizes across the board. As MTgun suggested, read the sticky on 9mm first, and go from there. The powder coat does get you past some of the issues without doing anything drastic.

[tja6435]

Hardline Industries make awesome molds, cut it to your specs and have it out to you within 2 wks usually

[jjcoe2001]

Thanks for all the replies. I finally got around to slugging the bores of a couple of the guns. Slugs measure .3545 and .3555. Picked up a Lee 125 358 2 cavity and have the 120 tc on the way. Can't wait to cast a few and get these hunks of steel up and running. I was planning to use 45/45/10 tumble lube on these to start with, but have been reading the powder coating thread (that sucker is looooong!). The powder coating option looks very inviting because one of the pistols I own has the dreaded polygonal rifling (Kahr PM9). Just one more thing to add to my list of things to try. I love tinkering, and casting is becoming as much of a hobby as shooting. :bigsmyl2:

[rintinglen]

[QUOTE=MtGun44;2767497]Lee 356 120 TC conventional lube is a very good design. Buy a 2 cav to start
and learn on. If you like it, in a while you can upgrade to the 6 cav, if you
are shooting enough to need it.
Check out the sticky on "Setting up a new 9mm for boolits", may save you some time

While I agree with Bill on the choice of boolit and second his recommendation to read his sticky, I would recommend getting the 6 cavity Lee from the get go. Lee molds produce more rejects than competitors molds do, when used with the same level of skill and attention to detail. But when you are casting 6 at a crack, one bad boolit with incomplete fill-out is not such a big deal. Those six bangers empty a pot in a hurry, so even with a higher percentage of rejects, you still get a lot of good boolits. I also have had fewer problems with Lee's 6 cavity molds, save one--those cheap sintered levers they use to cut the sprue will break if you try to cut cold lead. You have to pre-heat the mold, cast fast, and you need large sprues to keep the sprue cutter hot. Do those three things and your 6 cavity lee will rain good boolits for you for years to come

[Beesdad]

[QUOTE=MtGun44;2767497]Lee 356 120 TC conventional lube is a very good design. Buy a 2 cav to start
and learn on. If you like it, in a while you can upgrade to the 6 cav, if you
are shooting enough to need it.
Check out the sticky on "Setting up a new 9mm for boolits", may save you some time

While I agree with Bill on the choice of boolit and second his recommendation to read his sticky, I would recommend getting the 6 cavity Lee from the get go. Lee molds produce more rejects than competitors molds do, when used with the same level of skill and attention to detail. But when you are casting 6 at a crack, one bad boolit with incomplete fill-out is not such a big deal. Those six bangers empty a pot in a hurry, so even with a higher percentage of rejects, you still get a lot of good boolits. I also have had fewer problems with Lee's 6 cavity molds, save one--those cheap sintered levers they use to cut the sprue will break if you try to cut cold lead. You have to pre-heat the mold, cast fast, and you need large sprues to keep the sprue cutter hot. Do those three things and your 6 cavity lee will rain good boolits for you for years to come

No better advice than what is given by Rintinglrn