Good Casting Molds

[alamogunr]

I decided to do some casting so I could be ready to load some for my son and grandsons. Son just bought a new Ruger Commander size .45ACP and already had 9mm.

I am partial to the MP .45-200(H&G 68) so that was the first mold I got out. As expected, it cast good boolits from the start. Next I tried a Lee .358-105 SWC six cavity that I had bought when I got a couple of Ruger P95's for the sons. It had been several years since I used that mold and forgot how it cast. I was pleasantly surprised at getting good boolits after a couple of casts. They just kept coming. I had the temp set at 725º which gave me boolits that were just before being frosty. Since I'm going to tumble lube, I left it there.

I knew that these Lee boolits worked fine in the P95's but those guns handle just about anything you load in them. I'm hoping that they work in the newer smaller 9mm's also.

Can anyone point me to practice loads using the Lee boolit?

[gwpercle]

What I have discovered with the newer smaller 9's is they have little or no throat. The 105 grain SWC had to be seated so very little of the top driving band extended past the case. One pistol required that none of the driving band be exposed. They would jam into the rifling and keep the round from fully seating.
I have a WWII era Walther P38 that loves this 105 gr. boolit , sized .357 , over 4.7 grains of Unique. Shoots to the P38's fixed sights, and this gun has a throat, I can expose the entire front driving band and it chambers without any problems , but it's old and large.
This load is reliable in function but doesn't batter the old P38 .
Gary

[alamogunr]

Thanks! The only old 9mm I have is a Sig P6 and it has been throated by DougGuy. While I haven't tested it with the 105, I have "plunk" tested it with several reloads and factory loads. All passed except some dummies I made with reversed boolits. Not sure why I tried that.

[gwpercle]

The 105 gr. Lee is short , so even deep seating so that none of the front band is visible isn't a problem.
A friend's new Springfield would not tolerate any of the front band protruding , so I seated the boolits deeper , so none was exposed , and it was happy.

The reversed boolits might have been to determine how much throat was there .
I can tell you backwards loaded boolits don't fly that well unless they're DEWC's .

Gary