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View Full Version : Jr.'s oversized LEE 8mm Max mold



Oldfeller
12-20-2005, 10:18 PM
I was curious when Jr. posted he had a 8mm Max mold that would fit a Steyr rifle it was so grossly oversized. Some posted that they thought it was a rip-off of our group design and that got my curiosity aroused.

So I bought it off Jr. so I could get a better look at it.

First, the mold is not a "Steyr-sized illegal copy" of an 8mm Maximum mold -- it IS a standard 8mm Maximum mold, or rather the mismatched halves of two different 8mm Maximum molds that were slung together by LEE by mistake.

Yup, they let married halves get separated after cutting and when they sorted out the pile they slung two mismatched cavity halves together to make up this particular mold.

The cavity half sine forms do not mate perfectly (they were not married together when crush seated in the lathe, that much is obvious) but I am reluctant to crush them together now as it could make the bullet form change to the dark side even more than it is right now.

The bullet they cast is .003" off form in three axis -- it is .003" fat 90 degrees out from the parting line and it is shifted .003" both along the parting line plane (right left) and vertically on the same plane (up down -- the nose is offset down the middle). The result is oddly asymetrical and it would be slightly "out of balance" to itself when spun in flight -- with the longer nosed side being the out of balance "heavy" side. The right to left offset would cancel and the fat 90 degrees out from the parting line would cancel, but the longer nose side would not cancel as the shorter side is always going to be lighter as the entire form is shifted.

The mold can be quite ill to get a bullet out of. To say this odd offset form can "stick some" is to put it mildly.

Once I lap the cavity to be a lot closer to round then it will actually fit a Steyr rifle fairly well. I doubt all the various form errors will be completely removed, especially that .003" driver band and nose vertical offset amount. All lapping will really do is blunt the vertical changeover zones on the driver bands and the nose a wee bit.

LEE strikes again --

bruce drake
12-20-2005, 10:56 PM
Send it back to LEE for a replacement. If the don't have the 8mm MAX in stock use it for trade leverage for a different caliber. Perhaps they'll honor it.

Bruce

Wayne Smith
12-21-2005, 08:56 AM
If there's one, that means that there's at least another like it out there!