32ACP- modified Lee C309-113-F rifle boolit mold

[BC17A]

I found an old thread for a group buy on this rifle mold in a six cavity and after looking at it, thought it might make a good 32ACP boolit. So far its exceeded my expectations. Milled down to .410" long they drop at 73 grains and mic about .311" using range scrap. This one casts great and was dropping keepers from very the first pour. As soon as our county burn ban (no shooting either) is lifted I'm going to hit the range to test these. This is the Lee mold I modified. (https://leeprecision.com/mold-dc-309-113-f.html)

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[rking22]

Very interesting, may pick me one up and do the same. Does the mold balance ok when closing? Could you post a picture of the modified blocks?

[Jniedbalski]

I got the lee .311 100 2r cut down .080 that cast at 81 gr. It cast and shoots great. Was thinking about getting the tl .314 90 gr tc And cutting it down but I like the look of this bullet better. Thanks for posting.let us know how it shoots and feeds.

[BC17A]

I got the lee .311 100 2r cut down .080 that cast at 81 gr. It cast and shoots great. Was thinking about getting the tl .314 90 gr tc And cutting it down but I like the look of this bullet better. Thanks for posting.let us know how it shoots and feeds.

I have both those molds also, cut both and they do shoot great. The .314" SWC I ended up milling out the lube grooves to give it more weight. My 311-100 drops at 80gn, and the 314" SWC 73gn. Looking forward to testing this one and don't see why it won't shoot as well, however the flat nose with feeding? Keeping my fingers crossed.


Very interesting, may pick me one up and do the same. Does the mold balance ok when closing? Could you post a picture of the modified blocks?

I thought I had taken pictures after I milled it but I guess I didn't so I'll take/post a pic in the morning. As far as balance open/close function I can't tell a difference between this one and any of my unmodified molds. One thing to watch out for is removing more than .200" didn't leave but a few threads for the sprue bolt. I pulled the handle and relieved it to allow the bolt to go past, then tapped an extra thread which seems to be holding well after casting 250 boolits.

[BC17A]

Here are the mold pics. Last one shows the sprue plate after I fine tuned it with a flat file. Almost all of my Lee molds needed to have the plates filed because they're too tight from the factory and is the reason the bolts come loose while casting.


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[ddixie884]

I like it..............

[onelight]

That made a nice 32 bullet good job !

[rking22]

I like it! Wonder if Lee could be enticed to make some 6 cavities of the short version, they already got the cherry!
I like it so well I’m ordering 2 molds to cut for myself! Thanks for sharing the idea and info.

[BC17A]

I like it! Wonder if Lee could be enticed to make some 6 cavities of the short version, they already got the cherry!
I like it so well I’m ordering 2 molds to cut for myself! Thanks for sharing the idea and info.

I was wondering the same thing. I'm not quite sure how a mold is actually made, but I understand the mold halves are closed around the cherry, correct? If so then it wouldn't be too difficult to set up the tooling so the cherry is set shallow to produce this boolit profile with the rifle cherry. I bet it would become a popular mold and sell very well. Might even be a good one for the Seecamp owners who cast..

As for finding these molds, I didn't see but a few places that had them in stock. Got mine from Amazon, Graf's has a few also. Natchez, Midway and Midsouth were zero-balance.

I forgot to mention that the sprue plate stop tab had to be filed also. Because the mold is cut so short, it makes contact with the handle before closing completely.

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[rking22]

Got 2 from Titan, see the banner at the page top. They support us, and had them in stock. I am going to make one like this and one longer by the lube groove, reaming out the groove for 80 gr ish range. Least that’s the plan at the moment:)

[Hanzy4200]

Very cool project. I've never attempted to modify a existing mold. Is there a reason you chose this in place of a standard mold? I shoot the piss out of .32's using the Lyman 311-252 with great success. Use it in my 7.62 Tok and Mauser loads as well. Very accurate bullet.

[mattw]

Hanzy, the reason I went this way was because of my CZ70, there is no leade into the rifling and the front driving band on the 311252 causes a jam unless seated very short. Plus the CZ70 was really needing something heavier than the 75-77 grain bullets.

[BC17A]

Very cool project. I've never attempted to modify a existing mold. Is there a reason you chose this in place of a standard mold? I shoot the piss out of .32's using the Lyman 311-252 with great success. Use it in my 7.62 Tok and Mauser loads as well. Very accurate bullet.

No real reason, it's just nice to have more boolit options in 32 auto.

[35remington]

A lot of 32 autos may be allergic to having much full caliber band outside the case mouth.

[Thin Man]

I needed a mold for the 32 auto and first tried a shortened Lee 311-93-1R mold. Seating this shortened so the lube groove was inside the case resulted in a cartridge that was so short that most pistols refused to feed it up into the chamber. My next effort was with a shortened Lee 311-100-2R which gave me the right nose length and feeds up with total reliability. I also have an Ohaus mold 32-085-R (designed for the 32 S&W?) which is reliable and a bit heavier when I decide to experiment with a different weight range.

[Outpost75]

Two lighter-weight Accurate bulets for .32 ACP which feed well in finicky pistols which tend to bobble with anything other than FMJ hardball.

The 31-075H has a .303 diameter nose above the front driving band for tight chambers with short throats and has plain base.

The 31-081H has a larger diameter .308 nose above the front driving band and is a bevel-base to bump weight slightly and to fit larger throats of surplus Beretta pistols.

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[BC17A]

Here's a quick update on the new boolit through my Beretta 81.

36 rounds, 18 each with 2 grains of both Titegroup and Bullseye. Fired 12 for function and 6 for accuracy at 10 yards with wrist support. All fed and fired without issue, and accuracy is surprisingly good considering only one load of each. I'm going test more with BE and TG along with AA#2 and Sport Pistol.

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