Just got my LEE .380 mold

[PolishYeti]

Ok , so my back ordered .380 LEE mold came in today. I was happy as it was backordered until 4-6-09. I ran right out to the shop and casted up about 150 boolits to work with tonight. Imagine my dismay when an hour later I come inside to my reloading bench to set up the brand new Lee 380 dies that came with the mold , and while setting everything up I discover my boolits have dropped from the mold @ .370 inch and 115.5 grains !! This is the 356-102-1R mold , part #90305 .

What gives? Anyone else get their new molds yet? The alloy I am using is recovered indoor range scrap. It drops .403 boolits out of my .40 cal SWC Lee mold and .454 boolits out of the 452-228-1R mold. I can't figure Lee would cut a mold .014 oversize but that is what the dial calipers say.

By the way sorry for being a lurker for so long , you guys have a great site full of info.

[Buckshot]

Ok , so my back ordered .380 LEE mold came in today. I discover my boolits have dropped from the mold @ .370 inch and 115.5 grains !! This is the 356-102-1R mold , part #90305 .

What gives? Anyone else get their new molds yet? The alloy I am using is recovered indoor range scrap. It drops .403 boolits out of my .40 cal SWC Lee mold and .454 boolits out of the 452-228-1R mold. I can't figure Lee would cut a mold .014 oversize but that is what the dial calipers say.

By the way sorry for being a lurker for so long , you guys have a great site full of info.

...................PolishYeti, welcome in from the cold :-) I was wondering when it would be. Saw ya there in the shadows, ha! You obviously have a Lee mistake there my friend. My suggestion is to package the mould up with a couple cast boolits, enclose a letter detailing the problem. Give them your E-mail addy, your phone number and obviously your address. Ask them to please contact you to advise you what will be done and when.

..............Buckshot

[Recluse]

Agree.

I have that mould and it drops (with WW alloy at around 875F) .358 and right at 102 grains as consistent as it can be. Makes great boolits.

Send it back. They'll (Lee) take care of you.

:coffee:

[Curly James]

Sorry to hear of your problems Polish. The guys are right, box it up and return it directly to Lee and they will fix it.

Who did you have the moldon back order with? I have been waiting for a month for .380 dies and the same mold from Mid South Shooters Supply. Hopefully my order will be here soon, I have two LCPs to feed.

[PolishYeti]

Thanks for the responses guys. I had seen there were several guys waiting for their Lee .380 molds and wondered if anyone else had the same problem. It makes you wonder when this stuff is backordered for more than a month if quality control doesn't suffer just a bit at the factory.

I'll be contacting Midway USA in the morning to see what their policy is. I'm just worried that I'll return it and they'll send me another bad one three weeks later . Bummer. My guess is someone at Lee machined this mold with a 9mm Makarov cherry. All the numbers on the box and mold indicate its the 356-102-1R . Pure craziness.

[briang]

Don't even deal with Midway, send it right to Lee. They have a guarantee on all their products.

[Leftoverdj]

My bet is that you got a mislabeled Mak mould. There are plenty of shooters who would love to have it.

Lee says they have expanded their plant and increased their work force. That's the kind of problem you get with lots of new help.

[Curly James]

Hey Polish,

Have you contacted Lee yet about your mold. I would like to hear their answer. My mold arrived the other day and yesterday I happily cast about two hundred boolits. When I miked them they are .367 in diameter. I checked the number on the mold and box, it is the number code Lee has for a .380 mold. The box is labeled 380 w/ 356 dia. I think Leftoverdj has it right. Somebody at the factory mismarked a bunch of Makarov molds. Made a nice looking boolit though.

[MakeMineA10mm]

My question is, why doesn't Lee list this mould in a 6-cavity? I'm not thrilled with the quality/resilience of the Lee 2-cavs, and they don't list a 6-cav for this design on their website. Does it exist and simply not listed?

[Leftoverdj]

My question is, why doesn't Lee list this mould in a 6-cavity? I'm not thrilled with the quality/resilience of the Lee 2-cavs, and they don't list a 6-cav for this design on their website. Does it exist and simply not listed?

They did. Discontinued it several years back. You'd have to ask them why, but my guess is that they simply weren't selling. Until very recently reloading for the .380 was not popular.