Lee 105 SWC , 38/357 Mold

[Ben]

I have many 38 Special and 357 Mag. revolvers. They have always shot the Lee 105 gr. SWC very well.

I recently purchased a Marlin 1894 , CBC, 38 Special lever action rifle.

I had a Lee , 2 cav. 105 SWC mold on hand and cast about 200 bullets that I tried in the rifle. The rifle shot the Lee 105 SWC so well that I decided that I needed to get the Lee 6 cavity mold in the 105 SWC.

This is about my 8th or 9th Lee 6 cav.mold. Every one of them are a joy to use.

I cast these bullet today ( in about 35 - 40 minutes ) after the mold was 101% clean and up to temp and HOT !

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/PICT0001-45.jpg

You can see that my rifle really likes the 105 SWC, sized to .3585 ". This is a group fired with Russian Unique at 50 yards with my Marlin 1894 CBC , my particular rifle has Ballard style rifling, not micro- groove rifling :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/PICT0001-47.jpg

A very nice mold :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/PICT0001-46.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Marlin%2038%20Special/PICT0007.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Marlin%2038%20Special/PICT0001-1.jpg

This should keep my lever rifle fed for sometime to come :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/PICT0001-48.jpg

[HeavyMetal]

Those are some nice boolits!!

[Cloudpeak]

Beautiful job on the bullets, very nice rifle and a really good group!

I love the little 105's. My 6 cavity mold doesn't look as nice as yours. I've probably cast 40-50,000 bullets with it and it shows it. This bullet has been accurate in every 9mm I've owned and shoots very well in my S&W revolver, too.

[sargenv]

Wow.. well, I am in the process of getting a marlin 1894C in 38/357 and I just so happen to have one of those 105 SWC 6 cavs (for a different reason) and I can hardly wait to try them out. Are you shooting quenched WW's or something softer or harder?

[Elkins45]

Wow, that little boolit looks nice. I'm a little surprised that a boolit that light shoots as well as it obviously does. What a great way to conserve lead and still get great results. You can cast almost 3:2 of those compared to 160 grainers. I may have to pick up a new mold.

Russian Unique? What's that?

[crabo]

Ever shot them at 100?

[MtGun44]

Perfect analog of the .45 ACP H&G 68 in 9mm. Works very well indeed for that
application.

Bill

[Ben]

Responses to your questions :

Q. Have I shot at 100 yards with this load
A. No, only 50 at this point in time.
________________________________

Q. What is Russian Unique.
A. Several Surplus Powder dealers are selling a powder called Salute, it is very similar to Unique in it's burn rate, hence the name " Russian Unique ".
________________________________

Q. What alloy
A. ACWW's
_________________________________

If you'd like more bullets from each pound of alloy for target work, I'd strongly suggest you looking into getting one of these molds.

I started out with a 2 cav. mold, but graduated up to a nice 6 cav.

Ben

[excess650]

I bought a 2 cavity about 25 years ago and cast lots of bullets with it. My S&W Model 14 loved them, and I shot them in my PPC guns. I found that the K38 would shoot them sub 2" at 50 yards over 5gr Bullseye and became my squirrel load.

Thats a nice group from the Marlin. What was your powder charge, cases, primers, lube? I would like to try and duplicate that in my non-microgroove 1894C.

[Ben]

excess650 :

A PM has been sent to you answering your questions.

Ben

[Cowboy T]

I have that same 6-cavity mould and have cast about 10,000 boolits with it. Great mould, works very well in every .357-caliber firearm I've ever tried. I don't really have to size 'em either, because they drop at 0.3575 to 0.3585 right out of the mould. Responds very well to tumble-lubing, too.

Here are some lubed boolits (LLA), my mould, and the resulting .38 Spl ammo from it. As you can see, the mould is well used. :lovebooli The .38 Spl ammo is a powder-puff load that I developed for my g/f; she can shoot hundreds of these and her hand isn't sorry the next day.

http://img162.imagevenue.com/loc362/th_14629_358_105_SWC_122_362lo.jpg (http://img162.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=14629_358_105_SWC_122_362lo.jpg)

http://img245.imagevenue.com/loc78/th_14630_LeeMould_358_105_SWC_122_78lo.jpg (http://img245.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=14630_LeeMould_358_105_SWC_122_78lo. jpg)

http://img140.imagevenue.com/loc570/th_14890_38Spl_PowderPuffLoads_122_570lo.jpg (http://img140.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=14890_38Spl_PowderPuffLoads_122_570l o.jpg)

Oh, also works well in Ruger SR9's when sized to 0.356".

This mould is STRONGLY recommended for anybody shooting anything ".38" caliber or a 9mm. During one winter casting session, I banged out about 4,000 boolits in right about 6 hours, with very few rejects. This thing lets you cast FAAAAST!

[evan price]

I did a package deal buy from someone for a 6-cavity 105 SWC and a 6-cavity 140 SWC and a set of handles. The seller told me they were junk and cast crappy no matter what he tried. He had bought them on eBay and they were his first molds, and he was going to Lyman iron molds since they were so much better than the "Cheap Lee ****".

Well, once I cleaned out the lead stuck between the blocks and did a little bit of repair where someone had hammered on the sprue plate, they both make some nice pretty boolits. That 105-SWC at first wasn't something I was planning on using, but once I saw how nice the boolits were and did the maths about how much less lead I would use, let's just say that it is not going to gather dust!

[StrawHat]

I still have my old 2 cavity mold for this boolit. I will have to see how it performs in my S&W M15 and my older M&Ps.

Another reloading project...just when I thought I had my 38 loads all worked out...oh well...at least it will be fun.

[Jon]

Anyone have a load that comes close to the 158gr trajectory? They shot 3 inches high at 15yds in my wifes S&W Ladysmith. Should I bring the powder charge up or down?

[Edubya]

What powder, boolit and charge are you using?

EW

[Jon]

Sorry, I was using Bullseye. I believe it was 3.5gr with the 105gr bullet in a 38spl case. I wanted to make some light plinking loads for my wife, but the POI was way off.

[Finster101]

Would any of you consider selling a few boolits? I would like to see if they function okay. This would be an excellent mold for me if they do. Thanks

James

[GrizzLeeBear]

Anyone have a load that comes close to the 158gr trajectory? They shot 3 inches high at 15yds in my wifes S&W Ladysmith. Should I bring the powder charge up or down?

Thats weird, light boolits usually shoot low in fixed sighted guns don't they? They do in mine, which is why I'm moving back to 158 gr. boolits in my 38's.

It's not the tradjectory thats the problem. The 158 gr. bullets produce more recoil and have longer barrel time than a faster, lighter bullet. So the muzzle rises more before the bullet exits. Its usually just about impossible to get a lighter bullet to shoot to the same POI. But if yours shoots high you might be able to get a load that will do it.

[Recluse]

I love the little 105's. My 6 cavity mold doesn't look as nice as yours. I've probably cast 40-50,000 bullets with it and it shows it. This bullet has been accurate in every 9mm I've owned and shoots very well in my S&W revolver, too.

Yep, and thanks to you and some pictures you posted several years go, I went and bought that mould (two-banger, though. . . still haven't warmed up to the six-bangers all that much. . . yet) and that is one of my favorite all-around all-purpose boolits.

Great fun, great shooting, great economy!

:coffee:

[509thsfs]

Picked up the Lee 105 mold a few months back, looking for a light load in the wife's S&W M36. Worked great. At 25 yrds it shoots about 8 inches low (as expected). But the M36 mainly being a close in PDW, it works great and shoots POA at 7 or so yds. Great for practice.

Tried it in the S&W M15 last week at 25 yds. She fired the 1st six rounds offhand and kept it under 3 inches. And right at POA for her, so not going to have to move the sights at all. I do want to see what she can do benching it. She enjoyed shooting that load so much she shot a box all offhand and kept them all in the black so never put it on the bench. That little slug makes the .38 M15 feel like you're shooting a .22 haha

[Thumbcocker]

So what was the powder charge?

[Buckshot]

..............I must be way out of date on the new Marlins as I wasn't aware they'd started offering them with colorcased actions. I suppose since it's all in the family now it's easy for them to have it done, as the style of work is very easy to trace as to who did it! :-)

Now if they'd see their way clear to come back with a flatbolt 1893 repro I'd buy one, if I had to float a loan!

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

[Cloudpeak]

Yep, and thanks to you and some pictures you posted several years go, I went and bought that mould (two-banger, though. . . still haven't warmed up to the six-bangers all that much. . . yet) and that is one of my favorite all-around all-purpose boolits.

Great fun, great shooting, great economy!:coffee:

I'm glad you're tickled with the bullet. It's been very accurate in every handgun I've fired it in including my S&W 620 revolver (and the gun grouped low with the lighter bullet.)

I can't imagine casting with a two cavity mold, though. I cast a bunch of 158 gr SWC out of a Lee 2 cavity mold that garadsrus sent me. He bought it used on e-bay and it had a lot of miles on it when he got it. It was pretty much worn out but, if you placed the mold halves on a flat surface when closing it and held the handles tightly, it dropped pretty danged good (and accurate bullets). But that experience is when I decided that, for handgun bullets, I'd never go below 4 cavity capacity:D I'm not getting any younger and don't want to spend time with a 2 cavity!

My 6 cavity 105 mold has cast thousands of bullets and the sprue pivot bolt threads finally stripped out so I drilled the mold block for a 1/4" bolt and threaded the bottom hole and also used a nut below that. Works very well and the mold has thousands more bullets to cast. My lead supply will last forever!

[excess650]

I used and abused my first 38-105 so much that the alignment pins and handle pins loosened and eventually fell out.:holysheep I bought another, but it gave me alignment problems from new, so I drilled a hole and fitted a conventional alignment pin. I haven't yet decided to buy a 6 cavity 38-105, but if it shoots in my 1894c, I may.

[StrawHat]

...I can't imagine casting with a two cavity mold, though... if you placed the mold halves on a flat surface when closing it and held the handles tightly, it dropped pretty danged good (and accurate bullets)...

That is good advice for using the Lee two cavity and keeping it good for a long time. They may be cheap and of "iffy" construction but if treated well, they will cast good bullets for a long time.


... But that experience is when I decided that, for handgun bullets, I'd never go below 4 cavity capacity:D I'm not getting any younger and don't want to spend time with a 2 cavity!...

For many years, prior to getting 6 cavity molds, I fed a PPC competition habit with three Lee 358-148 WC molds. Used in succession, they cast a pile of boolits quickly and really emptied the pots. Up to the 25 yards, I used them interchangably. At the 50 yard line, I used boolets only from one mold. For me it worked great.

I am still not sure the six cavity is any faster. More convenient, oh yeah, much more convenient!

[excess650]

I broke out my modified 2 cavity and cast up a few. Later, I dug out the little Lyman 115gr(?) SWC and cast some of those as well. I'll load 'em and see if my Marlins like either of them. The Lyman has a slightly longer bearing surface and wider meplat.

[jdgabbard]

I am still not sure the six cavity is any faster. More convenient, oh yeah, much more convenient!

Well I cant speak for the Lee six-bangers, but I know the step up to Lyman 4-cavs for me was a HUGE step up in production speed. Until you look up at the level in the pot and realize your on E...

[baladel45]

I read in a French magazine that this bullet can be used to make 9 mm Luger precision loads with great success in conjunction with VV N-340 powder
[smilie=s:

[Elkins45]

I read in a French magazine that this bullet can be used to make 9 mm Luger precision loads with great success in conjunction with VV N-340 powder
[smilie=s:

Great minds think alike. I just returned to this thread to ask if this might make a good .357 Sig boolit if it were sized to .356?

I just bought this mould from Mid-South, so I guess I'll find out soon enough.

[Whistler]

Same here, I'm planning to buy the 6-cav 105gn SWC and use it in my 9mm 1911.
From what I've heard, this bullet works best sized .358 when using it in 9x19 casings. Some people don't size it at all.

If anyone has load data with recommended OAL and powder charge for this bullet in 9x19 I would be grateful to take part of it. :)

[Buckshot]

.............I have a Lee 6x coming from Midway for their 125gr RF withthe idea of trying it in my Witness 38 Super. Should have also ordered one for this 105 gr SWC too. That thing would scoot!

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

[MtGun44]

I'd not size that .357 Sig boolit down to .356 with more info. If it is like the 9mm Para (and I imagine it
is worse due to high velocity) it will need to be bore +.001 or more. Be sure you slug your
bore before you select a size - 9mm Para's are nortorious for needing larger diameter than
.335 or .356 that the j-bullets come in. Many 9mm Para's have .357 bores and need .358 boolits to
work properly; shoot accurately and not lead.

Bill

[Doby45]

358 would prolly be just about perfect for the 357SIG round. The kicker would be the OAL. The SIG round requires a very short ogived bullet in order to have proper neck tension on the boolit and still have enough of a grip on it. I actually have the Lee 125gr RNFP that I have considered putting in my 357SIG. I might mock that up tonight and I will let ya know..

[tomf52]

I use that bullet in all my 38's and 357's, and 9mm's. Shoots llike a dream in all of then with either Bullseye , W231, or 700X. LLA or Felix works well as a lube also. Accurate as all get out and little if any leading. Out of my new 1894 CS 357 the first five shots out of the box went through the same hole off a good bench rest at fifty yards. Did that one with 700X powder. Size them to .357 for the Kimber 9mm, don't size them for anything else. Mine come out of the mold at .3595".

[Bama]

This is one of the best posts I have read to date, Thanks Ben. I have similar Marlin and with the peep sights it shoots fantastic with the lyman 358156 but the snubbies don't care for them very much. Has anyone tried them with PC?

[Bama]

Got Lee 105 gr mold in and cast between 15 and 20 lbs worth. Have one good batch PCed and sized ready to load. Just looking for a good load using ww231 to see if it will work. Hope to load and try this weekend if not raining, maybe even if it is like last weekend.

[Ateam]

I shoot 4.5g 231 in the 357 with that boolit. 4.1 in the 38 if i remember correctly, check that one though as I have not loaded 38 in a long time.