New Mold Report

[mdi]

Not trying to start an arguement, jes my report for all the folks that say Lee molds are junk. I did some casting yesterday for the first time in about a year (We escaped CA about 10 months ago and my casting stuff had been packed for 3 months prior). One of the molds I used is a brand new Lee 2 cavity .452", 230gr, Truncated cone. I had a pot full of about 50-50 pure lead and wheel weights, so that's what I poured. Mold was cleaned with brake cleaner (a quickie so I didn't expect much). I warmed the mold on the top of the pot for a while and started pouring. I got 4 maybe 5 boolits with wrinkles and one with a rounded base, but for the next 50 or so pours all the boolits were good, filled out, and dropped out of the mold with no banging. Surprised me, none of my Lyman or Ideal, or RCBS molds ever did that...

[Artful]

Congrats on escaping Kalipornia - Glad your Lee is working well, my all seem to work well also provided I followed the directions when I got it new.

[Doc Highwall]

mdi, the next important thing is are the bullets of a size that is usable for your gun and next but not as important how round are they. A perfectly round bullet that is under size is no good.

[RobS]

There is no doubt that Lee can produce good molds............it's always been about quality control though. Just recently I seen a Lee mold here on the forum that had to have been cut dry as there was so much chatter the mold was useless IMO. It's hard to imagine how this one made it out the door. I've been fairly lucky with lee molds and have only had ones with small burs etc or only needed a small about of "leementing" or lapping. Lyman has their QC issues too with some of their molds casting undersized.

"Do you feel lucky", "Well do you, Punk" is the feeling I get when buying a new mold from a manufacture such as Lee, Lyman and even RCBS sometimes. I've since moved on to purchasing more custom molds since the mold makers deliver a mold that is what you want/expect.

[mustanggt]

I've had good luck with Ranch Dogs moulds but the actual Lees are not real great. I've gotten some old Lyman and RCBS moulds that cast great bullets. New Lymans have issues. Mountain Moulds are excellent as well as NOE moulds. I would say spend the extra money for the older iron moulds or get in on the Group buys here. I'm happy I did.

[home in oz]

Congrats of the escape from California!

Always feel glad about that!

Of Course, most of the trips were to NTC.

You did well on the Lee.