Lee bullet molds???????

[catkiller45]

I see quit afew post concerning Lee molds..I have a couple of them and so far they seem to make a good bullet.Now I am talking large bullets for my 45-70 sharps..I also have some from other makers as well..Now I am looking into casting some bullets for a 30 cal.rifle..300 WSM...
My question is do you fellows or ladies think that the Lee has a good bullet(30 cal)
for my intended use..And I think it shoould be a gas check type..I will be using a mix off wheel weights and lino type...Which brings me to another question..What diameter to use .309-.310 or size to .308
Thank you for any help you have to offer....Johnny

[versifier]

The first thing you need to know is something only you can find out, and it's the same no matter what caliber the barrel is. Slug your bore to find out the land diameter. Hit "search" for info if you are unfamiliar - there's a good thread running on it now. Size your boolits .002 over that. Depending on what your bore slugs to, you might need anything from .309-.312. And yes, IMO, whatever you choose to play with in your WSM should have a gas check on it.

Lee makes some good moulds, but also will ship some undersized, so you have to measure the boolits. All of mine drop at least what's advertised, and some drop larger - a gift from the casting gods. As to whether or not your rifle will like any of them, we can't tell you, only your rifle can. There are no magic answers here. Each barrel is a world unto itself and the only way to find out what works best is to try them. Many board members will send you samples of particular boolits, and Bullshop custom casts them and has a huge inventory of different designs, but Lee moulds are very inexpensive and a good place to start experimenting on your own.

As with your .45-70, if you are going to hunt with them, choose the flat point ones, or if you are going to target shoot, you can try round noses. Personally, I would start with the little Soupcans (C309-113-FP), and I have also had good luck in my rifles with 150 & 170 FP's, and 180 RN's. Every rifle is different, though - you have to actually shoot them in yours to find out.

You probably already know not expect them to work at magnum velocities - 2000 fps is pushing it for cast boolits in most barrels, though there are exceptions. You will be loading charges in your magnum cases that only fill a small percentage of their volume, so you must be aware of the problems you can encounter in order to avoid them. (It would be a lot easier to begin working in .30cal with a much smaller case like a .30-30 or 7.62x39mm, but you have what you have.) You may find a good combination of boolit, powder, and lube on your first try :mrgreen: , but more likely it will take several, or many, to get where you want to go. This is after all a hobby we persue to keep us out of other kinds of trouble. [smilie=1:

[Buckshot]

.............John, fitting the throat is a good way to go. In a modern rifle usually the diameter of the throat is pretty consistant in relation to the groove. Without going into a lot of details and exceptions the throat provides some guidance to the boolit. Some rifles have no throat to speak of, others have a lengthly one. This will have an effect on the OAL you can load to.

For your 30 WSM if your groove is .308" I'd suspect your throat may only be about .309". If so, then .309" is what you should size to. Like buying a pair of pants you look for waist OD and inseam LENGTH so they'll fit. So to in a rifle do you need to fit the slug for the best results. That would be throat OD and throat/leade length.

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

[Pawpaw]

+1 what the guys said above.

And please remember not to try to push those bullets too fast. You're not going to get much more than 1800-2000 fps depending on your barrel and bullet/lube combination.