Pros & cons Lee boolit molds - opinions please.

[almar]

A Lyman a Cadillac? I hated every Lyman mold I ever had. I'd give up bullet casting if they were all I had to use. Lee is definitely superior in quality and ease of use.

I guess i've been lucky with mine, i have the 311299 and the .457 round ball they have been good performers, the only downside is the sprue plate screw always getting loose but besides that, all is good.

[Soundguy]

Less expensive, but what about performance, accuracy of casts, maintenance and longevity?

I have bought both old and new molds of all kinds.

My lee molds cast just as fine a bullet as my lymans, etc. I find that my cast bullets are better than commercial cast I used to buy.. commercial cast are generally way too hard and have hard poor quality lube.. I also find that volume casters don't cull cosmetic blemished bullets to the degree that I do.. thus I'm going with my bullets are better than generic bulk commercial cast.

90% of my molds are lee aluminum.

My lee ingot mold makes the same ingot as my lyman.. etc.

[Handloader109]

I'll chime in with about the same experience. I've bought about 5 or 6 lee molds new. And two used and abused ones. And even the used and abused cast good bullets.
I've a couple of three NOE, aluminum 2 to 6 cavity. I had one that just wouldn't cast worth a dang and I finally sold it. Might have been me.... But even NOE do require some conditioning no matter what others say. You must work with a mold a bit to make it drop correctly. And the NOE being thicker and heavier are harder for an older guy to use. AND they take longer to come up to temp to cast well. I'll find a hot plate one day.... I've one Mihec mold that I bought used in brass. It casts great, but is dang heavy.
Lee are good molds. ESPECIALLY for the money.

[carelesslove]

carelesslove, here !

I have 2 or 3 ammo cans full of bullet molds, for pistols & revolvers - desiccant packs in each.

I have a mix of SAECO, RCBS, LYMAN, IDEAL, LEE, and LBT. Each of mine seems to have a behavior of their own - even within the same brand.

The older LEE molds were a little harder to "get running right", but the new ones, with the coarser grooves on the mold block faces & steel locating pins are a big improvement. I did try to follow their instructions and got the mold blocks as clean as possible, but they still took a long time to start throwing perfect bullets. One exception, a new .45 cal, 300 gr. WFNGC, just threw perfect bullets from the get-go. I lubed the pivot pin/screw and the locator pins with an LBT colloidal graphite / wax stick and things got messy, but the mold started casting excellent bullets from both cavities - way before anything else I have.

If LEE has a bullet style & weight you want, they are an excellent value. They might seem delicate, but that is up to the operator.

Thanks,

Tom "carelesslove" Love

[David2011]

What Carelesslove said. I love some of my older Saeco, Lyman and RCBS molds because they’re so easy to use. Most of my boolits come from Lee molds because when casting for pistol matches, volume matters. I use their six cavity 401-175-TC for competition boolits and cast 20+ pounds at a time. I’ve worked at getting that and other Lee molds to drop better but they’re still a little less satisfying to use than the others.

[farmbif]

more than 2 decades on lee round ball molds are all I use for making buckshot, the 12 gauge key drive still works perfect. and all the rest of the lee molds I use are still casting perfectly. they are great for what they are inexpensive and if you take care of them by not beating on them for bullets to drop and jamming them shut they will work well. I took others advice and smoked the cavities after first cleaning them, that might have something to do with how bullets drop.
keep the pivot points lubed a bit with a drop of 2 cycle oil might help too. the dozen or so I have are all 2 cavity except for one 6 cavity that was a special order

[ascast]

i have used about all out there. The Lee is most suceptable to abuse. If you treat them like $5 disposables, they soon will be. Close them gently with a gloveed hand, making sure the pins line up before you squeeze it shut. If you splash lead inside stop and clean it out. They will last a long time if not abused. A good value.

[dverna]

If your desire is to try many bullets in many calibers, I see buying 2 cavity Lee molds as a good option. Investing in 50+ molds as some do gets expensive.

I have four Lee molds bought years ago and they are ok and a good value. But I will be selling two at least.

I am not a tinkerer, so it suits my needs to invest in better molds. Cost is no longer important as I only need one mold in 9mm, one .38/.357, one in .40, one .22, and one .30 for cast bullets. In addition I need a buckshot and slug mold. Casting is not where I find my happy place, so molds are tools to get the job done as well as possible with the least effort.

You need to think about your goals and what works for your needs. But frankly, starting with a Lee mold makes a lot of sense. If you are a pistol shooter, go with a six cavity in a popular design. Starting with a rifle bullet can be frustrating as the tendency is to try for higher velocity and that is not always easy...and you want easy to start with.

.38 and .45 are great starting calibers. Low velocity and pressure are forgiving. The 158 gr .38’s and 200 gr .45’s are classics for good reason.

Good luck.

[lesharris]

I started with LEE molds because of price and availability. They performed well for the price. Lee's quality has improved and bullet choice has increased. My mold choices has increased greatly over the years. LEE still has a place on my casting bench.

[ioon44]

I started with LEE molds because of price and availability but soon learned that there a lot better molds. In the 1980's NEI were really good, Lyman was always a crap shoot as to the diameter they would cast at and customer service is really bad, RCBS only makes 2 cav molds, now I will only buy molds from Accurate.

[tuckerdog]

Have been using them for a long time. Their 200 grain rfn .429 is a very accurate boolit in my .44's. I had to open it up a bit to get diameter tho... The button nose wadcutter is $ in my .357's and .38's. Since they changed their block alignment setup to pins I like them much better. I don't like their 6 cav molds but some do. I usually just buy 2 2 cav's and use them at the same time. As has been said, they don't take a lot of abuse.