old lee mold numbers?? lee 90486

[Soundguy]

Question... Looking up a Lee 90486 mold shows a 18 pellet 00 buckshot mold.

I have a Lee 00 buckshot mold.. it's new.. and oddly enough.. no lee # on it just says 00 buck up on the top of the block near the sprue cutter plate.

Now.. I have an old single cavity Lee hollow point .429 214gr? mold I bought in an estate sale along with 2 other 44cal molds... it's old..probably decades..

The mold clearly says 90486 on it right in the aluminum block... same font as many other lee molds I have.

Did Lee change its numbering system??

Since I couldn't look it up I had to cast a bullet just to see what it was actually dropping.

Any thought on the odd numbering?

My first thought was someone took a buckshot mold and cut a piece out of it and re-machined it for the single cavity hollow point 44 mold... but then I compaired the mold blocks.. the buckshot mold uses a thinner aluminum block... so that's not it...

lee change it's numbering?

Thanks.

[MT Gianni]

Lee has rarely had consistency in it's numbering system. If you search here most Lee molds are referred to by diameter and weight. If there are several similar they get called by profile or lube systems.

The Lee 214 HP is a copy of the Lyman 429215 with the internal HP. It should be a shooter. I think they stopped making the HP molds in the early 00's or late 90's.

[Soundguy]

It's a good mold.. I like it. In fact.. the three .429 molds I have are from that estate sale.. a 240grn lrn, a 240gr swc hp gc, and this 214gr swc hp. all make some fantastic looking bullets. I'm getting a flat point 200 and going to try 97/3 lead/ant or 96.5 lead and .5 tin and 3 antimony.. I have read where you can make it drop a 214 gr... I have 214g data for 444 marlin .. I'd like to try it as a mild load.

Speaking of that.. are the lee swc, swc hollow point and round nose .429's safe in tube magazines? I know the flat point will be.

[Soundguy]

Funny.. Lee just emailed me back and want to see pictures of it.. they don't know either.. but said it could be from Lee Custom Engineering instead of Lee Precision.. as that was the previous 'version' of their company.. and could/would be different numbers.

[Soundguy]

Ok..update from Lee.. They claim it is a Lee precision mold..not the older Lee engineering... And do think it's a few decades old... But have no answer as to why the # on it is 90486 which is a buckshot mold #... And they said they don't show any records where a number was recycled.

Any of you here have a guess?
Custom mold cut out of a miss numbered blank? Custom mold cut out of a scrapped blank? I looked at the buckshot molds at
Gain.. The profile looks wrong..but perhaps buckshot molds from 30ys ago were different. looking at spacing.. I believe you could cut a 6 cavity buckshot mold just before the 2nd cavity and re profile the blank and cut a new cavity? I would think then that stock single cavity hollow point parts could be added... Maybe?

So could 've a factory custom shop or food home machinist creation re using stock Lee parts...

Head scratcher...

[Green Frog]

You might want to take this question over to the Lee Loader Forum, ram rodded by the infamous "Ranch Dog". There are Lee enthusiasts that hang out on that venue who seem to know a lot about the esoterica of Lee.

Froggie

[MT Gianni]

I owned one and sold it. It was a catalog item in the early 90's when I started casting. IIRC, it was a tumble lube. You could sell them for $75 or more on ebay 15-20 years ago. I felt the tapered pin was too short, the lube system insufficient and the bullet too light. I also think it was a gas check mold which would not be necessary unless you were running pure. It could be a reflection on my views of hp molds in general.

[HangFireW8]

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...ow-Point-Molds

Here are some pics of one for sale from 2018.

[SyberShooter]

I have the sister to that mold... with the original box... It is a single cavity 240gr SWC-HP and the box label and the mold block are marked 90487

[Soundguy]

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...ow-Point-Molds

Here are some pics of one for sale from 2018.

That looks exactly like my mold.. including the odd punch mark in the aluminum where the halves close.

So what's the deal? Lee must have re- used numbers.. because the 486 is for sure a buckshot mold now. But yet.. according to them.. no they don't re-use numbers???

[Soundguy]

I have the sister to that mold... with the original box... It is a single cavity 240gr SWC-HP and the box label and the mold block are marked 90487

That is so odd. mystery for sure.. would love to know the story.

I've done more research and on the web, found a small handfull of people that have had these 2 number molds.. 90487/7 and all mention the ding in the aluminum.

Interestingly.. a 90487 is a bulge buster if you look it up on lee.. not even a mold.

[MT Gianni]

If someone at Lee says they don't reuse numbers they have not worked there long.

[Soundguy]

Yeah I emailed the customer service and that was their final answer is that they didn't reuse numbers