Lee TL356-124-2R, not bad at all

[BC17A]

I've been avoiding this mold forever since I've read a lot of bad about it, leading, tumbling, poor accuracy, etc. etc. Reports have been about 50/50. I recently put together a budget AR9 and discovered none of my boolit castings would chamber unless loaded way too short. As a matter of fact the only factory ammo I had that would chamber was the Remington 115 FMJ and they even contacted the lands. None of my factory 124's would even come close to chambering either. I took a chance on the this Lee mold and was quite pleased at the results. Though it had to be seated to an OAL of 1.075" to chamber, all went well. I didn't do any work-ups since I just wanted to see if they'd function the rifle and also make it to the target without tumbling, but the one each load using 4 different powders all functioned great. A few even resembled groups. Now to cast a few hundred more and do some proper ladder testing.

[pworley1]

Very good! I never cared for the tumble design until I started to PC. I have found them to work very well when used with PC.

[LAGS]

I cast and shoot that same Boolit.
I too PC them and they shoot way better.

[BC17A]

Forgot to say they weigh nearly 130 grains after PC. Sized them to .357" which is only about a half thou over groove so I'll probably bump them up to .358" next go around. Going to give them a try in a couple 38 Super pistols also.

[Dom]

I use this bullet in my 9MM hand gun. Cast from my scrap WW it comes out at 127grs. When tested for hardness I get a 10.5 BHN. Shoot great out of my pistol at about 1000fps. So fat I haven't coated these bullets, because they shoot so well.

[Doublearon77]

I’m a complete newbie. This is the first mold I bought. Just some of these yesterday, mine seemed to be dropping good bullets right from the start. Going to try to powder coat some this weekend. Hope I can get some starting groups like those!!

[Ia.redneck]

BC17A those boolits look great, who's powder coat are you using and what color please?

[BC17A]

BC17A those boolits look great, who's powder coat are you using and what color please?

Powder by the pound turquoise green. I spray with an ES gun so I'm not sure if shake and bake would work as good as smoke's tested powders.

[Misery-Whip]

The 45 version is my go to for 45acp. Good bullet.

[Ia.redneck]

Thanks!

[Shiloh]

Nice.

Shiloh

[jdgabbard]

I have found most AR9s could benefit for a better forcing cone. Many of my 9mm loadings I have used for years in pistols of various makes needed to be adjusted in seating depth, and thus charge, to accomodate the shorter throat.

That said, I've got one of these molds - a 15+ year old 2cavity. Never liked it, even in pistols. These days I stick with the 358402 and MP357-125-HP. Both seem to work well enough for my needs.

[mnewcomb59]

That bullet with 5.3 gr Power Pistol will put 10 shots into less than 1.5" at 50 yards in my Camp 9. Wheel weights with a little bit of foundry type for about 4% antimony then powder coated.

When I went to South Dakota a few years ago for pheasant I took the Camp 9 for a truck gun. We happened upon a prairie dog town and I had a 1-4x scope with drop lines on it. Bottom drop line is 600 yards with a M4 and with the 9mm it was 192. I guessed the prairie dogs to be about 200 yards with a 10-15mph cross wind. I put the bottom drop line an inch above the first dog and about 15 inches left and drilled one on the first shot. It turned into a very fun hour and we forgot all about those chinese ditch parrots until the closer prairie dogs went into hiding.

[6622729]

I think its the truncated cone 9mm mold that some have reported tumbling issues. It tumbled on me depending on what powder I used. The round nose 2R is my standard 9mm boolit and just plain works. Easy to cast, easy to load and accurate at all different speeds in my KKM barreled Glocks.

[armoredman]

Good grief, I've been using these since i started casting, great boolits.

[dverna]

I would be feeling good about that group with AA#7 and spend some time fine tuning it.

You are off to a great start with this. Keep us posted.

[6622729]

Good grief, I've been using these since i started casting, great boolits.

So I made reference to two bullets in my post. You responded directly after my post. Please clarify which "these" you are referring to.

[BC17A]

Not sure how much of a difference on accuracy pierced primers would make but I found at least half of them like this. Pulled the firing pin and found it boogered up. Sent an email to ARDiscounts last week but got tired of waiting on a response so I ordered one from PSA so I can get back out and do more load testing.

[BC17A]

Made it back to the range yesterday and had lots of loads to test. The carbine seems to prefer slower powders with the Lee boolits and velocities in the 1350 fps range. Didn't have one acceptable group using Bullseye, Green-Dot, Sport Pistol, Titegroup, Power Pistol or BE-86. Surprisingly the Blue-Dot loads that I didn't think would perform actually did extremely well. Going to try Longshot next time out.

[WRideout]

I'm surprised you didn't try Unique; maybe they don't have it where you live.

Wayne