7.62x39 lee molds

[Ricochet]

That hasn't been my experience with my SKS, but youu know your own rifle.

Exactly. It's a boolit designed specifically for the SKS, AK-47, and similar "Fat-30s." I was thinking about it for possible use in ordinary .30s of .300" bore and .308" groove diameters, with relatively short ball seats. Wouldn't work well, from the sound of it.

[Treeman]

Ricochet, Okay-that is what I thought you meant. FWIW remember that this is a spitzer design and only 165grains, It winds up that the boreriding portion isn't extremely long so it will seat without jamming in many .308 bores.

[40mmHEDP]

Now you got me thinking about that bullet. I resized some tonight to .309 and loaded some dummy rounds to see how they chamber in my 300/221 AR. Seated to the crip groove they chamber fine and the bullet does not contact the bore. I'm going to load some up with the same load that gives me 1500fps in a 165gr jacketed bullet and see what happens.. By the way the dummy rounds feed real well and the bullet came out looking good with no cuts or gouges. If it is accurate it could make for some cheap plinking rounds.

[redneckdan]

what was your OAL on the load 300/221 rounds?

[Ricochet]

OK, now you've got me wondering again. Looked to me like it has a fairly long cylindrical portion in front of the shoulder. If it's actually tapered a bit it might be a pretty good .30, and hey, I've got Mosins and an SKS anyway. (Not that I'm particularly interested in casting for the SKS.) I'll probably pick up one of these to play with when I get a round tuit. I've got to get some replacement Lyman decapping pins, and I've got to have something to round out an order with!

[Treeman]

Yep, It is tapered. In front of the crimp groove/shoulder mine measure .310. about 3/16th on an inch out they are .304, a bit further and they are .292 before you get into the pronounced ogive. It is a C.E. Harris design and he seems to have planned a most versatile bullet- enough girth for stabilization with enough taper for versatility and natural bore centering.

[Ricochet]

OK, thanks!

[Maven]

All, I have a CBE "fat Loverin" (1195gr.) that I ordered before there was such a thing as Group Buys. My original intent was to use it, sized to .313" in the 7.65 x 53mm Arg. Mau. On a lark, I sized it to .314" and tried it in my Type 56 SKS: It shot about as well as the C.E. Harris design. (My mold is an LBT.) Btw, before you invest in the Lee SKS, slug your bbl. as I found dimensions of the Lee/C.E. Harris CB to be too small for my rifle.

[Ricochet]

I just bought one of those moulds, along with spares of the decapper pins for the various sorts of dies I have. Local stores aren't worth a toot for things like that anymore, and it's cost ineffective to order a small batch of decapper pins alone. So I'll have a new mould to play with.

[40mmHEDP]

OAL on mine are about 2.045" when seated to to the crimp groove. The brass is trimed at 1.368". You will find alot of different opinions on brass trim length from 1.355" to 1.40" in 300/221 or 300 Whisper, but 1.368" is good in my chamber.

If I can get these to shoot fairly accurate and not lead everything up this my be a fun cheap load for the Whisper.

[RU shooter]

OK, now you've got me wondering again. Looked to me like it has a fairly long cylindrical portion in front of the shoulder. If it's actually tapered a bit it might be a pretty good .30, and hey, I've got Mosins and an SKS anyway. (Not that I'm particularly interested in casting for the SKS.) I'll probably pick up one of these to play with when I get a round tuit. I've got to get some replacement Lyman decapping pins, and I've got to have something to round out an order with!

Ricochet I think this boolit may work better than you think, This thread got me to try the 160 TL I have in my Swiss K31's ,I unbeagled my mold and cast some up that were a hair over .311 lubed with a light coat of LLA . I was able to seat these at 2.815 for one rifle and 2.800 for the other that is only slightly past the last groove on the TL section.

The results: Truely amazing!!!!!!! the first load was with 10 gr of Unique and no GC ,From a fresh bore ,5 shot group of 7/8 the last 4 shots went into a no BS .220 group: !!!!!!!

the second load from my other K31 was another winner! 9.0 gr of Win. 231 5 rds in .470 from a seasoned bore!!!!!!!!

If these will fit good in a tight chamber hardly any throat to speak of K31 and shoot like they did ,They should work for any other 30 cal .

[Ricochet]

I've got my mould in now, and I'm eager to try it out in the K-31, too!

[Ricochet]

OK, mine turns out to be exactly what it's supposed to be, a great boolit for the Fat .30s like the SKS and Mosin. Mine will be no use in my K-31. Mine has a cylindrical shank of .308" diameter right up to the rounded off ogive, and that's where it stops against the shoulder at the front of the chamber. I'd have to seat it so only the ogive protruded from the case, ridiculously deep, even if it were sized down to .308". The body bands on mine are .314". I went on and checked the ones I cast and ran them through a .314" die to seat the checks. They'll go in fast Mosin loads.

I'm getting a vast collection of Fat .30 boolits. The only boolits I've got that I know work in my K-31 are the Aladin HBC, sized to .311". And they have to be seated deeply so that the ogive starts at the case mouth. I just gave up in disgust on my old Group Buy Soup Can boolits, which turn out to be .315" as cast. They will work in my .30-06 M77 Ruger. I think they'll probably work in my .300 Weatherby Vanguard. (I'm going to try.) But they won't go in my K-31, they're too doggone big to size down in one step to .308", and now I've got an awful stuck mess to get out of my .308" die. I think the easiest thing to do is fire up my pot and melt it out.

Those Lee SKS boolits might well work in the Weatherby, with its freebore. But the pickings are slim for boolits for the K-31, and I'm not feeling too optimistic about the coming Group Buy #311291, remembering the proposed .312" body and .302" nose. I hope I get one on the skinny side. But all my boolits have been coming out fat!


Lee's still got about 80 of the old one-hole CTL-312-160-2R on their Surplus Page. Might be undersized with skinny tapered noses like the ones above, but I'm done buying moulds for a while.

[Ricochet]

Oh, yeah! I almost forgot I have one of those little single cavity Lee C-309-130-R moulds off of their closeouts page! It's one of the same series as their other .30 caliber roundnose moulds just with a very short, stubby nose. It'll let me check the nose for fit in the bore of my K-31 and give it a try. If it seems workable as a bore rider, I might get a longer nosed one (probably the 200 grain) in a double cavity. I love the production rate of 6-holers, but with my rate of rifle shooting I can be happy with a two-holer.

[Driller640]

Hello Molly, you said u shoot 170g in sks what is the load data for that if u don't mind eh. Would like to try in mine have Lee 170g .309 FN that may work, eh.

[texas tenring]

Ricochet, I'm using the Lee 312-155 boolit in my K-31 with excellent results, you can search my previous post on loading for the K-31. Mine cast exactly the same as yours and I seat it at a OAL of 2.848 which is just at the crimp groove. I lubed with LLA and when it chambers it does just slightly engrave down the sides of the boolit, but with the LLA lube it easily ejects without any problems (no stuck boolits). I have fired about 200 rounds so far through my K-31 and in ideal conditions (light and no wind) it is capable of 1" groups at 100yds of course perfect conditions don't happen that often. That is my experiance with this boolit. Oh yeah that was with 17grs of 2400 and sized .309 with Lee push thru.

Also I am experimenting with a No.4 Mk1 enfield I have that has an unusually tight groove diameter of .310. I loaded 11 test rounds this last weekend with the same boolit sized to .312 and lubed with Lyman 50/50 it looks like it might hold around 2", so I loaded 50 rounds last night to try this weekend.

I think this is a really neat boolit design with a lot of possibilities.