Recommendations for a 45acp swc mould

[ronz]

Don’t have a lube sizer so was thinking about going with a tumble lube bullet but will be using it for shooting on a bullseye league
Are tumble lube bullets as accurate as the wax lubed design?
Anyone make tumble lube moulds besides lee?
I was planning on waiting to get a .45 mould doing a lot of research and hopefully even trying a few before I bought one but made plans to visit an old army buddy next month and only have a few hundred commercial cast left and would like to bring close to 1k with me
Going to hard enough just to get the money for the trip but was the wife’s idea no way I’m going to turn down an opportunity to spend the weekend shooting off a few thousand rounds
Think I should just get a lee Tl-452-200-swc or just bring what I have atm and wait to get a different mould?

[warf73]

Get the Lee in a 6 cavity if your getting it, you want lots of good boolits fast thats the only way to go. I would tuble lube with 45/45/10, that way you have boolits ready to load the same day.
If all things come together I bet you can pour, lube and load 1k 45 acp in a day.

Good luck and have a great time on your trip.

[ronz]

I was making a poll and that was one of the choices

[xacex]

6 cavity if you like that mold. Look at the NOE 452 200 that is going in the group buy section. It is closing in a month or so, and should be a great mold. I have the lee, and haven't used it since I got the MH 452 200 h/p. Shoots great, and at 900+ fps opens nice with 50/50. The NOE should be as good, but with a bigger hollowpoint.
The MH mold produces a accurate boolit that is great on paper, and is spectacular on jugs. I am sure it would perform as spectacular on a critter whether two legged or four. I found the lee 452 200 swc to just look to funny in the case. If you are just in it for plinkin I would go for the 452-160 to save on lead, but it is only offered in a 2 cav.
look up the 45/45/10 recipe for a great lube for .45acp. Honestly, I know nothing about bullseye league or what the requirements are as far as that goes so my suggestions may be off base for what you need.

[MikeS]

Go with the 6 cavity mould. Lee's six cavity moulds are made better, and if shooting lots of boolits, you'll appreciate the fact that they can make a bunch of boolits pretty fast. Even the six cavity mould is cheap enough that if/when you get a lube sizer and don't want to use it anymore, you're not out a whole lot of money. But to tell you the truth, that's a nice boolit design, I have a mould of it, and even having a couple of lubrisizers I still cast and shoot them. Tumble lube boolits work fine in 45ACP as long as you don't push them in max +P loads. Like any other type of lead boolit it's important that the boolits fit the gun they're going to shot from, so you should probably slug the bore of your pistol(s) to see what size boolit they need.

Another TL boolit design I like is Lee's 230gr round nose. Unlike their conventional lube round nose, which needs to be seated very deep to feed from most autos, their TL230 is a really nice design, and depending on what guns you'll be shooting them from, will feed more reliably than the TL200. I like their TL230 so much I even have 2 cavity hollow point version of it. Erik of hollowpointmold.com takes Lee 2 cavity moulds, and converts them to HP, and in the process fixes many of the problems the Lee 2 cavity moulds have.

As far as other mould makers that make tumble lube boolit designs, Accurate Molds makes them, but they're a custom mould maker, and in a different league than Lee. Tom from Accurate Molds can make almost any design you like, as long as it has a flat point at least .180" wide. I have a few of his moulds, and nothing beats his moulds! Some other semi custom makers (Mihec, NOE) are as good, but they're another story.

[Moonie]

My preference would be the NON TL 6 cavity version of this boolit, the Lee idea on the #68, you can still tumble lube it, as I do.

[ShooterAZ]

+1 on the NON TL designs. Go for the traditional style mold, it will TL just fine. Also, if you later decide to get a lube sizer, you will be set.

[jld_in_IA]

I have to agree with getting a 6 cavity mold. I have both 2 and 4 cav molds, and find myself wishing for a 6 cav at times. Still, its hard to beat NOE and MiHec molds.

As for TLing a non-TL design, I would have to take Moonie and ShooterAZ's advice on the matter. I use a very old Lyman 45 lube sizer myself.

[xacex]

+1 on the non tumble lube design. 45/45/10 works just fine for non-TL designs. I sold off all of my TL molds.

[ronz]

Only have one 45 and have ran umpteen thousand rounds of commercial cast through it and never had any leading with it so assumed that it would work fine with a tumble lube mould so didn’t consider the regular wax grove design
I do tumble lube bootits with the standard wax grove (don’t have any tumble lube moulds)
But assumed if I only plan on tumble lubing a tl mould was the way to go

[DRNurse1]

Don’t have a lube sizer so was thinking about going with a tumble lube bullet but will be using it for shooting on a bullseye league
Are tumble lube bullets as accurate as the wax lubed design?
Anyone make tumble lube moulds besides lee?
I was planning on waiting to get a .45 mould doing a lot of research and hopefully even trying a few before I bought one but made plans to visit an old army buddy next month and only have a few hundred commercial cast left and would like to bring close to 1k with me
Going to hard enough just to get the money for the trip but was the wife’s idea no way I’m going to turn down an opportunity to spend the weekend shooting off a few thousand rounds
Think I should just get a lee Tl-452-200-swc or just bring what I have atm and wait to get a different mould?

Ronz:

I think you need to ask how and how much you are going to use this boolit.

If Plinking: least expensive route
If Competitive Pistol or Self Defense: follow the recommendations of the leaders in the field...probably worth saving up for the lubri-sizer and the right mould.

Any other application will probably fall somewhere between these and then the quantity becomes the issue. Certain techniques lend themselves to speed and volume. Here is where the tumble versus traditional lube grove design becomes important.

Just my $.02. Happy casting.

[JIMinPHX]

I borrowed a 6-cav Lee flat point mold from a friend of mine once & cast up a pile of boolits with it. They shot great. I probably should have bought one of those molds for myself.

As for tumble lube vs. traditional lube designs, don't worry about it too much. You can tumble lube either type & it will work just fine.

[Forrest r]

I'd go with a MiHec #68 clone. They cast an excellent boolit that's extremely consistent in size & weight.

You're just starting out in casting so do your self a huge favor & start out with the best molds out there. They will give you years of quality boolits you'll be shooting by the thousands.

I've owned molds from different mfg's over the years & at the end of the day I sold everything off (including 4 lee 6 cavity molds) & own 5 Mihec molds & 1 lyman (311465 plinker) mold. My only regret is that I wasn't able to get the Mihec molds 25+ years ago when I started casting/reloading.

The very 1st mold I ever bought/used was a h&g #50, it was a 6-cav. I cast & shot 1000's of quality boolits every year for over a decade with that mold. Remember, you get what you pay for.

[ronz]

Want to thank everyone for the help
Going to get a lee 6 cavity 200swc just not sure about tl or wax leaning towards wax
The mould I didn’t even consider
I’m using a 22 for league now but will be using the 45 for the next one and really not all that good only shoot about a 250 average didn’t even hit that this week Had a 280 average when I shot 20 some years ago
But can always get a different mould in the future if I don’t like this one or need one that makes a more accurate bullet

[captaint]

I didn't notice the tl designation on the 2 lee molds. I would have recommended getting a regular loob gruve boolit mold and tl ing if needed. Not a big fan of the tl designs. I have tl'd regular loob gruve lee's and they work well. enjoy Mike

[AviatorTroy]

I'm no expert but I have been tumble lubing traditional mold designs for years. A square Tupperware container works great, I squirt straight LLA on there and a splash of thinner. I have thinned with acetone, mineral spirits, anything that evaporates fast. It's been said a million times, but all you are after is a thin waxy coating like a .22lr bullet. Sometimes a couple thin coats are better than one thick one.

One more thing, bore to slug size is more important that lube or alloy. Make sure your mold is dropping at 1-2 thousands bigger than groove size. You can play with alloy or casting temp to fine tune this, or "beagle" your mold.

Good luck, you'll be fine.