Lee TL358-158-SWC?

[FergusonTO35]

I just bought me a Lee tumble lube 358-158-SWC for my .38 Specials. I've always had good luck dipping boolits in thinned LLA and letting them dry. Anybody have experience with this boolit? Does it tend to like the same loads as one with conventional lube grooves? I don't push them terribly hard. My usual load is 3.8 grains Titegroup for 850 fps out of a 4" barrel so FBI Load power level.

[Wheelguns 1961]

That bullet always shot great for me. I powder coated mine.

[Texarkan]

I always liked mine. I ran some 38-44 loads with them back in the day, not too many. I ran a bunch of them with LLA I think as well. I ran them with the same data at a conventional with no issues.

[FergusonTO35]

Sounds good, thanks. I find that many of the tumble lube designs actually work great running them through the lube sizer as usual. Seems to me like multiple shallow grooves would help the lube to flow into the bore of the gun rather than staying in the groove.

[725]

I've never had any problems with it. I'd think it a good defensive bullet.

[Bazoo]

I shot a mess of them in a 357 Magnum Marlin 1894, loaded with 4.4 grains Bullseye for a +P load in 38 Special cases. I used my LLA/JPW lube, which is a can of JPW and a bottle of LLA, and have no complaints.

[FergusonTO35]

Awesome, thanks!

[FergusonTO35]

The mold arrived and I poured a bunch after work. This is the easiest mold I have ever used, Lee must be on top of their game nowadays. Boolits drop out of the cavities easier than my ancient one cavity Lee molds do (which is high praise indeed) and just looking them over quickly, I'm seeing a reject rate of maybe 2%. A random sample of weights showed a range of only 1.5 grains or so, about 158.8-160.3. My caliper says the bottom full bore shank of the boolits have a pretty consistent .360-.361. If this is the average mold that Lee is putting out nowadays, bravo!

[Wheelguns 1961]

Is it a 6 cavity mold? I have had a few Lee 6 cavity tumble lube molds. They all cast great. I have a TL452-200 swc mold that shoots great in my 1911. The only one that I couldn’t get to shoot good was a TL356-124 in 9mm.

[Bazoo]

I've been mostly pretty happy with Lee's new production moulds. Only had a few that were small or didn't drop easy. I have a 429-200-RF that drops .429, and while I was hoping for .430, I will try it anyway in my 92. I have been working with others. So many moulds so little time!

[Maven]

I have that mould, but mine casts a bit too small. Beagling and resizing where needed helped 25 yd. accuracy, which was more than adequate out of 1 .38Spl. (S & W Mod.10) and my Ruger .357 Mag. BH. However, the same design for .44Spl's and .44 Mags. is even more accurate. Having said this, I must add that RCBS Keith designs in both calibers are the bees knees.

[Bazoo]

I have that mould, but mine casts a bit too small. Beagling and resizing where needed helped 25 yd. accuracy, which was more than adequate out of 1 .38Spl. (S & W Mod.10) and my Ruger .357 Mag. BH. However, the same design for .44Spl's and .44 Mags. is even more accurate. Having said this, I must add that RCBS Keith designs in both calibers are the bees knees.

I like the RCBS moulds too. I've had really good accuracy out of the 38-150-SWC and the 44-250-K.

I haven't tried Lee's TL430-240-SWC in my rifle yet. I have some some of them in handgun, but the gun was leading with everything so I didn't do much with it when I tested it. A couple new guns, so now I'm going to do some more testing. Their SWCs feed through my Winchester 92 like butter too.

[Larry Gibson]

I've cast a lot of TL358-158-SWCs with a Lee 6 cavity mould. I usually cast about 600 - 700 at a sitting. Since these are shot mostly out of my 38 SPL and 357 Magnum revolvers with standard 38 SPL loads [3.5 gr Bullseye, Red Dot or 700X] I usually cast them of whatever odds and ends of alloys I have laying around. They drop .358 - .360 depending on the particular "blend of alloy". The bullets fall from the mould easily. One does have to be careful casting with the Lee 6 cavity mould not to hold the sprue plate handle when pouring. Doing so can cause the blocks to open unevenly giving pour quality bullets. For the 38 SPL level loads I give the bullets a light coat of LLA, let dry completely, Size in a Lee .358 sizer and load. The small amount of LLA that remains in the lube grooves is sufficient the 38 SPL level loads used and I get no leading. If I use the bullets in my 35 Rem rifle I size and lube with 2500+ in a Lyman 450.

[FergusonTO35]

Awesome, thanks. I double dipped mine in LLA and let them dry for five days, decided to see how they would do as cast. I loaded some up with 3 grains of Titegroup in .38 Long Colt brass and tried them at 10 yards in my Charter Arms Undercover before work today. They were shooting to the sights and accuracy was as good as anything else I have tried. Gonna try them in .38 Special brass with 3.5 grains Titegroup next.

[FergusonTO35]

Tried out this boolit with 3.6 grains Titegroup in my Taurus 856 today. At 15 yards it shoots to the top of the front sight and is almost as accurate as my usual 3.2 grains Titegroup/148 grain Lyman wadcutter, high praise indeed. So far, this boolit shoots well in all my revolvers with .38 Special and .38 Long Colt brass. I wonder how well it would do in my .357 carbines? The somewhat rounded shoulder and ogive suggests it may feed just fine.

[Driver man]

I have the 6 gang mould and powder coat the boolits. I use in my GP100 with 3.5 grains of AP50 (w231 equiv) and in my Rossi 92 with 5.5 grains of AP50. I shoot these weekly. They are very accurate . My alloy is 50%range lead, a bit of 60/40 solder and the rest lead from roof flashings. Use these boolits in confidence .

[Soundguy]

that bullet has always been good for me.

[Gtrubicon]

Is the gas checked version of this bullet as good?

[FergusonTO35]

Unless Lee has changed it, the gas checked 158 grain SWC is similar but not the same. It has skinny regular lube grooves which work great with either LLA or standard boolit lube, and the ogive is shorter and more squared off. If you chop off the gas check section of the mold it makes a nice 143 grain boolit. I had a gent here modify it for me, Buckshot maybe?

[Bigslug]

I can't speak to the Lees, but I've been gravitating to tumble lube designs with 45/45/10 wherever possible in order to avoid the time spent at the lube sizer. In some cases they lead the bore lightly when compared to conventional lube, but have found them generally less messy on the rest of the handgun compared to the soft, gooey lubes like Ben's Red (great rifle lube). As to shooting better, can't really see a difference in performance - considering that you work up an optimal load for any bullet design, I wouldn't expect to unless I was trying to razor's-edge science the crap out of it for match accuracy purposes. It's MORE than good enough for 100 yard work on half-gallon bottles.