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Back in June of last year, I bought a Lee brand double mould to cast 405gr .45-70 bullets for my High Wall.

Since I already had around six hundred ready-mades from a company here in UK, it took a while for me to get round to using the Lee mould.

I have to say, before anybody fires one off at me, that I have a bunch of Lee moulds already, and I've been using most of them since the mid to late 80's, so we have a good history - until now.

The mould looks fine, and so do the bullets that come out of it - it's just that their weight sure as heck isn't.

The rear section casts a bullet that weighs around 420gr and the front casts a bullet that weighs around 425gr - each give or take about 1 - 2gr. As my one and only long-range BP rifle, that is just not acceptable, I think that most of you would agree. o_O

Looking at their website, they actually tell you that they are not altogether happy about answering emails, which, apart from sending the blame thing, is the only way I can communicate with them in short order. :confused:

Advice here, folks would be much appreciated, since what I appear to have is a mould-shaped paperweight.

TIA.

tac
 
TAC,
Are you weighing before, or after sizing ? Are the bullets concentric ?
I bought their 325gr. mold and I was sizing them .459 for a .458 SoCom,
but I found, plain based bullets wouldn't group for me, (they patterned). :eek:
 
@tac, I'm interested in this as I have slowly acquired equipment to cast bullets.
Do any of your molds exhibit similar variation? Do you think it's volumetric inconsistency?

I have four other Lee moulds - all make good bullets/balls, including the hollow=based Minié.

Obviously the actual volume is inconsistent with the declared weight of shot.

tac
 
Obviously the actual volume is inconsistent with the declared weight of shot.

tac

No doubt about that, but what if one mould is only a larger diameter and the weight difference changes in the sizing process? (if you size them)

What I know about black powder rifles could fit in a gnat's eye without discomfort, so forgive me if I'm asking a silly question.
 
Sizing per se does not later the weight, just the diameter of the projectile, and that by a very small degree. After all, we con't cast a .45cal bullet to size to .40cal.

I try very hard to do all the good stuff mentioned in the post above by controlling the heat via a lead thermometer and being as consistent as I can with the molten pool and so on.

But .426gr is 21gr more than it should be - more, IMO, than can be taken into account by a sloppy pour procedure.

tac
 
And I suppose the weight wouldn't change too much if you changed the composition of the material you are casting with, either.

I'd box them up and send them back with a letter describing your complaint. What else would you do with them?
 
@tac, dumb question, have you measured the resulting projectiles with calipers? Is there a noticeable difference? Strange to find such a significant variation within the mould.

I, as you, cast with Lee moulds and find that weight variances between cavities (using a two cavity) is typically less than a grain or two. But I only pour pistol, so not a big deal...

There's lots of knowledge here, I'm sure collectively we'll resolve this mystery.
 
A math problem, was focused on the variation from cavity to cavity rather than the declared vs actual weights. My bad.
Are your others cast iron? Is this? If it's aluminum, do you think expansion can account for the 21 grains?
 
And I suppose the weight wouldn't change too much if you changed the composition of the material you are casting with, either.

I'd box them up and send them back with a letter describing your complaint. What else would you do with them?


Too late, bro - they are all back in the pot as we speak, so to speak.

I'll be giving them a new lease of life tomorrow after I've cleaned up my guns from the Sunday morning session.

I'm using test 98% pure lead off a local church roof - pre-atomic stuff of incredible quality by today's standards. It was acquired legally after the church commissioners decided to go ahead with plans to replace all the lead with a look-alike material that has no lead in it at all, in an effort to stop the pikies from thieving it almost yearly and causing great expense and grief.

tac
 
A math problem, was focused on the variation from cavity to cavity rather than the declared vs actual weights. My bad.
Are your others cast iron? Is this? If it's aluminum, do you think expansion can account for the 21 grains?

All the other Lee moulds are also aluminium - that's what ALL Lee moulds are. Even the 535gr Minié mould only produces bullets with a mean variation of +/- 2gr, and the .457cal RB for my Ruger are as near spot-on as makes no difference.

Two Lyman RB moulds are also within 2gr at worst.

tac
 
Too late, bro - they are all back in the pot as we speak, so to speak.

I'll be giving them a new lease of life tomorrow after I've cleaned up my guns from the Sunday morning session.

I'm using test 98% pure lead off a local church roof - pre-atomic stuff of incredible quality by today's standards. It was acquired legally after the church commissioners decided to go ahead with plans to replace all the lead with a look-alike material that has no lead in it at all, in an effort to stop the pikies from thieving it almost yearly and causing great expense and grief.

tac
And I was going to make a snarky comment about you filling your coffers off the church Like good King Henry VIII.
The church where I grew up and served as an altar boy had a copper roof, gutters and downspouts. Thieves got it all. How the heck do you steal a roof?
 
And I was going to make a snarky comment about you filling your coffers off the church Like good King Henry VIII.
The church where I grew up and served as an altar boy had a copper roof, gutters and downspouts. Thieves got it all. How the heck do you steal a roof?


Not the roofy bit itself, but all the flashing and waterproofing bits - usually, in the case of the local church, about a ton. Last time there was over £100K worth of damage to the structure as well.

As you can imagine, our 'travelling friends' are not overly welcome in these parts.

tac
 
I have 4 lee 2 cavity molds and have only had a problem with one, a 125 gr 9mm RN. One of the cavities cast an out of round bullet. Called Lee and advised them of the problem. They told me to send it back and they sent out a new mold. No hassle and the new mold is fine. I prefer them over my RCBS and Lyman molds because they heat up to casting temperature almost immediately so there is very little lost time casting unusable bullets to warm up the mold.
 
Hmm. I'll try sending it back. I'm concerned that using the best/purest lead I can find, the mould makes a bullet [two in fact] way heavier than the declared description. Lighter? Yes, but heavier? Huh?

Thanks for all the advice, Gentlemen.

tac
 

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