LEE bullet mold report #90387. Not Performance!

hatman1793

hatman1793

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Thought I would try the LEE 6 cavity 9mm bullet mold. It supposedly casts a 120 grain truncated cone 9mm bullet sized to .356.
I like their 125 grain RNL bullet so 5 grains lighter with a different profile should be great. Unfortunately I got hit with a huge wave of enthusiasm & cast up about 2000. Now that I am powder coating them instead of lubing, I get to skip a step.
Fired out of 3 different 9mm autos, this nice little 120TC bullet tumbled about 25-30% of the time.
What to do? After examining a number of random samples of this now cast & powder coated bullet, I discovered that some were not .356 even with being powder coated. So I went through my stock of these bullets with a micrometer set to .356. About 50% are undersize.
Out of my (former) 4, six cavity tumble lube (TL) LEE molds, only one actually casted the right size. Now this 6 cavity 120 TC mold makes undersize bullets too. Not performance!!!
What'd I learn?
Oh they are cheap enough, U$39.00, but landed at my pot more like C$79.00. So, not cheap.
Powder coating undersize bullets doesn't improve their size.
LEE bullet molds are a 50/50 proposition.....
 
...with all due respect, i wouldn't bash LEE...most of my orders are over bored and then i size them down...any mnfgr can throw an undersized casting...i am sorry for your misfortune...but welcome to the club...if there are any casters out there who haven't wound up scratching their heads over a casting that didn't work out, then they are few and far between...hang in there...that's the best this community can tell you...we've all been there...and there is no underestimating the need to cerrosafe everything that will influence the outcome of your load...

all the best!
 
I did not have happy results from that mold. The design tumbled on me and serious fliers throughout the load development. I own several lee molds and like them fine, but for some reason, this one didn't perform.

I did find much better improvement after slugging my bore and getting a sizing die of the right size. 2-3.5 thou over the bore for sure with cast! YMMV
 
I have been using lyman molds for many years and have never had an undersize bullet issue. the only lee molds I use is for my muzzle loader which are fine.
 
hatman1793 said:
Not confident on the second powder coat making them fire true.All my alloy/lead was supplied by (the great) Yomomma, using my LEE 20 pound bottom pour pot. BTW, after melting & fluxing on "10", the pot gets reduced to "8" for casting. A 50% fail rate blows.
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I wasn't either until I tried it in an extreme sort of way...I triple coated some .452 pistol bullets to bring them up to .459, sized them & fired them in a Marlin Cowboy that has never shot better than 2" groups before...now, with these Bumped-up bullets it will fire 1" groups all day. I was amazed at the results.
 
Yomamma: was using your ingots. The Lee pot heats to max ...10... when the original pot liquifies. Then I turn the temperature setting to ...8...then cast.
Powder coating allows me to skip the lube process, #2 benefit, & powder coating allows me to use a much softer alloy, #1 benefit.
My usual alloy is not hard enough for 950+ FPS for 9mm, but PC'ing makes this workable. FYI, my alloy is way harder than swagged lead bullets.....
 
Are bullets thrown shiny? Have you tried to separate thrown bullets, and individually measure all 6 (if half tested are undersized than maybe only 3 of 6 cavities are)? Hogging out an aluminum mold can be done, or you could contact Lee.
I'm not a brand fanboi, and use molds from various manufacturers. If I was to consider enlarging one I would start with a Lee in aluminum.
 
hatman1793 said:
As I related, about 50% pass easily through a micrometer setting of .356. Hardness is not the issue, powder coating makes the cast surface hard enough. Perhaps I forgot to mention that the bullets were measured after powder coating & passing through a Lee .356 sizing die...
Click to expand...

What are they un-sized? May not be a mold issue.
 
hatman1793 said:
Yomamma: was using your ingots. The Lee pot heats to max ...10... when the original pot liquifies. Then I turn the temperature setting to ...8...then cast.
Powder coating allows me to skip the lube process, #2 benefit, & powder coating allows me to use a much softer alloy, #1 benefit.
My usual alloy is not hard enough for 950+ FPS for 9mm, but PC'ing makes this workable. FYI, my alloy is way harder than swagged lead bullets.....
Click to expand...

The numbers on the heat dial on your pot are used as reference only and don't actually mean anything or calibrate to any known temperatue.

That said, 99% of my casting is with the dial set in the 5.5-6.5 range. On my pot, the temperature would get in the 900F range if it was left at the 8 setting while I was casting.

There is a fair bit of shrinkage in pure or almost pure lead. The higher the temperature of the molten lead the greater the shrinkage.

A pot thermometer would allow you to determine the optimum casting pot temperature and then maintain it. The dial alone on the pot will not and can not do that.

Lee is famous for making undersixe mold cavities. Coat after sizing would increase your bullet diameter - if your pistol will accept it.
 
hatman1793 said:
As I related, about 50% pass easily through a micrometer setting of .356. Hardness is not the issue, powder coating makes the cast surface hard enough. Perhaps I forgot to mention that the bullets were measured after powder coating & passing through a Lee .356 sizing die...
Click to expand...

I'm not worried about to soft. I'm worried about to hard. I actually was hoping they were 12 or less on the bh scale so a quicker powder may obturate them a bit for you
I'd love to know bullet (not coating) hardness?
 
The lead he got was mostly from a foundry that recycles car batteries. So although not 100% pure lead, it should be darn close. My friend who got the other ingot complained it was too soft.
 
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