Lee mold for 45/70

COREY

COREY

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Howdy,



I have been casting for maybe 10 years now. Almost all of it has been for 38 Special and 45 Colt using Lee 6 cavity molds. Loads go bang and are accurate enough for revolver distances.

Delved a bit into casting for the 40-65 with a Lyman mold. Quality is pretty nice compared to the Lee.

I am trying to find a quality mold for a 45/70 Pedersoli Sharps I bought. Something like a 450 to 500 Postell mold. As most of you probably know, molds ain't easy to find right now. One I can find is a 45/70 mold from Lee. Have heard mixed reviews about their single and double cavity molds.

Does anyone have any experience with the Lee molds for a gun like this? Will they do a good job, or am I going to get something that gets lobbed downrange and not much more? Also, if anyone has a line on a quality 458/459 mold for a gun like this, I would appreciate being pointed in the right direction.
 
Corey: I have eight 45-70 rifles and maybe a dozen molds for them, including a Lee 500 gr Postell lookalike. For my rifles, the best target bullet is a 535 Gr "Money" style from BACO. For hunting, I like a large meplat (1/4" or more) I use a mold by Accurate Molds that weighs 405 Gr. Postell molds come in 2 varieties: Old style and new style. I also have 3 .40 cal. rifles: a 40-60 Maynard, a 40-65 Win and a 40-70 Sharps Straight. All of them shoot best with the 400 Gr Snover bullet.
It can be a bottomless rabbit hole, as a mold that shoots well for me will be an abject failure for you. You pays your money and you takes your chances!!!
PM me for more info.
Mike.
 
Most of the .458 casting I have has been with Seaco molds or the Lyman postel .The Lyman is a PITA compared to the Seaco's but it makes good bullets. I recently got a Lee 340 gr flat point mold. I have not shot any yet but they look like good bullets and was an easy mold to use. The Lee's might be easier to come by at this time.
 
Corey: I have the same rifle as you and it seems to be hit or miss when it comes to different mold weight/designs. My rifle loves IMR 3031, Reloader 7 and Varget. I have tried 8 different bullet molds and my top three in my rifle are Lee 405 Hollow Base, Lee 500 Gn and Boomer 570 GN (exact copy of Postell bullet made for the Pedersoli sharps). All these three will keep inside 2" at 100 meters for a 10 shot group. I have tried Lyman, RCBS and some custom molds from Mihec and Mountain Molds and they work good in my other 45/70's but not so good in my Pedersoli . I size my bullets to .460 powder coated and they work great.
 
hunter64 said:
Corey: I have the same rifle as you and it seems to be hit or miss when it comes to different mold weight/designs. My rifle loves IMR 3031, Reloader 7 and Varget. I have tried 8 different bullet molds and my top three in my rifle are Lee 405 Hollow Base, Lee 500 Gn and Boomer 570 GN (exact copy of Postell bullet made for the Pedersoli sharps). All these three will keep inside 2" at 100 meters for a 10 shot group. I have tried Lyman, RCBS and some custom molds from Mihec and Mountain Molds and they work good in my other 45/70's but not so good in my Pedersoli . I size my bullets to .460 powder coated and they work great.
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+1 for the LEE 405g Hollow Base bullet mold

Retreever
 
I cannot say enough about LEE’s 340grain RNFT bullet mold. Sure, its a 2 cavity mold but its a great bullet, the lower weight vs much heavier weight means you save on lead, you can drive it much faster than the heavy-weights & recoil is very manageable.
If you powder coat it you can employ much softer lead like BHN 8 or 9 or 10 vs traditional hard cast & lubed.
 
I’ve run the Lee 45-70 molds. I lapped both of them to achieve a diameter that worked with my rifles. .460” if I remember correctly. The 405 double cavity will make lots of nice bullets. Best bang for the buck for sure.
 
Ya Iam looking at getting into makeing my own bullets for my encore carbin in 45-70 was wondering if anybody does this for there encore and recommend a good starting point to purchase a mold for a good hunting bullet
 
For a target single shot, the Lyman 457125 the 500 grain government round nose is probably then easiest bullet to get get shooting accurately out of the gate. It’s very forgiving towards powder charges and alloy variations. Shoots excellent out of my Shiloh sharps while I had to work a lot harder with the postell mold.

I actually like Lee moulds for my pistols and lever actions, but for a first single shot attempt it’s really tough to beat the 457125.
 
I agree. I started with the 457125 bullet in my Pedersoli rolling block. After a few pounds of powder, many possible primer/wad/depth combos, I finally think I maxed out it's potential.
Last summer I set up a turkey target at 385 M and hit it 10/10 shots, with my last 5 shots going into a 3 1/2" group. That's from bench sticks.
 
For a noobie, a Lee mould won't be a mistake.
They will give you good results quite easily.
They were considered frail by many, myself included, but their newer ones seem a bit better.

If you stumble over your shadow and tumble down old rodder's rabbit hole, you will never be happy and will want to get into custom moulds, with many tweaks along the way.

Many years back, a casting guru, with many, many moulds, wrote that his most accurate mould was a Lee that threw absolutely perfectly round bullets.
He dropped the mould on the floor and it never again threw good bullets.
 
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hickstick_10 said:
For a target single shot, the Lyman 457125 the 500 grain government round nose is probably then easiest bullet to get get shooting accurately out of the gate. It’s very forgiving towards powder charges and alloy variations. Shoots excellent out of my Shiloh sharps while I had to work a lot harder with the postell mold.

I actually like Lee moulds for my pistols and lever actions, but for a first single shot attempt it’s really tough to beat the 457125.
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My experience has been much the same....I keep trying the 457132 but keep going back to the Lyman 457125 .My mold seems to drop a .458 bullet weighing 519.3 gr the most consistently in 20:1
 
Lee molds are notoriously undersized. Your Pedersoli rifle actually has a tapered bore...you will discover this if you slug your bore....your soft lead slug will be tight at the muzzle, and almost fall out the chamber on the other end during the slugging process. The only Lee bullet I shoot in my Pedersoli Gemmer is the Lee .459-500-3R cast from soft lead it dropped at .460". It was very accurate over 63 grains of Goex out to 100 yds.
 
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