Lee 329 205 Grain What Dia Does it Drop At?

Mine casts at about .331. Opened up my Lee sizer die to the same diameter. My little carbine slugs at .330. I understand some maybe bigger. I lucked out??
 
Tudenom said:
Just curious if Lee’s quality control is lacking for the 329 dia bullet mold meant for the 8x56R?

Does your mold drop at 329, or is it under sized?
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Mine drops at close to 0.329" and I had to buy a custom because I needed larger (0.332").

Lee tends to drop large - I haven't experienced one smaller than advertized, which is what you sometimes get with other manufacturers as their tooling wears.
 
Good to know, thanks guys!

I've heard reports of LEEs 314 diameter mould sometimes dropping at a smaller than advertised 312 diameter, which makes Lee Enfield and P14 shooters a little annoyed.

What are you guys using for a gas check? Looks like 32 cal are pretty much unobtanium right now.
 
quinnbrian said:
Won’t changing the lead hardness, eg adding tin etc change the drop size? Hotter mold etc.
Cheers
B
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A hot mold and hot alloy will fill out more than a colder mold. Antimony (as found in wheelweight) and tin (to a much lesser extent) shrink less on cooling than lead.

That said, a hot mold and a hot alloy of wheelweight with a bit (2-5%) of tin, might add up to perhaps 0.001" to the bullet diameter. That might be a good route, assuming that the resulting alloy works for you. Linotype checks off all the boxes, but is not as easy to find and is more costly.

I've "beagled" molds before and it "works", but I'm not a fan of that for a few reasons.

I'm not a powder coater (yet - but I do have powder coating) but if you're open to that and want to stay with that mold, that's worth exploring.
 
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