Moulds for Enfields

desporterizer

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Ok, lets discuss moulds for the LE series rifles. I have two from lee the 90371 & 90385. The 90371 casts a bullet .302 on the nose & .312 on the bearing. Its not round with a .0015 difference in diameter which gets worse when you put aluminum tape in the part to try to get the damned thing to cast a decent enfield bullet. Targets don't seem to care about the out of rnd when I use it in mosins but its useless in an enfield. The 90385 in large enough in diameter to engrave but is so short its a half mile away from the rifling in the chamber & seem to lead up the two enfields I tried it in even with 11grs of unique. The .313 diameter bands might have something to do with that. I have heard good things about 314299 but some say it too drops out of the mould on the small side.
So, what have you had good results with? Something that can take 2000 fps let say.
BTW the reason I ask is cause I am tired of the sporadic supply & insane cost of jacketed bullets. It seems like the fat .30 shooters are being ignored. The cost of the mould is irrelevant. I need something that works!
 
I've used the 314299 with good success however I'd say the best mold for the $ is from LBT. I have one that casts a 180gr and it is the easiest mold to get consistant good bullets from. Having said that there are numerous threads on increasing mold dia. so you can SLIGHTLY modify yours. There are some custom mold makers other than LBT (Ranch Dog?) and I'm sure you could get something to your liking but you will pay about 2X that of a Lyman RCBS mold. I've limited my velocity to about 1800fps as I just wanted something for paper punching out to 100yds. This year I may want to increase that so I can go hunting with the old LE. I also think that paper patching looks promising and I think I'll also try that this year, not just the bullets getting $$$ so is the price of the gas checks. The nice thing about PP is you can vary the thickness of paper to adjust for the Dia of slug. Good Luck.BB
 
The most knowledgeable mold maker when it comes to the .303 is CBE from Australia, they have alot more expertise then the yanks when it comes to this cart. They make beautiful molds from brass mostly, I have a beauty of theirs that casts an oversize bullet of .317" which of course can be sized down, Lyman's 314299 is an excellent bullet but usually drop .313" or less depending on the alloy. I don't mess around with tape in my molds, preferring to get or alter one to the right size.
 
The 314299 mold made today casts a lot smaller bullet than the original one.Harold try castboolits.com
 
I have a 316299 from (noe) night owl enterprises, from a group buy on Castboolits and it casts .316 dia and round with W/W aloy . And shoots very accurately from my enfield sized to .314 . Might be worth trying to reach Swedenelson to see if there are any more available!
 
Only a suggestion: I have also tried the aluminum tape trick and was unhappy with the results.
Quite simply, I took a nail with a nice fat head and ground it down to my desired boolit diameter, then put the shank into a drill and closed it up into the mould's driving bands. This opened up the mould easily, and now using a cheap Lee push-through sizer it makes boolits the way "I" want them.
 
Another trick to open up a mold for say a thou. or two is to spin a bullet coated with an abrasive, screw a wood screw into the middle of the base then cut off the head of the screw, chuck into a drill and turn until done.
 
Another trick to open up a mold for say a thou. or two is to spin a bullet coated with an abrasive, screw a wood screw into the middle of the base then cut off the head of the screw, chuck into a drill and turn until done.

I am going to try this but I don't hold much hope. Why would a company make a mould that casts undersize?
 
It may work better with the Lee molds as they are very soft aluminum. Most molds and other equip. come from the USA and they are just not "up" on the .303 British, like they are most other cals. The .303 remains pretty well unique to Commonwealth countries.
 
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