Geezerbiker
New member
I have mostly stayed with Lyman and Lee molds since Lee molds come with handles and I don't want to deal with 2 brands of mold handles.
However getting good bullets out of a Lee mold seems to be hit or miss. Some work great and others are like pulling teeth to get to work right. It seems that Lee round nose molds tend to be the easiest to use but I could just be lucky with them.
A while back I had a .44 mag rifle with a slightly oversize bore. My solution at the time was to buy a Lee mold since they were cheap and try lapping it out a couple thousandths. I have both 320 and 600 grit lapping compound and I worked on this mold quite a bit and I don't think I ever got it more than .0002 larger. I also made a mistake when I ordered this mold and I got a round nose mold rather than a round-flat that I wanted. I figured there was a 50/50 chance I'd ruin it so I went on with the project. I was disappointed in the process and quit but it left me with a mold with a near mirror polish. This mold drops .430" bullet pretty as you please...
I've since tried this with my other Lee molds with mixed results. This brings me back to my Lee 9mm mold. It's one of the tumble lube designs and even polished up, I can't reliably get good bullets out of it. Should I just consider it a loss and get another mold or do ya'll have any other tips or tricks to get Lee molds working?
Tony
However getting good bullets out of a Lee mold seems to be hit or miss. Some work great and others are like pulling teeth to get to work right. It seems that Lee round nose molds tend to be the easiest to use but I could just be lucky with them.
A while back I had a .44 mag rifle with a slightly oversize bore. My solution at the time was to buy a Lee mold since they were cheap and try lapping it out a couple thousandths. I have both 320 and 600 grit lapping compound and I worked on this mold quite a bit and I don't think I ever got it more than .0002 larger. I also made a mistake when I ordered this mold and I got a round nose mold rather than a round-flat that I wanted. I figured there was a 50/50 chance I'd ruin it so I went on with the project. I was disappointed in the process and quit but it left me with a mold with a near mirror polish. This mold drops .430" bullet pretty as you please...
I've since tried this with my other Lee molds with mixed results. This brings me back to my Lee 9mm mold. It's one of the tumble lube designs and even polished up, I can't reliably get good bullets out of it. Should I just consider it a loss and get another mold or do ya'll have any other tips or tricks to get Lee molds working?
Tony