New Lee Mold 358-200-RF!

[Ranch Dog]

I haven't been on Marlin owners or Cast Boolits for a long time but surely someone with a Marlin has posted their results with a Marlin.

[Missionary]

Greetings
I am thinking a 357 Max in a DW revolver and a Contender.
Mike in Peru

[Maximumbob54]

There was a post or thread where someone complained that Lee is using something different for cutting fluid. The complaint was that it's difficult to get the mold blocks cleaned and dropping good bullets.

This is no joke. I just tried this mold today. I did my usual degrease routine with a citrus cleaner and it was a waste of time. Ugly bullets for half an hour and just running the mold hot to burn it off didn't happen either. I had to stop, let the mold cool, and then hosed it down with the last of a can of brake cleaner.

And it's still casting "iffy" looking bullets. What the heck. What is this stuff on the blocks??? I even let the mold set on the heat to see if anything would bleed out. I finally gave up after casting some pretty frosty bullets.



I'm not pleased so far. I'm used to casting bullets that don't have but the very occasional imperfection. I'm not worried over pretty, but pretty bullets mean less imperfection means accuracy.

These ain't pretty.

[Ranch Dog]

Maybe you ought to copy and paste the your comments above into one of their support tickets. I think you can even include a picture. It would be interesting to hear what they are doing as of late.

[62chevy]

Good idea RD and hope Maximumbob lets us know what Lee says.

[Maximumbob54]

I will send a message to Lee tomorrow about the cutting fluid or whatever it is.

I loaded a pair of dummy rounds up one in a .357 case and one in a .38 case. Just like with RD's 190gr, this 200gr is far too long to cycle in the Rossi R92's action. I almost needed a third hand to get the thing out. Turns out with the action open all the way you can gently push the cartridge back into the mag tube, close the action, then finagle it back out the loading gate.

However, the .38 case with the bullet seated right to the crimp groove is almost perfect. The downside to this is I was hoping they would be just too long for a .38 special chamber. I tried my S&W 637 and the total length just fits. So yes, you do have the risk of mixing a magnum loaded .38 special case in the wrong gun. But I feel this would be a pretty huge mix up. Short of you dying and someone being dumb enough to shoot unknown reloads I can't think of a way I personally would run these through any of my .38 special guns. That's a rather LARGE bullet to not notice.



Handloads.com has some interesting looking load data that will be my first test loads. I think I will try the 2400 and Unique loads first next weekend.

[Maximumbob54]

Went ahead and sucked it up and emailed Lee. My pic wouldn't upload so if/when i get a reply I will email it to them. Below is what I sent which is mostly the previous post with some further explanation:

There was a post or thread where someone complained that Lee is using something different for cutting fluid. The complaint was that it's difficult to get the mold blocks cleaned and dropping good bullets.

This is no joke. I just tried the new 358-200-RF mold today. I did my usual degrease routine with a citrus cleaner and it was a waste of time. Ugly bullets for half an hour and just running the mold hot to burn it off didn't happen either. I had to stop, let the mold cool, and then hosed it down with the last of a can of brake cleaner.

And it's still casting "iffy" looking bullets. What the heck. What is this stuff on the blocks??? I even let the mold set on the heat to see if anything would bleed out. I finally gave up after casting some frosty bullets. This was merely trying to get blocks hot enough that it might cook out some of the fluid. It "kind of" cleared up but they still don't look perfect. Even with the blocks running too hot they should fill out with this tried and true alloy and there shouldn't be wrinkles or creases.

I'm not pleased so far. I'm used to casting bullets that don't have but the very occasional imperfection. And I have a shelf full of Lee molds and this is very much not the normal but for this one and the last couple of molds I've bought. I'm not worried over pretty, but pretty bullets mean less imperfection means accuracy.

So if there has been some kind of change then I need to know what to use to clean the mold with. Simple Green? Acetone?

[Ranch Dog]

[62chevy]

LOL !!!

[Maximumbob54]

I do aim to entertain.