Lee Loader

I have all lee molds mostly two cavities and a couple six cavities. I'm about to order a new six cavity 9mm mold and I cant decide whether to order a tumble lube design or conventional design.
In my experience the tumble lube bullets are harder to get out of the two cavity mold.
My current six cavity molds are conventional.
Is this more a function of the higher quality of the six cavity or an inherent flaw of the tumble lube design?
Im looking at the 124 grain range as that is what my two cavity mold is.

All I own are tumble lube designs, 25 of them to be exact, but haven't had the problem with them dropping bullets. I make sure the cavities are "smoked, " but one thing I do before I put any mold to use is take an eraser-tipped pencil and push that eraser along every ridge feature of the cavity, every cavity in the mold. After that, the mold gets a bath in very hot water coupled with Dawn Ultra which is an outstanding release agent for any manufacturing residues left on the mold. Then I smoke the cavities.

Oh, I do have one standard groove mold enroute from Titan; the Lee C309-113-F which I plan on using to reverse engineer into a new design, a TLC310-120-RF, for my 30 Carbine. Not recutting the mold, just using it to look at fit.

I have the Lee C309-113-F. I fed fine in my Inland carbine but would hang up in the Rockola. Unfortunately it was a little undersized so I got some leading. Now that I think about it I might try it again but this time powdercoated. Unfortunately I'm in Sugarland for a few day and then I'm off to Hawaii for the month of March. Hope I don't forget this idea. It's a hard life being retired.

I like the 358-125 for a couple of 9mm and 38s . Since I use a conventional lube ,and just one for everything as of now, I prefer the standard grooves . They seem to be easier to get to shoot well but I think it really comes down to what you prefer . I have a 401-175 SWC TL and a LBT 403-175 RF the Lee needed to be WQWW run all the way up to the max load to get the groups closed while the LBT runs full up to max for best group but will do so with 75-25 WW-1-20 water dropped.

I had the 124 TLTC and it shot well in the 9s but didn't want to play in the 38s the 125rf works for both and makes a nice 38 class load in the 358 Win also , 8# rifle 22lr report .

on the Lee 358-125-RF. Sized to .357 it is my no. 1 9mm cast bullet.
Sized to .359 It is also my No. 1 38 sp bullet.
I have 2 of the 6 cavity molds, and use both of them at the same time for speed.
Liquid Wrench dry lube works great as a mold release.

RBHarter wrote:I like the 358-125 for a couple of 9mm and 38s . Since I use a conventional lube ,and just one for everything as of now, I prefer the standard grooves . They seem to be easier to get to shoot well but I think it really comes down to what you prefer . I have a 401-175 SWC TL and a LBT 403-175 RF the Lee needed to be WQWW run all the way up to the max load to get the groups closed while the LBT runs full up to max for best group but will do so with 75-25 WW-1-20 water dropped.

I had the 124 TLTC and it shot well in the 9s but didn't want to play in the 38s the 125rf works for both and makes a nice 38 class load in the 358 Win also , 8# rifle 22lr report .

I agree that it depends on what you plan to do. I no longer lube anything. Everything from a .22 up to .457 gets powdercoated. As such, I've found the best shooting to be the tumblelube bullets. When available, I always chose them, both in two and six holers. Out of 14 molds, only 5 are TLs, but they are the ones that never collect any dust on the shelf.

Haven't been casting very long. Only had HAD one TL grooved mold and it wouldn't make bullets. It was given to me by an experienced caster and another experienced I know couldn't make it work either.

daboone wrote:I have the Lee C309-113-F. I fed fine in my Inland carbine but would hang up in the Rockola. Unfortunately it was a little undersized so I got some leading. Now that I think about it I might try it again but this time powdercoated. Unfortunately I'm in Sugarland for a few day and then I'm off to Hawaii for the month of March. Hope I don't forget this idea. It's a hard life being retired.

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