Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs up!

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evan price
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Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs up!

Post by evan price »

Reposting here from Cast Boolits forum:
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I picked up my Lee 90315 6-cav mold- 358-105-SWC and wasn't really wanting one; It was in a package deal off of eBay- it came with a partner mold, a discontinued 6-cavity 358-150-SWC that I actually wanted at the time and a set of 6-cav handles. The whole mess was maybe $50 shipped to my door iirc, not an awesome deal but not bad if I do say so myself. The molds needed some TLC and that's what they got. The 105-SWC sat on the top of my safe, unloved, for nearly two years because I already had a TL-356-124-2R for my 9mm's and heck I'd used RNs in 9mm since forever coz' that's what you do, right? I recall thinking, as I cast the 105-SWC mold into purgatory, who the heck would want to shoot that tiny little thing in 38 special? I figured I'd trade it off one day.

Fast forward about two years to last week. I'm in a mood to tinker. I need some more 311-93-1Rs for my 32 Long and I started casting them in my 90308 6-cav. I had lead left in the pot- smelted range scrap, that I know BHNs about 8-10 and hits 12 with water quenching- and figured, what the heck, let's try out that 105-SWC.

After a LONG warmup (Seems to me the small Lee 6-cavs take a lot longer to warm up and start behaving than the big boolits like the TL-429-240-SWC for example) it started tossing out these little 1/2 scale models of the classic H&G #68 200-gr 45 boolit that everyone and their uncle uses in 45 acp. It was a cute little button thing. Purdy, shiny, and oddly tempting. Despite my renewed feelings of "What is this good for?" I went ahead and once she got good and hot next thing I knew I had spat out maybe 300 of them. Measuring them in groups on my digital scale (a postal scale, not a really accurate scale) showed that the bullets were right on for weight, roughly 67 of them was a solid pound which is as close to 105-grains as I can measure with a digital postal scale.

I then got the wild idea to load them in 9mm. They were a bit out of round but generally .358"-.359" and cute little things. I tumble lubed them in ALOX and pushed them through a Lee .357" sizer and gave them another light coat of ALOX. I used mixed range-pickup nickel brass with 4.5 grains of Alliant Promo and Wolf SP primers to an OAL of about 1.10". This left a bit of the upper driving band exposed but not too much.

I loaded up 8 with dead primers and no powder first to function test them in my Sig P6. They cycled just fine despite having been cast just 24 hours before and not fully hard yet. There was a tiny nick on the side of the nose from something. But they fed and cycled by hand just fine. So I went for it.

They functioned and fired just fine, nothing out of the ordinary- until I checked the target- it was full of perfectly round holes grouped in the middle of the target. Wow! With round noses I get ragged sort of cuts in the paper, these SWCs really did leave nice clean holes in the paper. And they shot well, too! I went through that first hundred I had loaded rather quickly, intent on having fun and not really on marksmanship. At 30' or thereabouts as I paced it off in my back yard, I was keeping all of them on a piece of printer paper as long as I provided minimal guidance to the pistol. Impressive! The last 8 I saved and shot onto a 3"x5" purple card from the craft bin. All 8 on the card from 30'.

I have got to say this little boolit made a believer out of me. Nice clean target markings and quite economical to shoot. Going from 124 grains to 105 grains is roughly a 15% savings in lead required!

Going to have to load up some more and try them in some other pistols. This could be my new favorite 9mm mold. And ya know what? I never have yet cast any real number of 150-SWCs, which was the mold I originally wanted to begin with! I have 3000 or so Lyman 358156s and a couple thousand 158-RFs to use up before I need any more.
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Today, sat down and cast a thousand more of the little 105-SWC boolit. Once I get that 6-cavity mold going it just chugs them out.
Lead was Range scrap approx. BHN 12.
Tumble-lubed in 50-50 ALOX & mineral spirits before and after sizing.
Sized with Lee push-through sizer .357, which leaves them .356" and just right.
Loaded over 4.8 grains of PROMO powder in nickel range brass and Wolf SP primers.
Nice shooting load, accurate, clean burning, no leading to see, ejected brass looked almost unfired.

Shot a couple dozen in the backyard from my Springfield XD9.

The left-over Halloween pumpkins didn't stand a chance.
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Using 1.025" OAL now. A bit shorter, and I'm not getting a nick in the edge of the cone anymore. I think it was hitting the feed ramp. I tried loading them unsized and I had a few that would not go into battery and jammed. So, back to sizing them with the 357 Lee push-through sizer.
No leading with thinned ALOX before and after sizing. According to Alliant this is a 1200 fps load. My brass was dropping just off my right shoulder and was clean enough that I might not have needed to tumble them again. My gun looked unfired. This is a CLEAN load.
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I just today loaded the 105-SWC in 380- 2.7 grains of PROMO and OAL of .940" in range brass, sized .356" and crimped to .377" and what a nice shooter it turned out to be! Bersa 380 ate it up. I have not yet tried it in 38 spl, but I also have the 150-SWC version to try there.
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Just putting this up for anyone interested in a nice SWC load for 9mm Luger or 380 auto. PROMO surprised me with its cleanliness.
"20% accurate as usual, Morty."

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BobK
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by BobK »

Thanks for the write up.

The Lee 6-bangers are efficient, aren't they.

I am not real happy with my 9mm load (TL356-124TC), so maybe I'll give this mold a try. I am sucker for the little crisp holes from a SWC design.

How well does the PROMO meter?
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by evan price »

Surprisingly well all things considered. I've never had a lot of trouble with the flake powders of reasonable size (unlike 800-X) and this is no worse. It winds up being a full cartridge.
"20% accurate as usual, Morty."

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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by evan price »

Image

The nickel plated case is a 380 auto, the brass case is a 9mm Luger.
"20% accurate as usual, Morty."

Striking down evil with the mighty sword of teamwork and the hammer of not bickering!
Carpe Noctem- we get more done after 2 am than most people do all day.
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by BobK »

Is sizing them down an issue at all?

I've sized bullets from my TL356-124-TC mold that got really deformed. So I am a little hesitant with 358 . . .

Image
I am a: NRA Life Member, Texas State Rifle Association Life Member, Texas Firearms Coalition Gold member, OFCC Patron Member, former JFPO member (pre-SAF).

This froggie ain't boiling! Shall not be infringed! Μολών Λαβέ
More Obamination. Idiots. Can't we find an electable (R) for 2016?
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by evan price »

Image
Sized in 357 Lee sizer, not lubed (obviously). The TL boolits have a lot shallower grooves and are not great to resize.
"20% accurate as usual, Morty."

Striking down evil with the mighty sword of teamwork and the hammer of not bickering!
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by weakhand luke »

Found a couple hundred 105gr .358 (from here http://www.meisterbullets.com/asccustom ... ductID=539" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) that I forgot I had. I worked up a remarkably accurate and soft practice load for my 38 snubbies with this bullet. 2.7 grains WST, rattler seated slightly below flush with the case mouth. Recoil and report similar to a 22 LR.
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by evan price »

Just bumping this because this little boolit works great even in some 9mms that I doubted it would feed, like a Star Modelo Super B.
"20% accurate as usual, Morty."

Striking down evil with the mighty sword of teamwork and the hammer of not bickering!
Carpe Noctem- we get more done after 2 am than most people do all day.
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by weakhand luke »

Thanks for the bump. It is a nice little bullet.

One thing I would never do is stack two (sized 355-6) in a 45 Colt shot capsule. http://www.speer-bullets.com/products/c ... sules.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by evan price »

Bumping again, because this bullet continues to impress me in 9mm.
"20% accurate as usual, Morty."

Striking down evil with the mighty sword of teamwork and the hammer of not bickering!
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by buckeye43210 »

For those of you without bullet casting equipment or who just want to try them out first, another place to buy them from is Missouri Bullet Company.

Image
Image

You should resize them if you plan on using them in 9mm.
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by OhioPaints »

Very interesting article, thanks for bringing it back.

Missouri Bullet are good folks. They ship using post office flat rate boxes (65# for $14). I get a call from the local PO asking me to meet the mail lady at our driveway since it's more than she can lift out of her car!
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by OhioPaints »

buckeye43210 wrote:For those of you without bullet casting equipment or who just want to try them out first, another place to buy them from is Missouri Bullet Company.

Image
Image

You should resize them if you plan on using them in 9mm.

Actually, Missouri Bullet sells them already sized for 9mm (.356) although they are 125 and 147gr.
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Re: Lee's 105-grain SWC .358 bullet in a 6-cav mold- thumbs

Post by buckeye43210 »

Looks like Bayou Bullets has the subject bullets sized for 9mm...
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