Lee Loader

My Stevens 200 in 30-06 finally got to devour some cast boolits today.
That rifle has been a rattlesnake since I bought it. Easy to handle and scary accurate with most of the loads I have put together.
Today I put together some 309 150 grain Lee mold boolits over some 2400 powder. Three shots into about an inch at 100 yards off of the bench.
I'd say for a coyote/plinking load, I am done with that one.

So all in all, a good mold at a great price with enormous value.

Good work. What you doing for lube and sizing?

The boolit drops at .310. I size lube and gas check it to .309 in a Lyman 4500. The lube is Lymans molylube.

what's the recommended load range for 2400 with the 150 pb?

mr surveyor wrote:what's the recommended load range for 2400 with the 150 pb?

My load ended up being 17 grains of 2400.
Now, where I arrived to this was a bit of digging through the interwebz. I ended up finding this;
http://home.comcast.net/~gavinsw/guns/c ... yrifle.pdf
Very interesting read, lots of good real life practical info.

Also, the Lyman cast bullet manual lists some data. I ran a test load with the Lee 309 170grn mold over 2400 and it shot very well too.
I hope this helps, please let me know if you need more info.

What nose punch are you using in the 4500?

I ended up modifying a 30 cal nose punch I had on hand. I can get you the number later tonight.
The one I had did not match the profile well of the bullet, so I mixed up some of that two part epoxy putty and filled the cavity of the punch.
Then I coated the nose of the bullet (seated in the sizing die) with some oil and lowered the punch in the ram onto it. The excess putty squeezed out, which I carefully picked away. Then I left the whole arrangement to cure for a couple of hours.
The result was a perfect fit to the nose of the boolit.
The nose punch has to be perfectly clean and degreased, otherwise the epoxy putty will not bond to it. I think that you could cover the nose of the boolit with saran wrap instead of the oil as a release, but I do not know if the plastic would stick to the putty.

Everyone I ask has either modified a punch or made one. I contacted Lee about what nose punch to use and they told me to contact the designer of the bullet. I have no idea who that is. Or was.

That is pretty normal, although I know that does not help you.
There exists a cross over chart between Lyman top punches and Lee molds. At best I have found it to be mildly helpful. Some will work, some work not so good.
In the end, that's why I ended up modifying the top punch my self. It is not hard to do and takes all of an hour to put together.

I have a 308 Israeli Mauser (Yes it does exist and is original) with a 1-14 twist barrel that will only shoot the Lee bullet with any accuracy.
Go above or below 150 grain and instantly you have a shotgun.
Took me 6 months to figure it out..
Finally a Palma shooter I know helped me figure out what bullet to shoot and now it will give me 6 out of 10 in a 3 inch circle at 600 yards.
Run out of scope and my kentucky windage and elevation isn't up to snuff to go any further.


beekeeper