Lee 309-113 First Use

[Macd]

Had this mold for a bit but never got to trying it out. Raining today so gave it a good wash, sooted it up and brought the pot up to 700F. Preheated mold on hotplate and first two pours gave me keepers except one bullet had a round base. Bad sprue pour I thought. Poured another 50 cycles and had same problem maybe seven times. All came from same cavity. I was dropping into water and didn't want to stop. I didn't check out the mold till finished. The sprue plate hole over that cavity was rough with burrs that filled up with metal scraped from the top of the mold block. I cleaned it up and no serious damage to block surface. Wish I could say this is the first time I have had to deburr a sprue plate on a new mold. Bullets weighed an average 115 grains. Wheel weights with a small amount of added tin. Now will I pan lube, tumble or try powder coating again?

Lee 309-113.jpg

[larryw]

Those look sweet Mac! I know what you mean, ive had a couple that were real rough also.
I've been wanting to fire up but its been way to not here. Can't complain, for 2 months
of super hot, humid monsoon, the other 10 months are pretty darn nice here.

[AlaskanGuy]

i am thinking those are shooters!!!! perhaps good for the M-1 30 carbine as well... i use my sizer on them puppies, lube and gas check.. but thats me i guess.. more and more folks are PC'in.. i prefer lube.. and the sizer evens the stuff out nicely...

[BC17A]

That mold milled down drops a nice 32 Auto bullet also. Since there aren't too many options available, I've modified three different Lee molds for my 32's. Luckily this one drops between .310" - .311" and right at 73 grains. Perfect for powder-coating and sizing to .311".

309113.jpg

[Kaiser]

Excellent 30/30 "pest" bullet with a small load of Unique, a "puff" of "Kapok", and a gas check. 1500 to 1700fps is about right for accuracy.

[Maven]

That is a very accurate .30cal. bullet (in metrics too) as long as you size it to fit your bore and throat.

[handcrabber]

My 32/20 T/C loves that bullet sized to 309 (T/C used a 308 bore for its 32/20 barrels).

[HBAR2989]

I powder coated, gas checked and sized at .311 and loaded in 7.62x39 with 7 grains of Unique. They shot good on the initial 10rds I loaded. I shot them out of my Ruger Ranch rifle. I'm going to pursue playing with these.