Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Update - Lee 6 cavity molds

Posted in March when I got my first 6 cavity Lee, a .452 255 RF.

I now have two more, a .429 200 RF and a .358 158 RF. Not only am I really liking the mods, the bullets are a real hit (pun intended) with my firearms.

Have been a dipper pour guy for a long time but for some reason I get a better cast with the down spout on these Lees. I tend to fill a cavity and then spill a touch into the next hole before I'm ready to move the mold, this produces a wrinkle in the nose, but having tried those bullets deliberately they don't fly out of the group at 25 yards. Anyway, that's just sloppy technique on my part and something I need to practice with.

But 6 bullets every time you open the mold is great! I really dig how fast they pile up. Going to have to get another small pot just to have some melt ready as I go through molten alloy too fast!

The 255 RF is a great bullet in my two .45 Colts. It actually has a fairly large meplat and I'm guessing it would hammer whatever you wanted to hammer pretty good. It feeds slick as snot in the Marlin 1894 and the Ruger 5 1/2" Bisley loves it with 8.0 231.

The 200 grain .44 RF works the same. Bullets drop right about .432 so a quick size down to .431 makes them perfect fits for the throats of both Ruger Flat Tops. They are really liking this bullet with three or four different loads. I have driven it to 1051 fps so far in the Bisley with absolutely no leading.

But the really nice surprise is the Lee 158 RF. This thing has a nose profile almost identical to my LBT 160 WFNGC. Haven't tried it really extensively yet, but have run about a dozen different loads through my GP-100. I have run this up to 1168 fps with 7.0 True Blue and 5.5 Universal Clasy with no leading. Accuracy with both loads is about 1 1/2" to 2" for 10 shot groups at 25 yards, that's as good as my eyes can hold any more, but groups are nice and round, darn near "one-raggedy hole" quality.

I was beginning to worry if I would ever find a good medium load for the GP-100 as every thing I tried with Oregon Trail 158 SWC didn't group worth a damn and it leaded badly every time you got close to 1000 fps.

Well, rambling as usual and wandering off topic.

Bottom line is I am really glad I tried these Lee molds. I've owned over half a dozen LBT's and probably a dozen or more RCBS and Lyman's and these Lee's cast as well as any of them. Well, maybe not quite as dimensionally uniform as the LBT's, but the bullets shoot just as good and that's the bottom line.

These 6 cavity molds get a big two thumbs up.

If you want a light 358 bullet, try the 6 cavity 105 swc. I'm just starting to work up loads in my 357 blackhawk, that bullet shot suprisingly well out of the 9mm (sized .357"

Lee makes some pretty fair stuff. I've heard before that the gang molds are better than their 1-2 cavity molds.

How hard are you casting those bullets?

That's what I had read also, that the 6 cavity are a high step up from the 1 and 2 cavity molds. I figured for the price of a 6 cavity you can't really go wrong, and as it turns out these are quickly becoming my most used molds. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of good bullets that my handguns like is a good argument for use.

The bullets I cast are running 18 BHN according to my LBT hardness tester. Unquenched they are about 14, I've been dumping the bullets into a bucket of water lately and that brings the hardness up several points.

The alloy is supposed to be Lyman #2, 90-5-5. Several years ago I carefully concocted a recipe from linotype, wheelweights and some 50/50 bar solder. Had ingots of same, including finished #2, all stacked separately in the garage. But my wife in a cleaning fit one day mixed all of them together, and of course I had relied on separation to identify them, not individually marked ingots.

So what goes in the pot now is anybody�s guess, although you can sort of tell WW from other stuff by the aged color.

Anyway, the result seems to be consistent and the handguns like it so I�m happy.

Almost finished using up the several hundred who-knows-what ingots and will be ready to fresh cast some accurately concocted alloy.

I set a green leaf in my muffin tin ingot mold to indicate hard alloy.

Thanks for the report on the 6 cavity molds, Jim. I've been toying with the idea of picking up some for casting bullets for my .357s and .44s. I've got a pile of linotype and some other various lead as well as having a source for a couple hundred pounds of wheel weights. Heck, I've got nearly everything to start casting big time except for time and money!