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Old February 21, 2013, 03:16 PM   #1
chris in va
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Lee 452-230-tl?

I bought this tumble lube mold a couple years ago but soon switched to the regular 452-228-1r for reasons I can't remember.

I wore out the 228 and have another on order, but it's been backordered for three weeks. Anyone have decent results with the TL mold? I need to start casting soon.
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Old February 21, 2013, 05:49 PM   #2
m&p45acp10+1
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I have 2 Lee tumble lube molds.

210 grain SWC for .41 Mag

158 grain SWC for .38 Spcl/.357 Mag

My favorite hangun bullet molds to work with. They drop great shootable bullets. I shoot both as cast.
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Old February 21, 2013, 06:59 PM   #3
Mike / Tx
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I poured up a whole bunch of them a while back out of straight WW and a few more out of straight iso core alloy from the large cores (1/3/96), and have been slowly working on them a few here and there. I use 5 to 5.5grs of Unique under them with the 45/45/10 lube over Wolf LP primers.

I haven't really messed with actually working up an accuracy load however they are simply blasting rounds to keep the trigger finger active. They will however stay within a snuff can sized group at 20yds if I really bear down.

I also run them through the .452 sizer just to keep em honest and round. Some it hardly touches and some you can see a slight bit of shiny on them.

I have a couple of other TL molds in other calibers as well like 38/357, 41, and 45, and I have poured up and shot some of each they all shoot good.
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Old February 21, 2013, 08:39 PM   #4
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I'm a big fan of Lee's 452-200 because my 45's have no issues w/ SWC profiles. Seems to me the RN design would be more versatile even if it did use a bit more lead and recoil a but more. I dropped 2K of them last year from a 6 cav mould and finished them off w/ LLA and a Lee sizer. Mine are propelled by 5.5 231 and a WLP gets the party started. Cases are whatever I find under my bench or on the CHL/LE range.
Good enough for keeping the social equipment limbered up, actually better than good enough.
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Old February 22, 2013, 12:14 AM   #5
chris in va
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So no keyholing or anything? Trying to figure out why I switched to the regular mold.
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Old February 22, 2013, 04:33 AM   #6
Mike / Tx
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Well can't help you on that, but I can throw a few ideas out,

Depending on the alloy and temp you might have been getting some a bit on the large size, this and running them through a standard type lube sizer, could have possibly wiped the lube rings off. Or even if running them through a standard lube sizer didn't wipe the rings it might not have put enough lube on them and you experienced some leading.

As far as KH'ing, nope haven't seen that with any I have shot so far. But like mentioned I'm not shooting them overly far to begin with. I'm running a standard Colt Govt 1911, right out of the box. The only issues I have had were finding some that didn't pass the plunk test. A little bit of looking really hard and I found two things, first I wasn't seating them quite deep enough for my chamber, and the other thing was the crimp wasn't quite laying the lip of the case down enough. They were just dragging the inside of the chamber enough to not let the action close. I seated the longer ones a bit deeper and ran the others into the FCD die just enough to catch about the first 3/16 to 1/4" of the case and all was well.

also if you haven't tried the 45/45/10 lube it works great, and now White Label lubes is sell it pre-made so it is MUCH easier to use since you don't actually ahve to mix it up yourself. I have about a pint or so left of my last batch and when I use it up I will probably purchase some of it to give a try myself. Anyway you slice it it should beat sitting there stirring for half an hour and stinking up the shop.
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Old February 23, 2013, 01:40 AM   #7
chris in va
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Thank you very much, I do use the 45/45/10 lube. Will try using them again!
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Old February 23, 2013, 09:54 AM   #8
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+1 on the plunk test but I've been using a taper crimp die since before the FCD came out, haven't seen the need to try it. With all the different cast bullet profiles any published OAL data is almost useless.
I'm guessing the only way to figure out why it didn't work is to try at least a few. May be able to figure it out by measuring them after casting, may have to shoot them.
I've begun a "casting notes" section in my loading record book, right after my "shooting notes" section for each cartridge. All I have to remember to do is write down my observations after shooting or casting. It's aggravating to not remember if a certain load or component worked but sometimes trying it again works better.
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