Lee Bullet Molds

[Hunter Customs]

I purchased a couple more Lee bullet molds and they arrived today.

I got quite a shock when I opened the 310 gr 44 mold and inspected it, the cavities in the mold looked like they had been hawged out with a chainsaw being used by a drunken chainsaw operator.

I'm sure Lee will make good on the mold, however I'm thinking of trying to get an exchange first from where I purchased the mold and let them deal with Lee.

 

[Beagle333]

That's a bummer! I don't have but mebbe a half dozen Lee's, but I haven't gotten a bad one yet. They make a really nice bullet.

 

[skizzums]

I have six lee's, one of them is "bad-ish" mis-aligned. sizing works it out since its a 358 going down to 357 or 356 for 9mm, but if I was using a 358 sizer, it wouldn't be usable. all my other molds are good and couple are actually impressive. the great thing about it is, lee will make good on it, but if it's a pain in the butt to return or whatever, your out 20 bucks. no biggie.

love the 358 single cavity HP mild, makes a really nice smooth bullet, the .22 bator is nice, and although I don't like the bullet profile much, the lee 356-120-tc casts super fast. I don't much care for the micro-grooved DE wadcatter, it has a larger ring around the top that prevents seating flush, but it does shoot nice and casts well. sorry about your experience, they'll fix it, but you have to pay the shipping back if LGS doesn't take it. then you have increased your cash in the mold by 30%... is It too bad to use rubbing compound to smooth it up?

also, I will forever be in debt to lee for making a usable sub-sonic 300blackout mold for 20$, that's just amazing and it makes some great bullets, long mold, 230gr 30cal. tough to find any other company that makes a 200gr + .309 mold for under a hundred bucks.

 

[res45]

Sound like the QC person just slapped a sticker on that mold and never inspected it. I have 14 Lee molds and all cast great bullets,the last one my friend bought so I could cast him some 45 cal. SWC bullets for his 45 Long Colt.

It was one of the new style molds with the alignment pins like found on custom molds. I know I was in trouble the moment I pushed the sprue plate back to inspect the mold,the cavities were fine the two halves when closed were misaligned slightly up and down as well as front to back from one another.

After smoking the mold over a bit I realized the problem was that the alignment pin were not set in deep enough to contact the recesses on the other half correctly to align the two halves properly when closed. I had my friend hold the mold on the side on a wooden block while I just lightly tapped each alignment pin in a little at a time and checked the fit. After a few times doing this the mold halves fit properly and it cast great bullets. Sometimes it's an easy fix sometimes you just have to send them back.

 

[FrankenMauser]

I got quite a shock when I opened the 310 gr 44 mold and inspected it, the cavities in the mold looked like they had been hawged out with a chainsaw being used by a drunken chainsaw operator.

I'm sure Lee will make good on the mold, however I'm thinking of trying to get an exchange first from where I purchased the mold and let them deal with Lee.

And that's exactly why I have such a problem with Lee tools.
It never should have left the factory.

Yet, now they expect YOU or the retailer to pay for shipping to get it replaced.

Sound like the QC person just slapped a sticker on that mold and never inspected it.

Par for the course, in my experience.

I'm well aware that most other people claim to have had a generally favorable experience with Lee tools. ...But, I swear to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I have had the majority of their tools bad, broken, missing parts, or completely unusable, right out of the box!
...All stuff that even a 3 year old could have spotted, if they had taken one second to actually look at the item. ...Or even worse, in that it was someone intentionally shipping a product that they knew was bad (like the sizing dies with broken reamer pieces in them, or the crimp die with an incredibly obvious, stripped, and horrendously mangled, adjusting stem that had clearly been "installed" with a hammer).


I do have Lee molds. And, in all honesty, their "quality" average is better than other Lee tools. I only have one Lee mold that I would call "bad".
But... I bought a new mold yesterday. It wasn't a Lee.

 

[Tony Z]

More than one or two make bullet molds and several make aluminum molds. I have a Lee and it makes decent bullets and I like the weight. But I have more Lyman molds than any, all dual cavity. After the steel in the molds reaches temperature, I get consistently great bullets. I have to say all of my equipment is 30 to 35 years old and I have little knowledge of today's quality.

My casting pot is Lee and it is great.

 

[Hunter Customs]

The first thing this morning I contacted Midsouth, they were very nice, excellent customer service, gave me a return number and sent a return shipping label via e-mail.

I dropped the package off at Fed-EX so it's on the way back for an exchange on the mold.

This was much better then having to pay shipping to Lee.

I think I may start looking at other mold manufactures, however I'm not sure I want to go with Lyman or RCBS, I'm thinking maybe a custom mold.

 

[skizzums]

go join cast.boolits, keep an eye on their classifieds and sign up for group buys. neat stuff there if you have the patience.

 

[Beagle333]

I love my custom molds, because there are so many varieties, but I do wish they all cast like my few RCBS molds. They just flat-out drop bullets, fast and easy.

 

[FrankenMauser]

Custom molds are addicting.

You've been warned.


NOE molds are good (as long as you don't mind aluminum or brass).
Mihec mods are good.
Accurate molds are good (and CNC lathe-bored one at a time - purely made to order and fully customizable).
And, I'm sure you know that there are many other quality options out there.

I have half a dozen or more NOE molds, and another that should arrive today or Monday. They have not disappointed me.

Most of my custom molds were cut by Accurate. Even though I had to compromise on a few dimensions, on one particular bullet (due to limitations of the lathe-boring process), he has the best turnaround time and some of the best prices, in my opinion.


But, yea... custom molds are addictive.
Sometimes, to what some people could call 'excess'.
I have a $140 custom mold (still virgin) that was never intended to cast more than about 100 bullets. I designed it to prove a theory with .444 Marlin (20-30 bullets, max), to test the effectiveness of two variations on straight-sided rifle bullet with powder coating or Hi-Tek coating (50 bullets), and to test the efficacy of a heavy hollow base bullet for deep-seating in .444 Marlin without bulging the case and causing chambering issues (about 20 bullets should give me an answer). And there are two other minor tests to be done with that mold, but I can't remember them at the moment.

Nothing else out there is even remotely comparable to that mold. ...But it's exactly what I wanted.

 

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Was it chisel chain or chipper chain? (Lee used to custom engrave your new mold with.)

Shame. Kind 'da ruins ones day doesn't it.

 

[Mike / Tx]

Midsouth is good about keeping customers happy. I purchased several Lee molds from them a while back and two were a wreck when they showed up. I sent them a note and pic, and the shipping label was there in no time. My new ones arrived the same week I sent them others back.

I have around a dozen or more of the 6 bangers and probably that many of the single and 2 cavity ones as well. For the most part they all throw great bullets, but I use the 6C versions WAY more often than the others. Heck I say that, usually it only takes about two pots full of alloy to have enough poured up in an hour or so to last for a year or more.

 

[Beagle333]

Heck I say that, usually it only takes about two pots full of alloy to have enough poured up in an hour or so to last for a year or more.

You need a glass case. I'm emailing you the plans from mine.

 

[Hunter Customs]

Was it chisel chain or chipper chain? (Lee used to custom engrave your new mold with.)

It looked more like chisel chain cuts.


Mike you are right about Midsouth, great people to do business with.
I don't know what your molds looked like but the cavities in mine had grooves cut from the base all the way to the tip.
I don't know if they were meant to be grease grooves or crimping grooves, might have been some kind of new tactical bullet mold, however I'll stick with the smooth nose design.

 

[A pause for the COZ]

hmmmm.
I had two six bangers show up last week.
A .358 158gr rnfp for my 38's and a 90gr rn for my .380.
I just put the box on the shelf.
Spose I better go look at them.

 

[A pause for the COZ]

Custom molds are addicting.

You've been warned.


NOE molds are good (as long as you don't mind aluminum or brass).
Mihec mods are good.
Accurate molds are good (and CNC lathe-bored one at a time - purely made to order and fully customization).

I have lots of Lee molds. Like them they do what I need them to do.

After I find a bullet style I like, I usually work in an upgrade to a custom mold when they present them selves.

Picked up my 1st Accurate mold from their website. ( I like that allot beats waiting for a group buy to mature.)
Nice 5 cavity for my 32's.
Wont be my last I am sure.

But you do pay for that. Not going to get this mold for $39.

 

[FrankenMauser]

Yep.
And the ability to have multiple, different bullets in the same mold, or variations of the same bullet, is quite nice.


If you hadn't quoted me, I never would have noticed that "fully customization" phrase. ...A byproduct of the spell checker that runs in my web browser. "Customizable" is not in its dictionary, so it automatically replaced it with "customization" while I was typing.

 

[A pause for the COZ]

Hahaha no worries here. I am a expert word hacker from way back.
Truth is there are two completely different kind of people who attempt to communicate on forums now that acceptance and access are universal.

1st is the word smiths. People who communicate best in written form.
They understand the English language as it is to be written and understood in that realm.

My wife is in that group. She plays pure magic with the written word.
Her verbal skills are... Hmmm not so good. I usually just look at her and say. What???

I come from the other realm: Verbal communicator. The same words can mean completely different things depending on inflection and body language.
Its a veritable canvas of verbal colors.
My wife looks at the stuff I write and says " Your not really planning on sending this to any actual person are you?"
Well yaaa!! I was..

Oh well what ya gona do?

 

[Hunter Customs]

Well the problem continues.
Midsouth sent the replacement mold, I opened the box broke the seal label on the mold that reads inspected by Lucille ( the same thing that the other seal label read) and low and behold this mold was just as bad as the one I returned.

I called Midsouth and explained to them that this mold is also not acceptable and that I would be returning it.
They apologized for the bad mold and said they would e-mail me a return shipping label, however they were not to hip on the ideal of sending out another mold that most likely would be as bad as the one I was returning.

I told them I understood, this was not their problem and I did not want them to send another mold, just credit my account.
I ask for Lee's phone number they gave it to me; I gave Lee a call.

I explained to the lady at Lee what was going on and she said she would have to check and see how Lee would recommend handling it.
She also said that evidently Midsouth was not checking the molds before they shipped them.
As polite as I could, I said it's not Midsouth's problem and there's no reason for Midsouth to inspect the molds when there's an inspectors label wrapped around the mold when they are shipped from Lee.

I also told her that I did not know who Lucille is but both of the bad molds were inspected by her, so maybe a Lee representative should pay Lucille a visit as she seems to be having a bad day.

I still do not have a Lee 310 gr 44 mag mold and the only way I would feel comfortable purchasing one is if I can open the box and inspect it in person.

I my opinion Lee is dropping the ball on this one.

 

[1100 tac]

"Chainsaw Lucille" A New Movie produced by Richard Lee.

Coming soon to a theater near you. Don't miss it!


In case you hadn't noticed, I am NOT a lee fanboy!