Lee 356-125-2R is not like the others

[2TM101]

This design must predate powder coating. It probably works fine with conventional lube but I don't shoot plain lead in 9mm and I suppose few people do these days.

Once you powder coat it, it will not work in anything other than a 9mm revolver that uses moon clips. My S&W 986 can fire them - but nothing else. The bullet hits the lands and it will not chamber. Not in my PC Carbine, Glock or my Uberti Cattleman 2.

And you cannot seat it deep enough to work, either. Forgetting for the moment the implications of compressing the powder, the bullet simply will not go in far enough. It hits the thicker part of the case and stops, the the rest of the bullet deforms and it hits the lands anyway.

All is not lost. I found that powdercoated this mold makes perfectly good .38 Special roundnose loads.

[Dusty Bannister]

MOST cast bullet molds predate powder coating. Especially molds with bore riding noses, or the long tapered noses. Perhaps the TC or SWC are not as likely to require deep seating of the bullet to fit the current production trend to have very short transitions in the barrel forward of the chamber.

[sureYnot]

Are you using cases with a step inside? I never had that problem in my sr9 or glock42. I've shot thousands of that boolit.

[Stew]

I use that exact mold for all of our 9mm pistols and I powder coat. This cast bullet fits all of the 9mm cases I use, it will both chamber and fire in all of my 9mm semi-auto's. I think you may have an oversized pill dropping from your mold. I use straight wheel weight alloy for my cast bullets.
If I were you I would do a little more research on the pills my mould is dropping. Are you sizing these bullets after powder coating?

[racepres]

I will Note here, that I have that mold, and mine also drops Boolits almost perfect size for 38/357 coated...being .357...never Larger.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I am sure you've investigated all the variables before you blame the mold design. Of course, since you mentioned nothing else, maybe I'm wrong.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I will Note here, that I have that mold, and mine also drops Boolits almost perfect size for 38/357 coated...being .357...never Larger.

My mold dropped 'em a wee bit shy (.355)

[racepres]

Might just be a Case of soft vs hard Alloy...I can Vary size quite a bit, with different alloy...Maybe you can Too, but...there are Problems with a too Hard alloy also..tho maybe Not so Much powder coated..IDK
Edit; Heck!!! What am I thinking...you want to drop smaller..softer boolits should be fine PC'd...Correct??

[2TM101]

I use that exact mold for all of our 9mm pistols and I powder coat. This cast bullet fits all of the 9mm cases I use, it will both chamber and fire in all of my 9mm semi-auto's. I think you may have an oversized pill dropping from your mold. I use straight wheel weight alloy for my cast bullets. If I were you I would do a little more research on the pills my mould is dropping. Are you sizing these bullets after powder coating?

After reading all these I am now wondering just how thick my powder coat actually is. I may make up a batch and tumble lube them and see how that goes.

[armoredman]

Odd, been using that boolit powder coated for many years...

Edit to add, Great Scott, reading comprehension is BAD with me this year. I apologize.
I have used the 125gr Lee boolit myself, powder coated, but I was less than thrilled with the results. However, they worked just fine loading and firing in my CZ pistols.
I think I gave away the mold, not sure.

[poppy42]

Funny that’s one of my favorite molds for 9 mm I’ll shoot it out of my Ruger SR9all day long. I actually prefer it over the 124 grain tumble lube bullet from Lee. 125 grain has conventional lube grooves in it. And yes I have powder coated it.

[2TM101]

I am sure you've investigated all the variables before you blame the mold design. Of course, since you mentioned nothing else, maybe I'm wrong.

I have all four of the Lee 9mm molds that come in 6 cavity versions, in fact I even have three that make the bullet in question - a 2 and two 6's. Same issue with all of them, and I got them from different sources at different times, so I seriously doubt the mold is bad.

All three of the other lee 9mm molds work fine. Two are tumble lube designs and one is pan lube, but I have powder coated all of them instead and all work fine either way. Near as I can tell I'm running onto the same problem you have with bore-rider rifle bullets. My best hypothesis at this point is that what I'm using for powder coating is just really thick paint.

I have used my .358 sizer and tried to push the bullet into the case to the point where the shiny resized part disappears - but it will not go that far in. The top part starts to crush. Since this makes perfectly good .38 special bullets even with the thick paint I'm still happy.

[jdgabbard]

I have the Mihec's clone of this, the MP 356-125 2R: https://www.mp-molds.com/product/mp-...av-bevel-base/

As well as the 38-147 RN BB, which I actually think is a clone of the Saeco 928: https://www.mp-molds.com/product/9mm...aluminum-mold/

They both load fine in everything I shoot. The shortest throat I have is my S&W SW9VE, which requires even most FMJ loads to be loaded short. It doesn't have any issue shooting either of these bullets loaded to 1.100" OAL.

That said, I've actually wanted to compare the MP 125gr with the Lee side by side. But no point in ordering a mold just for that. I'd pick up the MP version if I were you. It's a great bullet in my 9mms!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I have all four of the Lee 9mm molds that come in 6 cavity versions, in fact I even have three that make the bullet in question - a 2 and two 6's. Same issue with all of them, and I got them from different sources at different times, so I seriously doubt the mold is bad.

All three of the other lee 9mm molds work fine. Two are tumble lube designs and one is pan lube, but I have powder coated all of them instead and all work fine either way. Near as I can tell I'm running onto the same problem you have with bore-rider rifle bullets. My best hypothesis at this point is that what I'm using for powder coating is just really thick paint.

I have used my .358 sizer and tried to push the bullet into the case to the point where the shiny resized part disappears - but it will not go that far in. The top part starts to crush. Since this makes perfectly good .38 special bullets even with the thick paint I'm still happy.

It could be thick PC, as you surmised.
but it also could be an abrupt throat in each of the troublesome guns. It is common for most manufacturers to put abrupt throats in 9mm semi-auto guns, works great for Jacketed bullets, but can be troublesome for cast, especially designs with a fat nose. Dougguy has a great business fixing (chamfer) that issue, so you know it's quite common.

[G W Wade]

Fought with my Canik with a match barrel trying to shoot cast, Untill DougGuy did his magic GW

[Bird]

I have all four of the Lee 9mm molds that come in 6 cavity versions, in fact I even have three that make the bullet in question - a 2 and two 6's. Same issue with all of them, and I got them from different sources at different times, so I seriously doubt the mold is bad.

All three of the other lee 9mm molds work fine. Two are tumble lube designs and one is pan lube, but I have powder coated all of them instead and all work fine either way. Near as I can tell I'm running onto the same problem you have with bore-rider rifle bullets. My best hypothesis at this point is that what I'm using for powder coating is just really thick paint.

I have used my .358 sizer and tried to push the bullet into the case to the point where the shiny resized part disappears - but it will not go that far in. The top part starts to crush. Since this makes perfectly good .38 special bullets even with the thick paint I'm still happy.

There is your problem. For the 9mm, size your bullets after powdercoating to 0.357''. The inside of your brass cases should be expanded to .355'' only in the straight wall section of the brass. Seat that 2r bullet to a OAL of 1.105'' or so, which should leave just a shiny resized section of the boolit showing.
I went through all of your problems with my CZ75, and everything has to be just right for it to work well, which it does now.
.358'' boolits don't work for me. The larger the diameter means I would have to seat deeper thus going into the tapered section of the brass case and that causes sizing down of the boolit base and causes leading of the barrel. If you were then to expand the case to a deeper depth to prevent sizing down the boolit, the completed cartridge will not chamber.
I set up the expander depth in the lee powder through die using a 38 S&W expander. I also do not fully resize my fired brass, but only the straight upper section of it. This prevents the wasp waist that is created using most standard carbide dies, I think RCBS makes a die to prevent this, but is not cheap.

[fredj338]

This design must predate powder coating. It probably works fine with conventional lube but I don't shoot plain lead in 9mm and I suppose few people do these days.

Once you powder coat it, it will not work in anything other than a 9mm revolver that uses moon clips. My S&W 986 can fire them - but nothing else. The bullet hits the lands and it will not chamber. Not in my PC Carbine, Glock or my Uberti Cattleman 2.

And you cannot seat it deep enough to work, either. Forgetting for the moment the implications of compressing the powder, the bullet simply will not go in far enough. It hits the thicker part of the case and stops, the the rest of the bullet deforms and it hits the lands anyway.

All is not lost. I found that powdercoated this mold makes perfectly good .38 Special roundnose loads.

You would have to put a heck of a lot of PC to have the bullet not fit most pistols. I have used it, works fine in a GLock OEM.

[BC17A]

I load the 356-125-2R (sized to .356") down to 1.055" oal for my pickiest pistol and it works well. Several other pistols need it at 1.070" sized to .357 and are some of my most accurate. All are PC'd @ .002" thickness.

[wv109323]

What JonB said in post 14. Most foreign 9mm pistols are chambered to shoot jacketed bullets of .355 diameter. The rifling extends to the end of the chamber which causes boolits of .356-.358" to jam into the rifling. These barrels have no leade in the rifling.
On top of that the actual bore size can be .3550 to .357+ making a boolit size of .356 to .358 mandatory for cast boolits.
My problem was when you got the boolit to the size needed for the actual bore size the boolit would not enter the barrel without shaving lead or powder coating at the end of the chamber. Aftera few rounds the acculated lead or PC would not allow the pistol to go into full battery. I had this shaving of lead/PC regardles of OAL of the cartridge.
I had this problem with a CZ and 2 Canik pistols. The simplest fix is to have the throat reamed but the Canik pistols have a metal hardness that they are difficult to ream.
Also a note, I bought a Tisas DS pistol and the barrel allows a lead or pc boolit to work fine.

[Willie T]

What OAL are you seating? I cast and shoot a bunch of those in a Springfield SA-35. I love the six cavity mold I have. Casting with 95-2.5-2.5 they drop from all six cavities right at .3575. I size to .357 and conventional lube. Seat to 1.025.
To make powder coat work in my Springfield I size to .356. Powder coat. Size the coated bullet to .357. Seat to 1.010. Also reworked the deeper seated load. Ended up dropping charge weight by .2 grains. No problems making it work other than the extra work.
The extra steps making powder coat work like that is a bigger pain in the keester than I usually endure. I usually just size and conventional lube in one step and load. Very accurate bullet for me in the SA-35.
Good luck working out the kinks.
Willie

What diameter do your coated and sized projectiles measure? It sounds like your brass is getting into the crimp before your bullet is seated. Try backing the die body out a couple turns and see if you can raise the ram all the way up with a flared case without removing any flare. That should let you seat your projectiles deep.