Ok -- I had my second casting session yesterday and used both a brand new Lee 358-158 SWC and the Lee 312-155. I prepped the mold by scrubbing with a degresser/tooth brush, lots of hot water rinse and a spray down with wally world brake cleaner. Then smoked with lighter.
The brand new Lee 358-158 SWC mold was dropping nicely and would come out most of the time with a light shake or love tap. The bullets produced had good definition and measure out at .359 to .360 with a weight in the range of 164 to 165 grains. Towards the end of the casting session I was getting fins on some of the bullets. not sure what the problem was with that.
The Lee 312-155 was giving me fits from the very first. You have to beat it like a red headed step child for it to drop the bullet. My first casting experience was with this mold and I thank everyone for the help from this thread. http://http://castboolits.gunloads.c...t=26204&page=2
I'm not giving up on the Lee 312-155 yet as I really want it for shooting from my Mosin Nagants. I guess I will give it another good cleaning before resulting to leementing.