Has anyone tried the Lee 120TC in .38spl?

[docone31]

I have the Lee 9mm 120TC mold. It is great in my 9mm.
Has anyone tried this in a .38spl?
Does it cast large enough?
I like the mold I have and I would love to cast it for the .38spl.

[Shiloh]

Haven't tried.

You already mentioned my chief concern, is it large enough??

Shiloh

[epj]

The catalog lists these as 9mm/.38 bullets. You'll have to check the "as cast" diameter and see if they are big enough. I have some on hand, but they have all been sized to .356. They need to be at least .357, and even then you may have a leading problem. If they will go .358-.359 they ought to do well. Also depends on how fast you want to drive them, I guess.

[mooman76]

The question should be does your's cast large enough. You have the mould, measure the bullets.

[sheepdog]

Depends on the pistol. I hear some 38/357s on the S&W variety run .356 anyway.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I had one of those in a Lee six banger. The boolits cast too small for my Hi Power and now I use a iron mold and size down to .358 and the Browning loves them. I got rid of the Lee some time ago and of course now I have two more 9's and I shoulda kept it.

I keep on telling myself.....don't sell molds or guns cuz it's gonna bite ya.

[mooman76]

Been there, done that. I gave my 9mm stuff to a friend because I got rid of my 9mm and had no desire to get another. Then picked up a 9mm Lugar.

[MtGun44]

I size mine to .357 for the 9mms. I use a .358 sizer for .357 mag and .38 Spl.
Undersized is far worse than oversized, and I have lots of other boolits for the
revolvers, so I have never even tried it. In fact last weekend I cast up over 500
120-TCs and about 250 RCBS 38-150-KTs for the .38/.357s. I just use different
designs for the two.

Probably would work if you only have the one mold, but might not be ideal.

Bill

[cbr]

I loaded some up a while back for light snub nose loads and they worked fine, but did not shot to point of aim, really high or low, I cant remember for sure. I loaded them as cast. They were dropping at about .358 if I remember correctly. It just depends on what size you mold drops them at and your barrel size. Give it a shot.

[fecmech]

I've used it a lot in my K 38 and Rossi 92, very accurate and holds up well to 100 yds. Can't find my 100 yd stuff but here is a couple of 50 yd targets, one on the left is the rifle and the revolver is on the right. The .38 spl load is 5.3/231.

[Hank10]

I have that mold, mine cast about .360 varies a little from one cavity to another but sized to .358 shoots good in my .38/.357 Vaqueros and 92 rifle. Used it for SASS until I got a similar mold with a crimp groove, now use that one.
H10