LEE 430 310 Bullet Mold

[Swamp]

I was looking at a LEE mold I purchase new, and have been using for a couple months now, and noticed that the sprue plate does not sit up tight against the mold for the front cavity. You can actually see daylight between the plate an block from the side. The rear cavity is tight. I don't know if its the sprue plate that is warped, or if the mold block itself is not flush????

SOOO, I decided to run a little test on the mold to see if there is a difference in weight from the front cavity to the rear? Sure enough, the front cavity consistently drops a bullet 2 grains heavier than the rear cavity!!! This is probably the reason I'm getting inconsistent groups. PLUS, the rear cavity drops a more consistent weight bullet (0.7 grs difference) when compared to the front cavity (1.2 grs difference). I'm going to only use the rear cavity on this mold and use it as a single instead of a double.

 

[Jitterbug]

Good detective work!

I’m guessing that the sprue plate might be bent. Could that have happened when letting a pour get a little too hard, before cutting the sprue?

I wonder what Lee would say, if you send them the same information?

Lee, and I think MidwayUSA, both sell spare sprue plates.

Happy casting!

 

[Swamp]

Hard to say how it happened, or if it was just like that from the factory. BUT, I did swap sprue plates from another LEE mold I had laying around and bingo, its fixed! Nice mate up to the block now.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

I only have 2 molds of 14 total that are more than one cavity. One is a Lee 6 cavity mold that i haven't used yet. Guess i better take a closer look before i do. Going from single steel molds to a 6 aluminum is going to be an interesting learning curve

 

[Swamp]

I think I'm going to look up the Accurate Molds catalog and purchase me a .430. mold from them in Iron. They will be more consistent and worth every penny.

 

[Swamp]

This is the Accurate Mold I'm looking at, but I would have the grooves eliminated. It will take the weight up a bit, but this would be a great bullet for sabot shooting. The Harvester Crushed Rib sabot has a depth of 0.515", so that would leave .35" of bullet above the sabot, which is pretty much the full ogive of the bullet.