Reeder Custom Guns - Making Bullets

This afternoon was cool, breezy and overcast and I spent a few hours casting bullets. Somehow I had gotten low on my .38/.357 bullets and needed to catch up!

I used my old Lyman 4-cavity #358665 bullet mold. The bullet has a nice large meplat for .38/357 .. it has a generous grease groove and good crimp groove. Over the years it has proven accurate in my .38's and .357's including the leveraction rifle. They feed well in it.

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Total weight of the bullets I cast plus the cardboard box is nearly 17 pounds. I figure there's an honest 16 1/2 pounds of bullets. At 160 grains each, that around 730 bullets. Not a bad afternoon's work. The four-cavity mold made it go pretty fast.

Now all I have to do is size and lube each one .....

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Lee makes a 158 mound that mimics the nose and frontal profile. Heavier base. No way do their aluminum moulds pour as well as iron but then they cost less (6-cavity) than the handle set does for the Lyman/RCBS blocks.

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They also have a 125 with a smaller meplat. It looks like it might save a little lead and do double duty for 9mm as well. I’ve loaded the 158 SWC in the 9mm but the case gets too thick before I can fully seat. It worked great in my euro 9’s at 1000 fps. I figure that’s why most 147 9mm have sort of a boat tail profile.

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Having a big box of .38 bullets is always a productive feeling. You just need some, all the time.

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I like the way it is designed ..both the Lyman and the Lee. I am glad Lee didn't change it.

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of the lube groove. It's shorter, thicker based, for the same weight. With paint coating all the rage maybe it's less of an issue. I don't think I have this mould but I do have a 124 gr. "tumble lube" for 9mm that works great in both 9 and .38/.357. It is more of a truncated nose.

I've got a RCBS 9mm 147 gr. mould (double cavity) that I really wanted to work with soon. It seems they have drastically changed it lately. Mine mimic's the commercial FN boattail jacketed bullets, but with a lube groove. The late model version looks more like a plain base .38 type bullet. I don't get it. The boattail allowed full seating inside the tapered 9mm brass.

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Making Bullets

I like that generous meplat and wide lube groove

That Lee bullet is a good copy of the Lyman.

I guess the main difference is the width/depth