Hi All,
I just got a new .380 and love shooting it so much I am going to have to buy dies and a mould. I was looking around and the only moulds I can find are just round nose 95gr. I want a HP or a SWC or both and preferably 80 to 90 gr. I don't want to spend $150 to have one desinged. The problem vexed me for weeks. No catalog or manufactures website had anything but the 95gr Round nose. The other day I was cleaning my bench and I picked up my Lee 158 gr .358 SWC HP GC mould to put it away and I got to thinking. .355 is real close to .357 and the shape is what I want. A quick pass through a resizer and wala. Why don't I just order a second one of these, bring it down stairs to the milling machine and shave off enough alluminum from the bottom of both halves to bring the final bullet to the desired 80 or 85 gr. Since this mould has the sprue on the base of the bullet it would work. Wouldn't it? I even took a bullet I had cast with this mould and cut off a little bit at a time from the bottom until I had the weight I wanted. Doing this pointed out a problem, shaving that much off the bottom will bring the handle attachment point right up to the bottom edge. I would have to cut new groves for the handles to move them more twords the center of the shaved mould halves. Again the only problem with that is I can't find any way of removing the handle mountings.
Thoughts anyone??
Good Luck
Sincerely,
Reverend Richard Eue