Casting with the 358-124-TC

[Wayne52]

I just cast up about 75 of the 358-124-TC using pure lead and the mold was designed for using wheel weight lead for casting, they dropped at .357 with pure lead so they should work well in my AEA Standard Challenger, I can only load one at a time but in reality 1 at a time is really all I'll need in a hunting scenario. I doubt I'll get out today shooting them but maybe Monday morning.  It's supposed to be a rain day tomorrow.  They averaged 123.5 grains.

[Greg_E]

Surprised they were that light, normally pure lead drops a bit heavier than marked. They look good though, way better than the stuff I dropped out of my Lyman 356637 mold, I was having a tough time with it.

[Wayne52]

Actually the mold is designed to drop a 124 grain flat nose so in reality they're only about 1/2 grain light so they really close to what they should be in weight.

[Back_Roads]

 Here is a lighter weight I have for the Recluse, nice flat shooting little pill for them pesky HOSP, Starlings and Coyotes.  https://noebulletmolds.com/site/shop/355-9mm/359-88-rf-s2/359-88-rf-s2-rg2-cavity-pb/?attribute_pa_dfp=dni-dfp&attribute_pa_mw-sl=dni-mwandsl

 Also have something close to what you are casting Wayne in a LEE mold, have shot that out to 100 with good venison harvesting accuracy.

 Cast up a 100 or so of the 60 gr. NOE pellets for my new AEA .30 Standard early this AM, to test , took a few Basement sighters then out to a buddies place to try some 50 yard shots she's a keeper, though I did experience the I bumped the cocking bolt and split my mag. I really just want a SST, so will whittle one out of wood or some plastic stock I have on hand.

[Greg_E]

That noe is the one I'm going to buy for my bulldog, should bring me about 125fpe.

[Wayne52]

Here is a lighter weight I have for the Recluse, nice flat shooting little pill for them pesky HOSP, Starlings and Coyotes.  https://noebulletmolds.com/site/shop/355-9mm/359-88-rf-s2/359-88-rf-s2-rg2-cavity-pb/?attribute_pa_dfp=dni-dfp&attribute_pa_mw-sl=dni-mwandsl

 Also have something close to what you are casting Wayne in a LEE mold, have shot that out to 100 with good venison harvesting accuracy.

 Cast up a 100 or so of the 60 gr. NOE pellets for my new AEA .30 Standard early this AM, to test , took a few Basement sighters then out to a buddies place to try some 50 yard shots she's a keeper, though I did experience the I bumped the cocking bolt and split my mag. I really just want a SST, so will whittle one out of wood or some plastic stock I have on hand.

That mold is going to be in my mailbox Monday, right now the mold is 50 miles north of me in Grand Rapids so USPS is dead on about the time of arrival for this one.  That 358-124-TC mold came before their delivery prediction which was today when it was supposed to be here also on the 10th of May !!!

[bduares]

Wayne I got out my 2nd LEE 356 102 gr mold this morning. I had it still new in the box and thought I would try it out. Wouldn't you know it the slugs it cast were just dropping through the .357 sizing die without having to tap them or anything. I am guessing that one is dropping at .354 like yours was. With my first mold they came out at least .356,they tended to stick a bit in the mold, and needed I needed to tap the mold to get them to drop. The 2nd mold they just dropped right out when I opened it. I might not have found out the 2 molds were casting at slightly different diameters if I hadn't tried the 2nd one just to see if the slugs stuck in that one too. Strange. Maybe 2 different production runs of mold?

[Wayne52]

I'll be trying these out tomorrow morning, it's going to be warmer earlier and calmer too.  They've been doing road work on the road I have to go on to access the state land and hopefully I'll be able to access it in the morning, There is two different directions that I can come from I'm going to choose the longest route there because that's where they'll be completing the last of the road work on that section of road.  I might even try cruising out there just to check out how things are going on the road today and who knows I might bring along my Xisico .22 and possibly get me a red squirrel while I'm out there.

[Greg_E]

Are those the gas check base or regular base? I ordered the regular base because I was thinking the single ridge might not be enough to keep them straight in the barrel.

[Wayne52]

I've heard these shoot good from the AEA 357, I guess that I'll find out.

[gendoc]

wayne, what did you end up sizing them at for your best accuracy ?

[Wayne52]

John I haven't tried the 358-124's out yet, the shorter 359-88's are decent but not as accurate as pellets are at 50 yards.  I did resize the 358-124's to .357 and I'll make a point of trying them out next time out.  I can load them fairly easy by hand too, hopefully they are more accurate than the shorter cup point slugs are.  It sure would be nice if the magazines accepted longer slugs than they do.

[Greg_E]

I'm hopefully going to cast some of those 80gr in the next day or two, waiting on handles to arrive. Hope they work well in my Bulldog.

Also got the single cavity hollow point version of the Lyman 356637 to try, comes out at 125gr hollow point. Mixed feelings about its flat nosed sibling that I need to look into. The flat nose at 150gr was low and left compared to the 145 Nosler the mag before, and several mags of Lee 356-125-2R I cast.

The short magazine on all the AEA is going to stop me cold, even the Bulldog is a little short for some things like what Bob designed for the latest revision of boat tails.