The mold I am looking at is a lee 6 cavity 358-158-2r 158gr for 38spcl. I think all I need to do is lube and reload?
They sell a sizing die that sizes to .357.
I measured a bunch of my purchased bullets and they measure 356.5. to 357. the jacketed zero bullets measure .3565.
can someone clear this up for me?

My experience has been to size for a 357, is to size bullets .358 or .359. Of course this depends on your 357 is it revolver or a semi auto. Fit the bullet to the chamber mouth.

Jim

quote:

Fit the bullet to the chamber mouth

Thanks That make more sense. I have all wheel guns so that is what I was missing.

The fellow at LBT, as in LBT Blue bullet lube, wrote a nice book/pamphlet on bullet casting and things you can do to reduce leading and increase accuracy.

Jim

quote:

LBT Blue bullet lube

Thanks I will check it out

For best results, you gots to know some numbers.

The single most important number is the groove measurement of the barrel you are going to be pushing the bullet through. Any slack there will allow gas leakage, which will cause flame cutting of the lead bullet, which will lead to leading of the barrel in short order. I've had my best results with bullets sized to .001" to .003" larger than groove diameter... which brings up yet another issue: some revolver manufacturers, for reasons completely unknown, see fit to produce cylinders who's throats are smaller than the groove diameter of the barrel. Even if you start with a bullet that's properly sized for the barrel, by the time it enters the barrel it's been squeezed down so that it's now undersized, and you're back to square one again. About the only thing that can be done to rectify this shortcoming is to have the cylinder throats reamed out to a size a thousandth or two larger than the groove diameter, so that the bullet can properly engrave. I hope this makes sense.

For a mould that drops bullets that aren't quite big enough to fill the rifling, there are a couple of solutions. If you're using a luber sizer such as the RCBS or Lyman 450 that doesn't use a "push through" die, it's possible to bump the diameter up a bit by forcing it into the die if the alloy is soft enough. A Lee push through sizer won't help you much here.

Another thing to try is shimming the mould blocks. For this I use a type of aluminum tape that we use in aviation on my job. It's a couple of thousandths thick, and a piece of it stuck to one of the blocks so that it can't close all the way will produce a slightly larger (though oval) bullet. When ran through the sizing die, the extra lead gets moved around and the result is a round bullet.

Porosonik.

Porosonik
thanks I looking to get all that info together. so far the hand guns I will use is a model 10 smith and a model 14.
Dave

A man after my own heart! I have several K-Frames- 4" Mod 10, 5" Mod 11 (WWII S&W Victory in .38 S&W, fitted with a Mod. 14 adjustable rear sight... guess that would make it a Mod. 12 1/2? ), and a 6" Mod 14 that I bought new in 1974 (first revolver I ever bought!). Love 'em all!

Porosonik.

I want a 12 1/2
Great, same here I have a bunch of s/w J,K.
I have an old flat latch made around 1969.
I have 10MP and 14 target masterpiece.
A model29 clint eastwood special .
and several others and I will probably buy more.
Who ever owned model 10Mp did a lot of trigger work on it was a turn in from some law enforce .
Dave