Ranchdog/Lee so called "256" mold

I have complained about Lee’s mold and sizer dimensions for some time on this forum.

Case in point was when I bought my first Lee Ranchdog mold, after waiting 2 months for it to show up to find it cast way to big to use.

The dilemma I had when I started trying to get cast bullets to shoot in small bore air guns, and this had been my first attempt, was that there were no off the shelf molds even close to the LW ‘s .255 groove diameter. 257 molds were too big to size down, 25 acp bullets were far too small.

Then I saw the RanchDog site and his .256 mold for the 25 ACP. I waited for 2 months for the mold only to find it dropped them at .261, again too big, so I sent it back and had LBT make me a mold.

The bullets the Lee 6 cavity mold cast were really nice looking and it cast a lot of them in a very short time period but they would not work so that was that.

Cruising Ebay last week I saw another RanchDog mold, this one claiming again to be .256 and dropping bullets at 49 grains. Things had changed tho, I had a 257 Haley Scandalous that may shoot those bullets, and it would work in any 257 bore, especially ones that do not produce a lot of power.

I posted about the mold in case anyone wanted to buy it. No one came forward, so I bought it, not that I use the Haley to plink with light bullets, like I said, I thought it would be a good choice for lower powered .257 barrels if it did indeed cast oversize like the last one I had did.

Oldgoat called me after I bought it and offered to buy it, I think because he felt obligated, but after talking to him, I realized he was after a more rounded nose profile, and this thing is short and stubby with a very wide metplate in relation to it’s caliber.

Well the weight I knew was variable depending on which of the three bullet alloy’s I usually use, so that did not phase me, however what I was hoping for was Lee’s legendary dimensional errors, and they hit a home run on this one, luckily it was exactly what I wanted:P

The mold arrived today and I picked it up at the post office and wasted no time in breaking it in. I washed it alcohol and scrubbed it with a toothbrush, then smoked the cavities with a grill long stem lighter, used LBT alignment pin wax lube for the alignment pins and their steel recesses. Then heated up a pot of 20-1 on my propane casting furnace and while it was getting hot I installed a pair of Lee 6 cavity mold handles, the only ones that fit this gang mold.

Once I made the first cst, I lubed the top of the mold and under the sprue plate with the same lube NOE sent with their molds for that purpose.

Then while the lead was heating, I heated the mold on a hotplate I bought for that exact purpose.

I ran about 5 casts thru the mold and was getting nice smooth bullets, I knew then this mold would break my heart or I was going to love it.

The “make or break” point was whether it would drop bullets that were at least .258 to .262 like the last one did.

I was in a hurry to try them and scorched my finger tips while measuring the bullets. On my HF digital they came out at .258, I was liking this so far.

Then I weighed three of them and got a weight of 51.3 to 51.6 grains, now bear in mind, I weigh every bullet I cast, I sort to + or – .1 grain, so I am anal about weight, the rest of my bullets that fall outside that narrow window go back to the remelt pot.

This time though, I did not weigh, sort or inspect, I did size 15 of the 60 or so bullets I cast in the short 5 to 10 minutes I cast, yeah it really is that fast to cast a pile of bullets, but I wanted to see how they flew first before I invested too much time in them.

Then I retired to my short range I shoot the Haley at and that is the 90 yard zero steel target I use.

I like a zero of 90 yards because with the 257420 bullet at 1135, from muzzle to 90 yards I only get a 2.5 inch arc in trajectory, at 100 yards I am 1.5 inches low, so this gives me references, using the Hollands reticle, to hit anything out to 220 yards, and the Haley 257 has the power and accuracy to do that.

I dialed the PSI to 2500 PSI and shot, the chrony read 1160 FPS, which was way to fast, but I did hit the steel about a inch to the left. I dialed it to 2200 PSI and got 1060 FPS/135 FPE. I shot a group in a 10 MPH cross wind and was holding in a inch and a half, which I thought was not too bad for the first bullets and not culling anything, and when I say not culled, I mean, flashed bases, rounded bases and not weighed.

Then for shits and grins I dialed it up to 3200 PSI to see what the velocity would be, it shot at 1225 FPS/172 FPE .

Way too fast.

At 1060 to 1225 FPS, it wants to group into an inch. I had some flyers, but you have to realize there was no culling of anything, I just wanted to see if they shot, and they did.

Here is the lineup of my 258 bullets I cast now.

L to R Lee/Ranchdog 51 grain, 109 Hoch tapered nose pour, 100 grain NOE, 80 grain NOE, 257420 Lyman 72.5 grains, 257420 Lyman HP 71.5 grains, another 51 grain Lee/Ranchdog.

Some groups at 90 yards

Regards,

Roachcreek