M96 Swedish Mauser

[rjathon]

My 96 Mauser has been terrific with jacketed bullets. I would now like to try cast bullets. My goal is very low blast and recoil with good accuracy for offhand shooting. Simplicity is crucial. Muzzle velocity does not matter.

Remember the joy of plinking with a .22 rimfire as a kid? I'd like to do that with my beautiful and delightful M96- low recoil, low noise fun.

Is there a bullet that has a strong history of good performance? Is there a classic load?

Thanks,

Russ

[wellfedirishman]

Russ, Try about 9 or 10 grains of Trailboss behind any cast bullet. I have been using that load in a variety of military surplus rifles with great results for an accurate and quiet load.

Midsouth Shooters Supply sells a Lee 6.5 Swedish bullet mold (aka the Cruise Missile) that should do well for your purposes.

[462]

Lyman's 266469.

[MBTcustom]

I cant comment on a load but I would like to counsel you to use sweets 7.62 or similar copper solvent to get all the copper out of the barrel before running cast lead boolits through it. Lead sticks to copper very easily, and you will be dealing with an easily leading barrel otherwise.
Congratulations on finding a rifle you love.

[oscarflytyer]

Russ, Try about 9 or 10 grains of Trailboss behind any cast bullet. I have been using that load in a variety of military surplus rifles with great results for an accurate and quiet load.

Midsouth Shooters Supply sells a Lee 6.5 Swedish bullet mold (aka the Cruise Missile) that should do well for your purposes.

I have a Cruise Missle mold that I will part with. I cast about 50 bullets with it, and then never even used them. Concentrating my casting endeavors towards my handguns and decided not to mess with cast in the milsurps.

If you are interested in the mold, feel free to drop me an email at myerssw@knology.net.

Steve

[zomby woof]

Lyman's 266469.

I use this mold with great success in my M96

[curator]

rjathon:

Before you go to far do a search on this site for 6.5X55 Swede. While the Swede will indeed shoot cast boolits well, there is more to it than buying a mould and hoping for the best. The Swede is almost never the .264 bore diameter that commercial moulds cast. Usually more like 267-268. Correct bullet design and alloy are critical for success. Keep velocities below 1800 fps and use a good lube. Several members here have posted extensively of their experiences both good and bad--Save yourself a lot of frustration by learning from their mistakes.

[Maven]

rjathon, Curator's advice is right on the mark on all counts! For a low recoil, low velocity load, you can also try 11gr. - 13gr. Unique. Btw, after you remove the copper jacket fouling from your bore as per goodsteel's suggestion, you'll need to slug it to see what diameter cast bullet you'll actually need.

[mtgrs737]

I have two swedes that I shoot cast in, both are oversized bores. A member here (buckshot) made me a nice sizing die that sizes .2683" dia. I sent a new set of Lee collet dies off to Lee to have them modified to work with the larger sized boolit, Lee did an excellent job and they were back in two weeks! I use a Lee universal case mouth flare die to put a slight flare on the case mouth for seating the cast boolits. I have two Lee moulds that are spl. made for the swede, one is the cruise missle and the other is 139 gr. group buy Lovern style that I got from a fellow here. I shoot the lighter boolit and with the target sights on that long barrel I have shot some impressive groups at 100 yds even with my aging eyes. I shoot 11 grs. of Unique for a powder charge. It is a sweet low recoiling and accurate loading. Good luck!

[rjathon]

Thanks for all of the good advice. I've never cast before and after perusing this forum I'm a bit overwhelmed by how much goes into success. I quit shooting as I can no longer tolerate blast and recoil but this light load cast bullet idea opens the door to a whole new outlook.

Thanks again,

Russ

[Bret4207]

Welcome aboard Russ!

I'm past the stage where I need to get the snot kicked out of me too. That's one of the nicest things about cast- you can load a ho'made boolit so it's just "ploomping" out the muzzle and still have a ball, and all for cheap with no recoil. Mom and the kids like it, it's nice and quiet so old Gladys Kravitz down the road doesn't worry the savage hoard is enroute to defile her honor and if Wile E. Coyote should happen to show himself, why, you've got the medicine for him right there.

This is a very enjoyable part of the shooting game, once you get the basics figured out anyway!

[gnoahhh]

I think you summed it all up there Bret!

[curator]

rjathon,

Its not the amount of work that makes success but making the right choices. You have made the right one enquiring on Cast Boolits. By the way, the Swede does not suffer from "oversize bores" it was made to a different standard. They are wonderful rifles once you learn their pecularities.

[Larry Gibson]

Lyman's 266469.

+1 because it is currently available. I prefer the older lighter weight 266455 which casts a 129 gr bullet. Sized .266, GC'd and lubed with Javelina they shoot very well in all my Swedes. A very good load for me is 9 gr of Unique for 1400 fps out of my M38s and excellent accuracy. A lighter and somewhat quieter load an more accurate to 100 yards is the same bullet under 6 gr of Bullseye for 1190 fps.

Larry Gibson

[madsenshooter]

There are a couple group buy molds running with larger 6.5 bullets. Well, one's s group buy, one's in the vendor sponsor sales section, both by NOE.

[Hang Fire]

That cruise missile in my M-38 Swede proved to be frustrating to say the least. Took some finagling to get the nose and first two drive bands sized down so it would chamber without having the boolit seated way below the neck. But was worth the effort, at around book 1600 fps it is a tack driver now. Was surprised at the rock busting power the boolit still has out to around 300 yards, it must hold even that slow velocity very well.

[ELFEGO BACA]

I have had great luck with Lyman's 268645 bullet mold in my 1901 carl gustaf model 96/38.

I size my bullets in a lyman 264 sizer and they come out .2645.

I tried the cruise missle from mid south. It did not feed from the magazine.

elfego

[StrawHat]

I cant comment on a load but I would like to counsel you to use sweets 7.62 or similar copper solvent to get all the copper out of the barrel before running cast lead boolits through it. Lead sticks to copper very easily, and you will be dealing with an easily leading barrel otherwise.
Congratulations on finding a rifle you love.

I'll second that idea. A clean barrel is essential for cast bullet shooting. Especially in the small bores.

[Larry Gibson]

I have had great luck with Lyman's 268645 bullet mold in my 1901 carl gustaf model 96/38.

I size my bullets in a lyman 264 sizer and they come out .2645.

I tried the cruise missle from mid south. It did not feed from the magazine.

elfego

Try pushing them into the .264 sizer just enough to crimp the check on leaving the GC flare as large as you can with the check crimped on enough not to easily pry off. You should not have to size any part of the bullet. Your "as cast" bullets should be at least .266 and should just fit into the throat. Hand lube a few but double dipped in LLA will give enough lube for 6.5 Swede velocities. Before the lube dries hard I smooth it out by rolling the lube portion between my fingers. Worked for me. If it works for you you may then want to invest in a .266 - .268 sizer, whatever the "as cast" diameter of your bullets is.

Larry Gibson

[rjathon]

I've read over on the Beartooth forums that some people recommend fire lapping the barrel to make it smoother so that it leads up less. On M96's is this necessary?

I have a chance to buy lead wheel weights at the going scrap rate of $.52 a pound. That seems high but it is what the tire guy gets from the scrap yard. Is there a better way to go?

Thank you everyone for your help. I'm amazed at how much goes into this.

Russ

[curshe]

Russ
Think I would check with the local scrap yards, everything I can find has wheel weights going for .31 currently, clean lead is in the .60 range.
Wheel weights have lots of steel on them yet so you don't want to pay a bunch for stuff you will be throwing away and you want to watch the weights for zinc weights too some of the new stuff are zinc just another way to cut down on usable alloy, just some things I have run into something to ponder.
Curt



I've read over on the Beartooth forums that some people recommend fire lapping the barrel to make it smoother so that it leads up less. On M96's is this necessary?

I have a chance to buy lead wheel weights at the going scrap rate of $.52 a pound. That seems high but it is what the tire guy gets from the scrap yard. Is there a better way to go?

Thank you everyone for your help. I'm amazed at how much goes into this.

Russ

[wallager57]

My shooting partner and I bought a 140 gr lyman mold years ago and have had really good luck with it (he no longer shoots anything with a copper jacket on it) we were using unique, 11 grs. makes a great training load for the kiddos. like shooting a .22 mag

[greenwart]

This pretty much tells the story. Needless to say I was pleased.

Bob

[greenwart]

CCI Large Rifle Primers. OAL 3.00. Cruise Missile Nose sized to .258 driving bands sized to .266. Gas checks. Heat treated 425F for 1 hour. Shot out of sporter Swede Barrel length 23". That is about it.

Bob

[wellfedirishman]

Greenwart, that is some very nice shooting. Do you know what velocity this bullet was doing? I may try a similar load, but without gas checks.

[greenwart]

I don't know the velocity. I have to borrow my neighbor's chrony when I check speeds. that is on my list. Maybe next Christmas. That wasn't my shooting that was my pregnant daughter in law doing the shooting. We had 5 people taking turns shooting so the results were variable. I am heading out this morning to see if I can recreate these results consistently.