Lee 6.5 cruise missle again!

[Paul in Oregon]

Years ago I bought the Midsouth Lee Cruise Missle which is a 6.5 mm x 160 grain bullet mould. As many of you may know that mould casts a bullet that has an over diameter nose that won`t chamber [at least it didn`t in any of my 6.5 x55 rifles]. I ended up milling down the mould and it casts a 140 grain pill. It is quite accurate at subsonic velocities at 50 yards. Has anyone recently bought that mould and if so does it still have the same specs. as before? If Lee improved it I would like to buy another so that I could have a 160 gr. slug with a gas check. When I first got my mould I talked to some dude at Lee and told him that the mould wasn`t any good and that it had gotten a bad rap and his reply was that they made it to specs. from someone and they wouldn`t change it. Hopefully they did. Thank you, Paul .

[Yodogsandman]

I bought another one last spring and it's still the same. I planned to nose size it but, haven't got around to it yet. NOE made it easy by making nose sizer bushings for their sizing system. I also think that the NOE 270-163 is a better option. The nose fits my rifles bore. YMMV

[Paul in Oregon]

Thank you for the reply Yodogsandman. I might buy one anyway if I can convert it to accept gas checks after milling down the mould. I have seen posts online about guys doing it, I just have to do some research. Thanks again for the response,Paul.

[Yodogsandman]

I've done that to my first Lee 6.5 cruise missile mold. Didn't come out as well as some (most). I used a file and sandpaper and got a slight crown up on the top surface. It's not flat but just slightly rounded. Mine weigh 145 gr when cut down to the bottom of the first lube groove, which I now use as the gas check shank. The nose still needs sizing. I'm planning to someday have it actually milled down to a plain base.

If you change your mind about modifying the new mold, it normally shoots OK at 1500-1600 FPS but, will show boolit holes that are oblong that hit tipped to the side.