Lee 6.5mm "Cruise Missile

[augois]

Does anyone know if Lee ever made a 6 cavity version of the 6.5mm 170gr "swedish mauser" bullet ?

[STP22]

augois,

You bet they did.

Do a search in the Group Buy section here. There has been a great deal of discussion on this mould. (It`s not a regular cataloged item)

I managed to get a 2 cavity one from Mid-South. Mine needs some work to improve it, as both cavities tend to stick and I have to tap a bit to get them to drop out. I know what to do, but have yet to get it done.

I also need to get a Lyman/RCBS lube die opened up to .266 diameter for my "Karlina" M96. What do you plan to use the Cruise Missle in?

Scott

[mtgrs737]

Stp, don't forget to get a die set altered so the boolit will not be damaged by jamming it into a undersized case neck. I had Lee modifiy a set of their collet dies to work with a .2685" diameter boolit, I have no problems loading the oversized boolit and the collet dies don't over work my brass. I use a Lee universal flare die and a Lee factory crimp die to finish out the process.

[augois]

I will be using it n my CG M96. I have a Lyman .266 Lube die. I did notice the other day when I was loading some bullets from a Lyman 266469 mold that some of them would stick in the seater die. I imagine this phenomenon may be worse with this bullet.

[garandsrus]

augois,

I don't think there was a 6 cavity mold of the cruise missle. It is available through MidSouth Shooters Supply.

I believe that the Cruise Missle is too long to fit in a 6 cavity mold. I did run a buy of a 6 cavity 6.5mm mold, but it was about 130gr.

John

[mtgrs737]

John,

You were kind enough to sell me one of the GB extras in 130, I load it over 11 grs. of unique and it is showing great promise as an accurate load.

augois,

Lee only charged me $20 to mod the collet die set which included the seater die. Collet dies do not crimp so I use a Lee Factory Crimp die to take the flare off the case neck after seating the boolit. Lee's turnaround was just two weeks Door to Door! I highly recomend them.

[Dutchman]

I also need to get a Lyman/RCBS lube die opened up to .266 diameter for my "Karlina" M96. What do you plan to use the Cruise Missle in?


You have excellent taste in rifles.

I'm waiting on my 2 cavity 170 gr from Midsouth, I've been shooting purchased Lee custom 170 gr from Gardner's Cache sized .268". In several rifles I've had excellent accuracy at 50 yds so far. Under MOA and with m/96 that have worn bores. They're not new sharp barrels. Unless I see a good reason I don't usually slug bores and the 3 rifles I've shot these in haven't given me reason to think they're oversize when you consider the accuracy they're delivering. However, since I'll soon be casting my own again I may slug a few just to see what I'm dealing with.

I just measured the nose diameter on these I have: .263". That makes it difficult to get a reasonable seating depth. The base extends into the case pretty far. I tested seating depth in a barrel that is extremely worn and nearly smooth in the breech & throat and it still wouldn't let me seat any different than the better barrels. I'm getting a slight crush fit when chambering. As long as you don't open the bolt and pull out an empty case dumping powder in the action its not a big deal. It can't do much but help the accuracy and apparently it has helped. OAL on mine are 3.011".

The 140 gr Loverin I'm shooting are sized .266" and are delivering the same nearly identical accuracy as the 170 gr Lee. Same rifles.

Dutch
www.rebooty.com/~dutchman
Karlinahuis

[Buckshot]

..........garandsrus is right about it never being a 6 cavity. Too long.

http://www.fototime.com/B55472729A707A9/standard.jpg

Group buy, 128 to 134gr (depending on alloy) GB 6 cav 'Kurtz' on the left and the Oldfeller boolit on the right. In the photo, both are seated to engrave. The Cruise Missle oughta shoot through a phone pole lengthwise :-)

...................Buckshot

[Beaverhunter2]

Did Lee stop making this mould? I can't find any 6.5mm listings for Lee moulds.

John

[garandsrus]

John,

It's still available... Here's a link to the mold at Midsouth (http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=000066.5SWED), which is the only place it's available, to the best of my knowledge.

I had one of the molds but the boolits wouldn't feed in my CG-63 rifle. The boolit nose kept hitting the back of the barrel.

John

[alamogunr]

They keep telling me it is "On Order". I wanted it for my M96 Swedish Mauser. What is a "Karlina" M96? I've never heard that before.

John
W.TN

[Buckshot]

..............Do a search for Karlina and you'll find a bunch of references and it's all the 6.5 Swede. I used to know the connection but have forgotten in the Dim intervening years.

I did run across the thread on the 6.5 Kurtz GB I ran back in 2005. It was split between the old Aimoo board and the move to Willy's house :-) BAck then GB's took about 3 months!!!!!!!!!

................Buckshot

[Bret4207]

I believe Midsouth waits until they have enough on backorder to make it worthwhile, then they do a run. FWIW- If you ever order something like this, see if you can't order 2 or 3. I don't know about you, but anytime I have just 1 of something, bad things seem to happen to it. For the price you could get a couple and if you don't like the mould I assure you it'll sell fast here.

[Beaverhunter2]

Thanks, guys. I never looked in the special orders.

One more question, (for now- remember I'm still in my rookie year):

The boolit looks awful long. (Probably why it's called "The Cruise Missile"). A lot of it's going to stick out of a 6.5x55mm case. Do you lube all the grooves, or can you leave some unlubed? If you do lube them, how do you keep them from collecting dirt and junk? I guess that's actually two questions.

Thanks again!

John

BTW looks like a 6.5mm sizer is a special order, too. :-(

[Bret4207]

All the groves don't have to be lubed, some folks find lubing a certain number gives better accuracy than with all lubed. You'll have to shoot and see. Dirt? Dust the lubed boolits with Motor Mica, powdered graphite, cornstarch, talcum powder, anything that will reduce the sticky but not harm the barrel.

[Beaverhunter2]

Thanks, Bret.

I placed an order for a mould with Midsouth. Hopefully they will get them moving soon.

Also wanted to thank Garandsrus. He contacted me and we will be doing a boolit swap- 6.5mm for 20ga sabot slugs.

Great guys on this Forum!

John

[yodar]

..............Do a search for Karlina and you'll find a bunch of references and it's all the 6.5 Swede. I used to know the connection but have forgotten in the Dim intervening years.

I did run across the thread on the 6.5 Kurtz GB I ran back in 2005. It was split between the old Aimoo board and the move to Willy's house :-) BAck then GB's took about 3 months!!!!!!!!!

................Buckshot

a major 6.5 Swede resource on the internet is from Dutch and I believe it is an attribution

http://dutchman.rebooty.com/index.html

[alamogunr]

Back to molds for the 6.5 X 55 Swedish Mauser. Since MidSouth doesn't look likely to get the "Cruise Missile" in any time soon, What other molds are recommended for this cartridge?

[swheeler]

Stp, don't forget to get a die set altered so the boolit will not be damaged by jamming it into a undersized case neck. I had Lee modifiy a set of their collet dies to work with a .2685" diameter boolit, I have no problems loading the oversized boolit and the collet dies don't over work my brass. I use a Lee universal flare die and a Lee factory crimp die to finish out the process.

If you have Lee FL sizer dies just replace the decapper/expander with their 6.5 Carcano one for a couple bucks. I had to hone out my seater die enough that a .270" bullet will just slip through. Good bullet design and SD up the kazoo, can you say penetration? Where is Oldfeller?

[Bret4207]

Back to molds for the 6.5 X 55 Swedish Mauser. Since MidSouth doesn't look likely to get the "Cruise Missile" in any time soon, What other molds are recommended for this cartridge?

Lyman makes a 140 gr 266469 and you can still find NOS Lyman 266673's occasionally. The 673 is a 50 nominal wt design and a much better boolit in my mind than most others. Watch Ebay and you'll find other moulds too. Be prepared to pay well over "new mould" price.

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/05F4B82F1C18B9A/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/8B8B8013CDC151A/standard.jpg

..........The above group of 4 targets was shot with boolit #3. This was Lyman's so called "Hi Velocity" 268645 @ 152grs. It was a good design but no more hi velocity then any other available at the time. The little 128gr HP was the high speed champ doing real well at a bit over 1800 fps.

The Targets were shot at 50 yards from a 'as issued' M96 Swede Mauser. The 2 top targets (1&2) did not have the boolit crimped, while the bottom 2 targets DID have a crimp.

The powder used was surplus WC872 ball (20mm cannon powder) and the charge was 34 grs with no filler. This brings us to an additional bit of info. Targets 2 & 4 both had the muzzle elevated before firing.

6.5 Swede M96. 34.0grs Surp WC872, R-P brass WW LRP.
FPS/ES/SD

1) 1545/62/24, No crimp. Stripped from magazine and fired.
2) 1573/15/6, No crimp. Muzzle elevated to orient powder
3) 1565/26/10, Lee Factory crimp, stripped and fired
4) 1583, 35/14 Lee Factory crimp, muzzle elevated

Group #1 isn't bad with 4 in about an inch. Of course you have that *(&%# "leaker". But I figure for an as issued iron sighted rifle, shooting visually inspected boolits, with thrown charges an inch is just fine and the occasional wide shot is just gonna happen.

Group #2 is just a tad over 3/4"
Group #3 in not quite 3/4" and wold have been 1/2" if not for the shot at 10 o'clock
Group #4 has 4 in 1/2" and (of course) a spoiler that ran it to just at an inch.

.................Buckshot

[bary]

What diameter does that cruise missile mold throw bullets?

[Buckshot]

What diameter does that cruise missile mold throw bullets?

.............Mine, which is one of the original Oldfeller 'prepped' blocks drops it's slugs at .269" or a couple 'tenth's' more depending upon how you're running the mould. Of course alloy will play a part. The problem now is that each order Mid-South sends in is done as a group, so basing what my mould produces vs a (say) 7th generation version really has no meaning. Supposedly Lee is workig off the original print, but I've heard of differences.

................Buckshot

[alamogunr]

I called Mid South on Wednesday or Thursday to enquire about the back ordered Cruise Missile molds. Linda said she would enquire of purchasing and call me back. I have not heard from her. I suspect she has not heard from purchasing and they have not heard from Lee. I'll call again Monday. I may have to add a Lyman 266469 or 266673 to the order. They show both in stock. I had already taken Bret's suggestion and added a second Cruise Missile to my order.

I sure do hate to have to add that TN sales tax(9.75%).

John
W.TN

[techlava]

MidSouth Shooters Supply got the DOUBLE CAVITY REPRODUCTION 6.5MM SWEDISH 170GR MOULD again in stock.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

Does the cruise missile have too many loob grooves? I have the RCBS 6.5-140-SP in a two-cavity and the two grooves plus the dab at the gas check shank seem to hold enough of Lars45's lube to eliminate leading up to 2150fps or thereabouts and shoot under 2moa out to 300yds these days. It just worries me to see exposed lube grooves.

just curious,

Rich

[StarMetal]

Does the cruise missile have too many loob grooves? I have the RCBS 6.5-140-SP in a two-cavity and the two grooves plus the dab at the gas check shank seem to hold enough of Lars45's lube to eliminate leading up to 2150fps or thereabouts and shoot under 2moa out to 300yds these days. It just worries me to see exposed lube grooves.

just curious,

Rich

Rich,

The CruiseMissile was made for the Swede and the Swede has a very fast twist with pretty deep rifling...so to answer your question, no, not too much lube for the Swede.

Joe

[Buckshot]

..............When the Cruise Missle first put in it's appearance as a single cavity GB, folks experimenting with it found accuracy a bit better without filling all the lube grooves.

.............Buckshot

[dromia]

Of all the GB moulds done through this site the 6.5 Cruise Missle has to one of the most talked about.

It has achieved an almost mystical, iconic status. :shock:

I have single cavity and two double cavities one of which has had a cavity enlarged somewhat.

It shoots best in an M94 with a well worn throat.

I'm hoping to get it tried in a Carcano soon.

Concur that leaving lube grooves unfilled helps, I usually lube those within the case as a starting point.

As far as other 6.5 boolits go I've found Buckshots 120 grain Loverin to be the most useful.

[45 2.1]

Of all the GB moulds done through this site the 6.5 Cruise Missle has to one of the most talked about. I believe thats due to the inability of all but a few getting accuracy above 1700 fps with it.

It has achieved an almost mystical, iconic status. :shock: Nothing else out there quite like it.

I have single cavity and two double cavities one of which has had a cavity enlarged somewhat.

It shoots best in an M94 with a well worn throat.

I'm hoping to get it tried in a Carcano soon.

Concur that leaving lube grooves unfilled helps, I usually lube those within the case as a starting point. The boolit was conceived as a hunting boolit first and foremost, not as a target boolit, by Oldfeller and I designed it with that in mind. This boolit has been launched much much faster, with excellent accuracy, than what is generally posted here and the additional lube grooves are quite usefull with the minimum viscosity lube I use.

As far as other 6.5 boolits go I've found Buckshots 120 grain Loverin to be the most useful.