Can you size a 6.5mm Swede bullet down to 6mm?

[wellfedirishman]

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but I am going to ask anyway.

I have a Lee mold for a 6.5 Swede bullet, 140 grain.

Could I run this bullet through a Lee 6mm sizer to make a 6mm bullet?

If so, is there a particular alloy I need to use (I assume a soft one).

I haven't been able to find an inexpensive 6mm/243 mold, so I am asking this before I drop $60 for a Lyman mold.

This is for a 6mm x 45 rifle I am considering buying.

[Bret4207]

You could. But you're talking a lot of metal to displace. A 25 cal boolit would be easier. You'd have a tough time stabilizing a 6mm140 gr boolit in a standard 6mm twist. IF you want to try you'll have to have a series of sizer dies to do it, you'll need to fill the lube groves so they don't collapse and you'll probably end up with a lot of ruined boolits. The GC will also be a problem.

For the work involved and chances of true success I'd buy a 6mm mould.

[Newtire]

You're going to have one heckuva long skinny boolit. Might twist itself in half getting one end to catch up with the other in the rifling.

Our own Beagle aka John Goins has an article about using a 6.5mm check on a .25 boolit to make a gas checked design out of a non gas-checked one in "CastPics/Articles by our members". It involved using a .244 sizer on the base of a .25 plainbased boolit and then crimping a 6.5mm gas check in place. It works great and not that difficult to do. Handy having different sized sizers kicking around to play with for things like this. I don't know about sizing a .266 down to .244 though. Won't know until you try it.

[carpetman]

Probably a real good reason that none of the bullet manufactuers make 140 grain 6mm bullets. Length maybe? Nah--wouldn't be a problem, just remove your bolt and hammer the bullet in and then place the charged cartridge into posistion and seat it onto the bullet base with a firm ramming motion with the bolt. You just eliminated the need for a seating die and made your rifle dual purpose--not only a rifle but a reloading press as well. Certainly wouldn't be too long, wouldn't even come close to sticking out the end of a 26 inch barrel. Drop $60 for a Lyman. About same price get the RCBS 95 grain 6mm mold. I like it and don't recall anyone that has used it that doesn't like it. Heck even Ol cynical 9.6X63 Al likes it.

[wellfedirishman]

Well there are no dumb questions, as I am now more educated than when I started. Thanks all for your helpful insight, it is appreciated.

[HORNET]

You might want to start looking for an Ideal/Lyman 245496 (~84 grains). The twist rate in that 6x45 might not like anything much longer at the velocities that you can reach. I believe that the Swapping & Selling forum still has a Boolit Swapping where you might be able to get some samples from another member to try out.