"Short range" 6.5mm Cruise Missile!

[geargnasher]

All, thought you might get a kick out of this one.

Determined Redneck+M96 Swedish Mauser+Oldfeller's Lee "6.5mm Cruise Missile"+hacksaw and emory paper = a boolit that finally fits my Karlina!!!

The original design was a bit too long and no matter what I did kept getting pushed back into the case a bit and the cartrige always "debulleted" upon extraction, hence the necessary length reduction. Gas checks still fit on the lube groove, and though I lost a groove in front of the check the edge of the check is supported now and it fits the gun like a glove with the gas check exactly at the beginning of the shoulder/neck radius inside the case.

Cast from 50/50 WW/pure PB it comes out at .2715" and 170 grains normally (no check) and after modification comes in at exactly 150 grains with the same alloy and with the front band and half the second one sized .2665". Two more bonuses, I can still use the rear cavity like normal just by swapping the sprue plate and when using the front cavity the sprue plate swings open and STOPS at about 110* ccw, which prevents it from swinging all the way around and burning the back of my left hand like all Lee two-bangers usually do.

Gear

[2Tite]

That's good thinking and looks like good work too. I gotta warn you though, Don't ever show a mountain boy a picture of a good idea that works...............he'll run with it. Mmmm.......squib bullets....flat base....or gas checks seated on grease grooves.....Where's my dial caliper? Mmmm.....How low can you go?

[45 2.1]

Your not the first guy to do this. A couple other forum members have already done this and are shooting them.

[Bret4207]

Necessity is the mother of invention. Looks odd, but if it works...who cares?!!! Good on you!

[JIMinPHX]

Right now, I'm fooling around with a gain twist barrel that has been shortened. That means that the final twist rate is not as fast as it once was. I think that shorter boolits are just what it needs to shoot well. Is there any way that I can get a few of those short missiles from you to try?

Thanks,
Jim

Also,
If you are happy with the performance of that shortened boolit & would like the entire mold shortened to that same length, I can put it in my Bridgeport & do it the easy way for you. It should only take me a few minutes.

By the way...nice hand work.

[geargnasher]

All you folks with your mills make me jealous! I was grumbling under my breath while doing this project that "someday" I was going to have the right tools for a job like this. I used to grumble about not having a MiG, Tig, plasma cutter, quality drill press, table saw, planer, and other things but not anymore. I think a good metal lathe is next.

Jim, I'll be glad to cast up a few for you, just let me know what alloy and how you like them cooled. Send pm.

45 2.1, I thought I was probably the first to make a dual-weight mould like this, not important really, just that it does work very well and is pretty easy to do with a little patience and common hand tools. Obviously one could alter a bb or gc mould on one cavity only in a similar manner if lighter weight is also desired.

Gear

[CWME]

You did that with hand tools?:shock: Nice Work, interesting idea...

[Pat I.]

Excellent workmanship, especially with hand tools. Probably have a lot of people looking for their hacksaws right about now.

[StarMetal]

Nice work Gear. My Cruise Missile fits my Swede like a glove. The base doesn't seat past the neck/shoulder junction. Oldfeller took lots of throat casts from many different Swedes.

Gear was able to do this because the groove diameter in the Lee Cruise Missile happens out to gas check size. This doesn't necessarily work on all molds especially where the groove isn't compatible with gas check fitting.

Joe

[Boz330]

Gear, did you have any trouble getting the sprue plate screw out? It seems like I tried to get one out of a Lee mold once and it wouldn't budge and I quit rather than force it. BTW nice work, looks like it was done with a mill. I have a mill that I don't use near enough.

Bob

[CWME]

Had to come back and look at your handi work again. Still getting a wow factor:drinks:

Please excuse my laziness and not looking myself.. Where would one aquire one of these molds??

[HORNET]

Nice bit of hand-whittling, Gear..
CWME, You can get them when available from Midsouth Shooters Supply. They run out sometimes and reorder.

[CWME]

10-4 thank you

[462]

Gear,

Very nice.

Finally fired a few of your bore riders. Accuracy was no different than with the 266469's. The old gal (109-years-old) much prefers a .268", though. Enlarged a .266" die and all is as it should be, except more range time.

[geargnasher]

Thanks for the compliments, a heavy, polished steel block and careful wet-sanding goes a long way toward square, flat, and purty. Not as good as a mill, but about 1/1000000000th the cost and gets the hacksaw toothmarks out.

Joe, Oldfeller's R&D is why I didn't shorten the whole mould, as hard as these things are to get (waited almost a year for this one) I wanted to still be able to cast the original design also in case I get another Swede in the future with a deeper throat that can swallow the whole thing. Right now both of the ones I have will take the shorter boolit with full support of each exposed driving band as well as the nose with only about .005" difference in COAL. Probably more of a headspace variation than a chambering variance.

Boz, for the screw removal on Lee moulds, the trick is to get them out before you cast with them the first time and put anti-seize on them when you put them back in. As for getting them out, I have had 100% success using DeWalt #2 phillips bits in an 18v Ryobi 1/4" cordless impact driver with most of my upper body weight applied to the screw head. As for the threads being reusable, I'm batting about .700 doing that. For the new sprue plate screw hole I just tapped with #10-32 tap the same depth as factory so I still get good friction retention of the screw. Should have gone ahead and drilled and tapped for the #6 set bolts and lead shot, but I was out of the bolts at the time.

462, if you didn't see it, BaBore is making a 268469, designed by 45 2.1 especially for the Swedes. If that Ideal mould you have isn't just what you need, perhaps this one is.

Gear

[JIMinPHX]

Another good way to get the sprue plate screw out of a Lee mold is to chuck a screwdriver bit in a drill press & crank down semi-hard on it while turning until the screw breaks loose. Another board member tipped me off to that idea & it has worked 100% for me so far. In the past, I've used vice grips or cut flats on the sides of the screw head so that I could use an adjustable wrench, but this works much better.

A little Kroil on the screw, about a minute before you remove it, greatly improves your chances of removing the screw while leaving the threads intact where they belong.

[bruce drake]

Gear,

Wow! But I know better to think I'd have the same luck with a hacksaw modifying one of my molds. I put the term "hack" in hacksaw sometimes.

Bruce

[462]

Gear,

Thanks for the tip, I hadn't noticed. Some fine-tuning has the old Ideal working like a charm.

[bkbville]

geargnasher,

How did you cut square enough with a hacksaw? Did you jig it?

[303Guy]

How did you cut square enough with a hacksaw?Skill!

[Andy_P]

I just had a friend mill 0.240" off the top of my "Cruise Missile" mold, and now I have a 140 gr Plain Base mold that drops at 0.270" Great for the Carcano, and fat bored Swedish Mausers.

[geargnasher]

geargnasher,

How did you cut square enough with a hacksaw? Did you jig it?

I eyeballed it. I've been doing close work with hand tools all my life, so that may be an advantage. When final dressing I checked the cut with a straightedge across the factory cut and a step-mic.

Gear

[JeffinNZ]

GEAR: Have you shot the short CM in a Carcano yet? Groups? Loads? Pictures?

[geargnasher]

Negative, Jeff, I don't have a Carcano. I did send a bunch to JimInPhx about six or eight months ago, don't know how it worked out for him.

In my Swede, and in Swedes and Carcanos reported by others using similar shortened CM moulds, we are having a devil of a time getting the boolits to stablize. Seems all they want to do is go sideways. Still working on the Swede, if these won't shoot in my gun I don't know what will.

Gear

[Hang Fire]

Couple years ago I bought a mini lath and mill, with a little tweaking and mods, pleasantly surprised at the work they are capable of doing for something so cheap.

Need to update site as it is pretty dated: http://hstrial-rchambers.homestead.com/Rolands_Mini_machine_shop.html

There are many thousands of guys and gals from all over the world into these mini machines. Joined this site and the emails roll in by the ton daily with what some are doing with them and new ideas: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/7x12minilathe/