Pistol/shotgun powders, the Lee Cruise Missile, and the 6.5x55

[mwjones]

Just wondering what your pet loads are for this mold. Just got one and cooked up a quick 250 boolits, and don't know what to load.

I've done a little searching and found that getting them to shoot in an m96 over 1700 is pretty much impossible. HOWEVER, going through my available powders, i got to wondering... Fired up quick load, and ran some numbers. 14 grains of red dot, 15 of green dot, and 16 of blue dot appear so put me around that 1650-1700 sweet spot. I figured on starting 2 grains below and working up to see what i can manage. I've had some moderate success with "the load" in .303 Brit and 7.62x51, so i thought i might try the red dot.

My old man also told me "When in doubt, try 8 grains of Unique." This tidbit apparently came from a guy that was old when he was my age, so I might give it a whirl. Quick load, though, is telling me that 8 grains of unique will put me in the 1050-1100 fps range. I'd rather not set the sights for 500 when shooting 50 yards

Thanks guys,

MJ

[pilot]

I bought one of the CM molds last year. I couldn't use it. The nose of the bullet is too big. Get the Lyman mold.

[Baja_Traveler]

That mold is the biggest pile of junk ever produced. It's unuseable as intended.
If you are serious about shooting 160 grains, get on the Mihec group buy and get a mold cut to the original correct dimensions.

[Hang Fire]

I bought one of the CM molds last year. I couldn't use it. The nose of the bullet is too big. Get the Lyman mold.

Too big, diameter? If so, size it down.

[Baja_Traveler]

That mold is so oversized, that if you were to use a push through sizer to get it to the correct dimension there would be no driving bands left as the whole length of the boolit would be .266 (for my rifle). It would have to be nose sized in one direction to get the throat dimension correct, then flipped over and driving band sized in the other direction. Too much of a PIA for me...

[mwjones]

I'm not sure what moulds you guys got a hold of! Mine's casting at 175-177gr. Alloy is WW with about 18 inches of lead free 50/50 tin/antimony solder wire mixed into each 20lb pot. They're micing at average .2645 on the nose and .2685 on the driving bands. doesn't sound oversize to me My bore slugs at .2656, so I was planning on shooting them finger lubed as cast with a slip on gas check.

SO..... Now that that's taken care of...back to the original question....

[Hang Fire]

That mold is so oversized, that if you were to use a push through sizer to get it to the correct dimension there would be no driving bands left as the whole length of the boolit would be .266 (for my rifle). It would have to be nose sized in one direction to get the throat dimension correct, then flipped over and driving band sized in the other direction. Too much of a PIA for me...

Whatever, I nose size and then size down first three front bands in the lubrisizer. I do it that way and enjoy working around it's faults. For me that is just a part of reloading cast boolits and getting them to fit a firearm as desired.

[ukrifleman]

That mold is the biggest pile of junk ever produced. It's unuseable as intended.
If you are serious about shooting 160 grains, get on the Mihec group buy and get a mold cut to the original correct dimensions.

I would have to disagree that the mould is a pile of junk, it all depends what you are using it for.
I have 2 C.M. moulds, one cut down to produce 150gn bullets and both cast at 269, which is perfect for my M91 Carcano's nominal bore diameter of .268
I shoot them as cast with the gas check fixed fixed with a drop of Loc-tite, then lubed with 2 coats of Alox. If there is one thing I have learnt with this bullet, it is that powders such as GM3 and Unique are the preferred choices; my first attempts using Accurate 5744 produced nothing but keyholes.
I can see no reason why sized down bullets should not be ok, I size .323 8mm Mauser bulllets down to .314 for my Lithgow and get good results.
I will be sizing these bullets down to .267 and trying them out in my Type 38 Arisaka. So far, the best results have been with the 150gn bullet.
ukrifleman.

[pilot]

Whatever, I nose size and then size down first three front bands in the lubrisizer. I do it that way and enjoy working around it's faults. For me that is just a part of reloading cast boolits and getting them to fit a firearm as desired.

Why bother when a Lyman shoots so good?

[geargnasher]

Many of you are thinking two-dimensionally. The Midsouth Lee Cruise Missile has been casting grossly oversized boolits for many years. The ORIGINAL design and original group buy were correct for military Swedish Mausher chambers and throats. The issue with being oversized is the NOSE, which won't chamber in most military Swedes and doesn't fit the throat unless sized on both ends to fit your particular gun. Lots more to "fit" than just bore and groove. The Lyman 266469 is a bit small for best results in Swedes, they need to cast about .268-269" to fit the throats well.

45 2.1, the designer of the original Cruise Missile, is doing a group buy with MP Molds for a correct military Swede boolit, that will be your best bet to get a boolit that actually fits the gun without a whole bunch of hoopla.

Gear