I think one reason for American hunters side stepping the 6.5x55 for years was due to the fact that no American firearms manufacturer chambered rifles for it until the 1980s and until then the only available commercial ammunition was Norma and occasionally CIL and/or RWS. Prior to the 1980s, the only rifles that I ever saw chambered in 6.5x55 were surplus Norwegian Krags and Swedish Mausers. The 6.5 Creedmoor is the first commercial 6.5mm bore cartridge to be embraced by American shooters. The 256 Newton, 264 WinMag, 6.5 RemMag, and 260 Rem never captured market share anything like the 6.5 Creedmoor has.
Jeff,
Good observations about the 6.5x55.
One other factor is the throat length in 6.5x55 rifles has varied considerably, just as it has in some other older cartridges that were originally designed around long, round-nosed bullets. 6.5x55 throats were VERY long throughout much of the 20th century, mostly due to the influence of military Mausers and Krags. They started shortening up after World War Two, but weren't very consistent. Present SAAMI and CIP throat lengths are much shorter. This is another reason, aside from action strength, that 6.5x55 factory ammo and handloading data varies so much--and why the 6.5x55 has never become as popular among hunters as later 6.5's.
In fact, even in Norway (which co-developed the round with Sweden) the 6.5x55 is nearly as popular among hunters as most Americans believe. I hunted red deer in Norway in 1996, and the hunting mostly involved big drives in mountainous country with LOTS of participants. Since most Norwegians speak excellent English (its apparently a mandatory subject in their schools) I got to talk about hunting and guns quite a bit with probably two dozen hunters. The most popular chambering among their rifles was the .308 Winchester, and in fact one of the several sporting goods stores I visited had a barrel full of a less-expensive model of the Remington 700 apparently made specifically for selling in Europe--all .308's. In fact only one of my hunting companions carried a 6.5x55.
I have noticed that the 6.5x55 doesn't appear to have been as popular in Sweden as one might think. Most of the used Husqvarnas that Simpson, LTD. in Galesburg, IL, imports are chambered in 30-06, 8x57, and 9.3x57, only a very few in 6.5x55. You would think that if the 6.5x55 was popular, a larger portion of the Simpson imports would be chambered for it.
My first 6.5x55 was a Swedish 1894 carbine that Interarms imported as their Model G33/50. My Father bought 2 of them at the S.S. Kresge in Claremont, NH, in 1964. I remember this because we had gone to Claremont to see Mary Poppins and since my Father worked for the USAF and was gone more he was home, it was a special event to have the family together. He kept 1 original and had Creighton Audette change the bolt handle, safety, trigger, and d&t for a Redfield Junior base. It had a Lyman Alaskan mounted the last time that I saw it, sometime in the mid-1990's. It was a neat little gun that hung over the back door, next to an old Savage 24 22M/20. My Mother used it to shoot animals that got into her heritage apple orchard.
