Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 6.5 X 55 Loads

After numerous monetary delays I'm finally to the stage I'm about to begin reloading for my new M70 Featherweight in the Swede.
I currently have a can of reloder 22 and bullets weighing 100,120, 125, 130, and 140. Anyone have any tried and true loads they wouldn't mind sharing?

Jian Wa

All of the Winchester 70s that I've had in 6.5x55 have all been throated long enough to handle 160 grain bullets, so anything shorter than the average 140 grain bullet has a long jump of freebore to the rifling. I have had some success with the 129 grain Hornady Spire Point, but less so with anything shorter/lighter.

Jeff

The 125 and 140 grain Nosler Partitions shoot quite well in my Featherweight. I use RL 19 powder, near max from the Nosler #5 manual with bullets seated to max SAAMI length. BTW, they are also pure poison on whitetails!

44-46gr IMR4350 and 120gr NBT's. You'll find a load quickly in that range.

I have had pretty good results loading 46.0 gr of Reloder 22 with a 140 gr bullet, either Speer or Hornady. According to Nosler, this is a 6.5 Swede maximum load and should be worked up to. The best Swede tip I can offer is to make sure you seat your bullets out. I load mine to an overall length of 3.15". This is SAAMI max, but I probably could seat them out even a little farther in my Howa Lightning (they could have nicknamed it "Deep Throat"). I suffered from pretty disappointing accuracy until I replaced the plastic Butler Creek stock with a Boyd's laminated wood stock, glass bedded the recoil lug and seated the bullets WAY out. Loads seated to the recommended length didn't shoot well at all and forget about the bullets lighter than 120 grains. Even the 120's are noticeably less accurate than the Hornady 129 spire Points. My best results have been with IMR-4350 and the Hornady 129 Spire Point. Best accuracy has been with mild loads, but velocity was only 2450 fps. Bumping them up to 2650 fps opened groups to 1 1/2 inches, while the slower loads generally stay under an inch. Good Luck.

I've got a 6.5x257AI, which runs about 10% higher capacity than the Swede. Best accuracy so far is with H4350 and the 129gr SST. Second best is the 129gr Hdy spirepoint, also with H4350,although H4831 is very close. And does it ever dump deer! Have fun. It's a great caliber.

I've just started the reloading to get out shooting hopefully tomorrow. I've run into a situation I haven't really seen before. I loaded a few rounds and decided to check the chambering before I got too far along. I checked all the case lengths before I started even though I'm using virgin brass. Some cases seem tight even though the length of the cases is fine. Some I can't close the bolt on at all. I checked some of the unloaded cases and some of those take a little more force to close the bolt on then I think it should. The loaded rounds are Saami OAL or less. This is winchester brass btw. I've heard people say that they resize all brass before they handload. I never had this problem with virgin brass before. Has anyone experienced this with Lapua 6.5X 55 brass or do you resize it also, before starting?


Jian Wa

I ran into the tight chamber in my Dakota 76 .250-3000. I have to full length resize new brass. After that, I use the Lee collet die to neck size only. Seems to work well.

I run full length with expander ball on any new case I am going to load. This crunches the necks down, and then back up uniformly, turn it 90 degrees and do it again. Afterwards you will see a nice uniform surface inside of the neck. Then trim and chamfer all. They will shoot much better. And fit too.

Hello and greetings from the UK!

I, too, have a Mod 70 Winchester in 6.5 Swedish, which is my mainstay for all deer hunting (30+ animals per year). If it is of help, I found that the first task was to sort the trigger pull and creep, which is now set to break at a crisp 3lb. Atop, it wears a 6x42 Schmidt and Bender on Leupold mounts, soft-loktite'd into position. Loadwise, I have developed three hunting and match rounds, with bullet weights from 140 - 160gr. Given the rate of twist in the M70 (1:8), I found during this process that anything lighter than 140gr was simply "spat out", so I cannot personally recommend a lighter bullet.

For what it's worth, I have found the following to be very acceptable:

- 140gr GameKing over 43gr of H4350 c/w Rem 9.5 primer, Federal brass (softened neck), necksized on Redding dies at .003" compression, COL 3.030" and neck dia. of 0.291"

- 142gr MatchKing as above, COL 3.035"

- 160gr Hornady over 43gr of Vihtavouri N160, COL 3.020". Remainder as above.

The last load is the one I choose 99 times out of 100. It shoots like a match rifle, grouping into less than 15mm at 100m, if I do it right. In the field, it will put anything in a fur coat on the ground with no fuss, muzzle blast and most importanly, suffering to the beast. Literally, a one shot killer. In fact, I have never wanted for anything more, after I had to take a frontal shot on a young buck last year, which penetrated over 3' of deer and left a small exit wound only found on skinning out.

Viking Power makes mighty sense!

MOst 6.5x55's will shoot 140's with around 47-48 grains of RL22, but occasioally one won't.

As for lighter bullets in the Winchester 70 Featherweight, my own shoots very well with 120 Barnes X's (plain old flatbases, not Triple Shocks) and 49.0 grains of RL19. This load has shot well in several 6.5x55's, by the way, and at right around 3000 fps.

MD

My best loads for a custom barreled Model 70 are:

129 Hornady w/ 48 gr. RL19

140 Hornady or Partition w/ 48 gr. RL22

Also 47 gr. of H4831 worked well for me with 140 Partitions.

Also 46.5 gr. of RL22 w/ 140's is extremely accurate with a little less velocity. I shoot this load the most. Lapua brass lives forever with this load.

Steve

I had a Mauser 96 in the Swede, so I couldn't load it "hot", but 48 grains of RL-19 and 125 Partitions worked very well for me. I got about 2800 fps with a 24" barrel.

I bought a 6.5 Swede Tikka T3 last summer. When checking the length of the throat with my Stoney Point OAL tool, I noticed the chamber's throat was tight. If I seat the bullets further out than that tight spot, I see some bad looking primers. When seated to just short of that restriction, all is well. My rifle prefers Reloader 22 with 140 grain bullets, Reloader 19 with 129's, and Reloader 15 with the light stuff.
Sneak up on Alliant's max loads. My chronograph showed I was getting listed velocities with less than the listed max powder charge (that tight throat again?).

Unlike others, since the deer here locally are antelope size, I have used the 100 grain Ballistic Tips, Partitions, and Hornady SP along with the Sierra 100 grain HP.... I use mid burn rate powders, like IMR 4064, IM 4895, W 748, RL 15, H 380.... I prefer 4064 the most... MV has proven to be in the 3300 fps range out of a 22inch barreled Ruger and has been very accurate.... one in 8 twist.... 3 x 9 Leupold scope.

Cheers
seafire

Reloader 22 has always treated me well in the 6.5x55. I always stayed with the 140-160gr. weight bullets too.