"It was unclear to me why Sell picked what he did, except to say I dig the idea of a fast-mounting, fast-swinging rifle. However, I don't know how a Mannlicher stock figures into that. I also wonder the choice of 6.5X55 over something a bit beefier like 308 WIN. When building up a short-range deer getter is y'all's preference for small and fast or big and slow."
Man y long years ago when I lived in California, I did most of my deer hunting in the northwest corner of the stat which is thick rain forest. One rifle was a badly bubbaed 1903 Springfield, another a 94 Winchester 30-30 and later a 1903 Mannlicher in 6.5x54. Then in late 1960 I went in the Air Force and did very little hunting until I became a civilian again in 1964. I hunted with the Mannlicher way up at the rain forest again but also in other parts of the state that was more open. There I used a 30-06 most of the time. In 1968 I moved to Nevada and hunted with the Mannlicher much of the time. I just loved the light little rifle especially at the higher lattitudes. I was a heavy smoker at the time. In 1975, after a successful hunt north of Elko, I stopped at a gas station in Elko to gas up the truck and have a well needed pee. When I got back the little Mannlicher was gone. Stolen. I tried for years to find another but no such luck. I got job transfer to Arizona which gave me a noticeably higher paycheck but could not find a replacement rifle. I saw quite a few that were nice on the outside but corroded bores from using corrosive primed ammo. One day I saw an ad for a Ruger 77 RSI with a fairly low price so I called and went to take a look. It was chambered to the .308 and it was in very good shape. I asked the guy why the low price? Is there something I should know? He said, "It don't shoot worth schitt." I asked for details which he gave but I'd decided I'd buy that rifle regardless. You see I'd looked at a light switch on his wall, closed my eyes and snapped the rifle to my shoulder and opened my eyes. The crosshair was smack dad in the middle of the button for the switch. I tried a few more times with the same result so I decided that rifle was coming home with me. We talked reloading and hunting a bit and $200 poorer when I left with the gun, scope, several boxes of factry and twice fired brass plus the reloading dies and a very big grin on my face. It's the rifle I've posted about that took a little over two years to find a load I could hunt with but I did and that rifle has been hunted hard. I've taken deer with it from about 30 feet to 250 yards and no way will I sell that one. My wife tried to claim it as hers so through a stroke of luck found number two That was her rifle About a year after that I fell into another and just couldn't turn it down. I would love to find one more, but in 7x57 as I've been playing with that cartridge for a while. The other three are all chambered to the .308 Win.
PJ
Ruger made a non-cataloged run of tang safety 77 RSIs in 7x57 in 1986. #770-828xx is on a shelf somewhere. Lipsey's also has sold their limited runs of stainless RSIs more recently.
