Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 6.5x55 Swede with 22" Barrel

Having a rifle re barreled to 6.5 Swede. Post 64 model 70 with a 22" Brux 1:8". I plan to shoot the 130 accubond or something similar. It is my understanding that much of the published data is watered down for older rifles. What is a realistic upper end working velocity in a modern rifle?

Thanks

|About 150 fps less than if you were shooting a bullet of equal weight from a 270.

Running the 142 gr ABLR in mine around 2800. I know I can push it faster but with a group of .33@ 100, I stopped development there.

.......................You can go to the Hodgdon, Nosler and Berger sites (to name three) and review their loading data for the Swede. One uses a 23" barrel and the other two use a 24" barrel. Don't know if they would be considered watered down loads or not. For your 22" barrel, deduct about 20 to 25 fps per inch of shorter barrel length.

From those three sites and from a reference standpoint, that should give you a pretty good idea of what kind of performance to expect.

There's a good 6.5x55 thread floating around here somewhere. I'll try to find it for you. The Swede in a modern action is much more capable than most books show it is.

Thanks. I had gone to Nosler's site for the Accubond data but it was showing the 6.5 Creedmoor shooting the 130 at 2953 but had the Swede shooting the same bullet at 2837 with only a 1" shorter barrel. Made me think it was fairly conservative data given the swede's slightly bigger case.

I do appreciate everyone's input. Looks to me like 2900+ is not out of the question with a 130 even with a shorter barrel (assuming I don't end up with a "slow" barrel). My ability to seat long in my LA model 70 won't hurt the situation either. No real need to push things in this rifle but it will be fun to see what it can do.

6.5x55 130gr accubond H4831sc

Loaded to similar pressures you can get maybe 40-50 fps or so more than a .260 Remington in the same barrel length albeit with 2-4 grains more powder. If you have a good chronograph you can use .260 data as a guide and add a couple more grains until you reach same-same velocities, that way in the larger Swede case you know you will be in safe pressure territory. Or you can venture out from there and add a couple more grains. IMO an extra 50 fps isn't worth it but it's there if you want to go for it.

Read the .260 and 6.5x55 sections here from John Barsness' article "Loads That Work":

Loads That Work

.......................I noticed that as well on the Nosler site. 2900 or more from a 130 gr out of the Swede is very good. Hope your new barrel will give you that........If not there is always the (watered down LOL) 26 Nosler and 6.5/300 Wby.

Great pic and beautful rifle. I love the #1s.

Thanks for the info Jim. Much appreciated.

As to the 26 Nos or 6.5/300...I don't think that is a great combo for my little Featherweight, lol. The 6.5-06 is still a viable option though. I have a little time before the barrel is shipped to decide.

....................Aaaaaah no........ Not for a featherweight.........LOL

In the 6.5 dept, I don't understand fully why the 6.5/06 isn't or hasn't become more popular amongst the rifle makers. I guess the 264 Win, and even more so the 'ol standby 270 Win (Jack) had something to do with that.

The 6.5-06 isn't popular with the rifle makers because it isn't popular with shooters.

Metric cartridges historically have been slow to gain acceptance by most of the US shooting public. I think that rounds that were designed to be used in MSR's have, to some extent, broken that trend and have gained a good bit of acceptance. Witness the 6.5 Grendel and Creedmore. I think their popularity has rekindled interest in some old classics like the 6.5x55 which has been offered in many more bolt guns recently. I don't hold out much hope for the 6.5-06 gaining a lot of popularity as it seems new shooters subscribe to the idea of less case taper and a sharper shoulder. That said, I always liked it but instead shoot a 6.5x65 RWS.

Running 48 gr IMR-4831 with 129 gr SSTs and 130 gr ELD-M out of the wife's 6.5x55 gets 2870 fps, with a 21" tube. A few weeks ago she shot a doe lope at 100 yds with the ELD-M, doe didn't go anywhere but down. Was hoping to try some 120 gr AMAXs in the 6.5x55 but my daughter ended up using a Hornady 60 gr SP from a 223 at 153 yds.

I have dreams of a 6.5-06. My youngest daughter's due date was 6-5-06 and I wanted to build one for her, but the damn doctor didn't want to speed up the process. I ended up with a 6-6-06 baby. I still wanna build it but I might just stamp the caliber 6.6-06 for her and to keep people guessing.

................Thanks....I did not know that. I hope the current popularity of the 6.5s somehow helps the 6.5/06 gain a small amount of traction.

I top my M70 FWT Swede out at 2850 or so with 140 gr Horn SP's over Ramshot Hunter.

130 TSX's thrived in the lower 2900's over H4350.

GE

I started loading the 260 Rem way back before there was load data available, 20 years ago.

So you can reverse that, and use 260 Data and then work up a little from there...

I run 140 class bullets at 2800 out of my 6.5 x 55s and 6.5 x 57, utilizing 4350...

I've squeezed more velocity out of it... but 2800 works just fine.. and I seem to like round even numbers...

Good powders for the 22 inch swede and 130's are H4350, IMR 4350 and RL 19. I've had better luck with these in the shorter barrel.

Excellent info guys! Thanks

Check out this link for RL26 velocity w/140AB in the Swede:

https://forum.nosler.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=35105

I'm gonna load up some 140 Ballistic Tips using RL26 for my T3 Swede and see what they'll do

SD

My 130 accubond load is 47 gr of reloader 17 for 2925 fps


Trystan

I finally had time to find the thread I mentioned earlier. Enjoy. https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/9458254/Re:_Good_6.5x55_loads

Im running 49 gr of ramshot magnum, but only getting 2600fps from a 21 inch barrel with 130 accu bonds. I dunno?

I haven't had much luck with Magnum either but I used 140's instead, couldn't even break 2500 fps with it so 'm not surprised with your results. We use mostly H 4350 right now and it does much better.

Kind of makes it a really inefficient 6.5 Grendel, doesn't it?
Seeing as how it's an old '96, I don't want to stress it anyway.

I only developed one load in 6.5x55 with Magnum, the Sierra 140g Gameking SBT. Magnum definitely didn't live up to it's predicted speed in my rifle.

Ramshot's previous max load of 51.6g listed 2,728 fps in a 24" barrel. In my rifle with a 23.6" barrel it gave me 2,614 fps. 1 MOA accuracy was found 1/2 grain lower at 51.1g which only gave me 2,542 fps. Their latest data has reduced their max load nearly a full grain (50.7g), so my load that was previously a 1/2 grain below max is now considered over max. I had previously tested 50.6g in my rifle and my notes show it gave 2,509 fps. I can do a lot better than that with other powders and a 140g bullet, so I no longer bother with Magnum in the 6.5x55.

The best new powder, on paper, for the 6.5x55 seems to be IMR 4955. Temp. resistant, de-coppering agent, and top velocity in a large range of bullet weights. I definitely got the velocity promised by Hodgdon and then some. I had to back the charges down as the max charge listed by Hodgdon was showing about +100 FPS in my rifle. The downside was the velocity spreads were greater with this powder than some others. Switching from a Federal 210 to an Winchester WLR seemed to cure that, but I need further testing.

I run 4831sc in my swede with 140 interloks,, works well

tikka t3x 6.5x55 21.5 barrel pushing a moly'd 140 nosler partition/AB at 2920FPS using MRP and rem 9 1/2's in lapua brass

Ruger M77 with 22" Douglas 6.5x55 barrel

Using IMR 4831 I am able to safely get 2750fps with a 140 Berger VLD Hunting bullet. Haven't pushed it past that but 2800 would definitely be doable.

H380 will give me 2900 fps with a 140 grain Sierra SP or a Rem Corelokt...

but H 380 is not temp insensitive tho...

I load it when the weather is cooler, and DON'T USE mag primers...

H 414 will also get a 140 rolling past 2900 fps...but is also
not temp insensitive...so develop load in the weather you're going to hunt in..

IF you stick to a 24” barrel... which you should!!.. .. just taper to .6” tip.. repeat.. .6” for a beautiful balanced 24” barrel, you can achieve 3000fps/120g, 2900/130 and 2800/140..