Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Ideal 6.5x55 velocity

Im sure this is somewhat subjective to personal use or needs, but what speed to are you happy at? Working on a 127gr LRX load. Wanting to finalize one and be done and some of the groups are pretty similar. Normally I select the load thats moving quicker. Personally, this rifle is primarily used for medium sized game. Id still shoot an Elk with it given the right opportunity but its really just an all around hunter. Max range is 500. The loads im looking at are right at 2750, the ballistics when pushing it over 2800 dont really change enough for me to prefer the faster load. At 500 the LRX is 1895FPS which 200-300FPS over what Barnes says for reliable expansion. Again, that would be at the max of my own personal range limitation. 50-300 yards being the norm. Thoughts or comments?


Side note, very happy with the temp stability of H4350. Started this process at 90 degrees, followup loads were shot at 15 degrees, less than 10FPS difference.

I am at about 2950 with the 129s and R26. Five deer with the Accubond long range so far. Excellent performance.

Anything over 2,700 is good to go for hunting. Let the rifle and bullet combo tell you where to stop. I would go for 2,850 fps as that seems like an almost universal sweet spot for the mid weight bullets in the 6.5x55.

This one seemed to open more the faster I pushed it, perhaps I stopped short of hitting another node. Currently, the 2 loads im looking at are a hair under 1 moa for 5 shots, .5 or better for 3 shot. Would really like to get conssitent 5 shot at .75 or better. Can eitehr swtich bullets or powders at this point. Probably powders because I still have 5 boxes of the LRX left.

I'm getting right on 2800fps with a 127gn RWS Cone Point with H4350 in a 22 inch barrel. I'm happy with that velocity. I could possibly add another grain but no point really with good three shot groups under an inch. Bullet performance is good too with complete pass throughs even on angled shots.

How much 4350 are you using? 45.2 of H4350 puts me right at 2800

I'm getting @2740 out of my Fieldcraft Swede and 130 gr. Sciroccos. I'm right at .50 to .75 MOA. I'd like to get a little more velocity out of it, but I'm not sure its' going to be worth it. Everything I shot with it this year, from pigs to wild sheep, to whitetails all died so I can't really ask for more. I've got a box of 130 Accubonds I'm itching to try so I may have to get some RL 26 and see what happens.

I use 260 data with 6.5x55 and load to just about 50fps more than what it says for 260 to account for the extra case capacity in the 6.5x55. H4350 seems a hair on the fast side for the 130's, and the data looks a little better with slower powders. I have loaded 130's in my 6.5x55 with both H4831 and N560 with pretty good luck and more speed. With the way modern powders burn I think getting it closer to max pressure will even your loads out.

47gn H4350 / 127gn RWS Cone Point / 2800fps / 22" brl

I get 2800 fps out of a Swede with a 140 grain bullet and using 4064.. rifle is a Model 70.

my go to hunting load is a 125 Partition backed by 48.5 grn of R19 for a five shot mean of 2838. Not on purpose, but i did kill six hogs with four shots last year, all were pass thrus and two killed the hog behind the first ones.

Rifle is a Win 70 NH action with a 1:8 Bartlein barrel done by Redneck.

I have some H4831SC for my 300WSM I was going to try next if I cant my groups to close up.

Kind of my thought as well. I can push it faster but I had no issues at 2600FPS with some 130 Accubonds. Didnt shoot anything but Iowa whitetails with them but not a single one took another step.

I keep seeing people posting velocities of nearly 3000 fps with 140 grain pills, and for a long time if I wasn't getting close to 3000 fps out of ANY load I wasn't satisfied with it. And that went for any caliber, .223-7mag. I don't think the Swede was meant to be driven at those speeds and I can imagine the recoil would be a little snappy in my 5.5 lb Fieldcraft.

I personally decide how far I plan on shooting the rifle, then look at a ballistics calculator to see what the minimum speed is I need. I'll plug in a few different numbers to see if the upper end of the velocity spectrum changes the trajectory enough to be worth it. In this case, 3k fps wasn't even on my radar. If I recall I figured I could possibly hit 2900 or so. For me personally, I didn't see any advantage of going higher than 2750.....I could even go down to 2650 if I wanted to. Just happened to find workable loads in both ranges.

I just had another look at Nosler's data and they list 47gn H4350 with the 120gn Ballistic Tip for about 3000fps in a 23" barrel. It seems the old Swede can be souped up a bit more than what I'm loading.

47 of h4350 was doing 2900 in my 22 inch ruger

I had my ruger rebarrelled to a 24 inch pacnor and it does 2900 with 47gr of h4350 with 130 sierras.

don't recall seeing 140 grain bullets at more than 2800 fps in any of the manuals i'v e looked at