Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Tikka T3 6.5x55

Who owns one and what's your favorite loads for it?

My one sons does, 125 grain partition and max load of I4350, accurate and deadly. If you want to extend ranges a sleeker bullet might be in order.

T3 Light SS here. 120g NBT over Nosler book max of R-19 gets me <0.5" at 100 yds.

A friend claims a book load of 51.5g of H1000 with 140g bullets is his accuracy load.

Forest model here...



H4350 mostly...



Same load of H4350 with 139 Scenar...

We have a LH blued steel fiberglass stock 6.5x55 for my wife. In typical Tikka fashion it shoots almost anything well. For deer we use the 120 gr Ballistic Tip with H 4350 and have used the 140 gr SST as well. It is the most consistently accurate rifle we have including a couple of custom guns, trigger is fantastic and it feeds smooth as silk.

Those of you using H4350 in your Swedes, where are you getting your load data? Everything I’m finding is much lighter than anything I read here. 44gr Max seems to be top end in every manual I’ve looked at. Some max at way less even. I know it’s due to all the older Mauser actions out there. But are you guys finding modern load data somewhere? Or just gradually experimenting and building up to over book max loads on your own?

I use H4350 with a 129 grain hornady interlock in mine. Relatively inexpensive and it just works as a great whitetail load. I will have to look at the actual load I use but it is indeed above published (watered down) book loads for the older, weaker swede rifles.

I'm using Hodgdon's max with the 120 gr BT which is 46 gr and gets a bit over 2800 fps. Probably could go higher but for my wife that load is perfect.

I always start with load manual data and understand the Swede loads are conservative due to older actions as you stated. I have a 1899 manufacture military '96 Swede I load for also but don't use the 46 grain load in it. I also find data published by John Barsness' to be very useful. His article "Handloads That Work" (and the update to that article), and his "Gun Gack" book are great resources for numerous cartridges. In "Update: Handloads that Work", he states: "The powders that work in the .260 also work in modern rifles chambered for the old "Swede". Up the powder charges 2 to 3 grains with the same bullets for about the same muzzle velocities."

I know John has a long history with the Swede and my take on his article is that you can use .260 load data plus 2-3 grains. I worked up to 46 grains and accuracy started to fall off above that so stopped there. I also use Quick Load as another check - I haven't chrono'd the load yet but Quick Load predicts 2770 fps at 63.5k psi for the 142 Nosler.

I too have a T3X "Hunter" model with the straight stock; and it is becoming one of my favorite rifles. I have also used H4350 and IMR4350 for good accuracy, but have not reached 46.0gr with the 140 "grainesr" as of yet. Mine also seems to like RL19, where my M96 prefers RL22. I have "zero'd in" on Lapua and Norma brass for the "correct" head size; for many have complained that U.S. companies have not use the correct 6.5X55SE specs in the past, plus many "surplus" rifles with "oversized" chambers give pressure indications before reaching "maximum" levels. I've been reading some pretty "heady" velocity figures for the "modern" 6.5X55 that far exceeds most, if not all, the reloading manuals. I read Mule Deer's articles on a fairly frequent bases and know him to be a reliable source on the subject, I just hope the bullet manufacturers catch up with the times and start catering to us "Swede users". The case will hold 2 or 3 grains more powder than any of its "kin" (6.5 CM included), but is "handicapped" by "data". Too bad we have to treat it like a "wildcat" in order to achieve its full potential. My .02

What’s Quick Load? Sounds interesting.

It's a computer simulation of cartridge performance with databases including many cartridges, bullets and propellants. You need to enter cartridge, bullet, barrel length, cartridge overall length and propellant type/quantity to calculate an estimated maximum chamber pressure, muzzle velocity, and other data.

Here is a screen shot of my load but with the default COAL. Don't recall my COAL off hand, but it's longer which makes my calculated pressure a little lower than shown here:

You need to measure and enter case H20 capacity also - there can be a lot of variability there. I usually measure 5 caes and use the average as long as there isn't a lot of variability. I also shy away from running loads from QL over 60K PSI - it's a simulation, not pressure tested data.

David

Very boring cartridge. The worst I ever got was maybe 1-1/2" groups. I've shot Hornady Interlocks, Nosler Partitions, Hornady GMX, Barnes 129 gr. TTX Speers and a few more. I had real good accuracy results with old 140 gr. Sierra Game Kings. My deer load is a 143 gr. Hornady ELD-X, Lapua case and 46 gr. of H4350. That is an easy 1" load too.

Nosler load data from their web site. A lot of the data out there is for M96 Mauser. You can google modern loads for 6.5 Swede and find a lot of good info but it is just not a picky round or rifle at all.

I generally do what was referenced above about using 260 data, and then loading until I get to the 260's speeds or slightly above it.

My best load in my Tikka 6.5x55 is 50g or H4831sc pushing a 140 Nosler Accubond at about 2760 fps over my Labradar. It averages very close to a 1/2 inch consistently for 5 shot groups. This load has also worked in several other 6.5x55's as well.

Always liked the Tikka & in the Swede......

Mine has moved to AZ with the SIL...........

This one liked 140 AB's & H4831sc.........

Mine has shot the 139 Lapua factory well and the factory 140 SSTs really well, sub MOA. Worked up some 130
Accubonds but haven't gone out yet to try them.