Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ruger african 6.5x55

The one I had liked the 140 grain Hornady interlock the best. I used it to take one whitetail buck then sold it to a friend.

I was eyeing one of these . They are nice looking.

Friend has two of them, cause he shot the barrel out of the first one. Loves them. I picked one up in the .275 Rigby...my favorite ( and now only..) big game rifle.

I’m so terribly sorry for your loss.

I wonder if that flyer was the 4th or 5th shot as it heated up? Thinking it may average less than .9 with 3 shot groups........

Odds are if you shot 5 shots from a cold bore each shot, they would be a bit tighter, and 90% of the time, the first is your best and often only shot.

Never had a bad shooting Swede!

Same here, nothing done to my 416 Ruger African and shoots great.

7 lbs 12 oz with the thread protector installed. Nice and light. A much livlier feel than my old 375 Ruger Alaskan.
Recoil is stout.

Same with me. My 9.3 x 62 African shoots very well. I haven't done anything to it either. The only factory ammo I've tried is Privi Partizan 286 gr because when I bought the rifle I was able to buy five boxes for the same price 100 empty cases would have cost. It shot great as did my reloads with Privi and Speer bullets. Very nice looking and well made rifle that always gets attention at the range.

Jones, they are a lotta rifle for the money. Least your 9.3 african will have a clean, thin stock, rather than the clubby, clumsy b&c stock on my cz 550 9.3xx62.

Whoever designed that hawkeye african stock, was a straight-up boss!

How long is the throat on this gun? I just got one, seating Bullets to 3.025

Just measure your own throat. There are a couple different ways, none of which require special equipment. Google is your friend.
I prefer the simplest, and I have cross-checked my results with the more complicated and this comports just fine:
"Cock" the bolt, then put a flat-tipped jag in a cleaning rod and lower it into the barrel until it hits the bolt face. (hold it carefully so it never touches the crown)
Take a piece of masking tape and very precisely align it with the face of the muzzle crown and then fold it around the rod. Take the rod out of the barrel.
Remove the bolt, turn the rife muzzle down, and drop the bullet of your choice into the chamber. Take an empty, sized case, and feed it into the chamber behind the bullet, and press it lightly just enough to get the bullet to "stick" into the lands.
Turn the rifle back muzzle up, and lower the rod back down into the bore. When you get within an inch of what you suspect the OAL is going to be, lower the rod very slowly, as the bullet is just barely stuck in the lands and any sharp force will dislodge it.
With the rod resting on the bullet tip, place another piece of masking tape around your rod in the identical manner you did the first one. Then give the rod a gentle tap to knock out he bullet.
Take your caliper and measure the precise difference between the leading edges of these two pieces of tape. That's your max OAL for that bullet.
Then tear off that second piece of tape, and repeat with every other bullet you want to know the max OAL for, using the same reference off the original piece of tape.
Works like a charm, if you are careful.

Best of luck and enjoy your fine new rifle,
Rex

I also posted this in the optic forums. It's not an African, but it is a 6.55 Swede.

I had not shot this one in 2 years. I will be hunting a Roe deer buck starting Monday so I took it to the field yesterday to see if that damned old Leupold VX-3 1-5 was still zeroed. I fired only 3 shots at 100 yards. Load is factory RWS 6.5x55 SE DK Twin Core (similar to Nosler Partitions). Center to center for the 3 shots is .425". I think the gun is good enough for Roe deer. RJ

I have a Riger 77 African in 280 AI. Lipsey 1 of 250....
I like it a lot.

Had one in .275 Rigby. Shot a handful of pigs with it. Never could get any consistency out of it. It would shoot a group 3/4 MOA one day, then the same load would go 1.5 the next. Also it copper fouled worse than any rifle I've ever owned. Finally got tired of fooling with it and sent it down the road. My trigger was serviceable from the getgo, didnt try bedding it however. Seems most people have good luck with them. I could have just gotten a lemon.

We thank you for unloading that lemon here on the Fire!

How do you have 6400 posts in 11 months? You gotta be one bored dude.


I did in fact unload it here on the fire. The gun didn't shoot the way I felt that it should have. BFD. Mechanically the gun was fine, cosmetically there wasn't a mark on it. Please tell me again how me selling a rifle bothered you?

Class act....

When it was disclosed to the buyer, and when the price reflected that. You better believe it.

There's a African in 6.5x55 on Guns International

Seriously sweet!

Could it be that Bob Brown is his Pseudonym for Big Stick ?

I’ve been debating that between “Brown” and “NYNY”

Same Same.