Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 6.5 Swede

Figured it was military as there is no cartridge designation like 6.5 x 55.I have 6-8 of these.Not magnetic ( checked) None have Mfgr stamped, just some numbers and letters Too tarnished to get a good photo

Thanks Puddle. A good link and a fair assessment of the cartridges.

saddlesore, I had forgotten about the 6.5 Norma. We had a lot of it here, but most people passed on them because of the price.

Don't forget, "the Sweed". It's a campfire thing.

Or "swedes'. It's what the Brits call rutabagas. They also call it a Swedish turnip.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Humorous, I have 3 on the list at present, but my favorite isn't on it. Wonder what that says about me?

I liked the "you never go anywhere without a belt"

It's only later that I realized he was referring to the brass, and not the booze...

Steve. I have to confess .The box of 6.5 Norma was a given to me.I only bought the unprimed brass.Not a lot of choices back then

That's true. In Canada, I recall having a lot more European product on the shelves. We also had Cdn made Imperial ammunition and other stuff. Different times for sure.

Per the Nosler Manual. the 6.5x55 rim size is .480 and the 30-06 is .473 if that helps. U.S. 6.5x55 brass has measured .474 for me.

A sampling of my Lapua brass yields .478".

Ahhh, go ahead. Formalities are pretty loose around here.

That's about what my Lapua brass is too. I have mentioned this before, the Lapua brass will not fit in my Barrett. Several brands of American brass will.

I guess American manufacturers decided to economize in scale by switching 6.5x55 head diameters to the standard ".30-06" head diameter. But really, would it have been so difficult to keep things standardized with the Scandanavians?

Back 40 years ago when I first started playing with the cartridge, brass was hard for me to find so I resorted to making it out of '06 brass. Upon firing in the chamber of my M94 Swedish carbine it bulged quite noticeably at the web, so I bit the bullet and started sniffing out Norma brass and life was good.

I just stay with Lapua brass with mine, have enough to go the distance.

DF

[quote=gnoahhh

Back 40 years ago when I first started playing with the cartridge, brass was hard for me to find so I resorted to making it out of '06 brass. Upon firing in the chamber of my M94 Swedish carbine it bulged quite noticeably at the web, so I bit the bullet and started sniffing out Norma brass and life was good.[/quote]

All I ever used is Norma after I tried the same thing

My Ruger carbine likes both the 139 gr Scenar and the 160 gr RN Hornady IL with a dose of RL22 or IMR 4320 in Lapua cases . I bought 500 Lapua cases and 5000 of the Scenar's when Osama 57 states got in office the first time . I have a hand full of 96's and a CG-63 also , they seem to all prefer the 139 gr Scenar with the exception of one rifle made in 1899 . It does it's best with the 160 so far but I have not tried anything heavier than that in it .

I too laid in a prodigious supply of Lapua brass and 139 Scenars. Luckily, cost-wise, my Ruger 1A likes 129 Hornadys too. I guess I could say I'm pretty well set for the long haul also. IMR 4831 is my poison of choice.

Same here with 139 Scenars and Lapua brass.

Have you tried MRP? It grouped the Scenars tighter than 4831. It’s pretty close to RL-22 burn rate.

DF

The real penny pinchers shoot wc872 under a 140.

My jug of 872 is about a clone of my 869. Those both work great in the 26 Nosler, identical loads perform identically. Those, especially the 872, reportedly can vary from lot to lot. So, your 872 may or not be a clone of 869.

That one may be a tad slow in the Swede (er SCAN....). You'd think it would be at its best with the heavies.

I would guess you'd be leaving some performance on the table with that one. But, I haven't tried it. Did you clock that load?

DF

Well, for the life of me I can't figure out how to post images directly from IMGUR, but here's a link to the album of my Swede.

https://imgur.com/gallery/LrNFN1l

I had a cheap Axis I rebarreled to the cartridge, just to be different a few years ago & feel in love with it as a deer & antelope killer. Last year, I decided I needed another project & not having owned a really classy looking gun I figured I really ought to rectify the situation.

It started out life as a horrifically neglected & Bubba'd Sears model 52 that I picked up for literally nothing. I had ER Shaw profile & chamber me a 20" tube, to match the original profile. I picked up a nice lump of walnut on ebay & shoehorned the action into it while Shaw's were doing their thing. I had to scour the intrawebs to pick up all the missing parts (single piece bottom metal, ejector & extractor & a few bolts & screws) the hardest part to source was the flush mount sling mounts & matching swivels from an M70 Supergrade. Good lord but those things are expensive! I sent all the metalwork away to Gareth West at GT Customizing in Casper WY to be mirror polished, blued & certain parts color case hardened. The stock took a trip to Minnesota and had the checkering hand cut (Ahlman's, if I recollect)
Once it all came home, I bolted it all back together & mounted a Leupold Fx3 fixed 6 power scope & hit the range.

My 2 pet loads involve Prvi & Lapua brass, 129gn Hornady & 140gn Berger bullets, both over healthy doses of 7828ssc

The rifle ended up quite a bit heavier that I would've liked, but it's an absolute pussy cat to shoot & I finally own a gun that I'm just as happy looking at as I am shooting.