Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats My 6.5's

My kid(s) would love that stock.

Very cool. Those big 30’s are pretty darned awesome.

What’s your preferred load from it?

As a 6.5x55 fan and the owner of a Tikka T3X chambered in it, I like the 6.5 Wolfkiller!

First pic is of the 6.5 lineup with the addition of the 6.5 PRC on the far right ....


A little info I posted on another site back in March 2016

"" A bunch of guys over on the Snipers Hide have been messin with the 6.5x55 AI and I believe a few of them have them built on Tikka T3's,
Quick Design shows two versions the 6.5x55AI and the 6.5x55 BJAI (Bob Jourdan's version) there is also the 6.5X55 GWI developed by a gunsmith at Kelbly's, I don't have the dimensions for that one but the reamer is available from PT&G

I also got hooked on the 6.5x55 Improved meth,
being a long time 6.5 Swede fan it was a no brainer to do it as I had tons of brass, bullets and powder for it already and I had zero interest in the 6.5 Creedmoor which in my opinion is a backwards thinking design as it does not improve on anything over the 260 Rem just shoots the same bullets slower, something the 6.5x47 Lapua had covered quite well

since I had a Tikka T3 in the 6.5x55 Swede I used it for my build, I got a Manners Elite Hunter stock, Bartlein #3B 8 twist 26" barrel and a couple of 5 round extended Tikka mags from Beretta, I didn't use any of the AI versions and instead developed my own 35 degree shoulder wildcat for better feeding from the detachable mags, I also MAX improved the case for full capacity and throated it to run 140 gr Berger Hybrid bullets without hanging into powder space .... in my version, factory loads and standard Swede brass handloads CANNOT be fired as I pushed the shoulder up considerably and headspace is no longer the same,

Took it out to fireform 95 pcs of brass a few weeks ago and it showed pretty good accuracy with the fireforming loads, I had 50 rounds of 6.5 Wolf Killer that I had previously fireformed with cream of wheat loaded with 50.0 gr of H4831SC (2906 fps ave.) and another 45 rounds of fresh Lapua 6.5X55 Swede brass loaded with 48.0 gr of H4831 and Hornady 140 gr AMAX bullets (2841 fps ave.) jammed .024" into the lands for a solid no case movement fireforming process..

after sighting in the Vortex PST 2.5-10x44 I fired 5 round "bursts" directly from the Tikka detachable 5 round mags, fed perfectly from the mags without a single hiccup, let barrel cool and repeated , drilled out a nice 20 shot hole at 100 yards, I can tell this one really wants to shoot but needs a better scope, looks good so far all I need to do is get around to annealing the fire formed brass and start the real load development, My goal is working up to 3100-3200 fps with 140 gr Berger Hybrids using 54-55 gr of RL26 ""

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Cool stuff, thanks for sharin. 👍

Yes, exactly.

This is a sexy thread!....Swamplord continues his one man smoke show on Bullwinkles.

Cool as hell !

👍🏼🦫

That’s a darned good looking version of the 6.5 Swede.

My oh my those are sexy

Very impressive stuff!!!!!!

Diggin it. Who does your brass engineering?

Warning ! pic heavy post ....
** note ** in the last pic, the 8mm Razor has a 250 gr Woodleigh Weldcore RN SN with a sectional density at .343 for bone crushing penetration & stopping power

I design all my reamer and cartridge dimensions then have the brass manufacturer plug in my specs into their programs for brass production

The design phase for the Razor & Headhunter cartridges is done & I have 100 pcs of brass for each cartridge for testing/data creation purposes, all load data will be accumulated while wired with the Pressure Trace II system, hooked up with the Magnetospeed V3 chrono and Lab Radar present at all times , a time consuming process for one guy who has a day job working 6-10's a week in large scale heavy construction projects, but it will get done

The Razor was designed to slightly exceed the capacity of the RUM cartridges to reach the next node level at safe pressures and still work in 3.850" Accurate Mag & AICS CIP magazines with long, heavy high bc bullets

The Headhunter is the same diameter case but designed for single action target use, made longer in order to slightly exceed the capacity of the XC cartridges from David Tubb to reach the next high vel extreme accuracy node ....

One thing sets them apart is that the Razor/Headhunter series were designed specifically to run safely in Remington 700 and Winchester 70 actions, negating the need for expensive custom action for guys on a tight budget, case rim & diameter was crafted to be on the safe side for the tennons of these actions, & not require boltface alteration in the mag boltface aka 300 Win Mag, 375 H&H, 300 RUM etc., also the case head interior at the web on the brass has been beefed up in super tough hammer forged brass for an additional measure of safety and long case life at max pressures .....
All in a years work or 2, almost 3 , lol !

The intent is to release them to the public after the testing phase & once brass goes into production, if all goes well in this wild times we're living in .....

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Outstanding! Quite an undertaking for sure.

I’ll be following your progress.

That mighty mouse looks bad ass.

They all do!

Being a 30 cal loony for the past 100 years or so, I prefer the 30 cal version over the 6.5 MM, at only 2.9" in case length, it mimics 300 Weatherby velocities in a box fed short action Rem 700, I designed it to run 215 gr Berger bullets at 3000 fps and be mag & box compliant in short actions, back in 2012 I originally named it the 300 AKSM (Alaskan Short Magnum) and my intent with it was a light, packable mountain rifle for hunting dall sheep & mt. goats, and for hiking deep into inaccessible by atv valleys for monster moose, but the project got postponed for a couple years due to my ELR wildcats demanding my attention, later on I got involved with a Canuck competition shooter who wanted a 7mm version for comp use, at reamer production the name was changed to 300 LRC (Long Range Competition) .. after reamers were made, he bailed on the project and vanished ... I kinda want to change it to the 300 'Lil Bee or 300 Wee Bee in jest for 300 WBY, lol

Originally I used to cut down Lapua brand 338 Lapua Mag & 423 Dakota brass to fireform the cases but eventually ended up having a batch of fully formed, ready to load n shoot custom brass with correct headstamp made for my two rifles ...

Ist rifle is dedicated for general hunting use & sports a 24" 1:10 tw Bartlein barrel for using the usual bullets up to the 230 gr Bergers and all others suitable for the 10 tw barrel but my go to bullet is the 175 gr Federal Ascent (see 3rd pic with my other 30 cal 'Cats & the 300 RUM) that it shoots 1/2" groups with and I have 450 of them set aside just for this rifle , used one box with my 300 RUM loaded a few up to 3350 fps & watched my brother steamroll a large bull moose, bullet impressed the hell outta me, thems Federal Ascent's are fantastic big game hunting bullets, can't wait to get my hands on the new 215 gr Ascent in 30 caliber, coming soon in 2022, I'll dig in my phone and find the pics of the expanded bullet and the moose that got whacked by it , I'll post them later

the 2nd rifle I built was from misc parts I had on hand for several other projects that got jacked for this emergency use, lol
It has a 30" 1:8 tw Rock Creek barrel so I could shoot any bullet I wanted at the time, and it shoots absofukinlutely great !

I used it to test the very first 100 pcs of the 205 gr Badlands Super Bulldozer-2 bullets ever made by Badlands Precision and ended up shoving one of them into a bull moose in Sept 2020 for a spectacular one shot pop n drop killshot, was extremely impressed with the accuracy & on game performance with the cartridge & bullet, definitely a well arranged marriage

the 4th pic is a lineup of the 30 cal cartridges that I have rifles in my stable, told ya I was a dirt thirty loony ! (except for a 30 Nosler which I am now working on acquiring one ) with a few of my wildcats in the mix, 300 LRC, 300 LRH (300 Long Range Hunter aka 30-338 Norma Mag Improved to my specs, did that one in 2014/15) ... The 300 Werewolf was renamed to 300 Wolverine due to a clash with an existing wildcat named 300 Warewolf, basically a 308 Win Imp by Thomas Ware) the one time I got the incorrect go/no gauges from PT&G, I changed the name to align it with it's older brother the 338 Wolverine from 2010 , I designed the Wolverine off the 500 Jeffery case originally and used Norma, Jamison & Bertram brass to make cases from, but for the purpose of manufacturing a batch of custom brass for myself I redesigned the Wolverine to be a completely new case design no longer compatible with the 500 Jeffery case, such is my wildcat loony madness ! Hoping to see a batch of 300 Wolverine & 338 Wolverine custom brass 1st quarter of 2022 or by midsummer , fingers crossed !

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Great pics SL! Agreed on the Federal TA's. I am looking forward to their heavier 200 308 and especially their heavier 7mm bullets. I have heard about them for awhile, but haven't even spied one yet.

Looks like you could lose a boot pretty easy in there lol Nice bull!!

Thanks for the detailed write up!

Swamplord

What a great write up. Wildcatting at the highest level.
Who makes your custom brass, is there a minimum order and if you don't mind ,what's a run of brass cost?

Hal