Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Heavy Loads for the 6.5x55mm Swede...

My M70 Sporter shoot's great with Accubonds and H4831.

Sorry John, class matters. As for Swedish vs Norwegian, we know where your particular bias stems from and it is forgiven, but did you ever hear of anyone bragging (or fantasizing) about spending a weekend with Norwegian twins? Swedish…

The two bullets I’ve used most in my Sako are the 130 AB and, recently, the 130 SGK HPBT. Both shoot bugholes. Both kill deer dedernhell (out to 400 yards) at the 2700 fps I’ve been happy to run them at with 4831 or 4350. (Hodgdons).

Before I invested a lot of time and money in monometels, for a 2700 - 2800 fps cartridge I’d try that SGK. Easy accuracy and it’s reputed by Sierra to be a “hard” bullet. My own limited experience killing deer with it seems to confirm the expansion characteristics of hollow point bullets I read a description of in a book I just received from some obscure publishing house in Montana of all places. Don’t have it in front of me at the moment but it’s gun something III, gun puke, gun guts…can’t recall at the moment but it ain’t a bad book.

To the contrary, getting that close is indicative of a good hunter.

DF

Loads I developed in 2014 in a Forbes rifle.

"Forbes 24B 24" barrel

Shooting 140 Berger VLD's in the 6.5x55 and burning RL26 OAL 3.150

50.0 grains .... 2,794
51.0 grains .... 2,856
52.0 grains .... 2,914

No "classic" signs of pressure, easy extraction.

RL 23 and 140 Berger VLD's

I shot one load of 47.0 grains for an average of 2,750."

Now that's funny. Typical.

I imagine I'll get raked over the coals for this question, but is there a reason we have 3 different loads for the 45-70, but not these other old but newer cartridges.

Curious, how is the Swede M-96/38 for heavier loads?

Garandimal;
Good morning to you sir, I hope that this blustery Friday finds you well.

In answering your query about reloads for the Swede, I had to dig into my reloading notes which I thought would give me some more precise data.

It appears that I started loading for the 6.5 SE in early June '87, but since I had no chronograph back then can only say that in the 96 military rifle I'd modified for my father with a 20" barrel the first load was 41gr H380 and 140gr Partitions.

Back then I was going through a bit of a "need for speed" phase and we then tried 120gr Nolser Solid Base and 120gr Sierra Pro Hunter bullets on local bucks before settling back into 129gr Hornady Spires, though I see some loads for 140gr Hornady Spires too.

When Dad's health declined, he stopped hunting and the rifle was passed onto our eldest daughter. In 2007 when she started hunting with it I loaded 48gr H4831, 130gr TSX, CCI 200 for 2658fps and that's still what she hunts with today.

With that load she's taken about 8? local mulie and whitetail bucks. We don't have a range finder but some of the shots seemed like an awfully long walk to get to the downed buck. One particular mulie stands out in my mind as I asked her at least twice if she wanted to get closer, but she said her rest was solid and as it turned out is was, as the buck made two shaky steps and collapsed.

I'll note we've never "caught" a 130gr TSX yet from her Swede and usually we'll aim to break one or both scapula. That long shot across a wide draw broke a rib going in and then hit the knuckle connecting the scapula and ulna I believe it is before sailing out onto the BC mountainside behind it.

I was impressed...

Actually more than a little impressed as a year later I unscrewed the .270 barrel on my walking around rifle built on a 98 action and had a near new Swede military barrel installed. I'll note I was looking for the deep grooves and 1:7.8" twist they had, but it wasn't the cheap way to make a Swede on a 98 for sure.

With the 98 action rifle I've got a 21" barrel and have been able to hit 2750fps with the 127gr LRX, but with just okay accuracy.

For a couple years I inexplicably quit chronographing some load development and was shooting 120gr TTSX, 49gr IMR 4831, CCI200 and Lapua cases which shot well but ended up wrecking the cases so that load is too hot in my rifle.

Then life happened and IMR4831 became unobtainium up here as did most Barnes bullets, so my current load is 120gr GMX, 44gr VV-N550, CCI 200 and Lapua cases for 2950fps. I've only killed one local mulie with that load and was pleased that the bullet opened up despite being one of those freak instances where it entered and exited without touching ribs. This buck was just shifting gears from trotting to their mulie bounce when I connected. He was visibly rocked when it hit him, taking about 4-5 more steps forward, then backing down the mountain for about that many steps before collapsing.

As to how either of our Swedes would do for really long range hunting I'd be guessing, but as mentioned at least a couple which our daughter hit had to be pushing or exceeding 300yds and they worked well.

Hopefully that was useful for you despite it being a small sampling of rifles, loads and field results.

All the best with your Swede whichever way you proceed.

Dwayne

Dwayne,

One of the most accurate 6.5x55s I've ever owned (and which I sold after building my present custom FN Mauser) was a Ruger 77 Mark II. The load I eventually settled on with it was 49.0 grains of Reloder 19 and the 120-grain X-Bullet, pre-TSX with out the grooved shank. This was just before Randy Brooks introduced the TSX, but I'd found that that era of X-Bullets were very accurate--though they still tended to foul the bore. Randy told me that was because Barnes was finally getting really consistent-quality copper, because they could afford it. (Also found the 250-grain 9.3 TSX shot very well in my 9.3x62.)

That 6.5x55 load got around 2950 fps, with well under sub-inch accuracy. Longest kill I made with it was a Colorado pronghorn buck at 371 yards, but also killed a few other animals, including one of my biggest whitetail bucks. Worked great!

I've been a longtime fan of the 6,5x55. Built 6,5x55's for both my kids as their first centerfire rifles. My youngest was 8 YO when he took this huge PA whitetail. The load was a 100 gr BT over RL15 for 2600 fps in the longer rifle. He was small at 8.






I've never found that a few extra FPS made much of a difference. I prefer accuracy over velocity.

I alway's get close.....in the yard.

I've loaded and hunted with the 6.5X55 for awhile with 140 grain bullets. I run my swede around 2750 fps. My son in law runs his creedmoor at 2830 fps with 140s but has the advantage of small primer brass. He's out running my swede by 80 fps and his brass consistently lasts longer than my brass. We both use Lapua. I would give the 100 fps advantage to the creedmoor

Trystan

No real contribution to the thread, but I'd be proud to be called 'not much of a hunter' for a 35 yd shot. This one was a bit closer - 25 or 30 yds which must make me a terrible hunter ...and with a 6.5x55 to boot

The original M96 rifle was designed to use 156 gr RN ammunition, so heavier loads work. The rifling twist was designed for them.

156 gr bullets are still available from a few bullet suppliers. Prvi Partizan sells them. I have used this bullet on exactly one whitetail at about 120 yards. The bullet punched through and left an exit wound a little bigger than a ping pong ball. The deer went down. Recoil was soft. The MV on these was around 2500 fps.

These bullets are more popular in Europe, but North Americans shouldn't be concerned about using them at 200 yards or less.



This is the rifle. It's a Husqvarna M38 I got a few years ago, cheap. $200.

I have 96 Swede that dates to 1899 that shoots the 155 Lapua better than any bullet I've tried in it. Haven't taken any game with it, though.

Good heavyweight.

I've reworked a dozen or so Swedish military Mausers in the 1894, 1896, and M38 styles for myself and my Norwegian bachelor farmer friend, several were rebarreled for cartridges that typically operate at pressures higher than the 6.5x55 military loads. I think that the Husqvarna M38s represented the pinnacle of the pre-1898 small ring military Mauser design in all aspects, so those are the pre-1898 action style that I prefer to build on. The only 2 downsides of that action design are, IMO, the small gas shield and that they cock on closing. When I put together a rifle on a Swedish small ring military action I always install a commercial style of gas shield, a Bold or Timney trigger with a safety, and a Dayton-Traister cock on opening kit. None of these changes are necessary, but I think that they improve the safety and shootability enough to be worth the additional expense.

Considering that the newest Swedish Mausers are now over 75 years old, there are probsbly newer action designs that would be a better choice for hot rodding the 6.5x55. Just a few years ago new Howa 1500s were regularly available in 6.5x55 for under $400.

I should have clarified myself. Heavier loads meaning modern powers at higher velocities.

I’m embarrassed to say that of the five 6.5x55s I’ve owned, the only modern one was an m695 that languished in my gun locker for years. It got little use . It was a fine rifle, but for me, it didn’t offer anything more than what I was already using.

I expect someone will be along shortly that can speak to loading one up a bit higher than the old models.

Heck, I have a "strong" modern 6.5x55 - a Ruger #1. I stick with the old load that worked beautifully in a dear departed M70 Featherweight and a string of M94, 96, 38 Swedish Mausers in the past, and a 41 Swede Sniper - 47 gr. IMR4831+129 Hornady Interlock, of which I'm sitting on maybe 1000 pieces. The same powder charge behind the 130 Berger VLD Hunting yields a skinch more accuracy, but not enough to justify the added hassle of finding those bullets, a moot point as I have a few hundred of them. 139 Scenars are superb too, and I use 46 gr. IMR4831 for them. Got a few hundred of them too. All three of those bullets allow the little Ruger to deliver well under MOA accuracy, boringly on demand.

Exclusively Norma brass back in the 80's-90's, exclusively Lapua brass now.

Could I up the performance for all of them? Of that I have no doubt, but I have zero reasons for doing so. For work-a-day paper punching at the 200 yard max range I belong to, and Eastern whitetail hunting where 100 yards and less shots are the norm and a 300 yard shot is so rare as to be unthinkable, I feel no need to up the ante in my loads. (And the 129's have knocked more than a few deer ass-over-teakettle.)