Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters The Swede & Modern Rifles

For my 24" Ruger Hawkeye African 6.5x55mm - am developing Two loads:

1. 140 gr. Speer GS over 46.0 gn. H4831 for ~ 2740 fps.
2. 130 gr. Barnes TSX over 48.0 gn. H4831 for ~ 2800 fps.

Both should be < 60KPSI.



Both should be honest 350 yd. field loads.




GR

My 6.5X55 is a Sako 85, although I have played with old Mausers as well. For years I shot the 130 grain AB at 2700 with no complaints. The furthest I killed a deer with that load was right on 400 yards. A while back I got a couple of boxes of 130 grain SGK HPBT's. They shoot well also and the last deer I killed last year was with that load. I really like the rifle. It's extremely accurate and the cartridge is about as sweet-shooting as can be. Every once in a while I get the urge to crank up the speed of those 130's a bit, but I've got a lot of other things to do that are higher priority.

Model 70 XTR Sporter 6.5x55

True, but a safety lug is just that, insurance that you hope that you'll never need use of.

I've owned a sporterized Norwegian Krag for over 30 years and have shot it very little, maybe as much as two boxes of factory ammo, during that time. One of those impulse purchases that was fun for awhile and then it got cleaned and put on a shelf.

Just me.

My scopes tend to be back some as well. As a a rule, the end of the straight part of the tube ends up nearly against the front ring. As long as I can run the bolt without mashing my schnoz, it’s good.

I have just one Swede. It is a custom rifle that Jay Frazier made one of his friends when he was operating a shop in Delta. Frazier would not checker those guns he made for his friends but it is decent wood and heavy. It is a 1925 Mexican mauser with a douglas barrel and shoots 140 grain Trophy Nosler accubonds very accurately about 1.5 moa. My wife made the crazy sling when we found out that we had left our slings in the car and were flying into glacier country. It has a Kahles scope that is decent.

I have a model 70 Featherweight in 6.5 x 55, along with a Mauser/ Carl Gustaf...

the Mauser has a 29 inch barrel and a long detachable bayonet, which is usually left in the gun safe...

I use the Mauser for just nostalgia... but it does see hunting uses... and has taken a few blacktails

My loads are simple... with either a 120 grain Ballistic Tip, a 129 SP or 140 SP Hornady, or 140 grain Speer..or the old 140 gr Rem Corelokt.

Load is pretty simple using open sights, 30 grains of either RL 7 or IMR 4198...

kicks less than a 30/30, and if need be is easily capable of 200 yds service...

one of my most favorite rifles.

Don’t know why these didn’t fly off the shelves as fast as the .275’s did the year before. By far my favorite big game rifle in my safe. I run 140 gr partitions under RL 22.

Also true, but in the case of the Norge Krag it isn't a safety lug rather a second locking lug in the system. The US relegated that lug to a non-bearing safety lug status.

I'll betcha that if the gun/ammo companies had gotten their sh*t together and settled on a uniform throat configuration for the 6.5x55, and strictly adhered to it, there wouldn't have been a need for the 6.5 Creedmoor. But on the other hand, each new generation of shooters seem to have the need to re-invent the wheel in one way or another.

Nope. The Swede wouldn't do so well in 2.8" magazines which was a big part of the reason for the Creedmoor.

One word: Creedmoor

This one replaced a M1903A3 gifted to a family member, as my aperture sighted CF field bolt rifle.

Will start hunting w/ it when enough PPU has been disassembled at the range to facilitate the load development.




GR

Point taken. I've never given a hoot for "short" bolt actions so that premise was outside my field of view. I transitioned to single shots long ago - now there's some short actions.

Treat yourself to some Lapua. Once I started using that stuff I quit domestic brands and PPU - I got tired of dimensional variations and dealing with lopsided necks.

The 6.5x55 SE is a fine cartridge born out of military use with long throated chambers for 173 gr class bullets early on. Like many Mauser based cartridges the 3.2” actions they ride in are in no man’s land, not as popular as the 2.8” based cartridge SA and not a true 3.4” cartridge LA. Modern LA set up correctly could take real advantage of the extra case capacity and long, high BC projectiles.

For the masses however the SA is in vogue and the 6.5 CM is by far a better platform for a light weight alpine rifle carrying a 20” barrel. Same is true when comparing the 7x57 Mauser and the 7mm-08 Rem. Also both CM and Rem can be loaded at much higher pressures if you correspond to SAAMI load data.

I do like the nostalgia of the 6.5x55 SE and the 7x57 Mauser in the field taking game. All the aforementioned cartridges pretty much do the same thing, it’s only personal preference that separates them.

The wheel goes round and round. Occasionally, small improvements are made, but in the end, it’s what you like that counts.

Yep, the wheel goes round and round. The problem is The Great Unwashed Masses have no concept of history and the studying of it, and as a result repeat dumb mistakes that our forebears conclusively solved.

My stingy Scottish fingers would revolt.

8>)


For field rifles... have always gotten good performance from disassembled PPU brass.




GR

I suspect you are thinking of the 7x57 when you mention "173 gr class bullets early on." The 6.5x55 's original round-nosed military bullet weighed around 156 grains, as designed by the joint Swedish-Norwegian commission that came up with the round when the two countries were parts of the same kingdom.

Yes sir I did just that. Confusion is a common thing for an old man.