Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 6.5 x 55 Rifles

Tdoyka I got very familiar with that same radial arm saw growing up. Maybe 15 years ago I had Dad trade a buddy for a load of sod for it. The sod was going to be free but Dad wanted to 'pay' something and he saw was gathering dust.

The friend was going to build a house so I figured it was equitable. Seems no one uses radials anymore -and yes I had to deliver the sod 200 miles away and put it down for Dad.

As for 6.5x55 I convinced Dad to trade in his banging 7mag for a softer shooting CZ 500 in 6.5x55. I will never forget that look on his face the first time I had him use the set trigger.

I already had a CZ 550 but in 270 Win. His Swede had really nice wood.

I got into the 6.5 craze with a 260 when they were the first Creedmoor. Those who have been here a while will remember. My Abolt 260 sees the lion's share of hunts.

Hate to admit it but the Creed finally got the 6.5 right for American markets.

Hard to complain- Wide range of bullet weights and powders - Mine's done yeoman service on deer and pigs.

Mauser 96, 6.5x55. Ed Lapour 3 position safety, NEGC Sights, stock by Wenigs and a bunch of other really great work by Mark Penrod

I drank the 6.5 Creedmore Kool-Aid back in the day and bought a Ruger #1. IIRC the barrel was 28 inches WAY to long. It was heavy and didn't shoot for beans. It didn't stay long. I love the classic calibers and grew up reading JOC, Elmer Keith ect. I decided that the 6.5 X 55 was my huckleberry. In addition I have lusted for a full Mannlicher stocked rifle. I didn't want an 18 or 20 inch barrel however and want to get full advantage of the ballistics of the caliber and went with a 24 inch barrel. Looking back 22 probably would have served me just as well. Finding a stock blank with some degree of figure the full length of the stock created the biggest challenge. The action is a 1909 Argentine Mauser. At the end of the day it turned out pretty well I think.

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VERY nice! Who did the stock? I have another project on the desk.

My gunsmith friend who now is retired.

Aren't they all

Ain't that the truth....

DF

Yeah, ya gotta be careful admitting that. But I agree. They did get it right.

Or that you have a .270.... Even worse, actually use it....

I like my Creed and it'll do about anything I need it to do where I hunt and the critters I hunt.

And, I've not seen one that wouldn't shoot. Some don't believe in "inherently accurate" rounds, but one could make a pretty good case with the Creed.

DF

GSP - Very nice, well done - enjoy!

DF, I agree. I'd happily run a 6BR or 6.5BR for most game here, up to 400 yds.

An SW, Creed and 47 gives a bit more range...way out there, if you really need it.

Yep.

400 is "way out there" for me, hardly shoot past 250-300.

For hogs and WT's, it's hard to beat the Creed, Swede, et. al. You do your part, they'll do their part, sort it out at the skinning shed.

DF

All;
Good evening, I trust wherever this finds each of you that if finds you well.

Thanks for the interesting reading in the thread, it's cool to see others who've enjoyed the fine round as we have over the decades.

My journey with the Swede started in about '81 when a cousin bought a surplus '96, chopped it and made as stock up himself in the farm workshop one winter.

When my wife and I moved out west to BC in '84, my parents were out here for a few years and helped us settle in. My father mentioned if I could find a decent rifle for an affordable price, he'd like to go hunting with me.

Although it was a lot of money for us at the time as we were still reeling from a failed farming venture out east, we saved up enough to get a '96 from Century Arms in Montreal, I want to say I paid a $5 premium for "extra clean" too and so help me it was that.

Here's my late father on the day we gave him the Swede I'd reworked into a hunting rifle for him.



We had a blast hunting together for the next nearly two decades, but in the fullness of time Dad's health no longer allowed him to go up the mountain with me, so he gave it back to me saying that he hoped maybe one of his grandkids might find it useful.

He passed before the girls started hunting, but one day our eldest saw it in the back of the safe, asked about it and upon learning it'd been Grandad's, asked if she might be the caretaker of it for awhile.

This is my avatar photo - which is both of the girls with their first bucks, taken within 15yds and about 5 seconds of each other. The eldest has the Swede.



The one further modification I did for her was to add a Dayton Traister cock on open kit as well as their trigger, which resulted in one of the smoother bolt guns I've ever managed to cobble together. There's been multiple times when she's showed it to people, they run it and there's that "Huh" look afterward.

Anyways I'd built a walking around money pit rifle on a between the wars, commercial roll marked Mauser 98 which started as an '06 then became a .270 and finally ended up as a 6.5x55, in large part because I was impressed at how well our eldest's rifle worked with the monometal bullets we'd switched to.

She's yet to catch a 130gr TSX with that thing and every buck she's taken with it has fallen to a single application of same.

Here's mine with the last paint scheme from a few seasons back.



I've been shooting 120gr GMX and TTSX in it the last few seasons and while there's been no complaints, there's a partial box of 127gr LRX on the shelves that I really should try just because.

Thanks for sharing all of your respective arms and stories, it's a nice break from some of the uncertain vagaries of life.

All the best to you all and good hunting for those who are still out there chasing.

Dwayne

Nice write up, I will add 2 links below for 6.5 fans

BC30, I ended up with 3 M96s, 2 sporterized, one chopped to 24, the other at a handy 21", dropped deer using a 120 Corelokt with IMR4831 at the time, a modest 2800 + mv load, killed just fine. I believe GSSP on here, dropped an Elk around 950 yards using a 6.5x47 with a 127 LRX....

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/4769172/1

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...ge-264-bullet-test-part-deux#Post4783400

I recall Don Zutz writing a piece on the Swede in a small book I found in the library in the 80s - Handloading for Hunters - he said the 129 SP gave as much or more radial damage on deer as a 270/130, attributing it to the fast twist, M94/38/96 used 7.5" twist I believe, and they were nice CUT RIFLED barrels. Shoot great if not pitted.

Another article in a Gun Digest/Shooters Bible or Handloading for hunting from the 70s or so, author tested a M600/660 and HVA Swede. The Rem was in 6.5 Rem Mag, but carbine barrel limited speeds. Bullet performance seemed better in his tests with the faster twisted Swede, same bullets and similar speeds. Another article in one of those above books, similar era, 'Just one good load/Bullet' - author used the 125 Partition back then almost exclusively in the Swede and largely in a 6.5-06. Took Mule Deer, Elk, etc. with solid track record of kills.

Good hunting 6.5 fans. Btw,today's Creed is no doubt a play on the Classic Swede, as to it's track record since the 1890s..........both proven effective.

6BR;
Evening to you sir, I hope Louisiana is getting seasonally appropriate weather and you're all well tonight.

We've got snow on the mountains just above the house now and it's early season, greasy snow at that.

Found out that an old friend totaled his pickup today avoiding a logging truck on the road up the mountain behind the house. He's fine but the Ford did not survive.

Anyways sir, thanks for mentioning the Don Zutz article, that's interesting to hear as independent of that, I came up with a similar opinion and did a bit of a thread on it here years back.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt.../tissue-damage-270-vs-6-5x55#Post9248055

The Swede barrels are really deep grooves too and are 1 in 7.78" twist until some of the ones made into the '40s. That's without looking at the book I've got on Swedes, but I want to say that's correct.

Edit to add - after chatting with Bill - greydog here on the 'Fire - I ended up getting a near new Swede military barrel grafted onto the 98 action by a gunsmith up the valley from here, so both of our rifles are military barrels.

We found that the Swede was a little tough on cup on core bullets for sure, but when we found the 130gr TSX that our daughter uses exclusively, it seemed perfect for the deep grooves and quick twist of the military barrels for sure.

There was another writer, again I want to say Robert Sherwood perhaps, that had good things to say about a Parker Hale he used back in the day in 6.5x55. It almost has to be in an article in one of the older Gun Digests I have, but I somehow managed to amass a fair number of them over the decades and it might take a bit to locate which year - sorry.

Thanks again and all the best.

Dwayne

Dwayne - Robert Sherwood is Definitely the author of that one article I referred to- and a Parker Hale does come to mind. Maybe I was wrong on the HVA unless perhaps that is the action on that rifle.

Yes, bullet contruction affects terminal results on impact no doubt, the RPM's are much more correlated with twist than forward velocity as you know.

Thanks for the post.

As I've said on another forum, a 6.5 x 55 is just like a 30-06. Everybody should have at least one.

A somewhat sad story of a couple of 6.5x55 M-96 sporters. I found myself being called grandpa by a couple of teenage boys. I wasn't biologically but by being so called I guess I was.It was complicated but that was my logic anyway. I thought it would be good to take them hunting . I would supply a couple of rifles, 6.5x55s and the trip. I considered 6.5x55 the perfect caliber for this and the Tradex sporters were affordable. And it was up to them to take the free hunter training in their province and get junior licenses. Their vegan mother saw that didn't happen. Maybe I could have been an influence on the eldest, his life went off the rails. Now I had a couple of rifles. The nicest one I gave to my daughter-in-law hoping my son and her could go hunting. Which he loved. Of course that didn't happen, either .Poor kid.

The rougher of the two rifles I kept. I put it in a gunshow find stock and mounted a 2x7 Bushnell 3200. It's a 1944 Husgvarna , so I guess it was the better of the two.

Experience seems to say that it is very telling when a modern rifle manufacturer (post 1960) decides to chamber such a modern rifle for a cartridge first developed well more than a century ago. A message. I have seen several of differing brands and sure like them.

An old guy, I bought an M96 Swedish carbine fairly cheap in 1963 (milsurp), did mild sporter work and scope and have used it a ton for hunting and never felt the need for one of the later makes. Feeling fortunate.

The 6.5X55 is probably my favorite big game cartridge. I've killed a truckload of deer and pronghorn with it.
Those '44 Husqvarnas in 6.5 Swede I believe are the scarcest ones. The Husqvarnas seemed to be the pinnacle of the 96 Mauser IMO. I have two from '44, one in original configuration and one nicely sporterized into a full stock. It is probably time to move my original military configured one to an appreciative collector. If anybody is interested, PM me.

I also purchased my CZ 550 square bridge 6.5 x 55 SE around 2003 after I got back from two African hunts on one trip. It was so accurate with 100gr Sierra bullets I used it many, many times as my Tennessee ground hog rifle. My son is also in the U.S. Navy in the U.K.

Dwayne,

The photo of your daughters with their bucks is one of the best “kids” photo I’ve seen on ‘fire. Love it!