Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ruger M77 in 6.5x55 SE

Any of you hunt with a Ruger 77 in 6.5x55 Swede?
Does it shoot factory and military ammo well, or do you have to cook up loads?

Iron sights or scope?

This is slightly off your question but it might be important if you're thinking of shooting European or military ammo with the long bullets seated way out. The more recent US made 6.5 SE rifles have much shorter throats (SAAMI specs) and the long round noses seated long may be too long. Not sure about the Ruger. Better check how long the throat is in your rifle before feeding it just any ammo. Good use for the Overall Length Gauge. I have 2 Model 70s in that caliber. The early one has a really long throat and the newer one has a much shorter throat. Good thing I checked before loading for it. A new CZ has a short throat too. Have fun, it's a great cartridge.

Yes, I know the old Win Model 70 XTR Featherweight push feed in 6.5x55 had a longer throat. That's why I asked.

I am shooting an 1893 Mauser Sporting Rifle in 6.5x55 SE now, and it loves standard military and old spec 140-gr loads at 2,450 fps.

What Domhnall just said! One of my hunting pardners bought a Ruger M77 MKII in the 6.5x55 Swede last year right before our annual deer hunt; we set it up (mounted the scope and zeroed it) at the hunting lodge. He had brought along some Winchester Super-X "silver box" hunting loads and some milsurp reloads using the long, round nose military bullet (gotten from the friend who sold him the rifle - he also owned a Swedish Military Mauser). The first milsurp load jammed tight in the throat - when we pulled the bolt back it left the bullet jammed in and spilled powder in the action. We had to tap the bullet out with a cleaning rod. The good news is the Winchester Super-X factory load (PSP style Winchester bullet) shot great. He returned the reloads after learning the lesson about reloads made up for a different rifle. His rifle was very accurate and soft on the recoil - it now belongs to his wife!
http://www.winchester.com/products/catalog/cfrdetail.aspx?symbol=X6555&cart=Ni41eDU1IFN3ZWRpc2g=

If it shoots 140-gr factory ammo well, that's good.
I am thinking of buying one I found really cheap, but don't want to have to formulate differnent loads for 2 different 6.5x55 rifles.

Any experience with 120-gr or 129-gr loads?

Any experience with 120-gr or 129-gr loads? [/quote]

My T3 Tikka Swede likes Varget & 120 NBTs real well........

I have a CZ550 in 6.5x55. The Hornady 129gr SPT's shoot great in my rifle with a hot load of H4350. I've taken a half dozen deer or so with this load, and it is very accurite.

This .264 cartridge is so close in size to a 25-06's .257 dia or a 270's .277, that I just didn't see the need for 140gr or larger bullets that come with the extra recoil. Perhaps if I'm hunting an animal over 500 lbs, a 140 may interest me. I have some 120's loaded up, but haven't shot any animals with it. I think several hunters like the 120's in there 7mm-08 rifles also.

Your mileage may vary.

I hunt with a Winchester Classic Featherweight (CRF) and use 125 grain Nosler Partitions. The accuracy and performance on whitetail deer has been excellent.

I will start on this Ruger 77 with the same factory loads my 1893 Mauser likes, then move to some handloads the Mauser likes, and, hopefully won't have any that are squirrely in the Ruger. Then I can move on to developing and testing some new factory ammo for each (both if it is not too how for the old Mauser).

I am more interested in finding mild, fun-to-shoot 120 to 129 grain loads. I have hot .270, 7x64, .308 and .30-06 loads if I need more than a mild 140-gr load provides. Besides, iron sights are going to be primary (some sort of scope in QD rings), to keep this a lighter walkaround deer rifle for those beautiful autumn days.

I load my 6.5x55 MkII for the 95 gr.V-Max, i20 Ballistic Tip and 140 Sierra Game King at a COL of 3.000. I might get better accuracy changing the seating depth with different weight bullets but with one COL I can put the die in the press and go.

The chamber length measurement on my Ruger dosen't seem as long as I thought it would be based on what I had read about 6.5x55 chamber lengths.

When a .264 bullet diameter is needed, I always tell guys to try the 129 gr. Hornady SP #2620. My Kimber-sporterized Mod. 96 Mauser loves 'em in conjunction with IMR-4831 and I'm always hearing good things about that bullet from others. A while back I was talking to the owner of Ruger M77 in 6.5x55 and his pet load also involved that bullet, but I forgot what powder he was using.

Good luck! I spent over $1500.00, above the cost of the rifle, on a M77 Mk II 6.5x55 trying to get it to shoot. Nada, it was at best a 3.5" rifle. Ruger told me that was acceptable. The barrel went in the scrap dumpster the action went to my brother for a 7mm 08 project.

Terry, as many good reports as I have read on this rifle/caliber, and my own experience, you were likely a big exception, and sorry you put that much into a factory rifle. Surprised Ruger did not do more for you, the few times I ever needed customer service they did right by me.

Good grief Terry,

$1500 would buy a premium barrel, get the action trued, a better trigger and a McMillan stock.

I paid under $500 for the CZ and about $160 for a Nikon 3x9x40 buckmaster scope.

Lee24, I bought a used Ruger M77 last fall it was near new and the price was right. I floated the barrel, installed a Timney trigger,mounted 6x Leupold and started load development. The first morning out this little jewell put both 120 Nosler B.T. and 129gr. Hornady's in 1/2" to 3/4" three shot groups. So much for load development. My rifle likes H4350 and R19. I have some high $ rigs in my safe that don't shot any better. I have also tried Hornady's 140gr.sp and Nos.140 part. with R22, while not quite as good as the lighter bullets still 1" or less. The 6.5x55 may be the best kept secret in the shooting/hunting world.

I love my Ruger, I took 2 deer with it last season with the 129 interlocks, one of them at 289 yards it flat hammered the ones I shot with it. It is consistantly sub moa with a full dose of RL19 and said bullet. Ive shot a few factory Hornady 140s and it is very acceptable with those.
Last week I was at a Cabelas and found a Houge stock on clearance for $59.00, I couldnt pass it up, to save on my wood, also Ive been wanting to shoot some 100 grain bullets in it to see how they would act so I picked up a box of 100 NBTS and loaded some with Varget, I worked up to a published max load via Nosler manual and I am very pleased to say the least with it touching 3 together, recoil is almost zilch, I like the stock pretty well also by the way.

Good luck with yours!

About a Year ago I purchased a Ruger K1A in 6.5x55. It shoots factory Federal and Hornady 140s under 1". Reloads with 120 NBT and Hornady 129s and 140s over IMR4350, H4831, RL19 and RL22 have been all under 1.5". Two deer went down from the 120NBT in Jan. I am very happy with this rifle.

I just purchased a TIKKA is 6.5x55 so I can have a bolt in this caliber. I has a Leupold VXII on it and will be shot Saturday with Horn 140s.

Sorry yours wouldn't shoot for you. Speaking of around $1500, I had a 308 Win., Remington 700 action, Hart barrel, McMillan stock. I thought this was as good a combination for sporting rifle accuracy as you could get but I could never get it to shoot the way I thought it should for the money, time and effort invested.

My experience with the Ruger 6.5 is about the same as the other posters. The three bullets I've tried so far all shot under an inch at a 100 yards.(three fast shots) RL15 for the 95s, 19 for the 120s and 22 for the 140s. All I did to it was a trigger job and pressure bed the forearm tip.

Mine is an M77MkII. It shoots Sierra 140s into less than an inch. I killed 4 does with it last week on crop damage permits - all strictly legal (the meat is being used, and if we didn't have too many deer in the area, I wouldn't shoot them). All four were shot in the front shoulder in attempts to gain the coveted bang-flop performance so I didn't have to track them into the bug-infested swamps. Only one of them went anywhere but straight down, and that one only went about 50 yards. It was shot in the front in the base of the neck with the bullet exiting the left shoulder. The other three were broadside and the bullet punched through both shoulders and exited. All exit holes were about 1 inch in diameter or better. I consider this perfect performance. I like exit holes. The load was 47 grains of 4831, from Speer 13.

I'm sorry, but with performance like that, I just don't care to use lighter bullets, or those costing a dollar apiece. Those 140 grainers at 2600 fps fly plenty flat with a 200 yard zero, and still have plenty of authority at 300 yards. I used the 140 grain Speer Hot-Cors last fall and got similar performance, though the holes in the deer were not quite as large.

On second thought, I'm not sorry!

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I have a 77MKII in 6.5x55. Only one trip to the range so far and with factory ammo. 140gr Rem, Fed, and Win all three about 1 1/4"
Tried 120gr from GA Arms http://georgia-arms.com group went to between 2 and 3 inches.
I am well satisfied with 140gr cheap factory stuff. The premium stuff will no doubt do better.

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