Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 6.5x55 swede

Whats a good bullet for whitetails? I'm thinking 140 grain range. What are you guys using and having great results with. I ordered a T3 hunter today in this caliber. This just seems to be a sweet caliber from everything I've been reading the last couple weeks. I'm dying to try it. I'm planning on buying a couple boxes of factory ammo to start and make some reloading brass. Whats a good factory load and whats some good reload recipes your having luck with? I have a 5th edition sierra, but just wanted to hear from some of you guys.

You will probably find it more difficult to find somthing that doesn't work... The 140's will work fine.

I love my 6.5 Swede!
My favorite load in my 22" barreled Winny FWT is Nosler's book max of RL22, Lapua brass, Fed 210M primers with the Nosler 140gr partition or the Hornady 140gr Interlock.
2650fps and sub MOA accuracy.

I used to shoot a lot of 140 gr Hornady Spire Point bullets in my 6.5-'06, but over the years of bullet development I have moved down in weight. Lately I use bullets in the 120 to 130 gr range for deer.

These will work for you:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=171224

jim

125g NP over IRM 4350. Life is good with that load.

At 140 grains, you bullet speed will be such that anything you put through it will work extremely well. You're not going to be impacting at speeds that destroy bullets.

On the other end, if you're impacting at 2100 FPS or more, any common bullet will expand and work properly. If you want a bullet that will open down to 1800 FPS, look at the Hornady Spire Point, or the Nosler Partition or AccuBond.

There are many, many ways for this to go right. There are a few cases where a little attention to selection will pay out.

In a modern strong action, you should be able to reach 2800 FPS with 140 grain bullets without any sweat.

The 129 grain Hornady is a heck of a .254" bore deer bullet, but it doesn't shoot great in my longer throated rifles. The 6.5x55 is the only cartridge that I load for where a key factor in squeezing the potential accuracy out of the rifle is the leagth of the throat. What make/model are you loading for?

Jeff

120gr BT or 129gr interbond.

Tikka t3 hunter is what I'm buying. Thanks guys.

as I'm sure others will say here, you can't go wrong with 129g Interlocks or 130g NAB.

imr4350 and H4831sc seem to both work great in my Swede

I have used with great success on deer the 140 grain Sierra flat base (Pro-Hunter I believe), and the 140 grain Speer Hot-Cor. I load either of these with 44 grains of H4350, or 46 grains of H4831. The Sierra does a bit more damage and leaves a slightly larger exit hole.

The 140 grain bullets with their high SD is one big advantage of the 6.5x55 cartridge. Using lighter bullets is an unnecessary handicap, and I suggest you not be talked into it.

-

You can't go wrong withe the 6.5x55! When I worked for Volvo, I used to go to Sweden once a montha and often ate lunch at the dining roomm at the Hallered Test Track. A number of the older guys hunted "elk" (we call them moose) with the 6.5x55 and claimed it was deadly. A few others used the 30-06 and the 8x57.

I've used it with both the 129 gr. and 140 gr. on deer and have been well served!

MT Man - I have hunted with the Swede since Kimber first did the 96 sporters. It is a great round. I have hunted only with 140's. First with PMC factory loads and for about the past 10 years with handloads using Sierra and Hornady flat base bullets. I think I like the Hornadys a bit better. Just a little tougher. Both very accurate using 46gr. H4831sc. I may try to work up a load using 129's just for the heck of it. For deer hunting I will stick with the 140's. May try the lighter bullets for coyotes. Rooster

Used 120 corelokts for dead right there kills, ANY/ALL 120-140s are great deer bullets, the 120 ballistic tips please many but others say it's a tad soft, the 129s have worked fine in a former 260. 100 Hornady SPs, Ballistic Tips, and Partitions have also dropped their share, and there are the 156-160s...but I think the middle wts are where it's at for deer unless your shots are closer where you don't need as flat a trajectory, as those LONG slow heavies will drill trees if they have to on their way to vitals, and poor angles won't stop them.

My current deer bullet flav is 130 Accubond for my Ruger #1 6.5x55.

My top three deer bullets would be the 130AB, 129 SP, and 125 PT. The 129 SST may be soft, and the 140 amax is but it's plenty bullet and for broadside shots will kill deer well. The later intro'd 140 AB is a good candidate for a top deer load, have not shot it but reports are good on accuracy.

Before the AB, I felt a 129 SP and 125 PT were the better all around bullets for deer and larger game. They launch a tad faster, often a 129 gets close to 120 speeds, perhaps a short bearing surface and I think it's a flat base bullet IIRC.

That's just me, but a 140 at 2600-2700 is plenty flat, hits hard, often very accurate, and are deadly assuming you are not using match bullets, but hunting bullets.

4350's and RL19 for 120 and lighter, H4831 and RL22 for heavier bullets.

Lapua brass makes life easy......accuracy w/o peer FWIW. Std. primer.

In my 6.5 for hunting, I use the 160g Woodleigh Weld Core protected point. The "Swede" got its reputation shooting 160g bullets, so I feel that that is the best weight bullet for this caliber. It is also hard to argue with the .509 BC of that bullet.

I will have to run some numbers sighted in at 200, what the drop is at 300 and 400. Seems those 160s top out around 2400-2500 which will do alot of killing no doubt. I have some 156s loaded for hogs, but noticed recently they hit 2" low and an inch left at 50 yds when my gun is sighted for 130s. Have to adjust my scope if I get anything other than a close woods shot.

I bought my Swede (CZ 550 American blued / walnut) a little less than year before I started reloading. At the time, factory ammo was still cheap. I purchased Hot Shot (imported Igman from Bosnia, I believe), PMC Bronze FMJ, PMC Bronze SP, PMC Silver w/Sierra GameKings, Remington green box, Winchester Super-X, Federal Power-Shok, Federal Premium Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, Hornady Custom, and Wolf Gold (or basically everything I could get my hands on at the time). I tested 3 to 5 shot groups at 100 yards in various conditions. The results in some cases were surprising.

Out of my gun the cheap imported Hot Shot ammo was garbage. It shot more of a "pattern" than a "group". Remington green box was next to last. Very disappointing results. The best grouping factory ammo out of my gun? PMC Bronze Soft points and PMC Silver w/Sierra GameKings. I always considered PMC ammo as the low grade, cheap stuff. My opinion changed after that. I found I still had 5 left of the PMC silver about 2 months ago. I fired a 5 shot group with it. The first 4 shots, 0.512". The 5th shot opened it up to about 1". The chrono claimed the first three shots velocities as 2586, 2586, 2586. I've never seen that before or since. I believe the S.D. on those 5 factory rounds was somewhere around 6 or 7.

Federal Premium TBBC was also excellent. I think it was a limited run as I've only seen it on the shelves once (and not for a few years). It was $30/box (about 5 years ago) and sat on the shelf gathering dust. Finally, the shop slashed the prices to $14.99/box to get it off their shelves. I bought 2 boxes but I should have bought them all!

Hornady Custom (140g Interlock), Federal Power-Shok, and Winchester Super-X all shot very respectably. Wolf Gold was so-so.

As for handloading it is hard to go wrong with any typical hunting bullet in the 6.5x55. It doesn't push bullets hard enough that you have to worry about the standard cup & core coming apart. But premium's are available if you want them.

The 140g Sierra GameKing, Hornady Interlock, Remington Core-Lokt, or Speer Hot-Cor would do you well. As would the 129g Hornady Interlock, the 130g Nosler Accubond, the 125 or 140g Nosler Partition. Pick one. Hunt. Be happy.

I shoot 130 grain NAB's at 2700 out of my Sako 85. I would have to go up to the shop to tell you powder and weight, but it's either H4350 or H4831. In any case, it shoots bugholes. All I've ever shot with it are deer, from up close and personal to 400 yards. Based on it's performance I would take this outfit anywhere in NA after anything but the big bears.

I have a "jackknife sporterized" Swedish Mauser with a receiver sight that I use with 160 grain Hornady RN's as a "rainy day in the woods gun." Don't remember the charge of RE-22 but it gets just over 2300 and makes me happy the way it shoots.

I have had great success with the Nosler 125 grain Partition. My son really likes the 140 NP. I also know the 140 grain Remington Core-Lokt works quite well in the Swede.

1 more vote for the 129 gr Hornady SP.