Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 6.5 Swede ???

The Swede is not becoming popular, it's been popular for near 100 yrs. On the 7mm..... I still wonder why a 280, when there was already a 7 x 57 and an execeptional 7mm Rem Mag out there that could clean its clock.

Seems like if it were a 'Merican ctg everyone would be all about "AI-ing" it. Is anybody trying to "improve" the Swede?

yep. not sure if it does much though...have to ask around, i know a couple guys here have one.

I believe the Swede has indeed been "improved". I have seen data, but forget where off the top of my head. For me, when I feel the need to drive a 6.5 bullet faster than the Swede, I use a 264 Winchester. Speaks volumes about the appeal of the standard Swede since the AI trend seems largely forgotten about.

They work.

I had a military Swede, liked it a lot. That's how I came to like the round, since about 1985 or so when a number of the rifles were imported over here.

It pre-dated the 7-08 by eighty something years. But it won't do anything or in some cases not quite so well as he 06, 7mm Mauser, 8mm Mauser, or a number of other rounds of the time. Why it's so popular now begs the question why wasn't it more popular a long time ago.

One thing is the availability of ammo, which is a fairly modern development.

What are the expected, or real, improvements (if any)?
Haven't found the 6.5 Imp in any of my manuals.
I'm just sure there are alot of loonies that can't stand that much body taper. Gotta be fixed.

Improved version is called an ARCH

Thanks, I'll look for that name. Any idea what it stands for?

Out of a 29" barrel, I get 2800 FPS from a 140 grain bullet using the conservative US loads. That's enough. In a modern action, using 30-06 pressures and a shorter barrel I get about the same.

It may be a good thing to AI the 6.5x55, but you're not going to get much increase in MV that way. The expansion ratio of the 6.5 isn't in the region that would yield that result.

Yet seems many think it makes sense in the 257 Robts, go figger.

I killed my first deer (a California blacktail) with a M94 Swede in 6.5X55. That experience got me going, and I have used a 6.5-'06 for a lot of years (it is a 6.5X63 if you will).

The cases such as the '06 need a standard length action, and the 55 mm to 60 mm cases can use an intermediate length action (in the old Mauser terminology). The current shorter cases such as the 51mm .308 case fit nicely in to a short action, a virtue of the .260 Rem (which was the .263 Express in one wildcat version and the 6.5-08 when A-Square submitted it to SAAMI for standardization).

Just how Remington got the factory cartridge when it submitted its cartridge something like 6 months after A-Square is one of those stories under-reported by the mainstream gun press.

I want to replace my 6.5-'06 with a short-action rifle, I am thinking a 6.5 RCM would be really nice after working with the Ruger .300 RCM.

jim

I read an article (huh) a few years back about a guy that was a complete gun novice, but decided he was going to get into hunting. He was a scientific type, and very eduacated. He wanted a cartridge and caliber that would do it all in the North American continent. The article stated all the objectives he was after. Low to moderate recoil, bullets of high sd, muzzle blast, recoil, cost to reload, accuracy potential, weight of rifle and on and on. He concluded the 6.5x55 would fill that bill. I would absolutely agree. I think the article was in Benchrest clans magazine, the name of which escapes me now.

Is the Kodiak Brown Bear or the Alaskan Moose on the North America continent? I love the 6.5x55, but it does have some limitations. People take big Elk with a .243, but.....

Penetration due to the longer bullets is another practical reason the Swede is very popular and what makes it kill beyond it's ballistic statistics. Accuracy, too. I've had four Swedes: two stock military rifles in a 96 and 38 and two T3 Tikka's. All shot very good. The scoped Tikka's have the edge given the nut behind the trigger with somewhat tired eyes. Both the 96 and 38 would turn in 1.25-1.5 groups easily with quickly developed loads. I'm sure their potential was much better than that. The Swede might be appreciated more by someone who has both shot and taken game with a number of rifles.

There are a few improved versions. One, the 6.5x55 BJ Improved,is an Ackley type that was written about by Bob Jourdan in Precision Shooting some years back.

If I remember correctly, the BJAI came before the ARCH version. Wish I still had that email.. This was years ago... I still have Mr. Jourdans load data...

I believe there is 6.5 AI custom rifle on GB or AA, or
there was not long ago.

Metric calibers always suffered from few rifles chambered here and the magnum-happy gun press of the 60s. Carl Gustaf didn't buy a lot of ad space in Shooting Times, so coverage was limited.
Once the M96s and M38s came in and folks could enjoy the hardware, the cat was out of the bag. It's pleasant to shoot, accurate, lethal and Lapua makes great brass. No magic--just a good, honest, hard-working cartridge enjoying a long-delayed bit of acknowledgment.
Seven 08 is a great round, so if you like it stick with it.

The 6.5x55 is popular because it has been killing big game reliably for 117 years. This partly due to moderate velocity with bullets of relatively high sectional density (thus good penetration even with "ordinary" bullets), and partly because it recoils relatively mildly, so most hunters shoot it accurately and put those bullets in the right place.

Whether or not the .260 or 7mm-08 is newer or shorter or more fashionable or theoretically superior is irrelevant. Which is why 1000 times more .270 Winchesters have been sold than .280 Remingtons.

Just because a relative few rifle loonies think some cartridge is better, for whatever nitpicky reasons, doesn't make that so, either in the field or in sales.