Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Bullet choice for the grand old 6.5x55 Sweed

Great information, thank all.

Unless the barrels have been set back, Swedish Mausers are throated pretty deep. Mine generally shoot the best with bullets 140 grain or heavier, so I generally load the 140 grain Partiton or AMax.

Jeff

For youth loads which are fine on deer...100 grainers, your choice...I've run them from 2500 fps to 3400 fps in several different 6.5 x 55s I have, depending upon barrel length and powder charge...

just about ANY 6.5 bullets work well...

My Swede is a Tikka T3 Hunter that I use for mule deer. I load 120 grain Nosler BT with Varget to get right at 2700 fps. Haven't had a deer go more than 20 yards after getting hit with that load.

I have 2 6.5 sweeds, my favorite bullet is the 140 partition. I've used that bullet for everything from antelope to elk. Was able to take 7 elk with 7 shots. However none were bigger than an average raghorn, and the range was rather short. For the real big bulls I'm sure that it would work well, but I would feel better with my .30-06. My son uses a 160 grain bullet ( maker unknown ) and he claims nothing penetrates better. He has shot all his elk with that bullet. 140 or 160 hit em where they live and the hunt is over.

I had good luck with 120 gr NBTs. Always wanted to try the 130 AB.

These days I shoot just two bullets out of my only 6.5 x 55, 120 gr Speer SP and 120 gr Barnes X's. In years past, I was pretty much a 140 to 160 gr bullet guy out of the Swede. I found out that the 120's are plenty bullet and shoot very flat Then again I also keep a few loads in my pocket load with 156 gr Oryx from Norma. I shot a lot of 160 gr Hornady RN's that bullet always was accurate, but it would do some strange things when it hit meat from time to time. Moot point I hear Hornaday discontinued that one.

The 129 Hornady seems like a tough bullet to top in the Swede when you factor everything in. It seems tough enough for just about anything, it's accurate, it shoots fast and flat relative to many other hunting types in the caliber, and it is priced reasonably relative to the rest.

The new 140 Ballistic Tip is going to be one of my main "GoTo" bullets for mine now..

There seem to be plenty in the pipeline. Perhaps the rumor started because the .268 version does seem to be finished. GRafs, I think, has .268 blemished 160 RN on deep discount right now by the way. The .264s are in stock at regular prices.

+1...

What? I thought the Swede would spit anything other than 140s back at the shooter ... unfired

I shoot a 6.5mm Rem Mag in a M673 with a 22" barrel and like the 125 gr PT and 130 gr AB. Both loads are running 3050 fps which is a little faster than you would get from your Sweed but you get the idea.
125 gr PT

130 gr AB


JD338

It's no rumor. Hornady confirmed to me by email when asked. (Twice, though I only asked the question once).



They discontinued the 7mm 154g RN at the same time but left the 175g RN alone for now....

Unless they started production back up for 2012 I imagine what's in the pipeline right now is what's left.

In 6.5x55 and .260 Rem we have shot 120 Speer, 120 Rem Accutip and 129 Hornady. The Hornady is hard to beat. In the .260 we add 49.9 gr of H4831. In the 6.5 I think it is 50.5 gr. FWIW